Creality's ever expanding lineup...frustrated!

1

Does anyone else get frustrated with the fact that Creality launches new models of 3d printers way to frequently?

Ender 3, Ender 3 Pro, Ender 3 v2, Ender 3 S1, Ender 3 S1 Pro with nearly identical specifications?
LD-002R, LD-002H, Halot Lite, Haltot One, Halot whatever…!

It’s hard to keep up!
/end rant

Which models are you using?

What are you looking to upgrade to in the future?

What are your thoughts on the launch events which simply further muddy the waters on what’s available and make it more confusing for consumers?

Let me know your thoughts!

image

2

Don’t forget the 3 Max. And the 5 and the 6 and the 7.

I’m with you. It feels more like they are just trying to flood the market than make really well thought out printers. I’m using a Max (kinda, see my rants about the issues I’ve had with it), but I think once I get my prusa it may take a back seat or get sold.

I’ve just upgraded the hotend and extruder with a BIQU H2 and it didn’t go super well, turned out to be a wonky thermistor (I think).

As for launch events … they don’t have anything in the pipeline that excites me! I want the opposite of what they have been doing … I want a mature platform that they have adjusted to make it better. Not just another of the same thing with one new whizbangerthingamajobie and tacking the name Pro on the end of it.

1 Like
3

You have to keep up with the Jones. Creality is in direct competition with ALL of the other printer manufactures and right now they probably out sell the other by a lot. They are trying to not lose the lead. So when other bring out new models they do the same. Annoying but probably necessary for them.

4

I 100% agree, that to release an SL and an SLPRO within a month of each other is ridiculous. If a printer is released and shortly after replaced by something else, Drop the previous version.

Also while I am on the Rant train, how about a different naming convention, Ender for cartesian printers, Core for CoreXY, something other that calling everything CRs and ENDERs

1 Like
5

Maybe originality isn’t their strong suit. It could be that they are keeping the brands strong instead of using new names.

6

Hah don’t hold your breath there. They will probably release an Ender 8 that’s a delta just to keep things interesting. Or maybe it will be an 8 pro (or the pro will have a filament sensor that the regular one doesn’t).

Playing the volume game and keeping up with the Jones’ is pretty much the opposite of what I’m looking for in a product line to be honest. I want well designed, super well tested, great QA, iterative updates that make steady improvements, etc. I know you guys are kind of a Creality shop … but honestly I think that they are going to get lost in the shuffle over the next few years if they keep up just pushing whatever out the door and sticking a name on it.

2 Likes
7

Nicely said.

8

It’s called a Prusa and is the opposite of a Creality but you have to be able to afford one. Enders are for people who can’t.

1 Like
9

Yep and that’s why I ordered a MK3S+ and am going to sell/shelf/retire my Ender 3 Max. But surely there must be some middle ground someone can hit. There’s a lot of very mediocre at best printers on the market right now. I feel like there’s a good spot for a cheaper Prusa aprpoach. No big frills, not insanely fast, but good quality made from commodity hardware with some decent QA for the people that don’t want to shell out the big $$ for Prusa but want higher quality control.

10

There is, it’s called modding, and OK it’s not for everyone. I look at the Ender series as a pre-assembled kit that needs work to get right. It will work well enough out of the box (mostly but some have issues) but need work to make them really good machines. My son and I both have Ender 3’s (mine is a V2) both have been tweaked and mine has had a lot of mods done. Both run great and put out good prints. Not fast but consistent and reliable. He swears by his and has picked up a used and much abused Ender 3 Max (it now works but needs some TLC). He is working on getting it to the same point as his other one but at bargain bin prices. He prints constantly without problem. As far as mine goes I have not had any problem for many months, since I peaked the learning curve, with the exception of the occasion “weird” artifacts which I believe has something to do with the shape and positioning of the print so that is on me not the printer. Could be wrong, I was once before.

11

I purchased a “genuine” Prusa i3 in 2016/2017 and it was a real piece of crap.

The build instructions were terrible - they referenced parts that weren’t there and had no mention of some that were. There were some YouTube videos which made it possible to get it together but it was arduous and frustrating with build instructions like "Screw together the optical rail linear bearing holder halves and test for smoothness on the frame " at which point I paused the video to do that before moving on to “… but first, mount the X-Axis stop microswitch on the front optical rail linear bearing holder” - Grrr.

No instructions at all on how to do a first print. Seriously.

The aluminum heat bed that came with the printer was warped and had deep scratches on it. The ribbon cable for the user interface wasn’t long enough to mount the user interface in its spot on the frame. A rubber pad and a glass plate fixed the flatness issue and buried the scratches.

From an engineering perspective the printer didn’t impress me at all; there was no thought to cable management and my heat bed wires broke days after assembly due to mechanical fatigue the hot end wires followed shortly. Nuts and bolts weren’t accessible for maintenance and the rear bed leveling wheels couldn’t be accessed except when the bed was all the way to the rear (take a measurement, move the bed back, turn a wheel, move the bed forward, take another measurement…). There was no on/off switch on the damn thing - just a power cable with bared leads to screw into the power supply (with no instructions on which wire went to which lead on the power supply) it should go without mention there wasn’t any strain relief for the power cable.

Response to complaints were on the order of “Well, we don’t have any problems with our printers, have you followed the instructions exactly?” Me: “No, the instructions didn’t explain how to assemble these areas so I used this YouTube video.” Response: “Well, we can’t be responsible for your problems if you don’t follow our instructions.”

I did eventually get the printer working without a huge expense but with me reworking quite a bit of the design - if you look on the forums, you can see my comments, bitches and fixes going back to 2017.

If you read through that - thank you, I needed to get it off my chest (yet again).

I’m just saying this to reply to @Loosenut - honestly, after all the bad things I’ve said about Prusa, the i3 isn’t that expensive when you factor in all the stuff you have to buy to get a cheap printer working with a good Z-Axis sensor, power supply and good quality bed surface as well as the work to mount everything and create your own firmware image.

For @Gerk, you’re exactly right; there needs to be a decently made printer that just works and basic users can easily maintain them (ie doing no more than replacing the nozzles for the first couple of years at least).

Hell, I’d love that, I’ve never found it which is why I’m designing my own.

12

I just looked up the Prusa I3S which is the current version and everywhere quote around $1200 CDN for the kit and over $1500 CDN assembled. My Ender 3V2 including all the “extra” parts I purchased CR Touch, Dual Z axis drive, metal extruder , springs and Capricorn tube, 2 Noctua fans plus some filament was leas then $500. I had no trouble assembling it. Still using the original Meanwell Power supply and glass bed (it’s flat) that came with it but turned upside down. It prints great. I have had no trouble with it once I was passed the learning stage and those problems where on me, I had to learn to use it properly. That didn’t take long at all. Some people have had trouble with the Enders but as you said so do Prusa uses and while Creality support sucks so does Prusa’s. I can’t see where there is any advantage to buying a Prusa MK 3 over cheaper printers.

I will admit that since I added the CR Touch with the Jyers UI firmware my first layers are much better since getting the bed level is easier but it was still usable in the stock configuration. All the mods I made have made my printer a much better machine and it is still a lot cheaper then a MK3s.

I’m on a pension, money talks.

13

@Loosenut fair enough … but if you’re on a pension you’re probably also retired and if you spend dozens/hundreds of hours to get your printer just perfect … then you’re lucky to be able to do so! Those are always the trade offs. I don’t have that kind of time on my hands, but If I did I might even consider just designing and building my own right from parts and not even bother with something as a starter. But I don’t. I’ve spent a crapload of time already on my one Ender already. I do have a reliable printer (not my Ender) but it’s small and I need something bigger and also reliable that can print a decent range of materials.

Also consider that in the big picture you took a multi-hundred dollar printer and spent an extra $500 or so and then spent a ton of time for researching, tweaking, building, sourcing parts, waiting for parts (and probably insert rebuilding/tweaking/replacing other parts about 40 more times to get it right). So say even at $800-900 without your time you’re honestly not that far off of a Prusa. If you include your time your way over the top (but you learned a lot in the process). It’s just spread out and you’re supplementing the man hours to make it work for you.

Like I said in another thread on here, it’s cool to have a (insert cool old vehicle type here), but it’s not a daily driver, you will always be wrenching on it for something or other. If you enjoy it and have the time to dedicate to it then it’s a win-win. If you’re super busy and have a budget it’s easier to throw money at it!

14

Also from a beginner to the platform approach you’re going to get a couple of different reactions. Maybe 1 in 10 gets right into all the low levels of figuring out which hotend has marginally less heat creep and reading all the reviews on new ones and finds the time and money to build up something really cool and fun.

A couple more will have a decent experience and download a bunch of stuff off the net and print some things and amaze all their family and friends and gaming partners with their prints.

The rest will fall squarely between “I can’t make this thing work” and “it’s too hard to make good 3d prints” and “why do all of my 3d prints look like weird blobs” and “meh, I don’t know why people think this is so amazing because it all looks kinda crappy and takes 3 days to print things.”

15

shenzhen creality 3d technology co. ltd is playing a market share game to fill the shelves and market with ‘competing’ products that are not actually. All the models of Creality/ender, that’s a lot. But wait there is more! Shenzhen creatwit 3d technology co.ltd is a subsidiary of 3d technology co ltd, who is Creality parent. Hmmm

Shenzhen creatwit 3d technology co.ltd
Shenzhen artillery 3d technology co.ltd
Shenzhen Yuntuchuangzhi 3d Technology Co., Ltd
Shenzhen Uprise 3d Technology Co., Ltd
Shenzhen Piocrete 3d Technology Co., Ltd
Shenzhen kywoo 3d Technology Co., Ltd
Shenzhen bigtree 3d Technology Co., Ltd
Shenzhen anycubic 3dTechnology Co., Ltd
Shenzhen hello 3d Technology Co., Ltd
Shenzhen Chengyixin 3d Technology Co., Ltd (wanhao)
Shenzhen twotrees 3d Technology Co., Ltd
Shenzhen Elegoo Technology Co., Ltd
on and on and on.

Hmm the similar designs using the same parts… it is flooding the market with almost the same units it is far more wide spread. All marketing foolishness. There are far far fewer choices than you think there are.

1 Like
16

Makes a lot of sense - especially when you see the poor quality of many of their products (I’m an unhappy owner of a Two Trees Sapphire Plus).

1 Like
17

Unhappy artillery owner. I love my Prusa my experience was very different. The instructions are fantastic and the parts all name brand top quality parts. My first print was superb and the print yesterday was as well. I replaced a few bearing that I crushed (stupidly) and that is about it. the rest nozzles mostly a heat cart or two and I tweeked the thermirestor wire last week it may need to replaced.

1 Like
18

I guess I should have explained it better. My E3V2 cost about $290-ish (I did not include shipping costs because we all have that burden to bare) and all the parts that I put into it cost about $175 plus a role of filament so the grand total I have spent on my printer is just under $500. $700 less then a Prusa, that a big difference.

As far as the time I spent getting it “right” , installing the parts was less then 3 HRs. , the tweaking and calibration it, something that needs to be done on most printers, was about 2 HRs (not counting the time the printer spent pumping out calibration cubes ETC.). Mounting the parts that I printed out was a few minutes for each part spread over several months, negligible. Did I spend time designing parts in the CAD program, sure but I like doing that so it doesn’t really count.

The time I spend getting it to where I wanted it to be wasn’t that much from the point being retired so it really doesn’t matter. The cost of a better machine was a big factor. No way was I getting a Prusa at this time of my life. Maybe the learning curve was a bit longer with an Ender then a Prusa but there is so such much info on You Tube for the E3V2 (and other Ender 3’s) that it makes it a big plus when deciding on what printer to buy.

Is an Ender right for everyone, no but it has been a good printer for me. I kind of get tired of the Ender bashing, especially by those that have never had one and if it wasn’t for the cheaper machines a lot us would not be able to get into printing.

P.S. since the Ender 3 series came out some years ago now, there have been improvements to printers in general so comparing a newer printer with more features to an older Ender isn’t a good comparison.

1 Like
19

Fair enough … my Ender bashing comes from personal experience though :wink: It sounds like you got a good one. I’m 0/2 on that front. This Max I have is the second one. The first one was DOA so I returned it and got another. The one I have now worked “ok” at best and now that I’m trying to add parts to make it better I run into issues at every single turn. So yes while it works out for some, I think there are also a lot of quality issues to contend with.

I completely understand where you’re coming from as well, but each to their own.

As for the improvements over time … yes they keep doing “new” things with their lineup, hence the frustration that started this thread LOL. Sometimes it’s an improvement, more often than not it seems like it’s a marketing thing, or it’s putting in higher quality parts that it probably should have had to begin with (like brand name power supplies).

20

I personally had no idea, I though everyone there named there sompany from where they were located, Like, Ontario 3D printing canada. OK now I feel really stupid