Creality Ender-3 V3 KE 3D Printer, 220x220x240mm

Fast and Awesome

This is the 3rd 3d printer I have owned. The first was a Monoprice Mini (print bed was too small) and the second was a Creality CR-10. I use the CR-10 all the time and for the most part it works great. What interested me with this printer was the speed, the auto leveling, and the price. So far my experience has been amazing. It took 30 minutes to setup. A benchy model that came on the USB drive printed in 20 minutes and has no artifacts, no ringing, first layer attachment was amazing, overhangs were great. Compare that to my CR-10 it would take over an 1.5 hours to print the same thing. That is awesome! So far so good.

What an upgrade!

Finally gave in and ordered this as a replacement for my Ender 3 Pro. What a difference! No more messing around with the sheet of paper and remembering which way to turn the height adjustment screws. I gladly accept the extra time needed for auto alignment. The cables have been tidied up too for a cleaner look. Dual Z rods - very nice. I went through the calibration exercises just to learn that the printer was already set to the optimal settings. Even at 0.2 mm the quality of the prints is astounding. Print speed is at least 5x that of my old printer. Negatives: The bed level sensor rattles for no good reason when the fan is running. Slightly annoying. My biggest gripe is with the display and its poor contrast, as well as the missing "Remaining time" information in readable format. I ended up training a ML model to compare images taken of the display by my Raspberry Pi camera to figure out when printing is done and I can switch off the power.