I have an Ender 3 and I've had an Ender 5 for about two weeks now. I can honestly say the Ender 5 is amazing. Great build quality, super easy to assemble, and really great prints from the start. I really didn't have to tweak much of anything on it and I was able to print a really great benchy. I've seen multiple comments about the lack of a dual Z. However if you used this printer you'd see that a dual Z on this thing would be pretty pointless. It's supported by two really thick 10MM rods along with the single Z. Also the bed only ever moves in one direction while printing (down) so there's a lot less movement/force on the bed. Outside of attempting to physically stand on the bed, the chance of bending or moving the bed outside of it's normal range is zero.

Nice summary. I like the chart showing the various Creality printers. The CR-10 Mini though is typically $50 less than CR-10. Right now its $339 at Creality and $349 on Amazon.

0:52 This is a great video, but I REALLY LOVE THIS GRAPHIC.

Your review was the one that helped me decide on the Ender 5, Mine comes tomorrow and I've just watched this review again for the 12th time in about 3 months lol I think I'll be pretty well prepared for this! Thanks Michael

You do the very best 3d printer reviews bar none !!!!!! Thanks for your efforts...

Just received my Ender 5 from the official Creality site. In case anyone is considering buying this: The power supply is NOT a UL certified Meanwhile psu. They changed it to Landy, which is not UL certified. The mainboard does not have thermal runaway protection. The extruder drive feed is plastic. These parts aren't all that expensive but they do add up. You may want to consider how much you are going to have to spend on upgrades vs buying a higher end printer.

This, (along with a few other videos of yours) was such a really well structured and informative review. The pace and information given, was perfect for someone like me, who is familiar with the 3D printer concept, but now, in a place where I can possibly own one. I quickly came to the conclusion that the ender 3 is highly regarded, and after a few other reviews from other brands and that amazing model breakdown at the beginning of this video, I'm going to move forward with the ender 5. Ill just save up the extra cashing go for it, thank you. liked and subscribed

I do not understand creality using this kinematic, moving the heavy x-stepper motor in y-direction. If you use an bowden setup, only ultimaker-style, corexy and delta make sense to get the moving mass as low as possible. Also I do not like the bed being hold only on one side. It should be more precice with a two side hold printbed. How much is the lead of the lead screws? Bed falling down normaly can be easy fixed with a lower lead. So if you have the common 4*2 = 8mm movement per rotation, it tooks 4 times the force to push down the bed if you use a 2mm per potation lead screw - easily fix that problem. Reducing the salomon skin I would not recommend tl-smothers but higher resolution extruder. A bondtech BMG (or a clone you can get for 22€) plus a 0.9° stepper. Its 6 times the resolution, makeing much more precise movement o filament. You may also change to a direct extruder (Petsfang with v6, BMG and Pencake stepper). Such a mod even costs less than a 1:1 microswiss mod (as you can use cheap chinese parts exept the microswiss heatbreak (and maybe the nozzle to print abrasives). If I had no Ender 3, I would think about the Ender 5, but if you have already an ender 3 (and do not need another printer), it makes no sense to upgrade.

Great quality review as always, thanks for the info.

I cancelled my ender 3 pro order and changed ot this after seeing the video (this will be my second printer) and it arrives today - so excited and can't wait for your upgrade videos

if you havent already can you do an updated video like this. I like your point of views and the way you explain things. Im hoping to get into 3dprinting for the long haul and want to start off with something like the ender3 or 5. But dont know which may be better and how much i can upgrade either of them. I apreciate your videos and i appreciate any input.

Thank you for this clear revieuw.... i was thinking of buying a ender 3 pro, but now i’m in for the ender 5

Every video I've watched of yours has been really informative and well put together. Thank you

Always surprises me for a minute when I hear a fellow Aussie on YT 🇦🇺

Finally another Ender 5 test, thanks! Doesn't seem to make my list of candidates for my first printer smaller though :( Anycubic Mega-S Creality CR-10s Pro Creality Ender 5 JGAurora A5S Monoprice Voxel / Flashforge Adventurer 3 Tevo Flash Tevo Tornado Prusa i3 MK3

Great video, nicely put together and no time wasting

Minor point - values @ 1:25 are calculated from the min dimension rather than the volume. Calculating with the volume yields more unwieldly numbers but the disparity is much clearer, particularly if you calculate V / price, so that higher is better.

OMG legend! As soon as I saw the Ender 5 release I knew it would be quite a decent reliable step up on the Ender 3 and ur findings back my thoughts. Def on my list to get a second E3 then and E5 for myself! Thanks heaps

Awesome video. I was going to be getting an Ender3 Pro as my first 3D printer, but this video changed my mind to the Ender5.

Crystal clear & very informative. Pity the YT video title covers up part of the top of the screen as it's obscuring the names of the models, maybe you can put graphics a bit closer to centre then everything will be legible. It's nice to see manufacturers reverting to PROPER BUILD MANUALS. Ikea could learn from this. A Glasgow man recently threatened to *blow up* the Braehead Store as he struggled to assemble a flatpack wardrobe. Let's hope he never buys a 3D Printer : )

Another good review Michael-keep up the good work

Thanks for your review!

Great review Michael. Thank you

mate you talked about the print being 180 degrees rotated you just need to reverse y axis in the gcode panel in s3d. thanks for your amazing vids and tuts!

Nice review as always!

Looks like a great printer, but with the well established CR-10s just a few dollars more and with a much larger print area, I’d have a tough time spending the money on the Ender 5. Great review non the less, and it’s good to see quality prints right from the get go without any tweaking (something I can’t say for the Ender 3 after my three and helping setup 6 other units).

Help "My first printer ever" I ordered an Ender 3 Pro and they send me a CR-10

Sheesh, prices during this pandemic have skyrocketed. Do you recommend waiting to buy if I am getting my first printer?

Great review. I'm very happy with my (heavily modified) E3, but have once hit the z-axis limit. One complaint on the video: it's 'cue' not 'queue'...

cool -- love the reviews

You forgot to review the noise levels

Thanks for the review. Still thinking about buying one...

great review as usual. many thanks will consider this

Hi, I know this is 2 years old, but at about 9:12 you say that the magnetic bed has a limit of 83 degrees so ABS is out of the question. If you switch it with a glass mat can you use ABS?? Great video btw!

Wow, they didn't change one thing I would have. This thing is still realistically limited to printing PLA, still has that gimped motherboard, still has that weak extruder, which so many people have to shim when it starts slipping on the filament. A 5cm taller build volume wouldn't even make my top 20 list.

Great video l have the ender 3 and still learning

My concern with top down printers is that the weight of the printed part puts stress on the z-axis guides. It would be a lot better if the bed had opposing side Z-axis guides.

Thanks again for your Honest Review bro

Love that you use X3D. The guys at the Perth warehouse are awesome.

Creality has quite the line up now. I've been VERY happy with my Ender 3 and I think I'm ready for another printer. In your opinion which Creality would be a good step up? I like the quality of the Creality line and there seems to be a huge user base with tons of good input to be had.

After 4 months of owning an Ender 3 Pro, prints after prints with no problems. Ender 5 came in today and within 5 hours of printing, there was horrible grinding noise. Upon further inspection z-axis bearings has failed. The screws were also stripped, leading me to believe that someone at the plant has over tighten causing the bearings to be crushed. Will update when my replacement comes in.

It looks like they updated the hotend bracket, the hotend and fans now seem to be centered and the bracket seems to be wider. That would make it a lot easier to design custom things for this thing!

so many choices. I currently have MP Select Mini V2 and looking at getting second printer with bigger print bed so I was looking at the ender 3 originally until the pro version came out and I figured I would likely go with that one. Since I'm getting closer to getting enough for the printer I started looking around some more and someone mentioned the CR20, it was a little more then the pro, easier to assemble and just looked like a upgraded version of the pro so I was pretty much settled on that one. Now in the same group I hear people talking about Ender 5, find out price range is still within my current budget and I'm a fan of this design style but it doesn't seem to be as popular and harder to find in Canada at least, I was hoping to stick to a canadian store or amazon but we'll have to see. I should have enough in the next 6 weeks or so.

Once again. Awesome review. Thank you 🙏

Michael great review, can't wait for the next update. I do have a question how ever. Would you have a preference over the Ender 5 or the CR10s Pro? I keep going back and forth and not sure which is the better. Thoughts?

Did they cancel the ender5? I cant find it anywhere. Not on ebay, amazon, banggood or aliexpress

I prefer that style (non-i3 Prusa) printer so you don't have the mass of the build plate swaying around the Y axis. How well is the bed supported from just those front rods? Any vibration?

Hey, great video! Would you consider doing a video on updating Ender firmware via OctoPrint? After following your original TH3D and vanilla Marlin firmware guides (I have on mine), the update process is slightly different, and I figure some folks might want to see that. I haven’t done it yet and am looking to make sure I do it right, have only installed the Firmware Update plugin for OctoPrint so far.

I liked your review very much.

Outstanding review !

I suppose it works, but there is something uneasy about a printer that uses a raising cantilever bed that is only supported on one side.

Another nice job. Is the foot print much bigger then the Ender 3? Honestly, the extra build volume is nice but that thing just looks huge to fit any place in my office.

Creality: Let's make a new printer! The Ender 5! Creality: Let's make tons of awesome upgrades! Creality: But let's leave the LCD screen without a backcover Creality: Lol, 10 points for Creality!

Thank you for this great review!

I wouldn't call the Ender 2 superseded as it is still useful for those who don't want a huge print area or are low on desk space

Print volume per dollar is by far the worst way to compare printer value. I really hoped people would have stopped using it by now..

Great reviews as always, though this video is now 2 years out of date. Have you noticed if there has been any improvements? I've noticed the Ender 3's are now being sold with the upgraded control board, is that true with the 5? Also, you mentioned the bed only heats up to 80 degrees which was problematic for ABS. Now ABS is being replaced by ASA, would that still be an issue? Thanks again for all you do!

Bought the Ender 5 pro nice printer works well.

excellent review

Great review.

Creality's stock motherboards are quite good. Its simple and easy. integrated 4988 stepper drivers are good also. In addition the board has an AUX pad to solder. It goes to pin 35 of AT1284 or #define E0_AUTO_FAN_PIN 29 in Marlin 1.1.9. So I shoose "Extruder Fan auto off at 50 °C" and soldered the FET board input to AUX with wire. Unfotuately it seems it has no PWM. So we cant set the speed of the fan, just on\off (0\255).

Thanks for an excellent review. How rigid is the front of the bed? Since its unsupported there, does it have any vibrations during printing?

When can we expect the ugrade video you mentioned in this video? Thank you for everything you do.

I have an ender 3 pro. upgraded motherboard to 4.2.7, 500 mm ender extender, microswiss direct drive. just got a used ender 5 plus that was abused a bit. seems after ordering parts (just ordered so waiting for them to get here) I am still well under the purchase price to put a ledgek motherboard, microswiss direct drive. it seems it would be around the ender 3 volume/price ratio, but I got it for well under half so in my case it is well under the CR-10. I don't know if it is worth it for you to go over the ender 5 plus and good modifications/upgrades. thanks for your work and going to watch through your other videos to learn more

i know this is over a year old, but Ender 5 vs Artillery Sidewinder X1? forgetting the fact the X1 has a bigger build volume. Which would be a nice step up from the Ender 3?

I just got two sapphire-s printers so probably I will not need any other printers, but Creality not bad too imho

Ive been cranking my ender3 pro bed to 135c ( it maxes out about 128c) and keeping it there for about an hour each day ànd the magnetic bed its still going strong. I think it even has a little stronger grip. I did a vídeo on this if you would like to see. Great review 👍

Hi, I wanted to know your opinion. I need good quality prints and easy to use. Which printer would you recommend- ender 5 pro or cr-10? Thanks for your help

There was 100$ difference between ender 3 pro and ender 5, so I decided to get ender 3 pro and do some modifications.

I gotta say, I love my Ender 3. I started with an anet a8 and that almost turned me away from 3d printing altogether - the Ender 3 is seriously a great starting point. She prints well out of the box but there's room for tweaking and learning how everything works, now I'm planning out a Voron build to reuse my anet's parts. Not really feeling the 5 here. Definitely not a fan of the single-side cantilever and the mock-corexy gantry on this guy.

This is the printer I have been waiting for. It will be mine.

I love your videos and understand the pro's and con's but I am still changing my mind every few videos I watch, you may already have one, is there a video on the best mid price ($400-$600 give or take) 3D printer to buy and use out of the box, upgrades maybe as time goes on and you learn more. or suggestions in comments on this comment. I never thought I would have so much brain mush trying to pick a 3D printer,, doing the same with a laser engraver/cutter, must be some damaged neurons upstairs. I need a min of 220x220 bed and would like to do the ABS, would hate to decide to use a specific filament and find the bed doesn't get hot enough. I know some personal opinions will change a decision so maybe even a top two or three good to use out the box. I have been looking at the Ender 3 and this 5, I like the CR10s pro I think it is and also liked the JGMAKER 3D Printer A5 Updated, also didn't mind the GEEETECH A10M & A20M I think the problem is too many and I forget what does what, needs what, what's what. I get side tracked on a new one I see and like that for a while and end up going in circles.

Can you please check that build volume? Doesn’t look anywhere near 500x500x500. Perhaps that’s the outer dimensions of the printer?

Hi Michael Thank you for all your videos. You make everything clear, this is very helpful. I’d like to upgrade my Ender 5, but I am afraid to mess it up, as Marlin is not supporting it for now. My biggest concern is the BLTouch : can I install it without flashing the motherboard ? What fan duct for the E5 will be compatible with the BLT ? So many questions !

Which is better print quality ender 3 pro or ender 5? Which would you buy for first time users

My Ender 5 Came assembled wrong. The Z axis holes are on the other side. I don't know how to get the motor off cause it's screwed on so strangely. Any ideas?

Thank you for your videos!!! I have a question hopefully you’ll see this. I have an ender three I just started playing with but I do want something in addition I can do a bigger print Area somewhere in the $600 range so ender 5 pro, cr-10 and which version or do you have other recommendations? The ender three that I just started playing with it’s kind of my Frankenstein/learning 3-D printing with all the additional parts I got for it the bigger print bed will be one I use once I figure out exactly how I want to be set up An for now play around with direct drive, etc. I also got the mosaic 2 And hub that I still have to set up but that will give me the ability to do multicolor which I’ll probably use it on the larger printer

Fantastic. Great Video I'm gonna subscribe. I got an Ender 5 coming and that's great you mentioned some very important things to me. S3d, TPU, PETG in addition to the PLA.What about that new NylonX (Nylon + Carbon Fiber Filament)? Thanks again

Michael nice review. Would be good if they redid the manual for the other Ender and CR the same as the one in the video, (maybe they might?), and made them a download. However, I cannot believe they have stuck to the same tiny motherboard though without a bootloader. Yes I understand doing that removes all the support issues ffrom those that update it but another hobbled printer from Creality? That pretty much forces any owner to have to trash the warranty to add any functionality or live with it as is and it is worrying that basic stuff like thermal runaway protection is still not there and yet print on power resume is?

That's cool, I have the Ender 3, but this is really cool.

yeah, nice and all but I just can't see paying twice the price for only 50mm more build volume and that's all your really getting. I mean for the price of the ender 5 i can literally get 2 ender 3's. If build volume were my concern i wouldn't waist money on the ender 5. I would be taking a hard look at the cr10 s5. I'm really not trying to put down the ender 5. I love my ender 3's but this video basically shows that you get absolutely nothing more that 50mm more build height and they want twice the price. oh and my experience with that magnetic build plate yeah i gotta pass on that. I've grown really partial to pei on spring steel. Creality really needs to step their game up a bit. Something as simple as an integrated stock auto bed leveling system would have made all the difference in the world. I mean hell the only reason most of us flash a bootloader on there is so we can add auto bed leveling. something else they could have done was add an ultrabase glass bed. since the bed isn't moving back and forth like on the ender 3 they could have took advantage of this by adding the glass bed which you really can't add to the ender 3 and not get ringing or ghosting. I'm sorry the Ender 5 is not worth much more than an ender 3 let alone double the price.

Thanks Michael. Good info as always. Cheers, JAYTEE

Trying to decide what to get for my next printer (currently Ender 3). trying to decide between the CR10S Pro or the Ender 5 Plus. Will get a SKR Mini E3 (would it be usable with E5+?) and V6 hotend. What worries me a bit is upgrade option (hotend mounts etc) since I've read that the mounting brcket for the E5 differs and the options might be more limited. (also custom bed size for finding flexplate and similar upgrades).

so its the same as the ender 3 but larger z, and less wobble on the prints.

This is a very informative video. I’m just getting into 3D printing and am trying to figure out what to get. What would you recommend for a machine from $400-$800 for someone new to printing?

Based on your graph Would you recommend the cr10 over the Ender 5? Would like to print tough materials like nylon.

Hi Now the price difference isn’t so big between ender 3 v2 ,ender 5 and cr 20 pro Cr 20 pro is around 5$ more then ender 3 Witch one you think is better choice between those tree?

Michael, I love your videos. Since you have extensive experience with lots of printers, I need some advice. I currently own a cr-10 clone that I bought 2 years ago. It printed great, but lately it requires a bit of fiddle to get a good print. I am looking to get a 2nd printer. I am looking for a printer under 500.00, maybe a bit more. I looked at the ender 3, ender 5, anycubic predator and chiron. With there being 100 different printers, which printers would you recommend that will give reliable, clean prints out of the box, but still has room for upgrades.

Im new to this and consider your channel by far the best of youtube in 3d print! Im still confused, however. I noticed an ender 5 for $297 incl tax/ship. I noticed the 5 doesn’t have much more build volume then the 3. Is it more about the better frame and the z axis moving? What does the bed going up and down add?

I currently have a Raise3D Pro2 (my current workhorse), a Wanahao Duplicator D8 for figurines, and a Flashforge Creator 3 that I use for fun projects. I'm currently looking for a low cost, large build printer that I can basically print 24-7 to make resin molds. Is this a stable enough platform to do so, is the quality of the print good enough. It's down to this or the Wanahao Duplicator D9 500 MK2 that basically allows you to print a car.

So could you print ABS if you swapped to a glass bed or do you mean the plate itself is limited?

Hi I was wondering if I cauldron have some advice. I bought an Ender 5 pro last week, I have fitted it all together. I switched it on and the mail menu is different. It does not show prepare. Have you seen this before?

The design with support of the table on only one end looks like it would be prone to instability/vibrations.

I'd have to say the Ender 3 probably wins out in this one. mainly because of the audience. not that their aren't people who arent new and looking to buy a new printer but those people should understand what you're saying it's really the same as the Ender 3 but upgraded. and worth the upgrades. but for me beginners even if you have an extra $1000 I'd still say get an ender 3 save you're extra money for your niche. also what's better an ender 5 or 2 ender 3's because for a little bit of extra money you can buy 2 ender 3's and to me that's better

Any preliminary thought on the Alfawise U30. I bought one for a friend as it was cheaper than an Ender 3 at the time and it has more features(LCD/filament run-out). The Ender 3 pro orientation of the print bed caught my eye too. Did I make the right choice in your opinion?

great job and video a lot of info looks like the ender 5 is much more stable. was there much if any viberation

Like your vids. Looking for a decent entry level 3D printer ($300-500 range). What would you recommend?

I assume the updated Ender 3 software from reality would be installed the same as as any other version of marlin

Hi, how are you? maybe you can help me.... I have a ender 5 plus, and I installed a bmg v6, I disambled the machine and ensambled all again (to clean up, install leds and cable management, etc). I started the machine, I seted up the steps and PIDs with pronterface, and now when I go to print the Y axis seem that were moved to the front, and in the back I have 5cm free aprox... What I can do? I runed command 502 on pronterface, and seted up de steps and pids again, but nothings seem to work. I also checked with programs and with the printer the axis, and seems to be ok, but when I try to print, the Y axis just go to the limit of the bed to print.

Looks pretty good, now they need to make a bigger CR-15 version and I’ll grab one ;)