I tried a Creality Ender 3 a couple of years ago. Struggled a lot, for me, it required a lot of aftermarket replacements to make it work well. I sold it about 6 mo later.

In Mar, I bought an Anycubic Kobra. Out of the box, worked like a champ and has continued to. None of the struggles I had with the Ender. Only add on was a sensor to let me know when I’m out of filament.

You’ll probably hear from folks who bought an Ender and had great success, and folks who struggled w/a Kobra, though. It’s like an automobile… you’re going to hear good and bad stories for each model.

Honestly, I read a lot of articles and just found what fit my use case, expectations and budget. Your first one will definitely be a learning experience.

Good luck!

Gone through half a dozen of printers: The ender 3 and the like are great value but they aren’t foolproof for a beginner. At the other end of the spectrum ($1000+) printer work out of the box and the factory bed leveling is spot on. To answer your question: Buying used has it’s own risks. Comparing a used (300€) Prusa Mk3 or mini with a new Ender 3 I probably would recommend the used Prusa.

Other printers you might see on the used market:

Prusa MK3 clones (e.g. fystec): Don’t. The reason Prusa works so well is because they are tested and the QC. Those clones might look like the original but might have QC issues.

Bambulab: early units had QC issues so it’s a don’t.

Creality K1: Same issue: Bad QC.

I’m not massively experienced with 3D printing so take this with a grain of salt.

That said though, I would personally consider what you would be doing in the future: If you’re just going to use it occasionally for small projects then it probably isn’t worth spending more than about 300€, but if you’re likely to use it a lot and eventually start to print more complex / intricate things and/or more often then getting a slightly nicer one would end up being worth it in my opinion!

Personally I have an Anet A8 (about 200€), it’s very basic and needs a lot of manual fiddling. Fortunately though, with a bit of tweaking in a slicer, it can produce quite nice prints in a reasonable time which is just fine for me as I only print infrequently and mostly things that don’t need to be too precise. There might be something better for that price point but if you’re just looking for something cheap that gets the job done then it’d probably serve you well!

All cheap machines are thinkering machines. You have a chance to get faulty parts and bad support from manufacturer, but this community can help a lot. But even more expensive ones can be frustrating for begginers. Stick with open source products and you will get replacement parts much cheaper and also better support.

Ender 3 and prusa mini are both bed slingers where bed is moving while printing. Not best design, but its proven that they can produce high quality prints, just like any expensive fdm printer (with more tuning and lower speeds). Prusa mini got smaller build volume (good thing for cheap printers imo cuz it increases rigidity), but only 1 “Z tower” which im not a fan. I think you should compare prusa i3 with ender 3, but thats even bigger price difference. I think both are good deals, but prusa is more expensive. Its also probably better quality and prusa is well known respectable manufacturer. Ender is much younger but they are so popular, I believe they sell more printers than anyone else. Therefore great support from anywhere including this lemmy community, but dont expect much from creality. I think prusa is better especially for begginers, but its hard to beat crealitys low price.

Whatever you chose you need to dive deep in this hoby to have consistent prints. Bring a lot of patinece, do a lot of research and dont be afraid to ask when needed and have fun!

As an Ender 3 S1 Pro owner, I say buy a Prusa 😅

If you need to go cheaper, look at the Sovol SV06 - it’s basically a Prusa clone with surprisingly positive reviews for the price, and it’s Klipperable if you decide you want a performance boost down the road.

Here’s my take on buying a cheap printer:

FDM 3D printers are high precision machinery, and there are many parts where a very minor flaw can have negative effects on print quality, or cause issues with first layer adhesion, clogs, etc. So when we’re looking at products made by various Chinese companies competing to make the cheapest product, one shouldn’t assume they’re all good enough. I mean it’s not like buying a hammer, which is difficult to screw up either during design, manufacture, or assembly :) There are definitely good stuff made in China, but you have to know what to look for and not pick randomly.

When it comes to printer designs, there is no company that consistently makes good printers. Most brands have a few good/decent models, and several bad/flawed ones. I.e. try to find a good printer model, not a good brand.

When it comes to quality assurance and support, there are definitely worse and better companies. For example Flashforge, Creality, Tevo and Geeetech are known to be lacking in both. This changes all the time, Creality used to be a good brand a few years ago and they largely live on their reputation. Likewise companies that make good printers right now might lower quality in the future in an attempt to increase profits.

With that said, most flawed printers can be fixed if you spend enough time and money on them, but if it’s your first printer it might be very difficult to know if you’re doing something wrong, or if something is wrong with the printer itself.

It’s also possible to got a flawed printer from any cheap Chinese brand, but you reduce the risk if avoiding the companies known for bad QA. It’s also a good idea to avoid Amazon if possible, because people return the flawed printers which are then repackaged to look like new and sold to some other unsuspecting customer.

If buying from Aliexpress, only buy from stores that have the brand name in the store name. Most brands have multiple stores but as long as they actually contain the name of the brand and have existed for a longer time they should be legit.

Since you mention Ender 3, afaik currently the only good one is the S1. Other models are kind of outdated, and all of them are overpriced compared to competitors, and as I mentioned previously it’s a bit of a gamble with quality assurance when you buy Creality.

I like this list of 3d printers for buying advice. It is maintained by people on the 3D Printing discord who have first hand experience with a lot of different models, and to my knowledge are less biased than for example youtubers that will often skew reviews in exchange for new printers, or even money, from manufacturers.

As an Ender 3 S1 owner, and prior owner of Monoprice Select 3D V2, I’m really happy with the Ender. $299.

Just be aware that printers at this price are for hobbyists- and don’t confuse 3d printing like photo printing (push-button basically). 30+ % of your prints are going to fail until you get through a steep learning phase

I’ve had an Ender v2 Pro for a little over a year now. I feel like it’s the Honda Civic of 3d printers in the sense that it’s relatively cheap and reliable, and everyone has one. As a result, it’s really easy to get small upgrades for and get help in troubleshooting. You could probably spend more money right away and get something nicer, but then if you want to make a specific tweak later on, it might be harder if you have a more niche printer.