In 10 years Creality will release the Ender 3 V33 SE V3 SEE333

At this point I would still suggest a higher quality printer even to a newbie. Not having rods or rails on X, klipper, or an all metal hotend means your still going to spend more upgrading this printer (which seems very likely), than just buying something for 100$ extra that has all of those things built in.

I got a brand new v3 SE from Sovol for $130 shipped. Its been a workhorse. Not a single issue for over 2 months

I got an Ender 3 Pro for my first printer. Modified the heck out of it. Then one day I saw the Ender 3 V3 SE at Microcenter for $99 (Super special sale that didn't last long) and snapped it up, because it prints faster than the old Ender 3 Pro I had that I modified, plus it comes standard with all the features that I had to add on the Pro with aftermarket parts. It's a very nice machine, very little tinkering needed to improve it (But that doesn't stop me from looking up ways to possibly tweak it!).

I have had mine for about 7 months. It is my third budget printer and a little bigger and better than my previous machines. I ordered a textured PEI plate at the same time as the printer as I had watched other videos before making my purchase. I eventually moved the z offset a very small amount from the auto z offset. Beyond those things it has worked as is from Amazon. One additional con that I have lived with so far is it could use better part cooling.

This was my first printer. I got it in November and I've put a lot of hours in it with little to no problems. I don't understand why they didn't ship it with a PEI bed though.

I've had a Ender 3 v3 SE for a couple of weeks now. I'm planning on getting a 2nd one later this week. It's my first printer and repairs and parts have been a bit of a shit show. I got a blob and accidentally clipped the thermistor cable so got a new thermistor. Only to find that I needed to solder the old plug on the new thermistor which was a bit icky (single piece of copper holding them, I used some heat shrink to cover the bare copper etc.). After I got it working again, I had plastic coming out of the top and bottom of the hot end. In trying to sort that out, I stupidly burnt the PTFE in the heatbreak. I've got a new hot end coming (hopefully tomorrow) but I've since decided that if I want to be able to focus on developing something, I really need to have a 2nd printer just so that I don't have to wait around for parts before being able to carry on with development. I like it as a first printer just because I'm learning, pretty quickly, what bits definitely need upgrading (Build plate obviously.I'll be switching to Klipper later this week hopefully. Had to wait around for an OTG cable to use a Raspberry Pi Zero 2. If that works, I'll see if I can repurpose an old Raspberry Pi 2 for the same thing. Also some sort of enclosure. I'm getting some warping even with PLA), what would be nice to upgrade (linear rails for both the x and y-axis. X axis for longevity and Y axis, a little wider out on the plate for better stability), and what redundancies I need in place to keep these printers going. I chose the Ender 3 v3 se because of price and local (New Zealand) availability and reviews. At $400NZD, it's amazingly affordable. I did not buy the printer expecting that I wouldn't need to do some upgrades and really do appreciate learning as I go. It's a bit like a first car. It's a clanger and it's value is more about what I'd put into it.

I’ve had fun adding klipper and the k1 hotend to this machine so far for my first printer. I’m currently adding linear rails to it as well so we’ll see how far I can get it in the end.

just bought mine online after watching many videos. your gun nailed it ahahaha great vid bro

Nice review. I got one 10 days ago. The cat printed at 200c on mine and came out perfectly. I use the profile supplied by Cura and have seen zero stringing in dozens of prints. The only issue I've had is prints not sticking. A slight adjustment of the Z offset solved that. Items stick well and release easily. A PEI print surface would have been nice but they're cheap. I don't notice the screen beeping as I use Octoprint exclusively.

you can turn off the beeps, found out how on google. thanks for saving me some cash tho, gonna get the KE or the V3 plus instead of this

The KE is the better machine for not all that much more money. The SE certainly is a decent machine.

I am looking for a new printer to replace my old Ender 3 pro V2 which had tons of issues. This seems like a great upgrade but I don’t want any regrets or upgrades needed in the future. What would be a good recommendation? I love engineering and I focus on mechanical parts.

I bought an Ender 3 V3 SE back in Feb. '24. Print quality was terrible. The only thing about it that’s better than the Ender 3 V2 I’ve had for years is that it’s faster. All four of the screws that attach the X axis to the lead screws were loose, three visibly, with one so loose it was about to fall out. Print quality improved once I tightened them. The auto bed leveling is useless. On one side of the bed it was obviously too close and on the other it was so high off the bed nothing stuck. It also improved slightly once I noticed that all four bed mounting screws were also loose (not even finger tight), but I still didn't get proper first layers unless I leveled the bed myself manually. The interface to do that was horrible. When I contacted support to see if there was anything they could suggest to help with the bed leveling or any chance of their supporting Host Action Commands or at least releasing the source (as all Marlin based printers are obligated to do to comply with the open source license) their only response was to tell me the code was proprietary. No help with the bed leveling issues. So I ended up wiping Creality's code and installing Klipper. Had to do quite a bit of searching on github and tweaking settings. Works fine now, but that's the last thing I'll ever buy from Creality. And nothing ever stuck well to the build plate they shipped. Ended up with a Cosgrow PEI plate which actually works.

Core xy printers are now entry level printers. They are the closest to plug & play for majority of filament types. Buying a machine which does OK on some things is a potential waste. The question of growth within the 3D printing industry is now modeling software ease of use. My yesterday's modeling to print was a replacement flag holder on a kid's swingset. Today's effort is modeling/printing house numbers and street address as well as designing aventuri generators for dust control inside a cnc machining cabinet.

I've had an Ender 3 for over 5 years before just upgrading to a Bambu A1 this past week. The difference is night and day, with how the market looks today I just don't see the benefit to investing in an Ender when you can get so much more out of even an A1 mini for not much more money. And even if you tried to upgrade an Ender to the same level of a Bambu, you'd end up spending more anyways. I'm definitely against monopolies though, I really hope competitors catch up.

Hi how do I deal with the stringing problem? My prints have been deteriorating and there have been lots of stringing. I’m using the same printer from the video. :) nice video too btw

I’m looking for my first 3d printer, but I’ve had many mixed advice so far. I’m looking between this v3 se or the sv06 but I’ve heard the sv06 is outdated, but the sv06 plus is not. So what would be the main benefit of getting the sv06 plus over the v3 se in terms of what parts does it have that’s better. I’m trying to justify getting the sv06 plus instead of wasting time with the v3 se and if others would agree with this.

I bought 4 of these and tossed the Creality Sonic pad on them for my mini print farm.. I did this for Klippers speed, input shaping, and features... these things are much better on Klipper, 300mms printing, input shaping, web browser management, etc.. However I prefer the Elegoo Neptune 4 as a recommendation for a beginner 3d printer (i have 2 of these as well), they already come with Klipper they have a bit larger capacity and have lights on the gantry and nozzle out of the box, for basically the same money as the Creality v3 se..

And that's why I got the KE, this one had a few problems that that one solves; which sure, they cost more so the printer costs more, but if it's something you want on the printer anyway then it's worth it to not have to worry about that later. Now I just wish creality would remove most of their older printers from their line up.. like sure, keep making parts for them (if people even want the parts and haven't upgraded most of the thing at this point SuperVinlin), but with this new line there's really no point in offering the entire printer..

same, bed plate is tearing. and after 6 month the cr-touch stop working.

Good printer for the money, especially when on sale. Biggest problem is it's nearly impossible to recommend over the A1 Mini unless someone absolutely needs the size or really wants to mod. I'm not even a Bambu Lab fan boy either.

Hello! Will you do the upgraded version of this 3DP? The KE one?

In Brazil they sold the Ender 3 v3 SE for 300$, I bought one for my projects and it has been good so far and the build plate is still reasonably good

I got one of these as a budget secondary printer, it's about as plug and play as creality has ever been at this price point

I recently bought a Ender 3 V3 SE. I want to print ABS, ASA. What mods I need to make for print those materials?

Daniel, thanks for reviewing this one - on this race to offer the cheapest entry level printer, it’s easy to cross the line of “bad”… The print plate releasing the coating is sooo lame. The chassis all in plastic makes me worry about stability for taller parts. I feel that the original Ender 3 Pro is was a better option - from the construction point of view. I have Creality in my heart: offering decent printers at a very accessible price is so important - but this one was a slippery slope.

I have one as my only printer. Its great. However, after about a month, the cooling fan on the hot end started the im going to fail noise. An easy fix but not what I would expect from a month and a half old printer. I was using it alot. Had i done a bit more research i might have spent a bit more cash on a different printer. As others have said - It's a good work horse and i would recomment it to anyone after a low budget printer. The only 'mod' (if you can call it that) I have done is buy a PEI plate.

Having mentioned making test prints to dial it in, and since this is an entry level printer, links are wanted to videos describing for newbies how to make and evaluate test prints, then what to tweak.

Funny you compared the pro enclosed models that are more expensive. There are some non enclosed core xy printers in those same models that are much more price competitive in the $299 range.

can you use this in a small apartment size place

Way. Come a long way.

What slicer do you use?

Showing the fan speed in bit value, instead of percentage on the main screen is not a good idea as well.

I wonder if they have fixed the clogging problem. It always baffled me how much of the printer was left for the customer to "tweak". It basically left us to beta test the product. Oddly, while their customer support was outsourced to youtubers looking for content. (not this one though...) So many things stupid desing flaws are/were left to the user who then had to rely on unreliable sources to fix them. I believe we are past the novelty stage for 3D printing where this is an acceptable business practice. Half a year ago I bought a resin printer in the same price range and was amazed how much reliable that machine is. At the same time, it is so well made that I can't see how I could "tweak" the thing. I would be tempted to try the V3, as I was very happy with the V2. However, when I inevitably ran into a problem I could not fix myself, I experienced how utterly useless the Creality customer support is. The machine is now dead and I have nowhere to fix it. And I hate to spend this amount of money on something that could become unfixable.

you should do an ender3 family tree. their naming is so confusing!

Creality's mission statement: Cutting cost at great expense.

Who is that weird guy not wearing a hat at :28? 😀

Hey, how much did you have to bump up the retraction to notice less stringing?

Is there as low a price printer with linear rods for all axes that avoids the wheel wear problem?

Buy the E3 V3 Core-XZ. I have the SE & it’s good. But, I can get the same quality & better with the V3, in 1/4 the time.

I would love to find an ender 3 original new in box. But the only few I have found they want like 180 bucks.

It feels so strange seeing a new printer not have clipper

"If creality refreshed this with PEI and linear rods at the same price point and maybe installed an all-metal heatbreak" I don't know that they can make the Ender 3 V3 (since that's basically what you described) much cheaper than it's current ~$300 price point, sadly, but that's the Creality machine I usually recommend to people.

They are $100 shipped on ebay right now

In current year I just say no to vrollers. Honestly I think the A1 Mini has it on lock for best entry point printer. The AMS really seals the deal.

Dan, I think the E3 V3 SE is a decent enough entry point into the hobby for those on a tight budget. What's a bit infuriating is Creality's inability/refusal to EOL a product. It makes it almost impossible for a newcomer to make an informed decision when presented with over a dozen different Ender 3 variants. There's no reason the original Ender 3 should still be listed for sale on Creality's site at this point. They'd be better off ending the production of their old products, streamlining their lineup, and focus on their newest models.

I just picked up an AnyCubic Kobra 2 Neo @ MicroCenter open box for $49.99. I was expecting it to be a wreck, as it said 'Incomplete', but all that was missing was the reverse bowden, and the collet to hold the tube in the toolhead. Popped that in, and did the calibration/bed probe and exepected chaos. It just... worked. I was going to be the Biqu B1 since brand new it's $79.99 right now on clearance @ MicroCenter as they seem to be dropping BTT and figured for $80, it's worth it just in parts. But the Kobra 2 Neo has a color LCD, auto bed probing, auto Z-offset calibration (z-endstop AND a probe) a nozzle wipe sequence, pet spring steel, direct drive tool head, "volcano like" nozzle and heater block. Other than it being a little bit loud, it's a FANTASTIC entry level machine.

This Printer is super bud the strings where mega. I am glad i started out whit easthread k9. From temu. Because the offset from the bedtramming is way to high. You need to set it by hand . You can do this on this Printer. By going to move . Put it on zero . Z Axis. Then go to edit . En run the peace of paper . Thruh al the point.s.. And there was the need for easy thread k9 experience. Because i al Ready know how it must feel between the buildplate and the nozzle. And i run this printer at 6000. Mms. After tweaken my cura profile. And i use different nozzles. 0.2.to 1 mm. Goth them al . And i think after two years of learning the software and learning how to slice and put your Models. Why even use a 0.4 nozzle. Just 0.6 nozzle in there. Your not going to make small prints. The best slicer is cura. It lets you really play around whit settings. And i goth a ender 3-3d from market place whit a bowden tube. And tweakt this printer to. And runs just fine at 1500 . Creality needs to run Klipper. And dump marlyn software. And after 2.5 years starting out whit the software. Before i goth a printer . Was a very wise move. You need to understand the software First. And how to put your Models on the buildplate. Otherwise its make.s no sense to by a printer.

imho only cheap printers that anyone should consider are A1 mini and qidi x smart 3. You will waste more money upgrading and repairing these enders anyway, and with those you at least get serious and capable machines.

Getting an SE felt like a crazy upgrade over my old V2. Getting an A1 Mini felt like an even bigger one.

I got my for 120€ or 140€ and wow he do what all my glorified hot glue guns (mk4/mini+/ diy rooks) do. Print! Oh and i forgot to say, after this Printer hit the market and do auto offset for this price the magic of 3d printing is gone. This price and print, no leveling and only for Hobby and low expectations form creality. I was extremely surprised and only greased the linear rails so often to lower the noise, but so far for this Money. WOW it's not a beast compared to corexy, but with og ender3...give the wheels time to wear out to the alu profile like all wheels there are load on it. Yes stringing was only good in creality slicer, other slices no chance. Thanks for the Video! An grease your stuff and look always how much side load your motor can handle, not so much the Belt is important..form a mechanic point. Thanks for your Video and stay safe and enjoy the day

people need to stop supporting these guys until they start complying with the license terms for the open source software they are using... this printer has been out for almost a year and they still refuse to release the source code and the build configs for the firmware

The price of the printer isn't even the biggest hurdle to hobbyists--it's the cost of filament. You can buy in bulk and get down to like $10-12/kg, but that's only for PLA and only if you're buying $100+ at a time. If you want to print technical materials like PA-CF, or just print a lot, filament gets expensive, fast.

All the whinging here about things that you need to do on upgrades and maybe buy something else, kinda miss the point. This very low cost, very entry level machine is a great way to get, not only into 3D printing, but to also learn some modifying and upgrading. If you want everything to work in all ways out of a box, don't spend $130 to $190 trying to do that. Go and buy that $500 and up machine instead where $130 doesn't even buy the nozzle or extruder upgrade you'd want next.

While I apprecaite the review, I've grown to hate creality, and that comes from someone who got into the hobby with an ender 3 pro. I feel like creality releases a new fdm printer every tuesday, and I hate the mentality. There aren't even big upgrades between two version, most of the times. While they truly helped shape the 3d printer community with their original ender 3 pro, they have just lost all originality ever since. Hell, their most different release from past models was the k series, and it was a straight up copy of a bambulab.. And there are already 4 models of it. Because of this, I am not recommending any creality printer anymore. I wish it would change someday, but I don't have any hopes to be faire. Everyone used to copy creality printers, and they have themselves decided to follow this path, and it's just straight up sad.

If $200 is all you have, then the SE is a fine machine, but the Flashforge 5m can be had for $300 or less and is a far better printer. FAR better! I have the SE, the 5m, my Bambu and a tun of others. The 5m is the closest I have had to the Bambu experience. Its not a perfect printer, but none of them are.

Please stop uploading videos of Ender 3, there're too many noobs that can buy a Bambulab A1 but because of the SEO, Google/KZfaq will always recommends ender 3.

Bro give us a break with the ender stuff. They resuscitated the 3 so many times that it's not even funny any more. What they should do is scrap it already and come with proper innovation of a printer not just recycled hot crap.