Ender 5 Plus 3D Printer

This is my very first 3D printer. I must say that it was very easy to assemble along with setting it up for my first print. Don't expect to have wonderful prints right off the bat. Setting up CURA was really easy and I was able to print out a calibration cube.

This is where the steep learning curve begins. You really need to learn a lot about slicer settings and what they do. You really have to do your homework and learn things such as nozzle maintenance, E-Steps, PID tuning. travel, part cooling, supports, etc. You'll especially want to learn how to calibrate your printer with test prints such as the temperature tower to see how your filament really works at varying temperatures.

I mostly print in PLA+ and PETG and have gotten to the point where my prints come out just beautiful. The hardware is more than capable, it's all about how experienced you are with slicers. So to anyone who gives this printer a bad review due to bad prints is most likely due to the user lack of knowledge.

Eventually I did some upgrades such as building my own enclosure, adding a capricorn bowden tube, and all metal extruder. It has drastically improved my PETG prints once I got my E-steps dialed in.

I would also recommend going on thingiverse and printing all the "Strain Relief" models for the printer wire loom and hotbed. This is the only reason I did not give this printer 5 stars. You really have to do quite a bit to reduce the strain at the connectors.

Finally I added a raspberry PI 3b+ running Octoprint to control my printer remotely from my phone. I have a webcam attached to the raspberry pi so that I can see in real time if my print is still going on. I can also take awesome time lapses. This is a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED upgrade. It makes it SO MUCH easier to operate the Ender 5 plus.

Assembly is easy and the included instructions are clear. packaging was more then sufficient to keep the printer protected despite the box having a few dents from shipping. print quality out the box is great even just using the base Cura profile.

Most of the small things I would change about it is firmware related, out the box (even with the latest firmware flashed) the auto bed levelling is using an incorrect probe offset. The community does have some alternate firmware's that fix this but they are on an older version then the new Creality firmware so it would be nice to see this fixed in the next official Creality update. Something else that probably needs fixed in firmware is an issue where if you run out of filament it turns the heated bed off causing the part to come free from the bed before the print can be resumed.

I also had the main case fan fail after only a few hours printing (shown in the attached video) I swapped it out with a higher quality replacement and its fine now but it doesn't reflect well on a product if it requires parts swapping less then 2 days into use.

One other small issue is the loud squealing sound that the Z axis makes when moving, some people have suggested that it is due to misalignment but I can confirm this is incorrect. with the leadscrews removed the bed moves smoothly and with no noise, after upgrading to anti-backlash POM leadscrews (pictured above) the noise is almost completely gone.

Despite these small issues I would still wholeheartedly recommend the printer to both newcomers and experienced people alike, the community support is good and it provides a good base for learning.

1st 3D printer. My son suggested the larger version.

Product arrived with corner of box damaged, however the excellent packaging kept the printer safe.

Setup was easy and perhaps I got lucky with It. Other than the first print all prints were perfect. (I learned on the first print to shut energy saver off, mine is in basement and I need to keep bed heated entire printing time.)

Going to install a couple small upgrades I found on line, like hot bed strain relief and a spool holder with bearings for less resistance.

Don’t think it’s overly loud, but will look into the silent board.

Overall, very impressed, no regrets.

It is my first #D printer. I was expecting startup issues, but that was really no problem. The first thing I did was making a 3DBenchy, and then I saw the only and first problem. Bed leveling! But the video delivered by Creality was great and now it is working fine! Thank you!

Right out of the box, I can tell there may be an alignment issue and there's not much I can do to fix that due to machining of parts. I was able to add shims to fix this and it rolled great after.

The T8 lead screw nuts are squealing so bad I had to shut it down. I tried realigning everything, squared up the rest of the frame, loosened everything and then re-tightened, but it only made it worse. I have some anti backlash nuts coming that should fix this issue.

I was expecting a silent board with TMC2209's or at least 08's but if they're on the new board, they don't have silentchop enabled. The screen options are fairly limited. You can't adjust your preheat temp to suit your needs.

All in all, after hearing this machine run for awhile with the motors running noisy, I have no choice but to upgrade to a 32bit board and change out the screen.