Hi all.

My venerable ender 3 has likely printed it’s last benchy. Plus side, the tech has advanced significantly since I bought it. Down side, I’ve not kept track of the newer options.

Can anyone give me a rundown of which are worth looking at, and which to avoid?

I’m mostly concerned with reliability, but a speed boost would definitely be welcome. A heated chamber and/or multi material would also be very nice to have.

I would like to keep the costs closer to £500 ($680) but can stretch that, if there is a machine worth it.

I also have a complete no on bamboo printers. I don’t like what they’ve done regarding abuse of the open source movement.

Thanks all!

Edit to add. I’m not against non open source printers. I just have an issue with companies trying to burn the ladder behind them and lock their customers into a bubble.

Double edit: The snapmaker U1 seems like my best option. Ticks all the boxes, while remaining well in budget.

    • philpo@feddit.orgEnglish
      3·
      16 hours ago

      Came here to recommend the Snapmaker U1 as well. Put a Panda breath in it for heating (while ASA works reasonably well without it, it is nicer with one) and your set. Support for different nozzles per print is now available, but I haven’t tried it.

      And the firmware is open source enough for basically all uses.

      I came from.Bambu and am very happy I made the switch.

      • CIA_chatbot@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        11 hours ago

        Oh man i haven’t tried ASA yet, I bought the lid so I’ve been waiting for that, but everything else has been ridiculously easy to print- and the gradient printing thing looks awesome, m going to download the orca build with it this weekend and try it out.

        • philpo@feddit.orgEnglish
          3·
          10 hours ago

          You will need a top for it either way, but it worked reasonably fine with a ikea like crate. (Had this while my old Bambu printed the enclosure)

          It needs proper preheating of course AND a proper ventilation concept as the enclosure is far less air tight compared to e.g. the Bambus. And while ASA it not as nasty as ABS it still anything but healthy.

          • CIA_chatbot@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            9 hours ago

            Good to know, how’s the heater work, pretty ok, I am thinking on picking one up, right now (on my bambu) I just have it in a larger insulated tent enclosure and heat the plate for 20 minutes but that’s a pain

            • philpo@feddit.orgEnglish
              3·
              5 hours ago

              I have the Srin Top hat with 6mm panels (that helps considerably with keeping the heat in) and the Panda breath. I would rather not heat such a large enclosure as well,as it also fries the motherboard,etc. and it additionally produces very uneven heat.

    • cynar@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      1 day ago

      Both of those have a lot of bang for their buck. I had also missed both completely. 👍