I’m back with an update, in case anyone is interested.
If you want to know the lore, here are my previous posts: Do NOT buy Creality, and Creality K1 woes
Quick summary: I still think Creality is garbage.
I started with a used Ender 3 v2 that I picked up cheaply to see if I even liked 3D printing. It drove me insane, but I figured it was old and used, so maybe a newer printer would be better, easier, and less frustrating. During Black Friday 2025, I bought a Creality K1.
It was a nightmare the entire time I owned it.
The machine had constant problems, and Creality did the bare minimum to help. When it became clear that the printer was not reasonably repairable, they still refused to take it back. I ended up reporting the issue to Consumer Protection through Ontario’s Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement.
Because of that, the store I bought it from eventually refunded me and took the machine back. I still lost several hundred dollars on extra hotends, replacement parts, repair attempts, and the camera Creality sells separately. I sent all of it back with the K1. During that entire mess, Creality offered me one free replacement part, never apologized, and never made any real effort to make things right.
I’m done with Creality permanently and forever.
That said, I still wanted an enclosed printer. I spent a few weeks researching options, narrowed it down to a few brands, and eliminated them one by one until I landed on Elegoo — specifically the Centauri Carbon 1. I bought it in early April when it went on sale. It ended up costing roughly $100 CAD more than I paid for the K1 during Black Friday.
And honestly? This printer is the absolute tits.
After almost four months and dozens of prints, it has failed twice. Both failures were filament-related, and both were fixed by restarting the print. I’ve run several brands of PLA and PETG through it, from brand-new rolls to old filament that had been open for months and never bagged or dried. It just chews through everything and puts out clean, reliable prints.
It has been such a relief after dealing with Creality.
The other interesting update is that Elegoo actually followed through on their multi-filament system for the Centauri Carbon. It’s called CANVAS, and it’s listed at $80 CAD, compared to the $600 Creality wants for theirs. I might buy one eventually, but I’m not an early adopter anymore, so I’ll wait until people have the first units in hand.
I’ve mentioned the Centauri Carbon in comments before, but I wanted to make a proper post after spending enough time with it to feel confident recommending it.
One note: it does not have a dedicated mobile app. That said, I’ve been using OctoPrint with it, and it has been flawless for me.
TL;DR: I will never buy another Creality product. The Elegoo Centauri Carbon has been amazing and super reliable, and I genuinely think anyone buying a new printer should consider it, at the very least.
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Anyone using the CC1 or CC2 should hop into the Open Centauri discord. The OC firmware is a better working version of the stock firmware, and we’re also developing Cosmos, for full Klipper control (Now alpha testing with the Canvas!)
Joined! And thank you.
I’ve had a Creality Ender 3 v2 for over 4 years, still printing on it with octoprint.
It’s news to me that this thing has issues. I just set it and forget it, then come back to a print.
Prints are not perfect, some tiny minor surface defects that I don’t give two shits about, but I have printed an assload of stuff on it.
Fyi: it’s not for first timers or for the inexperienced - needs some proper setup otherwise it won’t work well until you tune it.
I read shiz for a couple of years and figured out all the issues before purchasing, and bought all the aftermarket replacements recommended by all the folks.
If you just want a printer that works the first time you need something else, appropriate to your skill level.
I had CNC experience before this.My opinion is that a printer should print. Maybe I’m wrong about that.
For an HP or brother printer, you’re absolutely right. For something that is more of a CNC, your attitude is not as productive - takes a lot more to get a CNC going.
Paper printers, having a larger pool of users, have also been improved over time a lot more to be more of an appliance than the complicated mess I had to deal with in the 80’s. CNCs and 3d printers have not had enough mass adoption that simplicity of use has not been designed or battle-tested as much as with paper printers.
A 3d printer is closer to a lathe in ease of use, not at all similar to a paper printer.
3d printers have been around in consumer form for close to two decades now. There’s no excuse for this any longer. The reason there’s such a learning curve with printers like this (I’ve been through it myself) is because they’re built with shitty, scrap bin parts to keep prices low. The commercial folks using CNC machines would never, ever settle for junk that fails often and needs a bunch of aftermarket parts swapped in just for basic functionality. I went years on a bed slinger like these with years of more troubleshooting than printing and I would never go back nor would I tolerate it with a new printer.
I think you need to touch grass, bud. It’s not a secret club.
Lots of people use cncs, lathes, drill presses and other stuff. Its a bigger club. Felt more inclusive.
That’s how it was 10 years ago. For all the deserved hate, Bambu changed things dramatically. They made 3d printing an appliance, not a hobby.
Every printer in the last 3 years should be expected to work like an appliance. My cheap S1 has required many replacement parts over its thousands of hours but works like a laser printer. My U1 is a tank. Perfect prints and I’ve never once done a manual calibration.
Is the Ender 3 v2 from the last three years? It’s not. It comes from the CNC mindset. Your wishes are noted, but they are not the mindset that will help with the Ender 3 v2. You will run into nothing but frustration. Just get a bambu that is appropriate to your level of skill and interest in the thing.
The “CNC mindset” is perfect copies every time. That’s the entire purpose of CNC otherwise everyone would just hand cut parts. Stop trying to wear your years of toiling like a badge of honor that permits you to look down on others.
The user was talking about how his Creality K1 didn’t print reliably. You responded by saying that a 3d printer, (you didn’t specify your particular ender ) is like a cnc.
Just get a bambu
I already said that Bambu has deserved reputation to hate it. I said I have an Anycubic S1 and a Snapmaker U1.
If you want to build a Voron, that’s great. But the OP was complaining about a K1.
OP started complaining about an Ender 3 v2.
OP has a low skill/knowledge level. OP then buys a K1, a maybe easier-to-use model, but not by much?
The ender 3 v2 won’t print well right out of the box - needs setup just like a cnc. K1 also wont. They’re not HP Laserjets.
The K1 is marketed as a competitor to the Bambu P1s, CC, Anycubic S1 etc. It should work without tinkering. Unless you are building your own Voron, modern printers reliably work out of the box. It’s not 10 years ago when 3d printing was like home cnc machining.
OP bought a used Ender 3 v2. OP had it working just fine, until it needed repair, and stopped doing the thing it’s designed to do - print. Then, OP bought a K1 because the Ender printed fine. It’s not a skill issue, champ, I’m doing just fine. I don’t think you actually read my posts at all. If you did, you having a reading comprehension issue.
I’m in the same camp, creality is garbage, always was and still is. CC1 is one of the best printers right now, own 3 and the only real problem I had with them over months of every day printing almost non stop is type-c cable on one of them breaking. It took me two hours to change (and some time to source long type-c cable with corner connector). Very very very forgiving machines that just work.
Ah, there you are… I was about to link to the picture you posted in my extruder-cleaning-post the other day, hehe.
Personally I have no experience with Creality, but I’ll take your word for it.
Mine has been running without breaking anything for just shy of 4 months. What’s going to break? I want to be prepared lolol
I saw that picture you posted too, and that hotend looked like it was about to burst into flame.
CC1? Usb type-c cables probably. I’ve seen that they are a bit cracked on others as well, I have 3 spare hotends when the’ll die. Also changed two buildplates for bbl ones (require small adapter installation can be found on printables, they were ~2 times cheaper) because they were getting patchy. That’s all, extremely reliable machines so far.
Changed hotend on that e5-max, still can’t get it to print reliably, I’ll try installing cartgrapher in the future, but it just doesn’t seem to react to heat predictably, so no expectations there.
I might have seen your previous posts, but based on other reviews and price I got my first ever 3d printer a couple months ago: a Creality Ender 3 V3 KE.
I love it. I have close to 100 prints now in Hyper-PLA, PETG, and TPU. I don’t have a filament dryer (yet) but my quality has been fantastic and I’ve only had a few outright fails. Two were from the same print breaking away from the bed (it was attached with very thin edges) and one was likely a calibration issue, and printed fine second try.
I’ve had so much fun with this thing I’m already considering my next (bigger, multifilament) printer, and would consider Creality based on my current experience.
That said, my luck so far means I haven’t had to deal with support.
My biggest issue figuring out what printer to get was that every printer /company I looked for reviews on seems to have posts similar to yours. It feels like everyone is happy with their printer unless they have an issue that requires support. If there is a company that provides amazing support for printers in the price range I was looking at (less than CAN$400) then I missed it.
I’ve gone back and forth on Creality. I had a first-gen, non-pro Ender 3 that I got new for like $230. I spent so much time trying to get it to work that I feel like I could build an entire printer from scratch at this point, firmware included. That experience was valuable, though, and it made me really appreciate the performance of my CR10 v3 when I got that. Sure, it’s slow compared to modern printers, but it’s huge and takes standard parts for literally everything. Plus, I’ve only had it fail maybe 4 times in the 3 years I used it. Moving to a P1S was a great choice for me at the time, but now that Bambu has gone full Orwell, I’m looking for another alternative for my next machine. Hell, I’m considering going back to my CR10 in the meantime just to keep the prying eyes away from my prints.
I could not be more serious about the Centauri Carbon. Bambuu was never an option for me because again, user-hostility, but I haven’t heard anything terrible about Elegoo yet. The fact that they came through with the CANVAS at that price point is bananas to me, honestly.
We have an ancient Ender 5 Pro in the library makerspace that’s running pretty much constantly, and it was already well used when it first got donated to us. Granted, it’s farrrrrr from our best printer, but it’s pretty reliable! I barely even maintain or upgrade the thing lol
I don’t think you read my other posts
I did and I even agree! Ours just seems to be a bit of an anomaly, or else we’re just way too tolerant of jank lol. Definitely wouldn’t get a second printer from them
When you use a good printer, it’s hard to look back at the older ones. They are, as you said, pretty dang jank.
Definitely, our Vorons have spoiled me lol
