A bigger build volume, a new bed-leveling probe, improved components: The Creality Ender 5 Plus strives to better the Ender 5 3D printer. Read our review to see what we found after 10 hours of testing.
With its extremely popular Ender series, Chinese manufacturer Creality showed the world they can not only build big 3D printers (such as long-time favorite, the CR-10S), but also know how to make cheap, yet reliable machines such as the Ender 5.
Now it has released the Creality Ender 5 Plus, the new flagship of its popular Ender series. We take a deep dive to see how the Ender 5 Plus holds in our 10-hour review.
Feature Check
Here are our experiences with the Ender 5 Plus:
It’s Much Bigger
Well, pretty obvious, isn’t it? While the build volume of the smaller Ender 5 (220 x 220 x 300 mm) is enough for most prints, it is always convenient to have extra space for bigger tasks. The Ender 5 Plus offers precisely that. Its glass bed boasts an area of 350 x 350 mm, while the Z-axis stretches to 400 mm. That‘s bigger than the print volume on a Creality’s CR-10S, which sat at 300 x 300 x 400 mm.
The outside measurements are 632 x 666 x 619 mm, so be prepared to free up some space in your workshop. Thankfully, no components are stored outside of the printer itself; the filament spool and the power supply sit within the frame.
More Stability (and Noise) for the Z-Axis
The Ender 5 sub-series of printers use a Gantry design, with the print head arranged at the top of the printer. While printing, the bed lowers itself through the Z-axis.
Each axis has a dedicated stepper motor. The Y-axis’ motor drives both belts at the same time. This results in an overall smoother movement and fewer layer shifts. The Z-axes are mounted in the middle of the bed with large 8-mm-rods stabilizing each side – in theory, quite a clever way of getting smooth motions while keeping the stability.
In our test model, we found that these guide rods weren’t lubricated, resulting in an unpleasant grinding and squeaking noise. After applying some lube, things got a little better, but the printer wasn’t exactly quiet.
One of the biggest drawbacks of tall fused filament fabrication (FFF) printers is Z-wobble, resulting in visible layer lines. This printing failure mostly occurs when the Z-axis rods aren’t perfectly straight or incorrectly mounted.
Creality tries to solve the problem by not only throwing in a second rod but four. In addition to the two lead screws appended to the Z-axis stepper motors (one on each side), four smooth rods – one for each corner of the bed – function as guides for the bed’s travel. This should mean you get more coherent layers, even in taller prints.
Bed Leveling Probe Woes
Auto-leveling is pretty uncommon on stock Ender printers. For the Ender 5 Plus, Creality threw in an Antclabs’ contact-triggered BLTouch proximity sensor (check out our BLTouch sensors guide here.) It is supposed to assist you in the bed-leveling process: The probe physically measures the bed; the Marlin-firmware then is capable of compensating for uneven spots.
Yet, leveling the bed turned out to be quite problematic. As the probe is mounted seven centimeters left of the extruder, measuring just physically doesn’t work. The placement of the probe makes it impossible to measure the entire bed, so roughly two-thirds of the plate is being measured, while the rest can’t be accessed. A firmware upgrade promised to deliver a solution but didn’t address the problem.
That being said, Creality is known to iterate the machines very fast, so you might see the probe mounted in a different position soon.
And as an alternative, you still can level the bed by hand (which we did for this 10-hour review.)
Additional Notes
- Filament sensor and power failure resume are commonplace now, making a welcome return in the Ender 5 Plus.
- The Ender 5 Plus features a V2.2 Creality mainboard, not cutting edge and a little restrictive if you wish to upgrade things later, but a capable board that also works well for the Ender 3 and Ender 3 Pro.
- The machine came pre-built and was up and running in an hour.
Technical Specifications
GENERAL SPECS
- Technology: FFF
- Year: 2019
- Assembly: Semi-assembled
- Mechanical arrangement: Cartesian XY-head
- Manufacturer: Creality
3D PRINTING PROPERTIES
- Build volume: 350 x 350 x 400 mm
- Accuracy: 100 Micron
- Extruder type: Single nozzle
- Nozzle size: 0.4 mm
- Max. extruder temperature: 260 °C
- Max. heated bed temperature: 110 °C
- Positioning accuracy: n/a
- Printing Speed: n/a
- Print chamber: Open
- Bed leveling: Semi-automatic
- Connectivity: Online web interface, SD card
- Build-in camera for monitoring: No
Materials
- Filament diameter: 1.75 mm
- 3rd party filaments: Yes
- Compatible materials: PLA, ABS, TPU, composite filaments
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