The Best Ender 3 S1 Pro Review You've Never Heard Of 

Interesting, I always run at 210 for PLA so that is probably the trick. I just turned the belt tension down and it reduced the noise and can tell its quieter already. Thanks for the tips Sandy.

I'll keep this in mind. Thanks homie 🙏🙏🙏

Noted

Nice to bad I was already subscribed

​@NathanBuildsRobots your filament could also be moist.

Thanks for watching!!

Adjust them from the right side and it would have saved you time, there was no need to take it apart like he did. I too just got mine a week ago and it was the same. It was done to prevent damage during shipping.

At least they are consistent!

@@NathanBuildsRobots Nathan, I have recently read the reason why the rear stepper motor(Y axis) gets much hotter to the touch than the 2 Z axis steppers. The 2 Z axis motors are wired in series and therefore only drawing half as much current through each motor as the singularly supplied Y axis motor.

Thanks! The other factor adding to the heat is the heated bed sometimes being right overhead, but most printers are 10-15ish degrees C hotter on the Y, this one was hot hot hot!

The noise is really starting to get to me. It seems like its getting worse. I'm doing a lot of large and fast prints on it now and the Y axis just groans. I bought some sound deadener, no idea if it will work. It's just sticky rubber sheets. Would also like to try a stepper damper.

I looked on reddit, and asked on my Discord. All of the issues that I had were reported by other users as well. There are way too many "reviewers" that sugar coat everything, like "OH THIS PRINTER IS sooOOoooOOOOooooooo GREAT! Perfect for beginners! Very Quiet Machine! Great Print Quality! Great Value for Money! :D"

@@NathanBuildsRobots Exactly. Take the ejection molded base. Most passed this off as an improvement somehow. No mention of the extra resonant noise it creates. Not a problem if you have your own dedicated studio or barn on the south acre but a bigger deal for a normal guy who has to share modest living space with other people.

@@NathanBuildsRobots I understand why, so many 3D printer reviews start with "I got this printer from company to review" or "I wanted to get a new 3D printer, so I asked the company to send me one to review". You can't really be objective when the company sends you it for free and want to get more stuff from them in the future, unless you're a big name.

@@relo999 Nowadays I get most of my printers for free. But I would rather be a trusted reviewer than sugar coat a printer to avoid burning bridges. If that company is OK with releasing bad products, then they also need to be OK with getting roasted in a review. I do the reviews because I love playing around with the technology, and I would be spending money buying printers anyways, since it's a fun and rewarding hobby.

@@NathanBuildsRobots Ohh I certainly get that. I have the same feeling on how reviews should be, be it's sadly quite common with all kinds of reviewers, not just in the 3D printing sphere, to ignore, sugarcoat or downplay issues. Granted part of that is also corporation making special review units that are made to QA issues or outright different hardware. One that I fell for were FPV goggles (EV300D), when they were reviewed they were amazing but when the first batch shipped they had awful latency. One of which I got as I preordered based on the reviews. And when you fly proximity at around 80km/h a latency of an additional quarter second can end quite bad. But apparently the review units where quite different internally than consumer units based on a teardown a review did, luckily I was one of the few people that got their money back after hours of complaining and paypal shenanigan's. But I know I'm one of the rare people that actually did get their money back. All in all I think a honest review is ideally both good for the company, reviewer and consumer. Because once a consumer is burned by the reviewer and especially the company chances of them doing repeat business is quite low.

Its missing the attention to detail that I expect at the price point. If you want to get a big printer that's easy to use I'd recommend the Artillery Sidewinder X2 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5tjE3QAOkWc.html Only downside is it takes up quite a bit of counter space. I think the new entry level printers are the mini 1-armed designs. I want to review several over the next month. For starters I did the Ender 2 S1. Was fun, but not very well polished.

NVH is huge in the automotive industry, but 3D printer manufacturers seemingly have never heard of it :P Nice tip. I looked into that stuff that you reccomended, dynamat is expensive as hell! Ordered some of this instead: amzn.to/3OvDY53 (Using affiliate links cause they are shorter) I think the best solution is some stepper dampers like this: amzn.to/3HzlOgt All the vibrations are coming from that Y axis stepper motor. Also I put blinker dielectric grease on the y axis limit switch because it rattles otherwise. amzn.to/3tNuKca I have seen vibration damping structures in aerospace that are use 2 sheets of metal with butyl sandwiched between them. Forms a strong, stiff, and extremely vibration dampening material, which helps prevent failures from "flutter", which can literally tear the wings off of a plane if left unchecked. Funny thing is that some whiteboards are made using the exact same construction, so if you find a whiteboard and cut it into pieces to build something, it will probably have excellent vibration damping.

@@NathanBuildsRobots wow didn't know that about whiteboards. Altho it makes sense as it's a composite material. Dynamat is hella expensive but the performance lives up to it lol. It's super thick and dense which really helps add mass to the thin sheet metal of cars. Anywho, will be looking forward to seeing your results with the cheap amazon brand deadener. You could even make an enclosure out of whiteboard material with a sound deadener base see how quiet you can get the thing to run🤣

Great to hear! All of the Ender 3 S1s are outstanding, thanks to their shared feature set. My opinion is more from a modders perspective. I enjoy the process of taking things apart and seeing how they work, so modding is half the fun, and I find an excuse to mod virtually every printer I get my hands on.

I agree, they had the CR-6, CR-10, Ender 2, Ender 3, Ender 6, Ender 7, Sermoon, etc. It starts to get confusing, and you end up with a bunch of unique parts, so it makes them harder to repair. The right way to go about this is to have parts compatibility between their different product lines. Make 1 family of I3 style printers - call it the Ender 3, and sell a bunch of different sizes, all with the same stepper motors, control board, brackets, extruders, etc. Make another family of Corexy printers, Call it the Ender 6, and sell it in a bunch of different sizes, all with the same stepper motors, brackets, extruders, etc. The idea of product families and shared components is nothing new, but it looks like they keep reinventing the wheel every 2 months with another random printer.

I like the S1 more than the S1 pro. I bought the sprite upgrade kit. I'll be installing and reviewing it when I get a chance.

Yikes! Glad you were able to get it fixed

I would get the Artillery Sidewinder X2 if you are at all interested in printing larger objects. Just put an all-metal heatbreak on there. Its $250 right now which is a crazy deal. Here are some affiliate links so you can check the price: USA: bit.ly/3dAqNmc EUR: bit.ly/3QHOJlB UK: bit.ly/3C5EpQp Coupon code: NNNNBRARTX2

I have an affiliate link in the video description: PEI Sheet - amzn.to/3n2IewU

I have a very random editing style, never sure what to expect next :P

Yeah, one of my Z-axis wheels isn't even touching the frame. It matters less on a dual z lead screw setup, but still annoying. I always get them set up nice and even on machines I build from scratch. Requires a couple extra steps, but I just like having a well-tuned machine. I wonder if the timing belt needs to be adjusted. like, rorate one of the Z axis relative to the other. Cause they might be locked together asynchronously, with one side always higher than the other.

QC is definitely not Creality's strong suite. Once you get them working they are pretty good though. Are you starting a Noah's arc of 3d printers? What do you print with all those printers?

How do you upgrade the firmware? I have been struggling

@@Henniebrandweer creality has RU-vid videos for it. I followed that. Make sure you update the screen first via the little SD card in back of screen board. It’s not hard you just have to take your time and make sure the file name is correct and do right steps in order. Printer automatically will update on boot when you have the firmware on the inserted SD cards. There might new videos out on it now as well.

Only thing about steel is its a little less thermally conductive than brass. So you may need to slow down your prints or bump up the temps 5-10 degrees.

I usually use stock settings and only really tune retraction. 1-2mm for direct drive, 2-5mm for bowden

It's trivial and cheap to replace the hot end on the standard S1 with an all metal one (Mine was $25), and you can actually get the same light bar included with the pro for another $25ish. So for about $50 more than the standard, you get a better constructed unit than the pro.

I would get the X2. Great value printer that churns out parts. Only weakness is the hotend IMO. But with the $ saved you can upgrade it to be quite good.

@@NathanBuildsRobots, your videos are very instructive thank you! Actually I don't need a large working bed like the X2, I think the Genius Pro could do the job. I print almost exclusively thin wall LW-PLA, PLA & ABS , would you still point at the Artillery? Or not?

No, you can turn the part cooling fan off if you are printing PETG or something

I kind of saw it coming. The glue was too tough, and the heatbreak was too weak. Someone in the comments said they were able to remove it using a heat gun. It's OK though, I like it when things break. Gives me an excuse to upgrade it 😆 🔧

@@NathanBuildsRobots any excuse would do! Haha

Effectively it's just a slightly higher wattage heater cartridge, higher temperature thermistor, and an all-metal heatbreak

I like my Artillery Sidewinder

@@NathanBuildsRobots Do you have a video on it ?

@@JerseyStyle7 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5tjE3QAOkWc.html

@@NathanBuildsRobots thank you 😊 👍🏽 looking for a new machine hopefully this is the one

Sounds like you need a warranty replacement!

I'd strongly consider the Artillery x2, great printer for the price. I did a video on it about a month back

Very true. Designed obsolescence. The best thing you can do is work on adding a strain relief to that poor cable!

Its working fine on my S1 and S1 pro. Its broken on my S1 Plus, haven't been able to get it working at all. Creality QC is #1!

I was trying to unscrew the heatbreak so I could put a new heater block on it.

I bought some, it’s tough to install, working around all the wires and stuff so I kind of gave up

Btw, MandicReally has a good video where he installed a bunch on his X1 Carbon. Seemed to help a bit

Voxelab is really the best value for money brand. They give you a lot of good features, at a good price. The S1 Pro has some additional features that make it worth it in my opinion: A superior dual gear direct drive extruder. Dual z-axis lead screws Touch Screen (if that matters to you) Automatic bed leveling Bigger modding community Personally, I would go with the S1 standard edition. I bought one with my own money and it's been great.

Can you make the cable longer? Leave the sag out and its movements will be very minimal.

The power switch is a disconnect switch. I always make sure its off before messing with it because the stepper motor drivers are really easy to fry, and if you fry one on this machine you have to replace the entire motherboard.

Thank you Bogus! I've been lucky with ABL. Aside from some crashes from having it set too high or too low, its worked very reliably on all the machines I have used it on. I pull out some extra stops on my 1st layer that I think really help too.

Nice, my Ender 3 S1 plus is not working - Firmware would lock up when I tried to run the mesh bed leveling procedure. Tried updating the firmware, will be replacing the mainboard to see if that helps. Creality QC is... lets just say it could use some work.

I am using a FLIR One Pro. I usually turn off their edge detection enhanced imaging and just use the raw thermal image. There is a cheaper version but I would not recommend it since the thermal resolution is much lower. It's surprisingly accurate for temperatures too. Amazon affiliate Link: amzn.to/3GhjfAW

Yes, all of the new Creality printers I have tried have ferrules for the high power connectors.

I feel like I have way too many QC issues with Creality machines. Despite being mass produced at a larger scale, their QC is no better than any of the other brands I've worked with, and in many cases it is worse. But at least they are innovating with this new batch of printers! I'm all for that!

I would recommend the Ender 3 S1 Max, since i really like having the option to print 300x300mm. All of the S1 printers are pretty much "as good as it gets" in terms of performance for a non-enclosed, bed-slinger printer. Finally reaching near-parity with the Prusa I3Mk3s The weak points, as I've covered are the poor-ish part cooling fan and the inherent limitations of a non-enclosed bedslinger design. But the extruder, and motion system are really great. A nice-to-have feature would be octoprint or klipper integration. I'm kind of surprised no major printer companies have done it yet, since it is something I know I would pay extra for.

@@NathanBuildsRobots wow thanks for the informative response. There are so many types and knock offs that it's hard to navigate through the sea of seemingly endless options. I've been leaning towards the Enders for sure although if I had the extra loot I would want the new bamboo or the ankermaker5 even. I'll have to look up the octoprint and klipper because I've no idea what they refer too.

@@NathanBuildsRobots Ender 3 S1 Max? I don't think there is a "Max" version. I believe you mean the "Ender 3 S1 Plus right?

@@ecobasetech4558 yeah, that's what I meant. I got one and it won't print - something wrong with the mainboard :( As soon as I fix it I'll make a video on it

Was*

My favorites right now are the Ender 3 S1 (standard edition) or the Artillery Sidewinder x2. They both have pros and cons that I cover in my dedicated videos on those printers

TLDR: Ender 3 s1 has better modding and community support, Artillery is easier to use/ better out of the box, while also offering significantly larger print area.

@@NathanBuildsRobots Thank you very much i was a bit concerned as people stated that Prusa is top quality but the price point and import duty becomes around 1000+ dollars in my third world country thank you for your opinion and clarity .Have a nice day

@@crewneckdeath6801 I have used prusas. They have issues just like any other printer, so don't feel you need to spend $1000 to get into the hobby. If you want a good, cheap printer is look at the voxelab aquila. Sometimes they are under $150

@@NathanBuildsRobots thank you very much again.Too much marketing in youtube head stops working .Thank you for the unbiased answer.Good day sir.

I like the Ender 3 simply because it had the biggest community around upgrading and modifying it. However, I think something running Klipper would really serve you well as an engineer. Really gives you some hands on experience configuring a little computer to robot stuff. If you want something that just works and has a huge print area I’d recommend the artillery sidewinder x2. You can get one around 300€ through my links. The SV-06 and upcoming SV-06 plus (idk if it’s been officially announced yet) are also great low budget printers that would leave some room for upgrades, like a klipper interface. Or self-build a rook printer, look up @rolohaun

@@NathanBuildsRobots oh great! I'll check them out. I also have my eye on the elegoo 3 Neptune plus. What would be your opinion? I'm definitely going to get into Klipper 😁 Thank you for your quick reply!

@@wesleydutoit6901 I have no experience with Elegoo machines, so I couldn't recommend them one way or the other. They seem nice from what I have seen.

@@NathanBuildsRobots yeah, looked through your videos after I commented, should have imagined. But they are very similar to the sovol line... So depends on which one I can get ( would like the plus). Where can I find the link to the artillery?

@@wesleydutoit6901 just go to the artillery sidewinder x2 review, by me, should be there!

I cut it up for parts. Mr clicky stole the cable from this machine so I have not been using it. Its a nice solid printer though. I would still recommend the Ender 5 S1 over this, or the Artillery sidewinder X2 for a better value printer.

@@NathanBuildsRobots u own the ender 5 s1 ?

@@monsterstorm78 yes, just posted a video about it, will be posting another in a bit

Direct drive is worth the extra $$$ Plus dual axis leadscrew. Idk about the Neo printers, looks like same old design

@@NathanBuildsRobots it has dual axis, and the direct drive kit is just $40 on the creality store. so for the regular price difference of $370 vs 480 for the S1 Pro, it really looks like a good deal.

​@@thinkdunsons1 pro has all metal hot end as well

I got some Amazon basics knockoff sticky mats, will see if they work. I'll just slap it on all over the frame I guess?

@@NathanBuildsRobots should work similarly. I did on the inside of the frame all large areas that can resonate. Just like you would a car door etc

I need to do some more Klipper content. I've got some cool stuff in the works. Since raspberry pis were expensive, I bought an old MacBook air on ebay. It's running Klipper now 😀 Firmware on most 3D printers is just good enough to get it out the door, no better or worse. I think s lot of bug fixes come from the community, but that takes some time to happen.

My S1 is working great, my S1 pro is working pretty good, and my S1 Plus is just not working, so I've got a little bit of everything from Creality. The Magician X works decently, but it's got a lot of plastic parts, like the base and leadscrew nuts. And even after using it, i'm not sure how the bed-leveling sensor works. Which is just a little unsettling, but hey, it works. I like the Sidewinder X2 a lot. Really well-rounded. On my Artillery Hornet, it took a couple hrs to figure out how to flash firmware onto it. I needed to download a program from STM, and had to put a jumper on the motherboard before it could be flashed. I assume the X2 is the same way. But this isn't really a problem if you just leave stock firmware on it. The Bambu Lab X1 looks amazing, I'm looking forward to the 2nd round of reviews, from Kickstarter backers that paid real money for them. From what I've seen things are going pretty well. Only thing thing I can knock it for is closed source firmware that is trying to do A LOT of things. It will probably be a slightly buggy experience for the first couple months while Bambu fixes things. Over the air updates means it will probably won't be an issue for too long.

@@NathanBuildsRobots Ah, sounds like I'll be getting X1 Carbon, i never buy a brand new printer, I rather wait 2-3 batches so most of the issues have been ironed out, it's a breakthrough in consumer 3D printing

Yes, a big problem with that big boxy base is it acts just like a guitar body, resonating and amplifying nose from the motors. I think a lot of people want a silent machine, which is totally doable with minor changes to the design.