Good video Ross. It seems strange that two years after Bambu delivered a critical hit to the 3d Printing industry that nobody has caught up to that original X1C for user experience, reliability, quality of print or multi-color capability except for the P1P and P1S which beat it on price. What amazes me is that Bambu managed to maintain that level of performance and reliability on a completely new platform with the A1's and even advance the ball a bit. They have the secret sauce for sure, if only they would make a 350^3 printer.
Had my personal K1 for about a year and have had to do a nozzle swap. But at my work I have Bambu printers and I've had to replace all the nozzle assemblies at least twice, the runout sensors multiple times, several extruders, a hot bed and a stepper motor. I'll never buy a Bambu for myself.
To be fair while that build plate says "for PLA" on it, according to their website it's just smooth PEI, which should work fine for most other "mainstream" filaments.
Works fine with PETG and ABS, but yeah... ABS sticks lil bit too much, it's only really viable for small parts, for scraping them plastic razor blades are the best
I went with an X1C…real game changer for me as I am prototyping and production. That being said…..it went kaput and I was out of a printer for a month. Grr
This is the reality experience. And the main reason many of us went to Bambu. It's not just the printer but the customer service and reliability that are game changers.
I have the K1C and my biggest gripe with it is the 220x220 build plate. Its just that little bit too small. Otherwise I've had no issues with it and it was cheaper than the base P1S at the time I got it (The X1C is twice the price where I am). I was lucky in the Creality Quality Control lottery, but I don't think I'd ever buy a Creality again unless they start properly innovating again instead of just adding another slight variation of their current printers to their lineup (apparently they don't believe in discontinuing older models)
I think the nozzle swap no longer requiring the set screw in the back of the heater crew to be loosened is the convenience factor that was introduced for nozzle swaps. I admit my K1 Max has gone through a similar level of tinkering to get good.
I would say I do align myself with your thoughts but I do find open source a bit adventures. I do agree if a person buys a product you need to have support for them to ensure "good" client relationship. It would look like they let that be a down fall in a sense. As for the print matt, usually you would have a small team of inspectors or QA to confirm nothing is missing, they dropped the ball with it. As someone new to 3d printing I will provide my feedback here once I receive my K1C. :) but at this point of time I do fear I made a wrong purchase
G'day Sir....i completely agree whole heartedly on this topic.....too many Printer Manufacurers are too busy making too many of the same printer every 6 months just with all the extras not given in the original. I've upgraded from my Ender 3 v2 to the Ender 3 v3 SE as i mostly print in PLA, but ive a second Printer i won last Xmas ...the Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro which does 300c out of the box, and ive upgraded the Hotend to the Microswiss Flowtech hotend, which has made a substansual increase in speed and detail. I just put it in a Enclosure and Vogman resin heater set to 65c i can print PC and CF-Nylon as well as ABS. Cheers for your time, Effort and Honesty (just like my friend "Once in a Six Side) From A M8 Downunder🙃
I'm a 3d printing noob who had only ever used our Bambu X1 Carbon at work before picking up a K1C for personal use. Maybe I scored a gem - and maybe our work X1C is a dud - but it is easier to get my K1C printing smoothly than the X1C, especially using PETG filaments.. I find myself doing a lot of tweaking on the X1C..
I think the fame of ender 3 and 3v2 influenced their mentality, they think they only need to provide a basic printer, and then then community will take over to "fix and mod" their printers. But the K series is advertised as the all in one ready to print out of box beginner printer, and their old mentality does not work well.
I'll be blunt: There are few reasons to buy a Creality printer currently. I'm not saying they aren't serviceable, or even that they're bad. My first printer was Creality and I still have and use it. However, Creality printers currently suffer from a lot of print quality issues due to a poor extruder design, lack of frame stiffness, or other engineering oversights. When buying a printer, at the low end there are the A1 Mini and A1 as options. Mid level and enclosed there are printers like the Adventurer 5M or 5M Pro, Infimech TX, and the Qidi Q1 Pro. When you get to the higher end, the Qidi Plus4 is now dominant in the sub $1,000 or even slightly more space. I didn't list many, but just too many better options.
So I have just purchased a K1C. Just waiting on delivery and I'm very excited, The last time I used a 3D printer was 3 years ago, a cr10s and an upbox while at uni. I have moderate experience at 3D printing but a pretty good knowledge, honestly I watched alot of reviews before buying and I know it's floors but I'll be more likely to have to printer plugged in my laptop so the whole wireless/ remote start stuff means nothing to me, also with some codes I was able to get the K1C, with filament dryer and CF-PLA, 1kg of ABS and 1kg of PLA and a PEI build plate for £585, the P1S is £509 on its own so I'm willing to deal with the issues that don't affect me too much for a better deal. P.s. I don't care about the carbon but with the deal it was £10 extra to get the K1C over the K1 so I figured why not
@Fauxhammer Totally agree with you Ross, i think the K1C is the way the K1 should have been at launch. That would have saved Creality a lot of backlash. I like the K1C (as i like my P1S) in its current state (except the Filament Feed on the back side, that is really bad) with the new Creality Slicer. I am curios to see what Crealitys K2 Plus will be plus what BambuLab will come around next year. R
Great video, but I have a question. Is the Bambu Lab P1S significantly better than the Creality K1C? I can get the P1S for around $787 (or $1000 for the P1S Combo version), while the K1C is priced at $530 - all with tax and shipping included to my country. Is the quality and user experience of the P1S really that much better? Paying twice as much for the P1S Combo compared to the K1C is quite a difference. Plus, the K1C can apparently print with carbon fiber, while the P1S doesn’t have this option due to its nozzle limitations. What do you think? Which one would you choose?
I have owned several creality printers all of which were ender 3 style variants. I have the P1P and then bought the enclosure once the P1S came out. I have a soft spot for creality printers but they tend to make a printer "good enough" but there is always design issues that make you scratch your head. Also the AMS while not perfect allows for some really great prints that you can only get with a tool changer.
Like this video and generally calling out bullshit. But I gotta say, regarding the swing-door dampeners: when I hold a rack with a glass door inclined and the door swings open and smashes….well, it is up to you and not to the manufacturer. Happy they were taking it up, because a plexi-glass would have been more suitable for such installations (probably), and now they can use glass without too much collateral. Love the general wording btw.-)
I have this and I have the Bambu’s. This printer easily goes toe to toe in terms of print quality with my Bambu’s. One thing I will say is, it’s much easier to remove the extruder than my P1S or my A1. It is loud. That is no joke.
Love you review and what wrong with there flagship printer with the full metal hotend that’s not a full metal hotend filament gets really tight where it leaves the chain putting strain on the extruder the chain hits the lid would of thought it would of been tested and 💡let’s raise the lid and probably thought let the designers sort that out I have the k1c love the prints great quality i dread to think when they release the k1/2 lol great video thank you
Hello Ross your videos have are great and have helped me out a lot in making some choices for going forward in 3d printing,wanted to say thank you very much for that. I have a quick question I'm really leaning towards the Saturn 4 ultra as a printer, this being my first, but only have a small room in my house that I can house a printing area. Just wondering if it's a good choice for beginners and if printing in a home that has both children and pets is responsible? I've looked into venting options and 3d printer hoods as well. Just wondering what your opinion would be, and taking it as that not asking for a consultation :)
Heya, I really like The Saturn 4 and think it's a great choice. AS for ventilation. yes, work out a way to get the fumes out of your home. Nobody is fully clear on the impact of these fumes in the long run, so we should do what we can to mitigate risk
@FauxHammer thank you very much for replying. Appreciate the advice and again great videos. Hopefully will catch you again this year at uk game expo :)
The PLA build plate is the same material as that on K1 Max, works fine with ABS, ASAP and PETG, just needs glue stick. I think you have been too harsh on Creality. I use my k1 max for lite duty commercial use and only complaint I have is the ptfe tube sometimes breaks filament after the run out sensor and printer stupidly keeps printing not realizing it has run out of filament
Fair enough, I guess I'm more complaining at the marketing than the machine. But I also feel that is important when deciding where to put your money as a general user. but the conclusion of the video doesn't seem to have much disagreement. The printer is "OKAY". It's not bad, but it;s not what i would shout out as good either. If you expect Okay,,, that's what you'll get.
@@FauxHammer I can't comment on the k1, but having upgraded from a Prusa MK2.5 and a Flashforge creator 2 pro idex to a k1 max , this for me was a life changing experience. Haven't had to do a single maintenance procedure and only modification I had to do was a table top spool holder to address the utterly stupid rear spool holder. Never had a failed print cause damage to the printer, haven't had o fix anything or remove the nozzle to clear a jam, this while printing several KG of sticky carbonfiber PETG. I am almost through a 3 KG spool. And people's complaints about needing to use a glue stick? I just don't get why it's such a big deal
I love this printer but I hate the obnoxiously loud noise it makes so I find myself skipping prints because of that. Currently looking for a much more quit printer. Any thoughts?
I have noticed on many of their 'newer' printers, they throw it into the market, say it is flagship, then orphan it to obscurity just as fast. I got an Ender 5s1 in June, since then I have had literal hundreds of emails with support, have had a replacement sent after two months, but the replacement has a bad heat bed. There is next to nothing supported on the 5s1 even though it was considered a flagship less than a year ago. It has a hotend that no other machine uses, a part I need is $3 but they want to charge a $30 fee to ship from China. I have and always will recommend an ender 3 as a first printer, spend a year with it, add up all the time effort, and money, then buy a Core XY from any of the higher end 3d printers, which Creality really is not a part of to be honest.
Tbf it comes with a PLA-CF as a example filament and thia plate works amazing with that. Since PLA is the most used filament i would say its actually a fine choice of plate
Ok, but let’s not pretend the C in the name of this is not in response to the X1C and j he finally designed to mislead buyers into thinking it’s comparable to a machine which can print GF or CF reinforced nylon.
@FauxHammer I wanna try to print CF nylon at some point as I saw people doing it with that model but yea, as much as I love that printer the way they integrated the nozzle brush is just ridiculous as it would be so much easier to just put it as an integral part of a frame. Just like bamboo did in even cheaper printers
I will buy your merch, you deserve it. also please consider reviewing when possible the "metrology-grade" 3d scanner Raptor and RaptorX by creality .. a bold claim honestly.
I own a K1C, and I agree with you. It's okay, but the shortcomings are obvious. Although I think for the price, it is one of the best you can get, at least in my country.
Nice review but really missing few points You used the old slicer creality print 5 (5.1 now) is out for a long time it has really big improvements Also the phone app for my experience is not even near what it has half a year ago I have it for 6 months now i got it insted of the bambu a1 becuse the recall take a long time i just give up on it And the k1c really impressed me working rock solid (after getting new build plate the stock on is a trash, also got the wiper nozzle on adapter so i have it with and build plate) So fa so good for the price really no complaints
That's fair, as I said, this printer is "OK", not good, not bad, just ok. It's the Crealityness around it that bothers me. I know the phone app and slicer has been updated, this is addressed in my next review, which is live now for members and will be out next week for everyone else. And no complaints "about the printer" is where I'm at. Someone in another comment said it well. This is a Donkey, (working and reliable) but Creality are trying to tell people it's a Race-Horse. Just tell people it's a Donkey and more people will buy it because they are looking for a donkey.
@@FauxHammer Now i understand what you tried to say in the video. For my opinion it’s not competitive to bambu’s printers but they are also not in the same price range So the k1’s are nice to have in the market but not as competitive to bambu’s And yes creality Always exaggerate in their advertising
My printer (K1C) stopped printing after a month. No matter what I do I can’t get it to finish a print. I can’t get through to Creality for help. Any suggestions? New to printing.
How are ytou trying to contact creality? as stuppid as it sounds, are you contacting them via Creality.com or the site which pops up more often thanks to sponsored ads, CrealityOfficial.com? becasue tons haveof people have gone to the latter site when they are only a creality reseller! and the site are almost identical!
thhe qidi plusn4 is not even closely comparable. the plus 4 is abigger and better bambu x1c for 500 bucks less. as it is the q1 is already a better printer
@@NicoFritzler what’s the user experience actually like? There are many printers out there better than the Bambu for some people. But the reason the Bambu is so lauded is because of user experience and reliability
@@FauxHammer cant say for the Plus 4 right now, may get one. But i own the XMax3 since it launched with the 2.0 revision. Exept some early issues that were Adressed by qidi for free, ive been doing 3000+h on it without a single fail print. Compared to that the K1 Max experience wich i had before the XMax3 was horrendous. Horrible hardware, horrible software, horrible support and at the end they scammed me out of 200€ for Returning the printer after the 14 days return window for "Shipping and Handling" Now again with the V3 SE the same thing, no support at all, Creality Print is such a garbage application, even as an experienced user its so hard to do anything and the printers software has been broken since it launched with no updates in a year. So yea. Even if qidi cannot match the handholding of Bambu, what they can do is print better, print more, print bigger and cheaper at that.
Interesting that there's not so much information about Creality CFS. IIRC they announced it this year and I can't find any proper review on yt. It hope it will be available for K1C because there's not so many options for multicolor printing (ACE from Anycubic is good but printer is not so much).
Thanks Ross, another no-nonsense review. Have you done one on the Qidi 4 plus? I'm looking for a honest review on that because every other one pulls out a benchy that looks like it came off a reprap in 2001 and says it looks good.
Check out the BV3D review. The quality of the dragons he got off the Plus4 were phenomenal. Aurora Tech also got excellent quality in her review. The reason people are saying the Benchy looks good is the mean for a given speed. Most say it has flaws. To be frank, the presliced Benchy totally sucks and you can get far better quality slicing it yourself. I can personally attest that the precision on my Plus4 has been incredible. I can do print in place bearings with 0.02mm clearance that come off with zero fusion. Generally in the Discord nobody is getting hardly any VFA and the quality is awesome. The printer is not flawless, but with a few tweaks it will just about be there.
@@tbip2001 The Qidi X-Plus 3 was shite when I got it, but they fixed it and I did another review. then that one crapped out for the same issues weeks later. The X-max was no different. The Q1 was the shittest X1 clone I;ve ever seen and melted filament inside the extrudder gear. by the time i got replacement parts it was too late to bother with that review and I was busy doing oters. I haven;t even looked at the Plus 4 website yet.
One of the biggest benefits of the new "Unicorn" nozzle in these printers is the integrated heartbreak. Which means that when swapping the nozzle, there is no chance of a leak from not tightening it properly. Also means there's no need to hot tighten, and any of the other potential issues that could arise from typical nozzle designs. This kind of nozzle design is by far the best between a regular nozzle and a fully integrated hotend.
But is it quick swappable as they say? or is that just a word they have used because they don't want to appear less than other brands. I would say if they spent more time communicating the benefit of this "not quick swappable" nozzle for all the benefits it does have. People could look at it and go... yeah I'd prefer to have that. Other branmds would even see it and perhaps consider designing their nozzles to match, so they also had the benefits. But they aren't. They are selling us a performance go-Kart and telling us it's an easy to use basic car. I have no issue with the printer, the printer is OK as I said. but their marketing will lead the wrong people to the machine and risk having more upset customers who bought the wrong thing, when they should focus on what their target customers do actually wnat
@@FauxHammer Yeah absolutely agree on the point of how they market it. Seems misleading, and not even truly revealing the benefits of the nozzle. I guess the only thing quick swappable about it, is the fact that you don't need to heat it up to unscrew, and then hot tighten. Which you did have to do with he old nozzle designs. But when you have actual quick swappable solutions like the Bambu A1, then it really is misleading. And the thing is, they genuinely probably could have made it quick swappable if they changed the sock design to let the nozzle stick out. Sure would result in more build up, but was always fine in the past. I only have the old K1 and K1 Max, but on this new design it probably could make sense to cut off some of the silicone sock, so that the nozzle could be unscrewed without having to remove the sock. Have the new Ender3 v3 in the post, which should have the same hotend design, so will give that a go and see how it goes haha. Thanks for the video though!
One thing that helps with nozzle swaps is grinding the nozzle wrench or just use a proper sized socket. The one they give you has a ton of internal chamfer. File or grind it so it's square and now you get immediate engagement with the nozzle and can even do so without needing to remove the silicone sock.
For what I have seen the main problem that creality has and bambu doesn’t have. Is quality control issues. There are k1 printer that are absolute perfection and workhorses. And then there are the Monday morning printers with nothing but problems. My k1 max has been a pain in the ass. And by buddy’s is rock solid. This is also a trend seen in the k1 fb groups In comparison 99 outta the 100 bambu printers just work. QC is where the strength of bambu is IMO
The stock cutdown version of Klipper Creality has installed doesn't support OrcaSlicer directly uploading to it, you can only manually upload the gcode files same as you would in a browser. Direct printing requires rooting (just a button in the printer settings) and then installing a proper Klipper frontend like Mainsail/Fluidd. The script to do it automates the install, but it does require some fiddly parts like SSH-ing into the printer.
@@darnon2031 sorry, so to check, youc an upload the Fine via the orca interfacem buut then nee to manually tell it to print, but you can't tellit to both upload and print in one swift motion?
@@FauxHammer You'd save the gcode file from Orca locally, manually upload, and then manually print. Stock, OrcaSlicer can only show the browser interface within itself, but it can't do anything automatic. Whereas if you're rooted and fully Klipper'd you can just hit the OrcaSlicer Print and it will upload and start print.
I honestly have very little interest in Qidi, I've had 4 of their printers now and unless you want to tinker, they aren't a brand I'd recommend. The Q1 just came across so cheap that by the time i got working parts, it was beyond the point of relevancy.
@@FauxHammer yeah.. you’ve been burned. I didn’t have any interest at all in the previous Qidi’s. I hate tinkering myself and is all in on the Bambu train with 6 of them, but after the positive reviews of the plus4, I went ahead and got one (for the build space and heated chamber). No need to tinker (as of yet), but time will tell I guess
Comment so Ross can buy more Legos. Honestly if I was going to buy a creality I would spend extra for the K1 Max. But creality is being creality, creating a new letter for something that should be an updated model
Feels like the MK4S slides in nicely as a more competent but still open and easy to fix/mod printer here ... but sounds like you do need to pay for that premium ...
You pay a premium to be able to fix a printer? Your priorities are messed up. I was so tired of constantly fixing my Mk3s+ that I will never again own a Prusa.
@@roystevens4333 Not to just fix it” but for the resources and ease of maintenance, and the build that’s well thought of to take replacement into account.
I have the K1C and despite being a great printer the manufacturing quality is terrible, mine came without the two screws that hold the Z axis tensioning block, the head travels on bronze graphite bearings on the X axis but they are pre-applying lub from factory and mentioning on the service manual to apply lube, something that is a big mistake, those type of bearings gets freezed when lube, the graphite is the lube, for that reason are called self lubricating bearings
I'll be blunt, the only people other than "influencers" who have anything nice to say about the K1 series are people who have never used a better printer. Is it better than an Ender 3? Sure and if that is your only experience the K1 seems nice. Unfortunately the moment you compare it against something like a P1S, you learn just how large the gap is between this and an actual good printer. It amazes me that people continue to argue "But mah open source and parts availability" when the K1 series has worse long term support, worse upgradability, worse performance and worse actual capability than even Bambu's A1 line at this point. The build plate example you gave is one of the biggest grievances. Frankly in my opinion there are only a few real choices out there depending on your needs right now. If you are a beginner, the A1 and A1 mini are just so far beyond anything in their price range that there is almost no reason to consider anything else. If you only print single color production type stuff, I would give the nod to the qidi plus 4 in the sub $1000 category. Multi filament , P1P and P1S sub $1000. Over $1000 X1c if you want a multi material work horse (Though I still feel the price jump from the P1S to it isn't really worth the minor upgrades) and if money is no object and you want to save filament on filament swaps then the Prusa XL (this mostly for the speed difference as the amount of filament you actually save is honestly negligible). If you specifically want to tinker, build a Voron.
@@haaspaas2hey, not the guy u asked but it is. Just cause its kinda different level of printers and even different way of printing, the k1 will be better then a1. But a1 is best way for someone who dont wanna do anything at all ( choose slicer and so).
@3:03 - and that very simply states WHY the pricing delta exists. Even if the printers were head to head similar, Bambu's ecosystem is much more complete and mature - which is surprising since Creality was around before Bambu by 6 years (2014 vs 2020). Creality need a more mature, customer-oriented management team instead of a bunch of engineers (and I say that even though I am an engineer).
I have the k1c to,and its going strong for 8 months straight. The k1c version is far more superior then the normal k1. Im on these printing groups aswell with a lot of bambu users,and they are realy impressed by the work i upload from time to time. Super clean work it delivers,and havent had a single breakdown, or messed up print. Not even bed adhesive problems. As long is you dont touch it with your greasy fingers. If so,just clean with water,and dry. Maybe im lucky, or maybe its just is a good machine🤔Oh,and you can just remove the rubber strip,and mount it on a another plate with dubbelsided tape. No issues at all.
A company history matters. The things they did on this the wiper, built plate lack off the marketing and bad support. They continue to put out inconsistent printers that are good enough are open source so you can fix them.
One can get 2 K1Cs (and Ender V3KE) over 1 X1C. Is X1C 2 times better printer? I doubt, in any metric. Does X1C print 2 times faster? Surely no. P1 is not direct competitor, unless one updates it with hardened steel extruder gears and nozzle and Panda UI. One gets what one pays for, but features and quality gained for each added amount of money reduces really fast.
I've got to be honest, this confused me a lot. yeah i mean if you want 2-3 printers, sure. But if you want 1 solid printer, that's a different value question. I want 1 printer that I don't need to think about or tinker with where it's easy to remove the most commonly replaced components and has a very easy user experience from teh slicer. Support guides are managed and maintained wand a community of users who can help guide me in more intricate needs when I want them. I also want a printer that isn't going to be outdated by the same brand within the next year. This is none of those things. at least not well anyway. the printer is OK,
@@FauxHammer I mean paying 800 more for smoothing sharp corners sounds like a lot. Better comparison in price could be P1S, but it needs some upgrades for abrasive filaments. Comparison is almost never fair. But if one has enough cash to buy better tool (want vs need), go for it. Each does their own decision, and it's OK 😅 What makes me ponder intelligence is some people stating "get X1C, it's so much better than old Ender 3" - it would be disastrous if it weren't. _Every 2024 printer_ is better than Ender 3. _Every_ ticket wins.
@@FauxHammer Basically Bambu Lab A1 (or Mini, if size is enough) is correct answer, unless user wants any of - open source - print with technical filaments (requiring the Chamber of ~Secrets~ Hotness) - printer made outside PRC (extremely little choice in hobbyist range 🙄) - printer that is not Bambu Lab 😉 We probably look at printers from very different perspective. I don't care if the printer has an app or if it could sit in a gallery. It's a drill, in a sense, not used every day. We have 2 (3) printers, resin and filament (and A1 Mini, but I'm not the user), they are what they are. Living is priority, and there are lots of better uses for money than printers. But I'd happily pay 800 more for a used car that has no belts swimming in oil, the line goes above that 😅
Man oh man you came off sour in this video haha .. made it hard to believe you weren't simply trying to put Creality down ( not that they don't deserve it ) Felt like you were finding any/all negatives you could going on at length about them then tossing in a positive like 'well yeah this was good but let's get to my next negative!' Haha. To be clear I don't own a bambu or Creality.. I do work for a business though that is trying to set up some Bambu's and I will say my experience with them has been an absolute nightmare. Their insistence on only allowing things to be done their way unlike every open source variant out there has made me never want to touch them again. But hey you get a curated database of FAQ's so I guess that's something 😂
Wait for my K1SE video in a Couple of weeks, I think I talk about the printer twice. In the intro and outro. But it’s once again the same bloody printer as this… so the only way I could make it last 10 minutes was to talk about a Creality as a brand…. But I feel it’s justified.
@@FauxHammer Oh I am not trying to argue you are unjustified in your assessment sorry if it came across that way. If anything I would just say it was just a critique of the even more so then average 'negative' slant I felt like the review had.. of course mileage will vary on that. Like I said I don't own anything Creality ( though I am strongly looking at that K2 Plus.. I like printing big things ) but I think its pretty well known at this point that for whatever reason Creality has gotten into the habit of releasing different 'versions' of their printers improving on things they messed up on in the previous version... which yeah kind of a screwed up thing to do unless you are going to have a really great back end for sending said upgrades to your early adopters. Not exactly a consumer friendly approach but as you mentioned outside of Bambu users most printing enthusiasts are seemingly used to or even sometimes want to tinker with their printers and improve beyond what they view as a 'base model' out of the box. Anyway really like the channel and what you do.. I would absolutely LOVE to get into resin printing I see figures all the time I would love to make but I know won't look as good on my current FDM. That said with all the additional potential health hazards for touching uncured resin and things like odors since I don't have a dedicated place I could put it has kept me away.. if they ever resolve that stuff I will be right in there but in the meantime I will just enjoy watching your content keep up the great work. :)
For being a printer review, I only saw three prints when scanning the video and one was a Benchy. I feel you need some standardized testing like some other channels or I can't take this seriously. I used to own a K1, I eventually sold it and now only have printers I've built myself. It was a workhorse and rarely gave me issues, altho I did have to to replace the hotend after a wire popped off the ceramic heater. Creality promptly shipped me a new one after I'd sent them an email with a picture of the problem, so that's good. It printed 100% of the parts I needed for a Voron V0 in ABS and about 70% of the parts needed for a Voron 2.4, with some help from the previous Voron I built. Now a friend has it and I hope it's doing well.
lol, people keep telling this same joke.... I've had 4 Qidi Machines and all of them have been a bunch of great features done on the cheap. the Q1 was hilarious
@@FauxHammer i understand that there other printers have not had a good track record but that doesn't mean they can't change and make a better printer, i do own a plus 4 and x1c its better than the x1c from bambu and that is 400 usd more. ik its a new printer, you don't have to believe me or anyone just wait and see how different the plus 4 is, just watch people's opinions change with the plus 4 as more people try it
Creality for me is in such a sad state of affairs, when I was getting into 3D printing everyone and their mother would say Ender 3 and it was synonmis with withe community. Creality was the first printer company I had heard of and was ready to make my purchase only for things to turn out the way they have. It's such a sad state of affairs that Creality is just failing on doing basic things right like a proper seal for the filament. It just screams lazy cash grab.
I'm a bit confused over all the things you are 'baffled' or 'surprised' about. Since when has Creality ever been anything but a 'race-to-the-bottom' cheap clone manufacturer?
never, but they have been improving. and there are such basic things they still miss. It;s like the machiens are made by 5 different departments. and people coming into this spce with fresh eyes need to know
I still don't like these, too much "it looks awfully familiar, now doesn't it" vibes, but with a heaping helping of half 🍑ing as well.. if they had gone with a different tool head design I would probably be fine with it; I quite like the way the KE looks, don't know why they couldn't have just gone with that..
I think you missed the point. I also think the K1 is a good printer. But we can't ignore everything around it, like the issues, the build quality and how it's communicated
This is why I won't touch creality. The bring a new printer out do it to death with new iterations , but all they are doing is putting their rushed untested junk out for the community to fix for them. As you said they bring something to market run with it for a while then move on. The buyer is left trying to improve things on their own and watching the so called next big thing come to market. Their new k2 I would not touch for at least a couple of years after they finally release it to the public. By then it might be usable. rant over.
Creality also still using 3~ year old klipper with its wonderful bugs and lack of features, cant put open source klipper on it either due to load cell firmware not being open source
If you like closed gardens and being told what to do I guess as little power to you as you want I guess. K1 series with fully opened klipper gives you all the power that bambu will never do.
it really depends on how much you understand the technology or want to invest time into learning about it. And that's before the potential quality and support issues which could arise, which I'm basing on historical evidence as rather poor. I appreciate that you found the one for you. But calling people suckers because they don't want the same thing as you is a bit unfair.
You could compare it to the much Cheaper P1P and P1S and it still pales in comparison., but at the same time, it;s mostly workable at that lower price. Bambu is an investment, Creality is a Purchase.
@@AReverything169 no, it isn't. if you think that, then I think you may have missed the point. all i was saying is that everyone used the same clickbait to ask if the printer is better than the X1, and it isn't and can't be compared.
@@FauxHammer it’s be compared in many videos to the xc1, what’s up with the whole idle system on the Bambu? You can buy the whole system or spend 8 hours replacing?
yeah, exactly... I really wish Creality would up their game, so many of us love Creality for what they gave us, but their teams are clearly pushing different agendas
Yep, exactly that! WHat I wnat from an FDM printer is. Easy user experience and reliable features. Of course if you want an open source machine and are happy with a few hardware challenges. Grab one.... AS i say, they are "OKAY"
@@FauxHammer spot on. They are decent for the price if you have the skills and more importantly the patience to tune it. For the $ there are better printers, this is basically a pre built voron in a box with a creality logo
Good video Ross. It seems strange that two years after Bambu delivered a critical hit to the 3d Printing industry that nobody has caught up to that original X1C for user experience, reliability, quality of print or multi-color capability except for the P1P and P1S which beat it on price. What amazes me is that Bambu managed to maintain that level of performance and reliability on a completely new platform with the A1's and even advance the ball a bit. They have the secret sauce for sure, if only they would make a 350^3 printer.
Walled gardens are always beautiful if you're willing to pay the price.
Reliability? I have 5 of them at my work and 3 are usually out for maintenance. I literally had less problems when we had origonal Creality Ender 3's
@@Argosh What's the price?
@@FhangMedia Yeah there's always that guy.
Can’t comment on the Bambi but I have to say my K1C has been a workhorse. I turn it on and print stuff when I need it. Like a proper tool should be.
Bambi kek doubleyou
Can't comment on the K1C but Bambu is the same. Just works every time.
Had my personal K1 for about a year and have had to do a nozzle swap. But at my work I have Bambu printers and I've had to replace all the nozzle assemblies at least twice, the runout sensors multiple times, several extruders, a hot bed and a stepper motor. I'll never buy a Bambu for myself.
@@FhangMedia lol how
@hazzer2012 the shit keeps breaking, thats how
I don't expect the set up to be 3 minutes... but it being much simpler and easier is definitely one major that drew me to this model.
The intro logo animation and placement is mint. 🙌
To be fair while that build plate says "for PLA" on it, according to their website it's just smooth PEI, which should work fine for most other "mainstream" filaments.
Works fine with PETG and ABS, but yeah... ABS sticks lil bit too much, it's only really viable for small parts, for scraping them plastic razor blades are the best
I went with an X1C…real game changer for me as I am prototyping and production. That being said…..it went kaput and I was out of a printer for a month. Grr
This is the reality experience. And the main reason many of us went to Bambu. It's not just the printer but the customer service and reliability that are game changers.
Love your musing and rants. They are actually good. You make a lot of important points.
I have the K1C and my biggest gripe with it is the 220x220 build plate. Its just that little bit too small. Otherwise I've had no issues with it and it was cheaper than the base P1S at the time I got it (The X1C is twice the price where I am). I was lucky in the Creality Quality Control lottery, but I don't think I'd ever buy a Creality again unless they start properly innovating again instead of just adding another slight variation of their current printers to their lineup (apparently they don't believe in discontinuing older models)
I think the nozzle swap no longer requiring the set screw in the back of the heater crew to be loosened is the convenience factor that was introduced for nozzle swaps. I admit my K1 Max has gone through a similar level of tinkering to get good.
I would say I do align myself with your thoughts but I do find open source a bit adventures. I do agree if a person buys a product you need to have support for them to ensure "good" client relationship. It would look like they let that be a down fall in a sense. As for the print matt, usually you would have a small team of inspectors or QA to confirm nothing is missing, they dropped the ball with it. As someone new to 3d printing I will provide my feedback here once I receive my K1C. :) but at this point of time I do fear I made a wrong purchase
G'day Sir....i completely agree whole heartedly on this topic.....too many Printer Manufacurers are too busy making too many of the same printer every 6 months just with all the extras not given in the original. I've upgraded from my Ender 3 v2 to the Ender 3 v3 SE as i mostly print in PLA, but ive a second Printer i won last Xmas ...the Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro which does 300c out of the box, and ive upgraded the Hotend to the Microswiss Flowtech hotend, which has made a substansual increase in speed and detail. I just put it in a Enclosure and Vogman resin heater set to 65c i can print PC and CF-Nylon as well as ABS. Cheers for your time, Effort and Honesty (just like my friend "Once in a Six Side) From A M8 Downunder🙃
I'm a 3d printing noob who had only ever used our Bambu X1 Carbon at work before picking up a K1C for personal use. Maybe I scored a gem - and maybe our work X1C is a dud - but it is easier to get my K1C printing smoothly than the X1C, especially using PETG filaments.. I find myself doing a lot of tweaking on the X1C..
Thank you !! I am gonna get P1S
I think the fame of ender 3 and 3v2 influenced their mentality, they think they only need to provide a basic printer, and then then community will take over to "fix and mod" their printers. But the K series is advertised as the all in one ready to print out of box beginner printer, and their old mentality does not work well.
I'll be blunt: There are few reasons to buy a Creality printer currently. I'm not saying they aren't serviceable, or even that they're bad. My first printer was Creality and I still have and use it. However, Creality printers currently suffer from a lot of print quality issues due to a poor extruder design, lack of frame stiffness, or other engineering oversights. When buying a printer, at the low end there are the A1 Mini and A1 as options. Mid level and enclosed there are printers like the Adventurer 5M or 5M Pro, Infimech TX, and the Qidi Q1 Pro. When you get to the higher end, the Qidi Plus4 is now dominant in the sub $1,000 or even slightly more space. I didn't list many, but just too many better options.
So I have just purchased a K1C. Just waiting on delivery and I'm very excited, The last time I used a 3D printer was 3 years ago, a cr10s and an upbox while at uni. I have moderate experience at 3D printing but a pretty good knowledge, honestly I watched alot of reviews before buying and I know it's floors but I'll be more likely to have to printer plugged in my laptop so the whole wireless/ remote start stuff means nothing to me, also with some codes I was able to get the K1C, with filament dryer and CF-PLA, 1kg of ABS and 1kg of PLA and a PEI build plate for £585, the P1S is £509 on its own so I'm willing to deal with the issues that don't affect me too much for a better deal. P.s. I don't care about the carbon but with the deal it was £10 extra to get the K1C over the K1 so I figured why not
Is there a place to get the codes? I'd like more stuff for a better deal too haha!
@Fauxhammer Totally agree with you Ross, i think the K1C is the way the K1 should have been at launch. That would have saved Creality a lot of backlash. I like the K1C (as i like my P1S) in its current state (except the Filament Feed on the back side, that is really bad) with the new Creality Slicer. I am curios to see what Crealitys K2 Plus will be plus what BambuLab will come around next year. R
Great video, but I have a question. Is the Bambu Lab P1S significantly better than the Creality K1C? I can get the P1S for around $787 (or $1000 for the P1S Combo version), while the K1C is priced at $530 - all with tax and shipping included to my country. Is the quality and user experience of the P1S really that much better? Paying twice as much for the P1S Combo compared to the K1C is quite a difference. Plus, the K1C can apparently print with carbon fiber, while the P1S doesn’t have this option due to its nozzle limitations. What do you think? Which one would you choose?
I have owned several creality printers all of which were ender 3 style variants. I have the P1P and then bought the enclosure once the P1S came out. I have a soft spot for creality printers but they tend to make a printer "good enough" but there is always design issues that make you scratch your head. Also the AMS while not perfect allows for some really great prints that you can only get with a tool changer.
@@MrBassard Thanks for info!
Like this video and generally calling out bullshit.
But I gotta say, regarding the swing-door dampeners: when I hold a rack with a glass door inclined and the door swings open and smashes….well, it is up to you and not to the manufacturer. Happy they were taking it up, because a plexi-glass would have been more suitable for such installations (probably), and now they can use glass without too much collateral.
Love the general wording btw.-)
I have this and I have the Bambu’s. This printer easily goes toe to toe in terms of print quality with my Bambu’s. One thing I will say is, it’s much easier to remove the extruder than my P1S or my A1. It is loud. That is no joke.
Thanks for saving my money!
I hope you can get K2 Plus but that's looking to be next year for most consumers/reviews.
Creality needs to really step up their overall design so they can finally be more than "par"
Love you review and what wrong with there flagship printer with the full metal hotend that’s not a full metal hotend filament gets really tight where it leaves the chain putting strain on the extruder the chain hits the lid would of thought it would of been tested and 💡let’s raise the lid and probably thought let the designers sort that out I have the k1c love the prints great quality i dread to think when they release the k1/2 lol great video thank you
Hello Ross your videos have are great and have helped me out a lot in making some choices for going forward in 3d printing,wanted to say thank you very much for that.
I have a quick question I'm really leaning towards the Saturn 4 ultra as a printer, this being my first, but only have a small room in my house that I can house a printing area. Just wondering if it's a good choice for beginners and if printing in a home that has both children and pets is responsible? I've looked into venting options and 3d printer hoods as well. Just wondering what your opinion would be, and taking it as that not asking for a consultation :)
Heya, I really like The Saturn 4 and think it's a great choice. AS for ventilation. yes, work out a way to get the fumes out of your home.
Nobody is fully clear on the impact of these fumes in the long run, so we should do what we can to mitigate risk
@FauxHammer thank you very much for replying. Appreciate the advice and again great videos. Hopefully will catch you again this year at uk game expo :)
The PLA build plate is the same material as that on K1 Max, works fine with ABS, ASAP and PETG, just needs glue stick. I think you have been too harsh on Creality. I use my k1 max for lite duty commercial use and only complaint I have is the ptfe tube sometimes breaks filament after the run out sensor and printer stupidly keeps printing not realizing it has run out of filament
Fair enough, I guess I'm more complaining at the marketing than the machine. But I also feel that is important when deciding where to put your money as a general user.
but the conclusion of the video doesn't seem to have much disagreement. The printer is "OKAY". It's not bad, but it;s not what i would shout out as good either. If you expect Okay,,, that's what you'll get.
@@FauxHammer I can't comment on the k1, but having upgraded from a Prusa MK2.5 and a Flashforge creator 2 pro idex to a k1 max , this for me was a life changing experience. Haven't had to do a single maintenance procedure and only modification I had to do was a table top spool holder to address the utterly stupid rear spool holder. Never had a failed print cause damage to the printer, haven't had o fix anything or remove the nozzle to clear a jam, this while printing several KG of sticky carbonfiber PETG. I am almost through a 3 KG spool. And people's complaints about needing to use a glue stick? I just don't get why it's such a big deal
I love this printer but I hate the obnoxiously loud noise it makes so I find myself skipping prints because of that.
Currently looking for a much more quit printer. Any thoughts?
Bambu P1P or P1S I know I;m sounding like a Bambu fanboy, but it's a different league
Spot on.
I have noticed on many of their 'newer' printers, they throw it into the market, say it is flagship, then orphan it to obscurity just as fast. I got an Ender 5s1 in June, since then I have had literal hundreds of emails with support, have had a replacement sent after two months, but the replacement has a bad heat bed. There is next to nothing supported on the 5s1 even though it was considered a flagship less than a year ago. It has a hotend that no other machine uses, a part I need is $3 but they want to charge a $30 fee to ship from China. I have and always will recommend an ender 3 as a first printer, spend a year with it, add up all the time effort, and money, then buy a Core XY from any of the higher end 3d printers, which Creality really is not a part of to be honest.
Yep the runout sensor is a PIA!!!
Tbf it comes with a PLA-CF as a example filament and thia plate works amazing with that. Since PLA is the most used filament i would say its actually a fine choice of plate
Ok, but let’s not pretend the C in the name of this is not in response to the X1C and j he finally designed to mislead buyers into thinking it’s comparable to a machine which can print GF or CF reinforced nylon.
@FauxHammer I wanna try to print CF nylon at some point as I saw people doing it with that model but yea, as much as I love that printer the way they integrated the nozzle brush is just ridiculous as it would be so much easier to just put it as an integral part of a frame. Just like bamboo did in even cheaper printers
@@jasiumodrzynski861exactly. I am praying for the K2
Nailed it. Thanks!
please review the QIDI PLUS4
nah, i'm done with Qidi, I;ve done 4 reviews of their machines and I just can't stand them.
@@FauxHammerplus4 is different. This coming from an owner of 6 Bambus…
Nice review!!
Would you do ender 3 v3 too?
Thanks. That’s review is coming next week. It’s already online for members (v3 plus)
@@FauxHammer yapiii
I will buy your merch, you deserve it. also please consider reviewing when possible the "metrology-grade" 3d scanner Raptor and RaptorX by creality .. a bold claim honestly.
I own a K1C, and I agree with you. It's okay, but the shortcomings are obvious. Although I think for the price, it is one of the best you can get, at least in my country.
In my country K1 series are the best alternative to Bambu, because Bambu is soooo expensive here in Thailand.
@@AkiTsukita same here in Mexico, shipping is a nightmare and fees from local sellers are a bit high
Love your reviews. I've personally given up on creality. I really hope you will be reviewing the qidi plus 4
Nice review but really missing few points
You used the old slicer creality print 5 (5.1 now) is out for a long time it has really big improvements
Also the phone app for my experience is not even near what it has half a year ago
I have it for 6 months now i got it insted of the bambu a1 becuse the recall take a long time i just give up on it
And the k1c really impressed me working rock solid (after getting new build plate the stock on is a trash, also got the wiper nozzle on adapter so i have it with and build plate)
So fa so good for the price really no complaints
That's fair, as I said, this printer is "OK", not good, not bad, just ok. It's the Crealityness around it that bothers me.
I know the phone app and slicer has been updated, this is addressed in my next review, which is live now for members and will be out next week for everyone else.
And no complaints "about the printer" is where I'm at. Someone in another comment said it well. This is a Donkey, (working and reliable) but Creality are trying to tell people it's a Race-Horse.
Just tell people it's a Donkey and more people will buy it because they are looking for a donkey.
@@FauxHammer
Now i understand what you tried to say in the video.
For my opinion it’s not competitive to bambu’s printers but they are also not in the same price range
So the k1’s are nice to have in the market but not as competitive to bambu’s
And yes creality Always exaggerate in their advertising
@@FauxHammer btw keep up!
I am watching every video of yours even i am not in the risen printers
My printer (K1C) stopped printing after a month. No matter what I do I can’t get it to finish a print. I can’t get through to Creality for help. Any suggestions? New to printing.
How are ytou trying to contact creality? as stuppid as it sounds, are you contacting them via Creality.com or the site which pops up more often thanks to sponsored ads, CrealityOfficial.com?
becasue tons haveof people have gone to the latter site when they are only a creality reseller! and the site are almost identical!
Would you put the K1C above the Qidi Plus4?
I’ve not had a Qidi 4. I stopped talking with the. After the Q1 Pro.
@@FauxHammer Fair enough. Thank you for the quick response!
thhe qidi plusn4 is not even closely comparable. the plus 4 is abigger and better bambu x1c for 500 bucks less. as it is the q1 is already a better printer
@@NicoFritzler what’s the user experience actually like?
There are many printers out there better than the Bambu for some people.
But the reason the Bambu is so lauded is because of user experience and reliability
@@FauxHammer cant say for the Plus 4 right now, may get one.
But i own the XMax3 since it launched with the 2.0 revision. Exept some early issues that were Adressed by qidi for free, ive been doing 3000+h on it without a single fail print.
Compared to that the K1 Max experience wich i had before the XMax3 was horrendous. Horrible hardware, horrible software, horrible support and at the end they scammed me out of 200€ for Returning the printer after the 14 days return window for "Shipping and Handling"
Now again with the V3 SE the same thing, no support at all, Creality Print is such a garbage application, even as an experienced user its so hard to do anything and the printers software has been broken since it launched with no updates in a year. So yea.
Even if qidi cannot match the handholding of Bambu, what they can do is print better, print more, print bigger and cheaper at that.
You try the Plus 4? It's probably the closest and debatable better.
Interesting that there's not so much information about Creality CFS. IIRC they announced it this year and I can't find any proper review on yt. It hope it will be available for K1C because there's not so many options for multicolor printing (ACE from Anycubic is good but printer is not so much).
Thanks Ross, another no-nonsense review. Have you done one on the Qidi 4 plus? I'm looking for a honest review on that because every other one pulls out a benchy that looks like it came off a reprap in 2001 and says it looks good.
Check out the BV3D review. The quality of the dragons he got off the Plus4 were phenomenal. Aurora Tech also got excellent quality in her review. The reason people are saying the Benchy looks good is the mean for a given speed. Most say it has flaws. To be frank, the presliced Benchy totally sucks and you can get far better quality slicing it yourself. I can personally attest that the precision on my Plus4 has been incredible. I can do print in place bearings with 0.02mm clearance that come off with zero fusion. Generally in the Discord nobody is getting hardly any VFA and the quality is awesome. The printer is not flawless, but with a few tweaks it will just about be there.
After the Q1, which i refused to review in the end, I doubt I'll work with Qidi again.
@@FauxHammerwhat happened????
@@tbip2001 The Qidi X-Plus 3 was shite when I got it, but they fixed it and I did another review. then that one crapped out for the same issues weeks later. The X-max was no different. The Q1 was the shittest X1 clone I;ve ever seen and melted filament inside the extrudder gear. by the time i got replacement parts it was too late to bother with that review and I was busy doing oters.
I haven;t even looked at the Plus 4 website yet.
@@802Garage i just skimmed the BV3D review and am I mad, but that 21 min benchy looks crap! I had better off the Prusa Mk4s in 8 minutes!
so for me the K2 is my focus right now, i want the bigger volume and i love my K1 but it doesnt match my X1c
One of the biggest benefits of the new "Unicorn" nozzle in these printers is the integrated heartbreak. Which means that when swapping the nozzle, there is no chance of a leak from not tightening it properly. Also means there's no need to hot tighten, and any of the other potential issues that could arise from typical nozzle designs. This kind of nozzle design is by far the best between a regular nozzle and a fully integrated hotend.
But is it quick swappable as they say? or is that just a word they have used because they don't want to appear less than other brands.
I would say if they spent more time communicating the benefit of this "not quick swappable" nozzle for all the benefits it does have. People could look at it and go... yeah I'd prefer to have that. Other branmds would even see it and perhaps consider designing their nozzles to match, so they also had the benefits.
But they aren't. They are selling us a performance go-Kart and telling us it's an easy to use basic car.
I have no issue with the printer, the printer is OK as I said. but their marketing will lead the wrong people to the machine and risk having more upset customers who bought the wrong thing, when they should focus on what their target customers do actually wnat
@@FauxHammer Yeah absolutely agree on the point of how they market it. Seems misleading, and not even truly revealing the benefits of the nozzle. I guess the only thing quick swappable about it, is the fact that you don't need to heat it up to unscrew, and then hot tighten. Which you did have to do with he old nozzle designs. But when you have actual quick swappable solutions like the Bambu A1, then it really is misleading.
And the thing is, they genuinely probably could have made it quick swappable if they changed the sock design to let the nozzle stick out. Sure would result in more build up, but was always fine in the past. I only have the old K1 and K1 Max, but on this new design it probably could make sense to cut off some of the silicone sock, so that the nozzle could be unscrewed without having to remove the sock. Have the new Ender3 v3 in the post, which should have the same hotend design, so will give that a go and see how it goes haha.
Thanks for the video though!
One thing that helps with nozzle swaps is grinding the nozzle wrench or just use a proper sized socket. The one they give you has a ton of internal chamfer. File or grind it so it's square and now you get immediate engagement with the nozzle and can even do so without needing to remove the silicone sock.
You can replace the silicone sock without unscrewing anything.
i couldn't so i apologise, I guess there's a knack to it that i couldn;t see
For what I have seen the main problem that creality has and bambu doesn’t have. Is quality control issues. There are k1 printer that are absolute perfection and workhorses. And then there are the Monday morning printers with nothing but problems. My k1 max has been a pain in the ass. And by buddy’s is rock solid. This is also a trend seen in the k1 fb groups
In comparison 99 outta the 100 bambu printers just work. QC is where the strength of bambu is IMO
I decided to get into 3d printing and I bought this model because it said it was only 3 minutes to set up.
sir, can we use orca slicer and its network features on this printer?
didn't try it, it;s Klipper so it should be easily doable.
I just googled it... yeah, you just drop the printers IP address in the wifi settings box.
The stock cutdown version of Klipper Creality has installed doesn't support OrcaSlicer directly uploading to it, you can only manually upload the gcode files same as you would in a browser. Direct printing requires rooting (just a button in the printer settings) and then installing a proper Klipper frontend like Mainsail/Fluidd. The script to do it automates the install, but it does require some fiddly parts like SSH-ing into the printer.
@@darnon2031 sorry, so to check, youc an upload the Fine via the orca interfacem buut then nee to manually tell it to print, but you can't tellit to both upload and print in one swift motion?
@@FauxHammer You'd save the gcode file from Orca locally, manually upload, and then manually print. Stock, OrcaSlicer can only show the browser interface within itself, but it can't do anything automatic.
Whereas if you're rooted and fully Klipper'd you can just hit the OrcaSlicer Print and it will upload and start print.
@@darnon2031 right, did t realise that was a limit, just figured it was how some printers worked.
the ams is coming to the K1 and K1C it going to be a up grade kit no date yet and there going to be a K" smaller version
Qidi didn’t send you a plus4? It makes the K1 max obsolete imho
I honestly have very little interest in Qidi, I've had 4 of their printers now and unless you want to tinker, they aren't a brand I'd recommend. The Q1 just came across so cheap that by the time i got working parts, it was beyond the point of relevancy.
@@FauxHammer yeah.. you’ve been burned. I didn’t have any interest at all in the previous Qidi’s. I hate tinkering myself and is all in on the Bambu train with 6 of them, but after the positive reviews of the plus4, I went ahead and got one (for the build space and heated chamber). No need to tinker (as of yet), but time will tell I guess
They sell a type B build plate.
Comment so Ross can buy more Legos. Honestly if I was going to buy a creality I would spend extra for the K1 Max. But creality is being creality, creating a new letter for something that should be an updated model
Feels like the MK4S slides in nicely as a more competent but still open and easy to fix/mod printer here ... but sounds like you do need to pay for that premium ...
You pay a premium to be able to fix a printer? Your priorities are messed up. I was so tired of constantly fixing my Mk3s+ that I will never again own a Prusa.
@@roystevens4333 Not to just fix it” but for the resources and ease of maintenance, and the build that’s well thought of to take replacement into account.
@@roystevens4333 Also all printers can break, I know a people like 3D musketeer who had Bambu printers constantly break as well, it’s a luck game.
I dont have access to Bambu in my country so ig creality next best thing since they have their own store here :D
I have the K1C and despite being a great printer the manufacturing quality is terrible, mine came without the two screws that hold the Z axis tensioning block, the head travels on bronze graphite bearings on the X axis but they are pre-applying lub from factory and mentioning on the service manual to apply lube, something that is a big mistake, those type of bearings gets freezed when lube, the graphite is the lube, for that reason are called self lubricating bearings
the K1C max is the K2 Plus
yeah, I guess so. I really hope they do well with that!
I'll be blunt, the only people other than "influencers" who have anything nice to say about the K1 series are people who have never used a better printer. Is it better than an Ender 3? Sure and if that is your only experience the K1 seems nice. Unfortunately the moment you compare it against something like a P1S, you learn just how large the gap is between this and an actual good printer. It amazes me that people continue to argue "But mah open source and parts availability" when the K1 series has worse long term support, worse upgradability, worse performance and worse actual capability than even Bambu's A1 line at this point. The build plate example you gave is one of the biggest grievances.
Frankly in my opinion there are only a few real choices out there depending on your needs right now. If you are a beginner, the A1 and A1 mini are just so far beyond anything in their price range that there is almost no reason to consider anything else. If you only print single color production type stuff, I would give the nod to the qidi plus 4 in the sub $1000 category. Multi filament , P1P and P1S sub $1000. Over $1000 X1c if you want a multi material work horse (Though I still feel the price jump from the P1S to it isn't really worth the minor upgrades) and if money is no object and you want to save filament on filament swaps then the Prusa XL (this mostly for the speed difference as the amount of filament you actually save is honestly negligible). If you specifically want to tinker, build a Voron.
I have a k1 and an A1. My k1 has been pretty amazing. No issues. Also got it for 350..difficult to compete with that price.
A1 is currently 300 tho. A1 mini is 200 even. Do you feel the K1 outperforms the A1?
@@haaspaas2hey, not the guy u asked but it is. Just cause its kinda different level of printers and even different way of printing, the k1 will be better then a1. But a1 is best way for someone who dont wanna do anything at all ( choose slicer and so).
But is X1C worth $700 price jump over K1C
@3:03 - and that very simply states WHY the pricing delta exists. Even if the printers were head to head similar, Bambu's ecosystem is much more complete and mature - which is surprising since Creality was around before Bambu by 6 years (2014 vs 2020). Creality need a more mature, customer-oriented management team instead of a bunch of engineers (and I say that even though I am an engineer).
I love how you point out how they are oblivious to just putting out meh products without any follow up support after a second "revised" version.
yeah, kinda that...
Is the K1 even better than the A1???
Most of the complaint are nitpicks that don't matter. Have i clicked on a Cinemasins video by accident ?
I have the k1c to,and its going strong for 8 months straight. The k1c version is far more superior then the normal k1. Im on these printing groups aswell with a lot of bambu users,and they are realy impressed by the work i upload from time to time. Super clean work it delivers,and havent had a single breakdown, or messed up print. Not even bed adhesive problems. As long is you dont touch it with your greasy fingers. If so,just clean with water,and dry. Maybe im lucky, or maybe its just is a good machine🤔Oh,and you can just remove the rubber strip,and mount it on a another plate with dubbelsided tape. No issues at all.
The Qidi Plus4 is a better printer than the K1C! And somewhat even better than the P1S with Nylon and ABS.
For now, I have little trust in Qidi machines longevity. but time will tell I guess.
A company history matters. The things they did on this the wiper, built plate lack off the marketing and bad support. They continue to put out inconsistent printers that are good enough are open source so you can fix them.
One can get 2 K1Cs (and Ender V3KE) over 1 X1C. Is X1C 2 times better printer? I doubt, in any metric. Does X1C print 2 times faster? Surely no. P1 is not direct competitor, unless one updates it with hardened steel extruder gears and nozzle and Panda UI.
One gets what one pays for, but features and quality gained for each added amount of money reduces really fast.
I've got to be honest, this confused me a lot.
yeah i mean if you want 2-3 printers, sure. But if you want 1 solid printer, that's a different value question.
I want 1 printer that I don't need to think about or tinker with where it's easy to remove the most commonly replaced components and has a very easy user experience from teh slicer. Support guides are managed and maintained wand a community of users who can help guide me in more intricate needs when I want them. I also want a printer that isn't going to be outdated by the same brand within the next year.
This is none of those things. at least not well anyway.
the printer is OK,
@@FauxHammer I mean paying 800 more for smoothing sharp corners sounds like a lot. Better comparison in price could be P1S, but it needs some upgrades for abrasive filaments. Comparison is almost never fair.
But if one has enough cash to buy better tool (want vs need), go for it. Each does their own decision, and it's OK 😅
What makes me ponder intelligence is some people stating "get X1C, it's so much better than old Ender 3" - it would be disastrous if it weren't. _Every 2024 printer_ is better than Ender 3. _Every_ ticket wins.
@@FauxHammer Basically Bambu Lab A1 (or Mini, if size is enough) is correct answer, unless user wants any of
- open source
- print with technical filaments (requiring the Chamber of ~Secrets~ Hotness)
- printer made outside PRC (extremely little choice in hobbyist range 🙄)
- printer that is not Bambu Lab 😉
We probably look at printers from very different perspective. I don't care if the printer has an app or if it could sit in a gallery. It's a drill, in a sense, not used every day. We have 2 (3) printers, resin and filament (and A1 Mini, but I'm not the user), they are what they are. Living is priority, and there are lots of better uses for money than printers.
But I'd happily pay 800 more for a used car that has no belts swimming in oil, the line goes above that 😅
There is a reason ebay is flooded with refurbished, used, for parts creality 3d printers
Man oh man you came off sour in this video haha .. made it hard to believe you weren't simply trying to put Creality down ( not that they don't deserve it )
Felt like you were finding any/all negatives you could going on at length about them then tossing in a positive like 'well yeah this was good but let's get to my next negative!' Haha.
To be clear I don't own a bambu or Creality.. I do work for a business though that is trying to set up some Bambu's and I will say my experience with them has been an absolute nightmare. Their insistence on only allowing things to be done their way unlike every open source variant out there has made me never want to touch them again.
But hey you get a curated database of FAQ's so I guess that's something 😂
Wait for my K1SE video in a Couple of weeks, I think I talk about the printer twice. In the intro and outro. But it’s once again the same bloody printer as this… so the only way I could make it last 10 minutes was to talk about a Creality as a brand….
But I feel it’s justified.
@@FauxHammer Oh I am not trying to argue you are unjustified in your assessment sorry if it came across that way. If anything I would just say it was just a critique of the even more so then average 'negative' slant I felt like the review had.. of course mileage will vary on that.
Like I said I don't own anything Creality ( though I am strongly looking at that K2 Plus.. I like printing big things ) but I think its pretty well known at this point that for whatever reason Creality has gotten into the habit of releasing different 'versions' of their printers improving on things they messed up on in the previous version... which yeah kind of a screwed up thing to do unless you are going to have a really great back end for sending said upgrades to your early adopters.
Not exactly a consumer friendly approach but as you mentioned outside of Bambu users most printing enthusiasts are seemingly used to or even sometimes want to tinker with their printers and improve beyond what they view as a 'base model' out of the box.
Anyway really like the channel and what you do.. I would absolutely LOVE to get into resin printing I see figures all the time I would love to make but I know won't look as good on my current FDM. That said with all the additional potential health hazards for touching uncured resin and things like odors since I don't have a dedicated place I could put it has kept me away.. if they ever resolve that stuff I will be right in there but in the meantime I will just enjoy watching your content keep up the great work. :)
I can’t believe you’re not a 100% shill for Creality.
how the F&&K in the year 2024 is Creality still giving a polycarb build plate? And what's the point of an enclosed printer that only prints PLA??
Creality - that's why
I'll stick with my bambu
For half the price the K1C is the go, better at ABS long term.
It's not half the price k1c is 100$ less then p1s w/o a AMS
@@Kay0Bot not talking about the P1S talking about X1
I can think of 600 reasons someone might prefer the K1C versus the X1C
lol
Gone with the wind..... just like creality printer version life cycles
For being a printer review, I only saw three prints when scanning the video and one was a Benchy. I feel you need some standardized testing like some other channels or I can't take this seriously. I used to own a K1, I eventually sold it and now only have printers I've built myself. It was a workhorse and rarely gave me issues, altho I did have to to replace the hotend after a wire popped off the ceramic heater. Creality promptly shipped me a new one after I'd sent them an email with a picture of the problem, so that's good. It printed 100% of the parts I needed for a Voron V0 in ABS and about 70% of the parts needed for a Voron 2.4, with some help from the previous Voron I built.
Now a friend has it and I hope it's doing well.
Feels like a "sponsored" video by bambu.
oH yEaH tHe SeTuP tImE iS tHe OnLy ReAsOn I bOuGhT tHiS pRiNtEr 🤣🤣🤣
Lolz
I think at this point if you want to just print buy a bambu if you want to tinker and learn go with any other brand.
qidi plus 4 says: bambo who?
lol, people keep telling this same joke.... I've had 4 Qidi Machines and all of them have been a bunch of great features done on the cheap. the Q1 was hilarious
@@FauxHammer i understand that there other printers have not had a good track record but that doesn't mean they can't change and make a better printer, i do own a plus 4 and x1c its better than the x1c from bambu and that is 400 usd more. ik its a new printer, you don't have to believe me or anyone just wait and see how different the plus 4 is, just watch people's opinions change with the plus 4 as more people try it
Creality for me is in such a sad state of affairs, when I was getting into 3D printing everyone and their mother would say Ender 3 and it was synonmis with withe community. Creality was the first printer company I had heard of and was ready to make my purchase only for things to turn out the way they have. It's such a sad state of affairs that Creality is just failing on doing basic things right like a proper seal for the filament. It just screams lazy cash grab.
When you kept describing what you want in a 3D printer company, it kept sounding like you were describing Prusa. It was very confusing. :)
It is..... but oh the price! (MK4S Review Coming soon)
I'm a bit confused over all the things you are 'baffled' or 'surprised' about.
Since when has Creality ever been anything but a 'race-to-the-bottom' cheap clone manufacturer?
never, but they have been improving. and there are such basic things they still miss. It;s like the machiens are made by 5 different departments. and people coming into this spce with fresh eyes need to know
Im surprised people still even buy any creality printers. Had a cr10s and sold it. Bought a bambu labs A1. Will not ever touch creality ever agian.
The name "Creality" alone is enough for me to skip this printer/company altogether.
I still don't like these, too much "it looks awfully familiar, now doesn't it" vibes, but with a heaping helping of half 🍑ing as well.. if they had gone with a different tool head design I would probably be fine with it; I quite like the way the KE looks, don't know why they couldn't have just gone with that..
I am sorry the F-one pit crew to unbox kill me dead, and Creality is not helping with the K2 release that is over due!
you sound like you hate them! you must just be a bamboo guy. i think the k1 is a very good printer
I think you missed the point. I also think the K1 is a good printer. But we can't ignore everything around it, like the issues, the build quality and how it's communicated
This is why I won't touch creality. The bring a new printer out do it to death with new iterations , but all they are doing is putting their rushed untested junk out for the community to fix for them. As you said they bring something to market run with it for a while then move on. The buyer is left trying to improve things on their own and watching the so called next big thing come to market. Their new k2 I would not touch for at least a couple of years after they finally release it to the public. By then it might be usable. rant over.
Creality also still using 3~ year old klipper with its wonderful bugs and lack of features, cant put open source klipper on it either due to load cell firmware not being open source
If you like closed gardens and being told what to do I guess as little power to you as you want I guess.
K1 series with fully opened klipper gives you all the power that bambu will never do.
Weird question but, what is going on with your nails?
Angry dad printer review. Priceless! Great job and information @fauxhammer. Prusa does all the items you mentioned correctly.
Yeah, but the Price!
Mk4S review coming very soon.
Creality did advertise it as a horse but delivered a donkey
That's it! if they'd advertised it as a Donkey, I'd have bought a Donkey from them when i wanted a Donkey.
I Avoid creality line the plague!
many do, and I wish they would do something to right the ship
i bought this printer because i found it for 300 euros, and you are a sucker for paying 3 times that on a bamboo box.
it really depends on how much you understand the technology or want to invest time into learning about it. And that's before the potential quality and support issues which could arise, which I'm basing on historical evidence as rather poor. I appreciate that you found the one for you. But calling people suckers because they don't want the same thing as you is a bit unfair.
The problem is, every one is comparing a 500 dollar printer to a 1200 dollar printer
You could compare it to the much Cheaper P1P and P1S and it still pales in comparison., but at the same time, it;s mostly workable at that lower price.
Bambu is an investment, Creality is a Purchase.
@@FauxHammer it’s still being compared in the video to a machine you could buy 2 of for the price of one. Just stating that is all
@@AReverything169 no, it isn't. if you think that, then I think you may have missed the point. all i was saying is that everyone used the same clickbait to ask if the printer is better than the X1, and it isn't and can't be compared.
@@FauxHammer it’s be compared in many videos to the xc1, what’s up with the whole idle system on the Bambu? You can buy the whole system or spend 8 hours replacing?
Creality is not bambu, shown again and again and again.
yeah, exactly... I really wish Creality would up their game, so many of us love Creality for what they gave us, but their teams are clearly pushing different agendas
I love your content, but you're a SLA guy. The k1 really doesn't shine until you root it, and use orca slicer. Creality print is garbage.
Yep, exactly that! WHat I wnat from an FDM printer is. Easy user experience and reliable features.
Of course if you want an open source machine and are happy with a few hardware challenges. Grab one....
AS i say, they are "OKAY"
@@FauxHammer spot on. They are decent for the price if you have the skills and more importantly the patience to tune it. For the $ there are better printers, this is basically a pre built voron in a box with a creality logo
And they don't even made a 0.2 nozzle after all these months. Come on Creality...the basics. I didn't but this printer just for that honestly
Creality suck.