Creality is acclaimed worldwide for their production of quality 3D printers both for beginners and for professionals. Some of the inherent features of their printers are proven quality and potential variation based on consumers’ review.
Ender 3 and Ender 3 Pro are two of their best sellers. Both the printers have the traits of satisfying consumers’ demand from different aspects and ranges.
To help you decide on the right printer, today, we’ll see their differences and efficiencies in their respective grounds.
Read more about:
- Creality Ender 3 review (5 min read)
- Creality Ender 3 V2 review (5 min read)
Difference Between Ender 3 and Ender 3 Pro At a Glance
In short, the plain Ender 3 is an affordable option for the beginners working on a personal level while the pro version is designed to support professionals and serious amateurs and is, essentially, a bit expensive.
Ender 3: (Features, Pros and Cons)
Time to get to the details.
A worldwide famous printer Ender 3
Pros
The most pleasing of all the pros that Ender 3 have got is that they provide all the required tools to assemble and operate:
- A scraper for removing prints from the build surface
- A filament cutter
- A micro SD card with USB adapter
- A set of hex wrenches
- Some other spare parts
They also provide 200 grams of white filament for test prints.
One of the excellent features of this printer is that after any unprepared power cut it recovers the full instruction and restarts right from where it left the print unfinished. The later pro version inherited this praiseworthy trait.
Cons
- The first problem that an experienced user will find is the wobbling base plate. In order to keep it stable you’ll need to tighten the screws repeatedly. The reason for this problem is that the printing bed does not lock automatically and you have to make manual adjustments.
Ender 3 Pro: (Features, Pros and Cons)
Pros
- Among all the good sides of Ender 3 Pro, the most prominent that we felt was that in spite of all the upgrades it didn’t lose the trait to be equally convenient for beginners and hobbyists.
- There is an SD card provided with the package wherein you’re going to have a video training you how to assemble.
- The X-axis and Y-axis are already built. You only have to mount the Z-axis.
- Other stand-out features are naturally inherited from the plain Ender 3 and, therefore, need not be repeated.
- The SD card also has an essential slicing software which is a Cura version. Though it is only for Windows, Mac and Linux versions are also available. While using this software you need to remember some important instructions.
- The Simplify3D slicing software has an inbuilt profile for the Ender 3 Pro. Working experience with this software is quite satisfying.
Cons
Though Creality seemed to consider consumers’ reviews and eliminate some of the flaws that we saw in the previous versions, still there are several problems that they should look into.
- Is it Really Pro?: The first thing that comes to our mind, after a complete orientation to this excellent printer, is that the printer is not specially designed for the professionals (which the part of the name, ‘Pro’, suggests). It may be affordable, and the ‘educated beginners’ and advanced hobbyists could get the best out of it but it cannot just be tagged ‘for the professionals’.
- Inconvenient Assembly: The assembly is probably the most disappointing part about the printer. While other brands sell printers 90% assembled, this one needs almost an hour of patience and perseverance to add up. One of the assembly problems was with the belt that moves the extruder. It was pretty difficult to mount. Then the X-axis that holds the hotend was not tightly set even after following the instructions. It was after we tightened the nuts that hold the wheels that we had a stable axis.
- Instruction & Illustration: The written instruction could be made clearer and more specific for an amateur. Many would not know that there is a video of assembly walkthrough on the micro SD card and, therefore, would have to spend a lot of time determining which rail goes where because they were not labeled that way. There are some vague illustrations that could easily be misinterpreted during assembly.
- Wobbling Bed: Many might not like the magnetic bed of this printer because bed leveling is another issue that some of the critics have prudently found. Had there been an auto-leveling system it would be praised by the users of all levels. It takes time and, for the beginners, costs some prints to check and fix the level of the bed. With an uncalibrated print bed, the nozzle digs into the bed and ruins the layer (technically called layer dropout), deforming the whole print. Once the leveling is done, the print quality is unquestionable.
- Filament Support: For professionals who have to work with different types of filaments the ones that are rather brittle— like bamboo filament— are really no match for this printer. It really cannot handle such filaments smartly. The reason is that the lead screw is very close to the hole through which the filament is fed. And it is sharp-edged. This makes the bamboo filament snap very often during pulling.
- Additional Adhesive: Some of the critics have stated that they had to apply additional adhesion materials which, as we have found, does not happen all the time.
- Speed Setting: For the first few prints you might face problems with speed settings.
- Cura setting: When you select Creality Ender 3 from the custom 3D printers list provided by Cura be sure to change the filament diameter from 2.85mm to 1.75mm or you are going to experience an under-extruded printing. This is because your printer is ready to allow a wider filament. As a result, the thinner one doesn’t get enough pulling tension making the print work faulty. Most users tend to use Cura and therefore they should acquire a basic working knowledge from Cura Tutorial: Master Cura Slicer Settings.
Major Differences and Upgrades Made to Ender 3 Pro
Creality created the standard Ender 3 with so much care that they didn’t have to make so many changes when upgrading it to the pro version.
Among the trivial additions made to this version over the plain Ender 3, three are there that easily attracts any consumers attention:
1. Upgraded Power Supply
The Ender 3 Pro has an upgraded ‘Mean Well power supply’. The important news is that it is UL listed. Besides being safer and more efficient the fan it uses is much quieter.
Upgraded Y-axis rail:
The Y-axis rail on the Ender 3 Pro is twice the width and twice the height of the standard Ender 3 providing a much more stable base for the build platform assembly to ride on. This results in more precision and fewer print failures.
2. Magnetic Flexible Build Surface
The print surface is textured so there isn’t need to use a hairspray, glue stick or other adhesion promoters to help the printer stick to the surface. The plate is removable and flexible so you don’t need to scrape difficult prints off the surface. Simply remove the build plate flex and the print should pop right off.
Ender 3 or Ender 3 Pro—Decision Guide
That’s the question buzzing among the 3D printer users. Well, it should not be hard to decide.
For personal level and printing and business beginners standard Ender 3 should be quite enough. All you need to do is to assemble and calibrate with care and you are on. Print quality? Quite satisfying.
And for the advanced and professionals there is no alternative to the Pro version.
For a better understanding you might like to consider the following features introduced to the pro version and decide which one is practically suitable for you.
In order to provide an improvement in overall stability of the printing surface a more sturdy 40×40 aluminum extrusion is installed for the Y-axis.
The bearing wheels also have been improved which reduced friction and provided more stiffness.
Other changes have been discussed previously under the heading ‘major differences and upgrades’.
To ensure these improvements they had to fix a bit higher price for the later version.
Now, if you don’t find any inconvenience in tinkerings like replacing fans, exchanging its build plate to glass sheet or installing other modifications whenever it’s necessary you can very well choose the original Ender 3.
And with the money you save from not buying the pro version you can buy extra filament and make some other modifications that will ensure reduced printing risks as well as more longevity of your precious printer.
Here is a youtube video about the top ten upgrades that will help you increase your 3d printer performance.
On the other hand, if you want neat and clean printing works and don’t mind spending some more bucks the pro version is certainly your match.
So, What’s the Bottom Line?
We tried to discuss the important facts of both the versions of Ender 3 in detail and now it’s your turn to decide which one you’ll choose.
Happy 3D printing!
