Of course, I realize that there is a huge community behind a lot of these printer designs, keen on fixing flaws and filling in where Anet missed out. But I can't attribute the community's work as Anet's achievement, so my reviews always focus on what the manufacturer manages to deliver - and others are doing much better, especially for the price.

Thomas. Influencers never do bad review out of fear of deterring sponsors from reaching out. That's why you don't see much bad reviews on KZfaq. This is a breathe of fresh air. You are now my favorite 3D printing KZfaqr

Honestly - in place of Anet videos, can we just get more "Tom with coffee" videos?

Does this Anet come complete with the burn down the house feature?

Do a crash test... for real. Like throw it off a balcony and record the damage in slow motion. Nobody has done a 3D printer fall test.

This printer is so bad that a coffee sponsor ad was worth watching 😂

2:15 i love the fdact that just as you said: "imagine it's 2014" my video quality dropped to 360p

"pro" because you need to be a "pro" in order to "use" it". Though, that could be for a good many printers, not just this one... Edit: btw, Thomas, we legit appreciate your honesty in these reviews.

THANK YOU for being straight-forward and not sugar-coating the truth and telling it like it is. I always appreciate an honest review.

Trade: Hey we want to sponsor a video with our great coffee! Thomas: Great, you'll ship me some coffee right?! Trade: lol....

I was almost expecting you to end this video by somehow managing to set the Anet on fire due to some construction issue but then I remembered you actually care about the environment and wouldn't do so intentionally

i love how your video quality (in terms of content, i.e. how you talk and look in front of a camera) is skyrocketing every single video, keep the pace! Incredible work!

"Who sliced this? eSun?" I'm dying😂

Always appreciate your honesty. You kicked the heck out my my favorite printer (Sidewinder X1) but its nice to see you still give an honest review on the unit that came to you.

Always love your videos and you always say it the way it is. Looking forward to the next video.

I bought a Labists ET4 as my first 3D printer, which is a rebranded Anet ET4 Pro (Labists is black and green), and I've been quite happy with it for the price (~$300 CAD). There was a bit of a learning curve getting it levelled out, and the firmware could be better in terms of having a more intuitive UI. But since hooking it up to Octoprint it's been a pretty decent printer.

Like your videos because you always make honest reviews, thanks a lot

When i bought my Anet A8 for 170$ i knew it would suck at some point and show its blatant flaws, but i also knew that no 3d printer machine worth 170$ in 2018 was going to be anything more than a 170$ machine (stating the obvious here). And so as i got more into 3d printing and used more and more my A8 i did some needed upgrades to it. First was the 2 power mosfets for the bed and extruder, then a proper 12V power supply, forced convection cooling on the mainboard aka a 80mm fan, then a full V-slot metal frame, added a glass bed, replaced the linear bearings for the IGUS polymer bearing, rubber/glass fiber belt and finally an arduino uno "nanny" that monitors the print status, temps, power consumption and has an IR receiver so i can control the A8 with my TV remote from a far. By now i have invested 150$ in this machine in the span of 2 years and it prints like a brand new 500$ machine. My takeaway is that Anet is a brand meant for people who know their stuff, (sort of a Caterham Car company) but can't afford to "pork over" the price of a fully functioning machine from the start. You get a working machine that will get you started in the hobby and then if you want to do complex projects you have to spend time and invest in some parts that the Anet has left missing in their products. I have nothing against your review or experience, i'm just telling you mine and that you can't expect the performance of a 500$ machine, out of a 170$ machine, from the start. Certainly that ET4 would perform better than a prusa if you give it some love and care.

Terrific review Tom! It was honest but not harsh. You gave them what credit was due but really explained why they fell short.

Fantastic review Tom, always loved your honesty.

This is why I watch your reviews. Well done

Beautiful. I bought myself A6 back in the days and after assembly first thing I noticed that this friggin bed can't have constant/linear motion because of huge offset in belt drive at travel ends. Not surprised a bit that they still haven't figured that out. One bought, never again. Good review Thomas and thanks for bringing out the truth 👍

Tom, you put serious work into every video, and you give it to us straight. Never stop being awesome. And I'm gonna try out some of that online order coffee, since it's not exactly safe to hit up my favorite source (Sprouts) these days.

Years and years ago, I bought an A8 on sale. It was delivered at some crazy low price. I knew nothing about 3d printing and wanted to tinker. I learned so much with that printer and the whole journey in upgrades, frame replacement, mosfets, marlin, bowden feed system, etc. I still have that printer. Actually proud of how it came out and it was very functional. But it's long since been put on a shelf. However the lessons learned were priceless. Would I consider recommending an Anet to anyone else, "not bloody likely"! No way, not going to happen. Thank you very much for calling this what it is. Junk in a box. Return to sender. Although I do like the idea of an Anet bounce test. Thanks again!

You can not be blamed for making an honest review. For the consumer that’s rly wanting to research and get the best product for their hard earned cash makers to be depend on it. It is appreciated sir Tom ty

Found you when I purchased my PrintrBot Simple Metal for $600, such a solid printer. Now running an E3D v6 and a Duetwifi, running like a champ!!

Thanks for the honest review

That was so much fun to watch! I wish I could be this honest in few areas in my life.

I bought this printer (before I saw this review), but I haven't had any problems with cura: I just installed it on Manjaro and there was a profile for the printer which works well. Now that it's setup I can get good results. The setup instructions and the support model are atrocious and Anet really needs to be called out on this so well done, but the printer itself seems to produce good results. My calibration cube is within a 1/10th mm. The review is more about Anet as a company than the printer's actual capabilities, but Anet really needs to learn this lesson and stop this bullshit they are going on with.

Those toothpaste topped posts really just sum up the kind of people behind Anet. They copy others, they barely complete what they put out and they could care less to help people. It's like the group project where the nerd they relied on abandoned them.

I've never seen a good printer come from Anet. With companies like Creality and Prusa, why would anyone waste their hard-earned money on the junk that they consistently put out? I don't get it. I'd rather buy a used, 5 year old printer than anything new from Anet. And, good on you, Tom! So many get a free printer sent to them for testing and they are all to happy to show how great it is. I'm glad we have people like you and Angus to consistently give us honest reviews and save people from wasting their money on junk.

Honest review. Well done. A shame for Anet, but they have brought it on themselves.

Thanks for all you do. Love your vids.. Your awesome! Peace

Tom's best thumbnail image ever! Hilarious! 🤣

The only experience I had with Anet printers is from a colleague that bought an A8. It's an awesome printer that produces extremely good prints... after he modified/replaced almost every part of it. It's like a 3D printer of Theseus now XD

Hello from 2.5 years in the future. Thanks for this video. I'm a beginner with 3D printing, but a highly qualified software engineer and electronics hobbiest. I have the opportunity to pick this printer up for $75 used or $175 new - and I can see I would have been so pissed off. I also watched your primer series of videos. Thanks for all your work. You've saved me time and money. I'm subscribed and will join your Patreon. Many thanks.

Hey Tom, I love seeing reviews being critical when they need be and not when they don’t. One thing you called out that is also a complaint I have is the belt path. I see the same thing on every Creality printer and it’s just not good design. We know that tying the carriage and bed, which only move linear to a power transmission using a belt that’s not parallel to the motion causes error as the carriage/bed gets closer or further to the extremes of the movement. I completely understand it’s the design they come up with that lets them offer the cheapest price. But all it would take is a little more thought, it wouldn’t cost anything to do it right. I posted it to Creality’s Official Facebook Group and got completely destroyed with insults by users who don’t understand the problem, or were quick to dismiss it because they’re cheap printers. I was wondering if you might also point this out. Maybe printer makers will take note.

I am loving the thumbnails on your videos lately 😂

Hey man you're being too tough on them. If it doesn't burn down the house anymore that's an improvement.

Thank you for this very helpful video

Love the dophin noises during the CE listing update. Deserved review for the flaws they have. Always enjoy and honest review.

Finally a video with a sponsored product I'm interested in buying *Ships only in the US* Sad Italian noises...

Wow. What a review. Good work Thomas and I hope that what you have to say about this monstrosity of a printer makes Anet sit up and listen. If in the future this does actually become a good printer then I am sure this review will be one of the main causes of Anet getting their act together.

Brutal, but true! I've been struggling with an Anet A6 for the last 3 years. After heavily modifying I had some reasonable results, then it died with a hot end failure that destroyed it. I bought and Ender 3 pro - what a difference! It just worked! RIP Anet, may I never hear your name again

I bought one, mainly because it is small enough for the place where I wanted it to be. The other one which is small enough would be the Artillery Sidewinder. Since I already have a well-working A8, I was not expecting that it would work out of the box (which it didn't 😒). But I knew that I can get it running. Now it works fine, including auto-leveling, pause/resume and filament detection, using the Ender 3 settings in Simplify 3D.

Gotta love that 2014 throwback...

Well said! I've been contacted by a school that bought Anet. At first I was sure there was some documentation or stuff missing. But sadly no and I could not get any of them to work somewhat ok within a reasonable time frame. They loaned my Czech made printer and could print right away with amazing results. These crappy printers flooding the market gives all printers a bad reputation and people tend to stay away from 3d printing in general. Not everyone wants to buy themself into a new hobby and in 2020 they shouldn't have to.

I love seeing you fold the coffee filter the same way I do 😉

Hi! I know how such reviews are frustrating for you, but without those more and more people will actually buy those printers from them. So by not-reviewing these printers you're allowing them for getting away with these kind of practices. I balieve that your effort with such reviews is genuinely making 3d printing market better. Thanks Tom, I hope that you weren't serious about not making any other Anet 3d printer reviews. :) Kudos!

Wow, awesome review and honest👍🏻 I still own A8 and its still working for my backup needs after my PRO repairs for sure.. Lol, but I wont even recommend selling it anymore to my customers.

glad I bought a Prusa when I did because I knew I wouldn't have these sort of problems, and they're still improving the firmware and slicer to this day

i love your sweater 💕

Thank you i was literally about to buy this exact printer

thanks for the honest review....am now a new subscriber..I have had a CR10 mini for 2.5 years and it has worked great & I have done all the silencing mods and upgrades etc and many prints but I am now wanting to treat myself to something that takes up less workspace than it's separate control box and spaghetti bundle of cables and has a touch screen and auto bed leveling ...small build volume would be fine...don't need anything big This ET4 pro seemed to tick all the right boxes but glad now I didn't go for it... the more reviews I watch there seems to be little in my price bracket £400 tops without big faults ...also looked at your Artillery and some other reviews on other sites I don't mind certain tweaks and maintenance etc as am a retired engineer (gas) but just want reliability and easy to update firmware etc...any pointers would be great....am searching through your site now.

This review leaves me scratching my head thinking "What's 'pro' about it?"

Someone was hard defending the A8 on a Facebook group I’m in the other day, saying that “every printer is going to need some tweaking and proper upgrading” when I advised a beginner who said they have no clue what they’re doing with printers to not get one because when I started (with an A8 I got as a present) it almost burned my house down 3 times. I was amazed that someone would consider that an “every printer” standard.

Thx for honesty

Your coffee sponsorship was the best part of this episode.

I got one of the Anet printers back in the beginning of 3d printing. It was one of those with weird brown paper covered pieces that were made of some plastic or something. Both of them maybe not the same brand, came with broken frame bits. The top piece that held the little screen. Neither ever made it to printing. I sent them back, and didn't try to do anything until last year, when I got my Ender 3 Pro...

It's 2020 and Anet bashing is still alive and well. There was no useful transfer of knowledge in this review. I would never have got into 3d printing without my A8. The knowledge I gained from my first printer being a seemingly hopeless Anet A8 Acme Roadrunner DIY kit was invaluable. I no longer look at any manufacturers offerings. I have now enough knowledge to select the parts myself and build what I need. 3d printing is not like buying an injet printer at Wal-Mart and I doubt that it ever will be. I wouldn't have $1,000 + to spend for a name brand printer, even if I did.

Somewhat unrelated, but It's funny to see the Anet name for me. I actually started 3D printing with a black acylic Anet A8 that I got from some sketchy site for 200 bucks. Spent 6 grueling hours putting the thing together, and 6 more hours figuring out how the heck to make it print right. I made a bunch of stuff with that printer including an E3D hotend upgrade. I wasn't satisfied, so I bought some square 1" aluminum tubing, and built an entire CoreXY printer using parts that I printed with the Anet beforehand. I'm still using the guts of that printer to this day, including the electronics board, and motors. I never even installed the X and Y limit switches in my contraption, I just push the hotend to the bed corner to home it, and it returns to that point after it's finished. I've been running it for over a year like this. I'm actually surprised the electronics still work. Props to Anet for that!

Now a year later I would hope, that saw this first. Anet ET5 for the first printer, yes it does the job, but man - it has been a frustrating year ! I've been wondering why my friends keep gettin good results so easily out-of-the-box with their Enders. Its been a struggle, but finally after thinking about every darn thing could go/be wrong - starting to get some prints :D Thumbs up Thomas, keep up the good work - even tough your advices are not always solved my Anet problems :DD (this is ultimate how to set up you printer challenge stuff)

Thanks for the video Tom! Great video as always, not so great Anet as always.

Thanks for saving our cash again Tom, you are a legend and your don't give a shit honesty is exactly what we all need to hear.

I really liked that one, might want to rewatch it with a coffee :D

Its so *nice* to see Anet still has not learned a damn thing after all this time.. Even sadder to see that the community behind the brand has grown.. This is a brand and a product that should not exist, period. Thanks for the honest review Tom, keep up the good work.

I can feel rage in your voice, Tom, lol.

I love seeing your brutal review! It's really good to see that you don't scare away of telling the truth. Videos like this give you a lot of credibility and if a 3D Printer producer decides not give you their product for review to you we know that they know how bad it is. Mach weiter so :D

Hey Thomas I recently got a Ender 3 v2 do you have a good profile for the ender 3 v2?

The profile and software was just the same with the Anycubic Chiron. The included cura was so old and they only include written profile details in the manual. I tried using the default profile in cura 4.7 and it printed so fast because the cura profile was using print speeds at least twice as fast as the chiron actually needs. I found it so strange they went to the time to make a nice graphical interface to adjust the 5 x 5 probe points on the touch screen, but couldn't be bothered to include a tuned profile.

0:55 Anet A8 left the chat.

I really like that sweater. And was "no cats involved" a reference to kopi luwak coffee beans?

Wow, interesting ! I'm goint to buy it and try it ! 😎🤘

Best ever thumbnail

Man. I started to feel bad and shed a tear for Anet by the end.lol This is why I like your reviews though, concise and brutally honest. Keep it up.

Bought one of these for my first printer along with 7kg of filament as I was unsure how much I would need. It was terrible, the prints were trash but I was excited and didn’t care. Left it for a few months and then thought I’d get back into it. Managed to improve print quality, but then the extruder broke, and then the filament loader broke. Then the heat nozzle broke. (I’m still not very good at this so I’m not sure if these terms are correct) it started leaving massive blobs over my prints so decided to give up. Want to sell it but because I have heaps of filament it would cost so much to ship to someone.

Did I just see you using a 3D printed V60 drip filter ... I think a dedicated video on that is required. Please share Thomas.

I have an Anet a8, the great thing was it's price. You need a lot of tuning (changed heat bed, fan, added bed sensor, printed cable chains, changed fans etc) but in the end it prints ok.

I have a CreaSee CS30 (A copy of some Creality) that cost barely more of 200€ and have a printing size of 30x30x40 this is a great one for that price, filament sensor and power loss resume (Yeah I have a unboxing on my channel lol). I had a AnetA8 for years and this is a huge upgrade to me, no more Anet.

Do you guys know if this printer uses the same hotend module as the one for the cr-10/ender 3? Are they interchangeable?

video quality is great.. what is your main camera? & lens?

1:06 Look how happy he is with that segue haha

Hey, if you're planning to use this as a base to be heavily modified, it's probably cheaper than sourcing your own parts... Right? You, Joel, and Angus. I trust you guys. When you all agree, I listen. Thank you for providing honest reviews.

Thomas sanladerer can you please tell me should i purchase this anet et4pro for profesional use or not ?

Still here from 2014... Wow, so long ago.

Does this one ship with a fire extinguisher?

Refreshing video.

It's ok Tom we love you

Is it posible you will review duet 3 mainbord?

Awesome review Tom. Straight to the point and this is what it is. Great stuff and useful. You have given Anet all chances possible to come up with something better than what you described and they're apparently not able to achieve rather than deliver a minimum required quality. So, the only useful recommendations in this case, indeed, is: buy somewhere else, skip Anet. Hope many users will see your video and take proper action in stop buying this crappy Anet stuff.

Is there any kind of all metal hotend unit for this printer?

It's nice to see that when it comes to cheap printers, you seem to talk more objectively now and explain on issues, instead of just making unexplained derogaroty remarks all the time. I think this printer could still have had it's place as an entry device for tinkerers, if only the price was much lower. Like with the A8 - it wasn't great out of the box, but it was dirt cheap (sometimes below 100€) and with some easy (and mostly 3D-printable) mods, you could make it a decent and reliable printer while learning a valuable lot about the mechanics and electronics. The ET4 misses this point by about 150€..

10:21 You had your fingers close enough and the camera focused just right, that light was focused around your finger tips, kinda like when you squint and look through your fingers

My Anet ET4 is awesome, don't know what are your issues, it just works straight out of the box, there's an updated profile on their website to the latest cura. Awesome printer for little money.

I have to admit I bought this printer based only on the specs/price ratio without looking at the company or reviews etc. and I still dont regret it. For the price I paid this thing prints reasonably well

Hi Thomas, what about making a video on what mods have to be done to a printer to print filaments that need 280-300°C? I have a cr-10 that I love, but I would like to use filaments that need higher nozzle temperature.

Digging that sweater. Comfy.

Hey, look on the bright side, you now have a large coffee warming plate that if you also tape a spoon to the hotend, will stir in any cream, probably, maybe, potentially lol.

I would add that a Bowden extruder is a recipe for trouble.

Does Joel ship to all of us in the EU? As i can use some nice coffee.