Update on the thermal runaway situation: To this day, the Aquila is still shipping with the same buggy firmware that crashes on fault. Flashforge Voxelab say they're working on an update. They have additionally confirmed that Aquilas in the field are seeing shorting issues with the thermistor - the exact fault that would trigger the thermal runaway in Voxelab's faulty firmware. Be careful out there if you're using an Aquila and if you haven't done so already, flash a community firmware. 🤞
@@vikramsarkhel962 Its crazy, but I think they are so amoral and lazy, that rather than fix the shorts their machines have, they just let them be unsafe and burn down peoples homes. Its insanity.
I think everyone is. As a teacher the lowest cost printer I can even consider is the Prusa Mini, and even it isn't very good. Anything lower cost is way too dangerous or flawed to have students safely learn on... You would think at least one of these companies would have figured it out, but none yet.
@@syber-space as uni student I consider Ender 3 V2 as the best of the lowest, although I only get best result after firmware change and tuning on my slicer, still worth it for my limited budget so I can spend it for other useful tool But tbf it's not really out of the box setup unlike any Prusa printers so i get what you mean sir
I just wanted to address some things, even though I mostly agree with this video. First, the Aquila is an Ender 3 V2 clone not a Ender 3 clone. It's priced at an Ender 3 level. It was at the time of release, $100 less than a Ender 3 V2, plenty of money left over for filament and upgrades. Second, the analogy of the cheeseburger is not a good one for individuals who couldn't afford a "hamburger" in the first place. The Aquila was always marketed as an entry level printer, so for some, an affordable cheeseburger sounds amazing when you've had nothing.
Sure, it's just another E3v2 clone with nothing really setting it apart feature-wise. But you're kinda overlooking the ~$90 price difference. That's huge, and more than justifies its existence. You can buy an E3v2 for $280, or for the same money you can buy an aquila, a cheap all metal hotend, a knockoff BLtouch, a hardened steel nozzle, and a spool of filament to print brackets to attach them. So for the same price as an E3v2, you can have a *much* more functional printer (some assembly required). You say this offers nothing over an E3v2? It's only 2/3rds the price. That's a significant upgrade.
Thanks for the heads-up on upgrades that will solve the problems highlighted here... just to clarify, can you confirm which of these upgrades are performance- or safety-enhancing versus those that anticipate failure/degradation over time problems? In our times of throw-away consumerism, I try not to be wasteful and throw away perfectly good kit unless there's a really good reason. I'm new to 3D printing, this would be my first 3D printer, so I really appreciate any advice.
@@neurojitsu None of it is strictly necessary. The all-metal hotend will allow you to print high-temp materials like ABS and PC. The hardened nozzle will allow you to print abrasives. The BLTouch give you auto mesh leveling. Those are all nice capabilities, but you don't need them if you're only planning on printing PLA or PETG. Assuming the printer works when you receive it, the only thing that's almost certain to break sooner or later (probably sooner) is the trash-tier single-gear extruder. Replace it with a BMG clone for like $16. Other than that, don't bother replacing anything unless it breaks or you need an upgrade because the current part doesn't meet your needs.
@@mortalwombat5811 cool, thanks for the replies - I'll follow your advice. I'm liking this printer a lot as a first 3D printer, and the following it now has is also reassuring due to the community that builds up around a product like this. I can hardly believe the value: when I last thought "oooh, a 3D printer would be nice" and then checked the prices, it was too steep for me. And in a short few years prices have become much more consumer-level. We are spoilt!
You'll need more than one steel nozzle though since the knockoff BLtouch will bug out, crash, and send your hotend hard into the bed. Feel free to buy new stepper motors as well I guess, and also a fire extinguisher, im sure you'll need that too. And hey since you have so much money saved with this purchase that you could have instead spent on the ender 3 v2 and had something reliable, why don't you also replace the printer, considering there's no warranty, no support, no replacement parts offered by the company, no security clearance, a whole lot of shipping fees and toll/customs and also tax on the purchase, no to mention in many countries it's illegal because of the lack of foresight by the company, so you might as well just buy 2 of the printer so that when your first one blows up, you have another one ready for when your family's funeral is over. Real talk to anyone else here. If you want to save money, don't get a 3d printer, instead just take your time to save up for a reliable, brand-name (and safe) one, or just make the Voron. There's absolutely nothing good about this printer that makes it stick out. The price difference is less than your medical insurance, and it doesn't even come with any benefits except make you broke today instead of next month, all because you have no self-control and can't save a bit of money or choose a split-payment plan?
But the question is whether or not this is less safe than creality ender-3 printers? Also, what about the massive price difference between the Voxelab Aquila and basically any other Ender 3 V2 on the market (given that the feature set is generally the same?). Please correct me if I am wrong about anything, but if the Aquila is basically an extremely cheap ender 3 v2 is this not a feature in itself?
The Aquila is the second printer that I have owned. I was going to buy the Neptune, but it wasn't available at the time. The best feature is the price, it prints well, and I haven't had any major issues with it. I flashed third party firmware, and added a 3d touch probe. I do appreciate your review, all of the other reviews that I have seen of this printer, don't mention any of these problems
For some reason, I feel like this review is a standout in your usually good videos. I think something about the pace of succinct differences and critiques that are not only pointing out issues, but actually explaining the failure modes and what would be a better option means you've packed an awful lot of understanding and experience into 18 minutes.
Props to you for telling it like it is. I love that you and Angus are seemingly fed up with the tactics of the 3D printing companies and no longer sugar-coating your reviews.
Thank you for an excellent review of this machine. I found out everything you did the hard way as usual I bought mine. Although it is basicly an E3V2 now, it cost me another $120 to get it there. I do love to tinker, but this machine was the most tinker prone machine I have used. The statement you discussed early in the vid about the carriages and the wheels caught my attention. You mentioned locking the wheels after they were adjusted. That is totally new to me. I have been printing for four years now and I have never heard this bit of knowledge mentioned before. I would love to hear more about it and all of the reasons for it. That would be a most enlightening video for sure. Thanks for all you do.
"Although it is basicly an E3V2 now, it cost me another $120 to get it there." Could you say what you did? I thought the Aquila was basically a cheaper version of the E3v2. I know the cheapest version of the Aquila at $160 (going by current Amazon prices) doesn't come with filament runout detection, but they have a version at $200 that does. The E3v2 was running at $260 on the Creality site (which was $20 cheaper than what I found on Amazon). I think both the E3v2 and the Aquila have cheap parts when it come to the extruder and hot end. The other thing I've heard mentioned as likely replacements are the leveling springs.
Just bought my second Aquila last week. This time I bought a micro swiss hotend, bmg extruder, and wham bam flex plate along with new fans all at the same time so when I assembled it initially it was all upgraded. I then added Alex's firmware to it and printed a vertical mount for the screen along with new fan shroud for better fans/CR-Touch add-on. Love my Ender 3v2 but it cost me $620 after fully upgrading it where as the Aquila cost me $420 for the same print quality and reliability. I did have to replace the thermistor when I upgraded the hotend because it was glued in and broke trying to remove it, but hearing about your issues it may have been a blessing in disguise.
The key selling point of these 3d printers and the cheeseburgers is the same: it's cheap, it's available, and you basically know what you're going to get. The sameness of them is a feature.
@@ClickItYT no but they (fast food places) don't exactly promote the fact eating them is far from a healthy diet either lol Once in a while is great but not to be eaten constantly. Seems the same with these printers, used once in a while and they are probably fine, but used daily it seems you are just asking for problems...
I think the number one selling feature for these machines is the price. You can get in at a crazy low price and "DIY" yourself a better printer as you go. I think if COULD afford a better machine, you wouldn't be looking at a clone. Right?
If i could afford one i would buy a prusa mk3, i built a mk2s at school and even with a slight warped bed y axis linear rods with bad linear rods mainly because of tight bearings it printed with a lot less problems than the aquila i have now, only leveled it one time and never had a problemm it made a lot more noise than the stock aquila but i would change to a mk3 in no time, since i cant afford it going to slap a phaetus dragonfly bms on it and dual gear extruder and i will have something close to a mk3 for a lot less money.
@@almaefogo Yep, not a bad move. It's like the enthusiast car debate. Do you get a low cost vehicle now and modify it over time or do you save and buy something better out of box. :)
Agreed. I get that if you're deep into the 3d printing world it could be exhausting to see an endless stream of clones. Point taken. If you're new and have ZERO interest spending $400 - $900 on a Prusa this printer is very attractive. The thermal issues Tom brings up are very concerning so I do appreciate this review. That was an eye opener for sure.
@@vizjournalist for me it really wasnt a problem since on the second day i flashed the printer with custom firmware alex made, just ordered a cheap 20€ bl touch clone from amazon and im going to flash it again with the abl firmware, to try it out.
That's fine for someone who can "DIY" themselves a better machine. These are really aimed at people starting out in 3D printing and it's not cheap for someone to have to buy a new machine every year or two because junk breaks down. Sometimes paying a bit more is cheaper in the long run because the product will last longer.
Nice summary. And yes, a firmware update from 3rd party is recommended. But I’m curious your thoughts. If someone only has $200 to get started with 3D printing what printer would you recommend (other than Neptune 2 which has similar issues/features)?
Ender 3 (V2) is a great choice - mainly because it does the same thing that the clones do, but has WAY more community support for things like firmware and mods. Clones using weird board designs means it's more challenging to get other firmware running - a big flaw of the Elegoo Neptune 2, for example. Or maybe mods like printed belt tensioners, fan ducts, or alternate hotend mounts simply don't exist (or don't work) for the specific clone printer (again, Neptune 2 struggle). This gets better over time, but IMO I'd rather get an Ender 3 (V2) that the community can fix and upgrade, since the manufacturers are not doing a good job here.
Ye the alex firmware is so much better then stock, and the price point(214 aud = 157 usd) while the e3v2 cost (340 aud = 250 usd) also the ender 3 was ~$10 more expensive(at the time) then the aquila lol. Also was told it was a e3v2 clone is the only reason I got this. $126 aud difference, I used that to buy filament a cheap bmg extruder and bltouch from aliedxpress( ~$30) and used the rest to buy filaments. I got the wires crimped now and did not know about the other thermal safety tho which is shocking to me. I've had this running pretty much non stop for months now.
I just dont understand some of these CZcamsrs, if you dont want to do reviews, then just dont do reviews. There are far too many topics in the 3d printing world to review products you never wanted to review in the first place. I cant say that Thomas was wrong in everything he said, it would be nice to have better printers and see innovation. What he seems to have forgotten in Economics 101 is competition leads to innovation and price reduction, which is a good thing, NOT a bad thing. Yes 99% of the printers in the last few years have more or less just been Creality clones, but all i3 printers are clones of each other more or less and none of them have really been competition for Creality. The Aquila, and to a lesser extent, the Neptune 2 are the only two printers to be released that have given Creality any real competition in the budget space. So these printers might be more of the same, but they will lead to better things and at least in the short term they have already lead to lower prices. Thanks for making quality videos Chuck, unlike some CZcamsrs who whine that they were given one more free printer that just wasnt unique enough for them.
As an owner of both an Ender 3 V2 and an Aquila, I can confidently say that the Aquila is stellar for it's price. They both print identically (because they are so similar). 95% of community mods fo the Ender 3v2 are applicable to the Aquila. The issue Tom brings up with respect to the bed clips is also a problem the ender 3 v2 (I bought $30 PEI spring steel beds as replacements). The other issues with firmware are resolved with about 10 secs of effort: just drop a readily available bin file on the sd card, plug it in, and turn on the Aquila; you're done. I appreciate Tom calling out the issues with the firmware and I hope Voxelab release a bulletin. But to play it up that people need to see messages on the $159 machine to know to do a firmware update and that people won't do them is cynical and disingenuous. We live in a world now where products require software fixes and bulletins all the time.
Two of my friends bought their 3d printers around the same time. One bought a Prusa and the other bought a cheap clone printer. One of the printers was still in use a couple of years later while the other one had a thermal runaway and melted itself on first start-up. One of my friends is still into 3d-printing.
veritasium released a video yesterday about a company 3d printing metal rockets which will be launched into space. It's a cool video, though one of the things that stood out to me was when Derek expressed his lack of enthusiasm for home 3d printing calling it a "frustrating" experience. I don't know what machine he has but it makes you wonder how many people, machines in this price range are turning off from 3d printing altogether.
Well, 3D printing is like most other things in life. Quality takes care, care takes time, time takes money and you get what you pay for. You can pay in money or you can pay in time and effort. Or (looking at Toms recent Voron build) you pay in money and time and effort to get actually good printers. And that's just for the printer. The best printer doesn't help with choosing the right material for your application, it doesn't help with storing your filament correctly or choosing an affordable high-quality source for your filament etc etc. Then printing a part takes hours to days and when it fails it feels like you ordered a package with the part you need and instead the seller sent you a package full of cow dung. I have 2 3d printers (Anycubic 4Max Pro, Anycubic Mega X) here and yet I use them so rarely and they have issues I don't have the patience to figure that when I needed a long print done, I went to treatstock and paid a few dollars for someone else to do it because 3d printing with non-professional machines IS frustrating and I can't trust my printers to be dimensionally accurate or to run over night without fucking something up.
The thing is, people like Derek have very less time on their hand. They need 3d printing for their work but they can't waste time on getting all the setup and optimizations that most 3d printers need to get working consistently. And that only works for one material and you need to do all that again for others. I know most of the high level 3D printers can do that but its cheaper to just get it done by someone who is good at it.
I thank you Tom for talking about the thermal runaway situation. I've watched most of the videos on this printer that are on CZcams and this is the first I've heard of that. I think you don't understand why people would buy this printer. I bought it for $168 because I don't know if I am going to want to really get into 3D printing or not. It is my first dive into it. So why would I spend $2000 making a core xy or dealing with the higher cost Prusa printers and putting up with their ridiculous shipping times. $168 and to my door in 3 days. It shipped from New Jersey. As for the problems (other than thermal runaway) I knew about them prior. Replacing a ptfe tube, noisy fans, hot end, cheap extruder and bed springs. That isn't a big deal to me. I'm not buying a great printer. I'm buying a cheap Ender 3 V2 clone to get me into the hobby.
I had wanted an Ender 3v2 for awhile but I got the Aquila because of the price. Knowing the upgrades I would already be doing regardless if I got and Ender 3v2, it just made more sense to get the Aquila. My Aquila has bltouch, metal extruder, hard silicone bed mounts, raspi(octoprint), silent fans, flashed with Marlin and still costs less than an Ender 3v2.
The slew of generic 3D printers that don't have much difference between them is precisely why when I researched & bought one 3 years ago I went for a Prusa i3 Mk3 because it clearly stood out above the crowd, most notably being an open source creation by a company that truly believes in their products. 3 years on and I'm still really pleased with my Prusa.
By contrast - my first printer was an Anet A8 that was given to me. I'm now building 3D printers for other people based on the experience I gained fixing the device's numerous safety issues. That A8 is still working very well, though, and it doesn't even cool the heatbreak. Total spent on it: ~250 USD, but WAY more time and effort. For the record, it always printed very well. The time and effort was entirely for safety and reliability fixes.
I got an Anycubic. It's still different than most printers. In fact no printer looks like it in design and it's all metal and very solid. Prusa is good but it's not cheap. You can get similar quality from other brands, just don't go too far in the deepened of budget printers.
Thanks for the Video Thomas, I didn't realize my original Ender 3 is 4 years old. It's been a reliable tool for me. But I'm not going to lie, I've had to learn it's needs and make mods where appropriate. The extruder is all metal, the bowden tube is capricorn, the bed is lightweight glass and the SKR controller to fix the thermal runaway issue. The problem with the low end of the market is that innovation costs money and far too many consumers look at price (myself included) as the deciding factor. In my defense this route has given me a better appreciation of what's needed for a successful print and has made me far more robust when things go wrong. I will say however I truly appreciated that Creality released the Ender 3 as open source. Spares and firmware can be got anywhere. If My Anycubic Linear Kossel Delta ever punked out on me to the point where it was unrepairable I would just buy another Ender 3.
I disagree that the Aquila doesn’t have a place on the market, it’s one of the closest ender 3 clones with nearly all identical parts, excepts with a cheaper price tag. Cheaper prices promotes the overall price of 3d printers going down over time. I’ve had a great experience with my Aquila so far and would recommend it to anyone in the market for a printer.
I love my Aquila. It's an ultra-cheap, upgradable platform that is significantly cheaper than the Ender 3v2 while offering the same features/quality. There a reason why people like - it appeals to the value oriented buyer. Not everyone can afford or wants to pay $400-$1600 for a "properly designed" printer.
"It's an ender 3 clone with a big screen. That does not feel like enough of a reason for this machine to exist." - Except it's 30+% cheaper for identical quality 😃
except its not? these bot comments literally have the opposite effect, they're so obviously bots that I end up disliking the product they're shilling on principle rather than fact.
Not wotking thermal protection is not "identical quality". It is an absolute no-go. Would you buy an car without basic safty features and call it o.k. because it 30% less than one with working breaks? This printer is a health risk. There is no reason to justify that.
Yep. I'm farming with these now. Quick firmware flash, a couple tiny adjustments, and they're in service. I run these along side the ender 3s I used to get at this price point (which I then have to upgrade the main boards of, making them even more expensive than the aquilas. I have so far had more trouble out of my old enders.
That's an interesting review Tom, thanks! I didn't quite get your opinion about the Aquila being actually worse than the Ender 3 V2. I recently acquired an Aquila as my first 3D printer. I wasn't going to print 24/7 and after some research about the available printers I decided on the Ender 3 V2. I've seen some reviews on the Aquila and my impression was, that it's basically the same or maybe a slightly better machine. At the time of my purchase the Aquila + three spools of filament sold for about the same price as the Ender 3 V2. Was it a good decision? I don't know, especially in the long run. As I understand it, there is no printer in this price range that doesn't require some degree of tinkering. And even with my limited knowlege about 3D printing I was aware of it. Gladly, my printer doesn't have an air gap between the glass plate and the heated printing bed. After assembling the printer, first thing I did was checking for a new version of the firmware. I actually expect it to be a fairly widespread behavior, but maybe that's just me. I ended up replacing the firmware with a custom built one after I realized that the one provided by the manufacturer didn't support a routine for changing filament, or a manual bed leveling routine, or many other things. But in the end it's just a clone, cutting a piece of the market cake that the Ender 3 (V2) dominates. The Ender 3 V2 doesn't come with a BL Touch, so why would you expect a clone to do so at a significantly lower price point? I don't agree that the manufacturer intended to add one and decided otherwise before shipping. I think they just provide the customer with an easy option to upgrade. Both printers are noisy. Both have the same extruder setup that seems to fail on everybody after some time. Both have part cooling coming only from one side. Yep, it's a clone. The only thing I would ague is, whether it's really worth buying a machine in this price segment at all. And the answer depends heavily on the individual use case.
@@dangerous8333 No it's not, have you ever built either? Ender has no slide bearings, the ender has no rods, the ender doesnt have dual Z motors, the ender doesnt use a solid plate it uses extrusions, the build plates are different sizes, ender doesnt have mesh leveling, the list goes on and on....... they are not even similar
Great work, Tom. I would be nice if FFF printer reviews would start out testing the three thermistor failure modes - both for the hot end and the bed - before even looking at anything else. It will never matter how quickly nor how well it prints when it fails basic thermal protections and can burn your house down. Thermal protection doesn't seem to get much air time any more.
Here is where I see this printer very appealing. The base structure and the price, thats about it. I just bought it over an Ender 3 and the Ender 3 Pro. For 169$ I found it attractive since I will be adding my own direct drive extruder, dual z axis, and a new BTT main board. For 169$ you get the structure of an ender 3 pro (bigger extrusion on the build plate means a more firm/solid platform) plus belt tensioners. Also, I always replace the build plate with my own. For all this at 169$, its a great deal.
I could not agree more Tom! I'm so tired and frustrated about all these 3D printers clones that flooded the market nowadays. They don't bring any innovation or anything over the original design except to confuse people.
If the stipulations for releasing a new machine is that it has to be revolutionary then we would be sorely lacking in the variety of machines that we have right now. I really feel as though that's not a good way to look at things. Creating MANY variants has helped put 3D printing in more homes. 3D printers are at the point where phones are currently... There isn't any new innovation being done. You either make them smaller, or larger. That's their selling point.
I came across another one, claiming the amazing "innovation" of automatic mesh bed leveling on Kickstarter yesterday. Sadly it was fully funded in a day and currently has ~100 backers ($29,000).
Complaints complaints complaints.... For you that may look like this printer has not much sence, but for some this is another oportunity to get a perfectly working and robust machine for less than $200 that prints awesome out of the box. I love my 3 years old ender 3, and the only thing that it gave me are awesome prints and experiences. The maintenance was minimun compared with my old prusa clone. Cost cut makes printers avaiable for everyone, like cheap $1 burguers feed more ppl than a premiun $50 burger does.
Yeah, he is a 3D printer guy that is surrounded by great printers, but really look at the cost of his camera equipment. This price level is a joke to him.
And we will never hear anyone from Voxelab actually respond to this review... Still, Tom, thanks for calling them out. It feels like the community really should work with IEC to create a basic safety particular standard for 3D printers. And, we should really demand that 3D printers be listed by safety agencies.
Agreed, Sort of. those burgers should not exist either. ..... but they do.... and they will keep existing. just like E3's will keep existing. and the reason sadly is very simple. That is where the CASH is.
You position the offset nut so the v wheels aren't loose on the track and tighten the frame/jam nut so that the position is "locked" in and will take longer to loosen up
Desperately trying to fix that absurd runaway crash is what led me to flashing Jyers, and whooo boy what an upgrade across the board. Its amazing what people who actually care will do for free versus the junk companies will charge you for.
Now they're just competing on price. But, you neglect to show the print quality, or how it compares to an Ender. The fit and finish (the Aguila Z rails appear to be cut identically while my and other Ender V2s are uneven, and therefore out of square. The thermal issues are serious, but can be fixed via firmware upgrades, as that's where the problem lies. Yeah, it's another clone, and it has issues, but it has improved some issues with the V2. Not all of us have Prusa or Voron money, unfortunately. I'd love to have both, but it isn't in my family's budget. I've upgraded most of the issues I've found with my V2: I've upgraded the extruder, installed a EZABL and first upgraded bed springs and then solid bed mounts, a dual Z drive kit, a Raspberry Pi, and on and on. I may have more than what I paid for the machine in mods, but I did it over time. I think the only thing I haven't upgraded is the fans and the hot end. These can be both tools and tinkering passtimes if done properly. If people want to make things without tinkering, they can get a Prusa at $1050 shipped for an assembled unit and have everything the could want (except speed) right out of the box. New designs are going to be more expensive off the bat. And a lot of us will only be able to afford later clones of that initial innovation. Right now the closest I can get to a Prusa i3 MK3S is a kit clone at $350.
Thanks for making this. It's so frustrating trying to find a printer that is actually good and actually innovative. I appreciate you checking the features so thoroughly and the "silent but fans" thing drives me absolutely nuts. Changed out all the fans on my Sovol and don't want to do it again.
You absolutely nailed Tom! I own a Aquila, but i needed a cheap but good enough printer to tinker on, then is is one of the best bargains :) I have it running klipper, changed the bed and hotend, spend a lot of time tuning it to peek performance, now i have a 200 euro ish machine (Pi not included) running pretty high quality prints... because I can :D But i do agree on the complete issue, out of the box it should be good to go and safe to use. There are too many clones cutting corners on features, quality and safety and spending too much on marketing lies.
I love reviews like this. You should make a short with their response if it's the kind that Angus highlighted. Really call them out on their BS. The race to the bottom is getting old.
It's not even a race to the bottom, more to the middle without fixing glaring flaws but adding new ones. Trying to make a printer for cheaper can be worthwhile, like cantilever printers with a lot fewer and cheaper parts.
Thanks for making this video! I'm planning to buy my first printer. I'll probably still buy this one but at least now I know what I'm getting. I'd love to get a prusa but I'm not sure how much printing I'll do. The price difference compared with Ender 3 v2 will allow me to upgrade the extruder and hotend. Would be great if one could buy a Chinese printer with genuine options from microswiss and bondtech. Not sure why these companies don't offer printers. Thanks for providing thoughtful and unbiased content!
I bought mine as a return for $89. It works perfectly, with no incorrectly countersunk screw holes. my power resume has never caused a failed print. Thermal runaway is something I would like to have for peace of mind. For what I paid, in my shop that is basically fireproof and well ventilated, I think it was a great buy. I will look for updates on firmware or even build my own marlin firmware for it. For me, out of the four Ender 3-types I own, it is my favorite, even. I own a 3 yrs old Ender 3, a 1.5 yrs old V2, an Anycubic Mega ZERO 2.0 and the pre-chip shortage Aquila. I also own a Longer 3D -built Alfawise U20 ONE that WILL print at 200 mm/sec(!!!) unmodified.
I've learned some valuable information in this video regarding a few issues that occur over time. Information you don't typically hear about. Not very often you see a 2nd review of a product showing how the equipment wears over an extended period of time. It's mostly short-term usage. It would be nice to see a second review of a product after a set time, or at first required maintenance.
@@HydraulicDesign A bot? 😂 nothing to do with this pinter one bit. It was about possible issues that arise after long term usage, and a couple other things. In hindsight, I'll admit my comment was a little "quirky".
I am in a market for a new printer and am so extremely fed up that most printers are just variations of the same printer, with little addons or size differences. Literally nothing new or different...
I for one is glad that these cheap clone 3d printers exist otherwise people like me who live in a third world country where the exchange rate is around 17:1 USD will never be able to get into this wonderful hobby.
@@TechnologistAtWork Very true, it cost nothing to implement safety features that exist in Marlin and at least test whether those features work, so there is no excuse for companies not to do so
That's fair. But I think Tom's primary concern is not that cheap 3d printers exist, but that the same design is just being copied over and over without any improvement or respect for safety. You don't need a stream of badly done clones to get into the hobby. Just a single cheap model with relatively good design compared to all these.
lol, Prusa is a joke, my Prusa minis have been nothing but a nightmare, stripping filament in the extruders and clogging up and underextruding. consistantly all the time.
Heck they're probably coming from the same factories for all we know! I'm sure they're sourcing many of the same exact components from the same few suppliers at least.
@@joegibes Of course, a lot of manufacturing works like that. It seems like there isn't ENOUGH of that going on in this market, as all these dumb little companies keep having to write their own firmware and do their own wiring and keep screwing up.
@@christophmuller3511 Because that isn't the market these machines are competing in. Prusas are available for those that want to spend the money on them. I have an Ender 5 plus that I believe has the same extruder and hot end as the Ender 3, and I currently have no reason to upgrade the hot end or extruder. The machine prints great. Putting more expensive parts on it to begin with would have created a higher barrier for my entry into the 3d printing world.
Alternative view: avoidable fire hazards are kinda bad. We should have been past that point years ago, and yet apparently we aren't. Hotend and extruder aren't really that important in the grand scheme of things when the whole thing is on fire.
@@christophmuller3511 Got to look at the audience that buys these printers. It is my first one! It is kind of like buying a pre built pc vs making a custom pc. When you aren't comfortable with building a computer you buy a pre built. Later on you can upgrade the gpu as you get more comfortable and like the hobby. Next PC you do a custom build. My next 3D printer will be a $2000+ core xy, if I continue to like the hobby.
I love how this printer not only doesn't have a filament detector, but also calls it "filament dectection" on the screen! Thanks for the great review Tom, very insightful as always. 💜💙 P.S. I've never liked food burgers and now I don't like printer burgers either 😂
Hey Tom, thanks for this brutally honest review lol, as I was looking at getting this printer. So would you recommend the Neptune 2 over this printer? I think this one has a genuine mean well PSU but I thinks that's the only good thing.
Yup, you either buy a ~$200 clone or you spend ~$600+ for something you need a 3d printer to build. Everything else is a mediocre printer, just in different sizes. Building a printer from scratch is a daunting task for a new-bee and/or a semi seasoned enthusiast. I see a company is making a printer that uses plastic "granules" instead of filament like we know. The problem is, it "looks" exactly like every other printer already on the market, there is nothing new, except it uses granules, which seems like a nightmare to be able to get.
I gotta say I actually love my aquilas... I bought an ender 3 and I honestly thought it was trash... maybe I got a lemon, but the ender 3 I got was terrible, and would barely even print out of the box... it was more expensive, louder, had less clear instructions... i returned the ender and bought another aquila, plus a few kg of pla with the money saved... none of mine have the bed screw issues.. yes there are a few things that I would recommend changing about it.. but I love them overall.... I run alex's firmware, so hopefully i don't have as much to worry about in the thermal safety department... (also on the BL touch front, there is stock firmware and instructions for the BL touch or clone, I use alexs and have ABL on all my printers so i cant say for sure how good the stock BL touch firmware is, but it does exist)
I don’t own a printer yet and I was really considering that one. But after seeing those issues that other reviews didn’t ever mention. I’m rethinking of even bothering to get one. Yes because of price
I think the only way to rescue 3d printing from its current state would be to ban the importation of these blatantly unsafe machines. It's clear there's going to be no end of trouble in a few years once everyone's Ender 3s start wearing down. Nevermind the inferior clones. I don't think I can't look at my printer without mentally dubbing it "borderline disgusting" from here onwards.
I started looking through this since I have the printer. I got it for free at the last MRRF I was at. The printer has a v1.2.4 firmware update. There is actually one for the G32 (no sticker specifying which printer else than the one with the serial number) without the bltouch and one with the bltouch.
OOF the frustration is real and TOTALLY understandable. This level of danger is not to be accepted. This race to the bottom HAS to cut corners if companies are to keep making money and safety is NOT ONE OF THOSE CORNERS TO CUT. Thanks for bringing light to this Tom! Hopefully this video will bring Flashforge Voxelab to make a change to the Aquila. We followed this whole debacle on twitter and are glad to see it if safe now, but you definitely should not have to go through this. For newbies this is a no go! Cheap printers are nice, but if they don't have standard safety features they can get filed away with the Anet A8 as far as I am concerned!
Awesome shirt! the video was good also. You hit the nail on the head, flood the market with clones of clones. Glad to see the reviewers are trying to keep the industry in check. Love the wrap up! Burgers! Awesome!
Installed Alex's Marlin firmware on my Voxelab Aquila, printed a Satsana fan shroud to use a 5015 fan, and have never looked back. It prints better than all my Creality 3D printers and is less expensive. Best bang for the buck in the entry level 3D printer category.
I wish I watched your video before I bought my Voxelab S3. The bright side is that is that it is an Ender 3 clone so I can always convert the machine over to custom firmware and Ender 3 board.
I bought one of these specifically to be a platform for tinkering. I was planning on tweaking the firmware anyway, but thanks for pointing out the safety issues so I know to look for them. And I agree, shipping them with safety issues like that is completely unacceptable, especially because many people will buy this as their first printer. I had my first printer for two years before I even bothered to touch the firmware. That's a lot of time for something to go wrong. And as far as justification to exist? It's $100 cheaper. That's about it.
The funny thing is, you can still get an original ender 3, put proper firmware on it (marlin, klipper, whatever you want) and start 3d printing for 130€ (or maybe 150 if you don't have the equipment to flash an old 8-bit melzi, though i think all ender 3s sold now have 32bit and a bootloader pre-installed). And yes, I did quite some "upgrades" to my ender 3. But the ones I'd really recommend would be: Spring Steel Printbed, an original Slice Engineering BiMetal Heatbreak and better part cooling (which you can print with the printer), And if you really feel like you have to push the price well beyond 200€, get a new board with TMC2209s.
That is exactly why we have things like VDI 2222-1 that tells you to first analyse the problem, find solutions for all the single problems to solve and then combine different parts. It prevents engineers to develop the ever same solutions and never get to better solutions. I would not even call the process of "developing" a machine like this engineering. That is nothing else than an insult for honest engineers. I guess just save some money and buy a decent printer?
It seems kind of redundant at this point to ask out of curiosity whether the board has an STM32 or a GD32 processor, but we want to make sure to provide the most proper mainline Marlin configuration for this new entry in the Ender-3 clone crowd since it’s doubtless users will be wanting to upgrade.
Man I really love you. I did review on Aquila 6 months ago and I was happy. But you expert and the point you mentioned very important and open my eyes in other sutff. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
So among all this issues, Wich one to get? A ender 3 for 180$? A Ender 3 V2 for 260$? Or the aquila for 160? As far as I know the aquila is a ender 3 V2 clone, so is silent and prints a little better than a regular ender 3, need some advice here because is so much hazzle and no money to spear.
I don't understand the frustration of having more Ender 3 clones. Having more competition/more choices for consumers is a good thing. How is it a bad thing for society when there is more competition and consumers are able to get more for less? This printer provides most of the features ender 3 v2 at a lower price, hence to popularity. Sure it's got flaws; it would not be priced this low if it doesn't.
Agreed. I'm in uni and didn't have a lot of cash to get a prusa for example, so getting this thing for 150 bucks was absolutely amazing as an entry into 3D printing.
This is exactly like how the computer hardware review sites don't spend much time on the cheaper components or how car review sites only want to talk about the fastest. Tom is a 3D printer expert so he wants to talk about the high end stuff, not the cheap stuff for new people.
@@SiXiam yeah, but I wasn't aware that Tom was required to review this machine for some reason. There are others on CZcams who have already reviewed this machine and pointed out the issues he had mentioned.
@@nmos001 And then they would get the views and Tom wouldn't. If he doesn't want to review the printers thoroughly, then every so often he can give an update video on a few of the new cheap printers and why people should build a $2000 printer like he is. He just hurts his own channel by not wanting to cover the cheap printers that people are going to buy.
@@SiXiam I'm atleast a little skeptical that this CZcamsr with so many subscribers need to depend on this review to attract viewers, but whatever, let's just say that is correct. There is still no reason to get angry or frustrated at companies simply for making ender 3 clones as it still provides a positive benefit for consumers. This printer provides better prices. Other clones may provide some unique features or unique combination of featurs
That was a sponsor segue worthy of LegalEagle. :D I was *going* to say "I think there's value in a printer that offers nothing new and no special features but manages to have a very low price point, and surely this fills that niche?" But then I got to the bit about the bolluxed up thermal protection. Obviously a cut-price printer is going to have to save money somewhere... but the areas that risk major property damage, injury, or even death sure aren't the place to do that.
Interestingly, I checked my bed screws and they were recessed already. So looks like they have started to address some issues. The first thing I did after watching this video however is flash Alex's firmware to get the thermal runaway protection then order some ferrules and a crimper. Thanks for the thorough review, I now have a prioritised list of things to replace or add
Great video! Hope that many consumers and manufacturers see it! Bought my Craftbot 1 back in 2014 and it still works great. It already had a graphical UI and touch screen and PEI print bed. Now, 7 years later companies come up and praise it as new. Ridiculous.
This is my 2nd printer had it for like 1.5-2 years barely used until recently and have been doing some slight upgrades. Got it for 175$. Just upgraded to Alex FW today
I like all your details but honestly I've had an e3v2 for about 2 years without issues on the PTFE hotend or the extruder gears. I'm not sure whether some of this might still be leftovers from what you learned about older printers while by now the same technology doesn't have some of these issues anymore.
Hi Thomas. I just discovered your channel after I recently started to research 3D printers for a purchase. I'm in the position where I'm about to start a R&D project, developing a device for a very 'high-profile' client. Therefore I need something that gives me as few headaches as possible and excellent results coupled with easy to use tools for my rapid prototyping needs. I must say that I've got an enormous amount of useful information in just a few days by watching your channel. Everything from suitable materials to hardware to be purchased. Thank you so much for your effort and kudos for a very easily digested style of propagating knowledge! Five stars! ✨ And yes, I've landed at the Prusa i3 MK3s+ as my machine of choice for my first filament printer used for this project. Possibly also a Prusa Mini to be able to do some tinkering while the other is occupied. These will be used for printing a sort of 'device holder' to hold a device which is going to be measured optically and acoustically. The precision of the printer output will be important since it will need miscellaneous inserts like threaded bushings and screws, rubber cushions, etc. Also the visual appearance of the prototype product is of importance. I think my choice is the correct one all things taken into consideration. ☺️
If I want a good burger, and I don't want to make it myself, I go to a local tap house which makes them to order, from scratch. Five Guys does a passable job in a time crunch if I go for a chain. The big "drive-thru" chains are only useful if I'm hungry and literally nobody else is open. (I understand Whattaburger and In-N-Out make good burgers as chains, but those aren't local to me.)
Incredibly well done. Along with many others, I do plan to get this as my first printer, but will update the firm ware immediately and am planning to add bltouch immediately as well.
Really is a shame there isn't much 'new' in the budget market. It's like an Ender 3 clone every week; not even remotely innovating any existing part of it.
I feel like these are good "upgrade printers" or 2nd printers for some. Got a voxlab myself with a few friends and they love it @ $168-188 price point makes it a good gift and starting point for some. Key component is the silent drivers. I just wish they used better fans, but i already replaced those for $10 and 1hr of my hobby time.
Did you find quieter fans that drop in? Looking for some to quiet this machine down a bit as the stock ones are noisy. Agreed though, this is my 3rd printer and after doing research and being aware of minor upgrades which go a long way, I love it.
"its fine if you need a hobby", after my friends buying 1stgen printers I saved up for a few years extra and bought a Prusa. Cad is enough of a new hobby, no need to be a printer technician.
You will not be spared from becoming a 3D printer technician, because the underlying technology is unreliable and prone to wear; this is why if you're a major business, you buy Ultimakers, and you buy them on a service contract, and you buy more than you need, and you spend tens of thousands on the endeavour with the goal of having just one or two machines operational at all times - they will still break down, but then it's the service company's problem, not customer's. The best thing you can do in a home setting is not having to be a proficient technician on day 1 or within just a couple weeks of ownership, which would probably overwhelm most people, and i think Prusa products are very adequate in this regard.
It's pronounced a-kee-la. I bought the C2 model and it's the best 3D printer I ever bought. It's also the first 3D printer I ever bought, but I'm glad I bought it. I would have appreciated you telling us what the 'easy fix' is to lock the wheels (1:45) rather than just complaining that the manual doesn't tell us (neither did you).
Looks like Voxelab watched this video then came out with the X2. I just bought an X2 and it has none of the problems you mention in your video. Well maybe the thermal run away but not sure how to tell. Word is they are releasing the firmware source so shouldn't take long for that issue to be a done deal. For what I paid I'm a happy owner.
Hehe you're gonna love cubicon's new printer.
Which open source project did they clone?
@@vikramsarkhel962 looks like an ultimaker
That sounds ominous o_O
I have two cubicons and there the best in there league if you ask me but with a price to match!!!
Awesome but they will be in pain to find a decent reviewer ❤️❤️❤️
Update on the thermal runaway situation: To this day, the Aquila is still shipping with the same buggy firmware that crashes on fault. Flashforge Voxelab say they're working on an update.
They have additionally confirmed that Aquilas in the field are seeing shorting issues with the thermistor - the exact fault that would trigger the thermal runaway in Voxelab's faulty firmware.
Be careful out there if you're using an Aquila and if you haven't done so already, flash a community firmware. 🤞
checknto see the mcu chop if its a ST32 or GD32
I don't understand why 3d printer manufacturers disable thermal runaway protection. They should just enable the option in Marlin.
Dang. You ripped into that company and printer. I love the honesty.
oh great another fire/smoke hazard in peoples homes
@@vikramsarkhel962 Its crazy, but I think they are so amoral and lazy, that rather than fix the shorts their machines have, they just let them be unsafe and burn down peoples homes. Its insanity.
I can tell that Tom is really starting to lose patience here lol
still better review than ET4 and the....vivedyno or something like that...
I think everyone is. As a teacher the lowest cost printer I can even consider is the Prusa Mini, and even it isn't very good. Anything lower cost is way too dangerous or flawed to have students safely learn on... You would think at least one of these companies would have figured it out, but none yet.
@@syber-space It's probably going to take someone getting sued for anything to change tbh.
Seriously. He'd rather bite into TWO generic cheeseburgers than discuss ONE more generic Ender-3 clone.
@@syber-space as uni student I consider Ender 3 V2 as the best of the lowest, although I only get best result after firmware change and tuning on my slicer, still worth it for my limited budget so I can spend it for other useful tool
But tbf it's not really out of the box setup unlike any Prusa printers so i get what you mean sir
I just wanted to address some things, even though I mostly agree with this video. First, the Aquila is an Ender 3 V2 clone not a Ender 3 clone. It's priced at an Ender 3 level. It was at the time of release, $100 less than a Ender 3 V2, plenty of money left over for filament and upgrades. Second, the analogy of the cheeseburger is not a good one for individuals who couldn't afford a "hamburger" in the first place. The Aquila was always marketed as an entry level printer, so for some, an affordable cheeseburger sounds amazing when you've had nothing.
Sure, it's just another E3v2 clone with nothing really setting it apart feature-wise. But you're kinda overlooking the ~$90 price difference. That's huge, and more than justifies its existence. You can buy an E3v2 for $280, or for the same money you can buy an aquila, a cheap all metal hotend, a knockoff BLtouch, a hardened steel nozzle, and a spool of filament to print brackets to attach them. So for the same price as an E3v2, you can have a *much* more functional printer (some assembly required).
You say this offers nothing over an E3v2? It's only 2/3rds the price. That's a significant upgrade.
Thanks for the heads-up on upgrades that will solve the problems highlighted here... just to clarify, can you confirm which of these upgrades are performance- or safety-enhancing versus those that anticipate failure/degradation over time problems? In our times of throw-away consumerism, I try not to be wasteful and throw away perfectly good kit unless there's a really good reason. I'm new to 3D printing, this would be my first 3D printer, so I really appreciate any advice.
@@neurojitsu None of it is strictly necessary. The all-metal hotend will allow you to print high-temp materials like ABS and PC. The hardened nozzle will allow you to print abrasives. The BLTouch give you auto mesh leveling. Those are all nice capabilities, but you don't need them if you're only planning on printing PLA or PETG.
Assuming the printer works when you receive it, the only thing that's almost certain to break sooner or later (probably sooner) is the trash-tier single-gear extruder. Replace it with a BMG clone for like $16. Other than that, don't bother replacing anything unless it breaks or you need an upgrade because the current part doesn't meet your needs.
@@mortalwombat5811 cool, thanks for the replies - I'll follow your advice. I'm liking this printer a lot as a first 3D printer, and the following it now has is also reassuring due to the community that builds up around a product like this. I can hardly believe the value: when I last thought "oooh, a 3D printer would be nice" and then checked the prices, it was too steep for me. And in a short few years prices have become much more consumer-level. We are spoilt!
You'll need more than one steel nozzle though since the knockoff BLtouch will bug out, crash, and send your hotend hard into the bed. Feel free to buy new stepper motors as well I guess, and also a fire extinguisher, im sure you'll need that too. And hey since you have so much money saved with this purchase that you could have instead spent on the ender 3 v2 and had something reliable, why don't you also replace the printer, considering there's no warranty, no support, no replacement parts offered by the company, no security clearance, a whole lot of shipping fees and toll/customs and also tax on the purchase, no to mention in many countries it's illegal because of the lack of foresight by the company, so you might as well just buy 2 of the printer so that when your first one blows up, you have another one ready for when your family's funeral is over.
Real talk to anyone else here. If you want to save money, don't get a 3d printer, instead just take your time to save up for a reliable, brand-name (and safe) one, or just make the Voron. There's absolutely nothing good about this printer that makes it stick out. The price difference is less than your medical insurance, and it doesn't even come with any benefits except make you broke today instead of next month, all because you have no self-control and can't save a bit of money or choose a split-payment plan?
@@liveen Lol, imagine being so salty about the concept of cheap 3D printers that you'd write all that.
Excellent video and well said Tom! 😌 The amount of Ender copies without basic safety features and lack of innovation is also driving me crazy 🤦♂️
But the question is whether or not this is less safe than creality ender-3 printers? Also, what about the massive price difference between the Voxelab Aquila and basically any other Ender 3 V2 on the market (given that the feature set is generally the same?). Please correct me if I am wrong about anything, but if the Aquila is basically an extremely cheap ender 3 v2 is this not a feature in itself?
The Aquila is the second printer that I have owned. I was going to buy the Neptune, but it wasn't available at the time. The best feature is the price, it prints well, and I haven't had any major issues with it. I flashed third party firmware, and added a 3d touch probe.
I do appreciate your review, all of the other reviews that I have seen of this printer, don't mention any of these problems
For some reason, I feel like this review is a standout in your usually good videos. I think something about the pace of succinct differences and critiques that are not only pointing out issues, but actually explaining the failure modes and what would be a better option means you've packed an awful lot of understanding and experience into 18 minutes.
I like burgers
Props to you for telling it like it is. I love that you and Angus are seemingly fed up with the tactics of the 3D printing companies and no longer sugar-coating your reviews.
Thank you for an excellent review of this machine. I found out everything you did the hard way as usual I bought mine. Although it is basicly an E3V2 now, it cost me another $120 to get it there. I do love to tinker, but this machine was the most tinker prone machine I have used. The statement you discussed early in the vid about the carriages and the wheels caught my attention. You mentioned locking the wheels after they were adjusted. That is totally new to me. I have been printing for four years now and I have never heard this bit of knowledge mentioned before. I would love to hear more about it and all of the reasons for it. That would be a most enlightening video for sure. Thanks for all you do.
"Although it is basicly an E3V2 now, it cost me another $120 to get it there."
Could you say what you did? I thought the Aquila was basically a cheaper version of the E3v2. I know the cheapest version of the Aquila at $160 (going by current Amazon prices) doesn't come with filament runout detection, but they have a version at $200 that does. The E3v2 was running at $260 on the Creality site (which was $20 cheaper than what I found on Amazon). I think both the E3v2 and the Aquila have cheap parts when it come to the extruder and hot end. The other thing I've heard mentioned as likely replacements are the leveling springs.
Just bought my second Aquila last week. This time I bought a micro swiss hotend, bmg extruder, and wham bam flex plate along with new fans all at the same time so when I assembled it initially it was all upgraded. I then added Alex's firmware to it and printed a vertical mount for the screen along with new fan shroud for better fans/CR-Touch add-on. Love my Ender 3v2 but it cost me $620 after fully upgrading it where as the Aquila cost me $420 for the same print quality and reliability. I did have to replace the thermistor when I upgraded the hotend because it was glued in and broke trying to remove it, but hearing about your issues it may have been a blessing in disguise.
Does the Alex firmware have a 230 build plate?
The key selling point of these 3d printers and the cheeseburgers is the same: it's cheap, it's available, and you basically know what you're going to get. The sameness of them is a feature.
Except that a cheeseburger can't burn down your house.
@@ClickItYT Wanna bet more people have choked to death on cheeseburgers than people had their house set on fire by 3d printers?
@@AlexusMaximusDE Well, we'll never know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@ClickItYT no but they (fast food places) don't exactly promote the fact eating them is far from a healthy diet either lol Once in a while is great but not to be eaten constantly.
Seems the same with these printers, used once in a while and they are probably fine, but used daily it seems you are just asking for problems...
I was about to post the same thing as you, lol.
I think the number one selling feature for these machines is the price. You can get in at a crazy low price and "DIY" yourself a better printer as you go. I think if COULD afford a better machine, you wouldn't be looking at a clone. Right?
If i could afford one i would buy a prusa mk3, i built a mk2s at school and even with a slight warped bed y axis linear rods with bad linear rods mainly because of tight bearings it printed with a lot less problems than the aquila i have now, only leveled it one time and never had a problemm it made a lot more noise than the stock aquila but i would change to a mk3 in no time, since i cant afford it going to slap a phaetus dragonfly bms on it and dual gear extruder and i will have something close to a mk3 for a lot less money.
@@almaefogo Yep, not a bad move. It's like the enthusiast car debate. Do you get a low cost vehicle now and modify it over time or do you save and buy something better out of box. :)
Agreed. I get that if you're deep into the 3d printing world it could be exhausting to see an endless stream of clones. Point taken. If you're new and have ZERO interest spending $400 - $900 on a Prusa this printer is very attractive. The thermal issues Tom brings up are very concerning so I do appreciate this review. That was an eye opener for sure.
@@vizjournalist for me it really wasnt a problem since on the second day i flashed the printer with custom firmware alex made, just ordered a cheap 20€ bl touch clone from amazon and im going to flash it again with the abl firmware, to try it out.
That's fine for someone who can "DIY" themselves a better machine. These are really aimed at people starting out in 3D printing and it's not cheap for someone to have to buy a new machine every year or two because junk breaks down. Sometimes paying a bit more is cheaper in the long run because the product will last longer.
Nice summary. And yes, a firmware update from 3rd party is recommended. But I’m curious your thoughts. If someone only has $200 to get started with 3D printing what printer would you recommend (other than Neptune 2 which has similar issues/features)?
An Ender 3 maybe? Why would you spend the money on a Ender 3 clone with serious flaws when you can just get an Ender 3?
Ender 3 (V2) is a great choice - mainly because it does the same thing that the clones do, but has WAY more community support for things like firmware and mods.
Clones using weird board designs means it's more challenging to get other firmware running - a big flaw of the Elegoo Neptune 2, for example.
Or maybe mods like printed belt tensioners, fan ducts, or alternate hotend mounts simply don't exist (or don't work) for the specific clone printer (again, Neptune 2 struggle).
This gets better over time, but IMO I'd rather get an Ender 3 (V2) that the community can fix and upgrade, since the manufacturers are not doing a good job here.
Ye the alex firmware is so much better then stock, and the price point(214 aud = 157 usd) while the e3v2 cost (340 aud = 250 usd) also the ender 3 was ~$10 more expensive(at the time) then the aquila lol. Also was told it was a e3v2 clone is the only reason I got this. $126 aud difference, I used that to buy filament a cheap bmg extruder and bltouch from aliedxpress( ~$30) and used the rest to buy filaments. I got the wires crimped now and did not know about the other thermal safety tho which is shocking to me. I've had this running pretty much non stop for months now.
I just dont understand some of these CZcamsrs, if you dont want to do reviews, then just dont do reviews. There are far too many topics in the 3d printing world to review products you never wanted to review in the first place.
I cant say that Thomas was wrong in everything he said, it would be nice to have better printers and see innovation. What he seems to have forgotten in Economics 101 is competition leads to innovation and price reduction, which is a good thing, NOT a bad thing.
Yes 99% of the printers in the last few years have more or less just been Creality clones, but all i3 printers are clones of each other more or less and none of them have really been competition for Creality. The Aquila, and to a lesser extent, the Neptune 2 are the only two printers to be released that have given Creality any real competition in the budget space. So these printers might be more of the same, but they will lead to better things and at least in the short term they have already lead to lower prices.
Thanks for making quality videos Chuck, unlike some CZcamsrs who whine that they were given one more free printer that just wasnt unique enough for them.
As an owner of both an Ender 3 V2 and an Aquila, I can confidently say that the Aquila is stellar for it's price. They both print identically (because they are so similar). 95% of community mods fo the Ender 3v2 are applicable to the Aquila. The issue Tom brings up with respect to the bed clips is also a problem the ender 3 v2 (I bought $30 PEI spring steel beds as replacements). The other issues with firmware are resolved with about 10 secs of effort: just drop a readily available bin file on the sd card, plug it in, and turn on the Aquila; you're done.
I appreciate Tom calling out the issues with the firmware and I hope Voxelab release a bulletin. But to play it up that people need to see messages on the $159 machine to know to do a firmware update and that people won't do them is cynical and disingenuous. We live in a world now where products require software fixes and bulletins all the time.
Two of my friends bought their 3d printers around the same time. One bought a Prusa and the other bought a cheap clone printer. One of the printers was still in use a couple of years later while the other one had a thermal runaway and melted itself on first start-up. One of my friends is still into 3d-printing.
veritasium released a video yesterday about a company 3d printing metal rockets which will be launched into space. It's a cool video, though one of the things that stood out to me was when Derek expressed his lack of enthusiasm for home 3d printing calling it a "frustrating" experience. I don't know what machine he has but it makes you wonder how many people, machines in this price range are turning off from 3d printing altogether.
I didn't watch that video yet and now I'm not sure if I even want to. :/
@@ClickItYT You should. It was very cool and informative. That was just one word in one line. Really the only time home 3D printing was mentioned.
@@varukasalt ok thanks. ;)
Well, 3D printing is like most other things in life. Quality takes care, care takes time, time takes money and you get what you pay for. You can pay in money or you can pay in time and effort. Or (looking at Toms recent Voron build) you pay in money and time and effort to get actually good printers.
And that's just for the printer. The best printer doesn't help with choosing the right material for your application, it doesn't help with storing your filament correctly or choosing an affordable high-quality source for your filament etc etc.
Then printing a part takes hours to days and when it fails it feels like you ordered a package with the part you need and instead the seller sent you a package full of cow dung.
I have 2 3d printers (Anycubic 4Max Pro, Anycubic Mega X) here and yet I use them so rarely and they have issues I don't have the patience to figure that when I needed a long print done, I went to treatstock and paid a few dollars for someone else to do it because 3d printing with non-professional machines IS frustrating and I can't trust my printers to be dimensionally accurate or to run over night without fucking something up.
The thing is, people like Derek have very less time on their hand. They need 3d printing for their work but they can't waste time on getting all the setup and optimizations that most 3d printers need to get working consistently. And that only works for one material and you need to do all that again for others. I know most of the high level 3D printers can do that but its cheaper to just get it done by someone who is good at it.
I thank you Tom for talking about the thermal runaway situation. I've watched most of the videos on this printer that are on CZcams and this is the first I've heard of that. I think you don't understand why people would buy this printer. I bought it for $168 because I don't know if I am going to want to really get into 3D printing or not. It is my first dive into it. So why would I spend $2000 making a core xy or dealing with the higher cost Prusa printers and putting up with their ridiculous shipping times. $168 and to my door in 3 days. It shipped from New Jersey. As for the problems (other than thermal runaway) I knew about them prior. Replacing a ptfe tube, noisy fans, hot end, cheap extruder and bed springs. That isn't a big deal to me. I'm not buying a great printer. I'm buying a cheap Ender 3 V2 clone to get me into the hobby.
For what it's worth, Prusa are down to four days or so to the continental US lately...
I can get that but still ender 3v1 is better and can get them for around 100 bucks.
@@MrMrbrown862 My Aquila is working great. V1 always costs less than the V2 this compares to.
I had wanted an Ender 3v2 for awhile but I got the Aquila because of the price. Knowing the upgrades I would already be doing regardless if I got and Ender 3v2, it just made more sense to get the Aquila.
My Aquila has bltouch, metal extruder, hard silicone bed mounts, raspi(octoprint), silent fans, flashed with Marlin and still costs less than an Ender 3v2.
May I ask what fans you upgraded to?
The slew of generic 3D printers that don't have much difference between them is precisely why when I researched & bought one 3 years ago I went for a Prusa i3 Mk3 because it clearly stood out above the crowd, most notably being an open source creation by a company that truly believes in their products.
3 years on and I'm still really pleased with my Prusa.
By contrast - my first printer was an Anet A8 that was given to me. I'm now building 3D printers for other people based on the experience I gained fixing the device's numerous safety issues.
That A8 is still working very well, though, and it doesn't even cool the heatbreak.
Total spent on it: ~250 USD, but WAY more time and effort.
For the record, it always printed very well. The time and effort was entirely for safety and reliability fixes.
Same here. I couldn't justify saving some money and then having to spend a lot more on fixing all the issues with sub standard product.
@@SwervingLemon yeah, but you had to pay 5 times as much, smartass.
I got an Anycubic. It's still different than most printers. In fact no printer looks like it in design and it's all metal and very solid. Prusa is good but it's not cheap. You can get similar quality from other brands, just don't go too far in the deepened of budget printers.
@@SwervingLemon my anet a8 has been running just about for going on 5 years now and I mean it's definately not the best thing but it gets the job done
Thanks for the Video Thomas, I didn't realize my original Ender 3 is 4 years old. It's been a reliable tool for me. But I'm not going to lie, I've had to learn it's needs and make mods where appropriate. The extruder is all metal, the bowden tube is capricorn, the bed is lightweight glass and the SKR controller to fix the thermal runaway issue. The problem with the low end of the market is that innovation costs money and far too many consumers look at price (myself included) as the deciding factor. In my defense this route has given me a better appreciation of what's needed for a successful print and has made me far more robust when things go wrong.
I will say however I truly appreciated that Creality released the Ender 3 as open source. Spares and firmware can be got anywhere. If My Anycubic Linear Kossel Delta ever punked out on me to the point where it was unrepairable I would just buy another Ender 3.
I disagree that the Aquila doesn’t have a place on the market, it’s one of the closest ender 3 clones with nearly all identical parts, excepts with a cheaper price tag. Cheaper prices promotes the overall price of 3d printers going down over time. I’ve had a great experience with my Aquila so far and would recommend it to anyone in the market for a printer.
I love my Aquila. It's an ultra-cheap, upgradable platform that is significantly cheaper than the Ender 3v2 while offering the same features/quality.
There a reason why people like - it appeals to the value oriented buyer. Not everyone can afford or wants to pay $400-$1600 for a "properly designed" printer.
"It's an ender 3 clone with a big screen. That does not feel like enough of a reason for this machine to exist." - Except it's 30+% cheaper for identical quality 😃
except its not? these bot comments literally have the opposite effect, they're so obviously bots that I end up disliking the product they're shilling on principle rather than fact.
Not wotking thermal protection is not "identical quality". It is an absolute no-go. Would you buy an car without basic safty features and call it o.k. because it 30% less than one with working breaks?
This printer is a health risk. There is no reason to justify that.
@@oleurgast730 I mean if I could flash a firmware on the car to get the safety features I'm missing out on, then sure lol
Yep. I'm farming with these now. Quick firmware flash, a couple tiny adjustments, and they're in service. I run these along side the ender 3s I used to get at this price point (which I then have to upgrade the main boards of, making them even more expensive than the aquilas. I have so far had more trouble out of my old enders.
If the engineers were only told to watch Tom's old videos, a lot of zero-cost problems could be avoided...
That's an interesting review Tom, thanks! I didn't quite get your opinion about the Aquila being actually worse than the Ender 3 V2. I recently acquired an Aquila as my first 3D printer. I wasn't going to print 24/7 and after some research about the available printers I decided on the Ender 3 V2. I've seen some reviews on the Aquila and my impression was, that it's basically the same or maybe a slightly better machine. At the time of my purchase the Aquila + three spools of filament sold for about the same price as the Ender 3 V2. Was it a good decision? I don't know, especially in the long run.
As I understand it, there is no printer in this price range that doesn't require some degree of tinkering. And even with my limited knowlege about 3D printing I was aware of it. Gladly, my printer doesn't have an air gap between the glass plate and the heated printing bed. After assembling the printer, first thing I did was checking for a new version of the firmware. I actually expect it to be a fairly widespread behavior, but maybe that's just me. I ended up replacing the firmware with a custom built one after I realized that the one provided by the manufacturer didn't support a routine for changing filament, or a manual bed leveling routine, or many other things.
But in the end it's just a clone, cutting a piece of the market cake that the Ender 3 (V2) dominates. The Ender 3 V2 doesn't come with a BL Touch, so why would you expect a clone to do so at a significantly lower price point? I don't agree that the manufacturer intended to add one and decided otherwise before shipping. I think they just provide the customer with an easy option to upgrade. Both printers are noisy. Both have the same extruder setup that seems to fail on everybody after some time. Both have part cooling coming only from one side. Yep, it's a clone.
The only thing I would ague is, whether it's really worth buying a machine in this price segment at all. And the answer depends heavily on the individual use case.
@@dangerous8333 No it's not, have you ever built either? Ender has no slide bearings, the ender has no rods, the ender doesnt have dual Z motors, the ender doesnt use a solid plate it uses extrusions, the build plates are different sizes, ender doesnt have mesh leveling, the list goes on and on....... they are not even similar
@@billzussman5277sure, but they're both 3D printers. Boom, roasted.
@@skeeterjames912 sick burn bro.... apparently you're not aware of what a roast is.....
my first 3d printer 2015 (flashforge creator pro) cost me almost $1200.00 usd. man times have changed.
Great work, Tom. I would be nice if FFF printer reviews would start out testing the three thermistor failure modes - both for the hot end and the bed - before even looking at anything else. It will never matter how quickly nor how well it prints when it fails basic thermal protections and can burn your house down. Thermal protection doesn't seem to get much air time any more.
As an owner of one of these, thank you for sharing the thermal runaway problem. Firmware update now a high priority.
Here is where I see this printer very appealing. The base structure and the price, thats about it. I just bought it over an Ender 3 and the Ender 3 Pro. For 169$ I found it attractive since I will be adding my own direct drive extruder, dual z axis, and a new BTT main board. For 169$ you get the structure of an ender 3 pro (bigger extrusion on the build plate means a more firm/solid platform) plus belt tensioners. Also, I always replace the build plate with my own. For all this at 169$, its a great deal.
After upgrading the firmware, the extruder assemlbly and doing a gantry rework, my aquila works great. considering the overall cost i cant complain.
I could not agree more Tom! I'm so tired and frustrated about all these 3D printers clones that flooded the market nowadays. They don't bring any innovation or anything over the original design except to confuse people.
If the stipulations for releasing a new machine is that it has to be revolutionary then we would be sorely lacking in the variety of machines that we have right now. I really feel as though that's not a good way to look at things. Creating MANY variants has helped put 3D printing in more homes.
3D printers are at the point where phones are currently... There isn't any new innovation being done. You either make them smaller, or larger. That's their selling point.
Lol you should've started this with "it's so uninspired I haven't even been showing you it this entire time"
Lol! The Last Week Tonight switchero.
I came across another one, claiming the amazing "innovation" of automatic mesh bed leveling on Kickstarter yesterday. Sadly it was fully funded in a day and currently has ~100 backers ($29,000).
Please don't tell me 100 people spent 290 dollars on that crap.
depending on the printers features n qualirt that might not be a bad price lol
I really like the way you laid this out. It really seems like Groundhog Day with the Ender 3 clones.
Complaints complaints complaints.... For you that may look like this printer has not much sence, but for some this is another oportunity to get a perfectly working and robust machine for less than $200 that prints awesome out of the box. I love my 3 years old ender 3, and the only thing that it gave me are awesome prints and experiences. The maintenance was minimun compared with my old prusa clone. Cost cut makes printers avaiable for everyone, like cheap $1 burguers feed more ppl than a premiun $50 burger does.
Yeah, he is a 3D printer guy that is surrounded by great printers, but really look at the cost of his camera equipment. This price level is a joke to him.
And we will never hear anyone from Voxelab actually respond to this review... Still, Tom, thanks for calling them out. It feels like the community really should work with IEC to create a basic safety particular standard for 3D printers. And, we should really demand that 3D printers be listed by safety agencies.
Strongly Agree*****
@@pawgoon7432 same. Safety is not something to take lightly.
Flashforge never admit to nothing they are a bunch of crooks! They are not proud of what they manufacture just want your cash..
@@paulbradley6271 that doesn't give me much confidence about the Voxelab Proxima I bought few weeks ago.
"This thing shouldn't exist!"
Bold move. Bravo. This is why I take your reviews seriously.
Agreed, Sort of. those burgers should not exist either. ..... but they do.... and they will keep existing. just like E3's will keep existing. and the reason sadly is very simple. That is where the CASH is.
I’m dying to know what you meant by locking the v wheels. Could you elaborate just a little? I’d hate if I’ve missed something all these years :-)
You position the offset nut so the v wheels aren't loose on the track and tighten the frame/jam nut so that the position is "locked" in and will take longer to loosen up
@@lukedavid8099 So basically you adjust the offset nut so the wheels are pressed against the rail?
@@RangerOfTheOrder Exactly that. You can try wobbling the carriage and will notice how it gets stiffer the more you tighten it up.
+10 points for pulp fiction references worked into your review.
Desperately trying to fix that absurd runaway crash is what led me to flashing Jyers, and whooo boy what an upgrade across the board. Its amazing what people who actually care will do for free versus the junk companies will charge you for.
Now they're just competing on price. But, you neglect to show the print quality, or how it compares to an Ender. The fit and finish (the Aguila Z rails appear to be cut identically while my and other Ender V2s are uneven, and therefore out of square. The thermal issues are serious, but can be fixed via firmware upgrades, as that's where the problem lies. Yeah, it's another clone, and it has issues, but it has improved some issues with the V2. Not all of us have Prusa or Voron money, unfortunately. I'd love to have both, but it isn't in my family's budget. I've upgraded most of the issues I've found with my V2: I've upgraded the extruder, installed a EZABL and first upgraded bed springs and then solid bed mounts, a dual Z drive kit, a Raspberry Pi, and on and on. I may have more than what I paid for the machine in mods, but I did it over time. I think the only thing I haven't upgraded is the fans and the hot end. These can be both tools and tinkering passtimes if done properly. If people want to make things without tinkering, they can get a Prusa at $1050 shipped for an assembled unit and have everything the could want (except speed) right out of the box. New designs are going to be more expensive off the bat. And a lot of us will only be able to afford later clones of that initial innovation. Right now the closest I can get to a Prusa i3 MK3S is a kit clone at $350.
This printer got me started so there clearly was a place in the market for it. Good vid.
Thanks for making this. It's so frustrating trying to find a printer that is actually good and actually innovative. I appreciate you checking the features so thoroughly and the "silent but fans" thing drives me absolutely nuts. Changed out all the fans on my Sovol and don't want to do it again.
Well it is basically the only printer in the Flashforge/Voxelab lineup that isn't. Look at the AD4 or the IDEX machines...
You absolutely nailed Tom! I own a Aquila, but i needed a cheap but good enough printer to tinker on, then is is one of the best bargains :) I have it running klipper, changed the bed and hotend, spend a lot of time tuning it to peek performance, now i have a 200 euro ish machine (Pi not included) running pretty high quality prints... because I can :D
But i do agree on the complete issue, out of the box it should be good to go and safe to use. There are too many clones cutting corners on features, quality and safety and spending too much on marketing lies.
I love reviews like this. You should make a short with their response if it's the kind that Angus highlighted. Really call them out on their BS. The race to the bottom is getting old.
It's not even a race to the bottom, more to the middle without fixing glaring flaws but adding new ones. Trying to make a printer for cheaper can be worthwhile, like cantilever printers with a lot fewer and cheaper parts.
Thanks for making this video! I'm planning to buy my first printer. I'll probably still buy this one but at least now I know what I'm getting. I'd love to get a prusa but I'm not sure how much printing I'll do. The price difference compared with Ender 3 v2 will allow me to upgrade the extruder and hotend. Would be great if one could buy a Chinese printer with genuine options from microswiss and bondtech. Not sure why these companies don't offer printers. Thanks for providing thoughtful and unbiased content!
I bought mine as a return for $89.
It works perfectly, with no incorrectly countersunk screw holes.
my power resume has never caused a failed print.
Thermal runaway is something I would like to have for peace of mind.
For what I paid, in my shop that is basically fireproof and well ventilated, I think it was a great buy. I will look for updates on firmware or even build my own marlin firmware for it. For me, out of the four Ender 3-types I own, it is my favorite, even.
I own a 3 yrs old Ender 3, a 1.5 yrs old V2, an Anycubic Mega ZERO 2.0 and the pre-chip shortage Aquila.
I also own a Longer 3D -built Alfawise U20 ONE that WILL print at 200 mm/sec(!!!) unmodified.
I've learned some valuable information in this video regarding a few issues that occur over time. Information you don't typically hear about. Not very often you see a 2nd review of a product showing how the equipment wears over an extended period of time. It's mostly short-term usage. It would be nice to see a second review of a product after a set time, or at first required maintenance.
Is this a bot? The whole point of the review is that there's barely any point in the review because it's just the same thing as every other printer.
@@HydraulicDesign A bot? 😂 nothing to do with this pinter one bit. It was about possible issues that arise after long term usage, and a couple other things. In hindsight, I'll admit my comment was a little "quirky".
Tom,
Your video production skills have improved tremendously over the last few years. Keep going, brother. Always good info.
I am in a market for a new printer and am so extremely fed up that most printers are just variations of the same printer, with little addons or size differences. Literally nothing new or different...
I for one is glad that these cheap clone 3d printers exist otherwise people like me who live in a third world country where the exchange rate is around 17:1 USD will never be able to get into this wonderful hobby.
I agree, but there should be at least standards for safety implementation.
@@TechnologistAtWork Very true, it cost nothing to implement safety features that exist in Marlin and at least test whether those features work, so there is no excuse for companies not to do so
That's fair. But I think Tom's primary concern is not that cheap 3d printers exist, but that the same design is just being copied over and over without any improvement or respect for safety.
You don't need a stream of badly done clones to get into the hobby. Just a single cheap model with relatively good design compared to all these.
I finally gave in with the cheap stuff and bought a prusa mk3
lol, Prusa is a joke, my Prusa minis have been nothing but a nightmare, stripping filament in the extruders and clogging up and underextruding. consistantly all the time.
*_Filament auto feeding:_*
Wow! Thank god for _that_ innovation Voxelab! Here I've been feeding filament into the hotend by hand for all these years.
Just make a standard one with recessed places for manufacturers stickers and good. By now every company has an Ender 3, just named slightly different.
Heck they're probably coming from the same factories for all we know! I'm sure they're sourcing many of the same exact components from the same few suppliers at least.
@@joegibes Of course, a lot of manufacturing works like that. It seems like there isn't ENOUGH of that going on in this market, as all these dumb little companies keep having to write their own firmware and do their own wiring and keep screwing up.
Thanks Tom for reviewing this machine. We've sold one, and I need to get ahold of that customer and update it for him.
alternative view: Cheapest ender 3 clone is the best, since you will be upgrading the hotend and extruder anyways.
Crazy idea, I know, but why not ship directly with a good extruder and hotend?
@@christophmuller3511 Because that isn't the market these machines are competing in. Prusas are available for those that want to spend the money on them.
I have an Ender 5 plus that I believe has the same extruder and hot end as the Ender 3, and I currently have no reason to upgrade the hot end or extruder. The machine prints great. Putting more expensive parts on it to begin with would have created a higher barrier for my entry into the 3d printing world.
Alternative view: avoidable fire hazards are kinda bad. We should have been past that point years ago, and yet apparently we aren't. Hotend and extruder aren't really that important in the grand scheme of things when the whole thing is on fire.
Why not get an original one in that case? They are even cheaper (150€)
@@christophmuller3511 Got to look at the audience that buys these printers. It is my first one! It is kind of like buying a pre built pc vs making a custom pc. When you aren't comfortable with building a computer you buy a pre built. Later on you can upgrade the gpu as you get more comfortable and like the hobby. Next PC you do a custom build. My next 3D printer will be a $2000+ core xy, if I continue to like the hobby.
I love how this printer not only doesn't have a filament detector, but also calls it "filament dectection" on the screen!
Thanks for the great review Tom, very insightful as always. 💜💙
P.S. I've never liked food burgers and now I don't like printer burgers either 😂
Super thorough and entertaining explanation of a oversaturated v-slot printer market.
Hey Tom, thanks for this brutally honest review lol, as I was looking at getting this printer. So would you recommend the Neptune 2 over this printer? I think this one has a genuine mean well PSU but I thinks that's the only good thing.
Yup, you either buy a ~$200 clone or you spend ~$600+ for something you need a 3d printer to build. Everything else is a mediocre printer, just in different sizes. Building a printer from scratch is a daunting task for a new-bee and/or a semi seasoned enthusiast. I see a company is making a printer that uses plastic "granules" instead of filament like we know. The problem is, it "looks" exactly like every other printer already on the market, there is nothing new, except it uses granules, which seems like a nightmare to be able to get.
I gotta say I actually love my aquilas... I bought an ender 3 and I honestly thought it was trash... maybe I got a lemon, but the ender 3 I got was terrible, and would barely even print out of the box... it was more expensive, louder, had less clear instructions... i returned the ender and bought another aquila, plus a few kg of pla with the money saved... none of mine have the bed screw issues.. yes there are a few things that I would recommend changing about it.. but I love them overall.... I run alex's firmware, so hopefully i don't have as much to worry about in the thermal safety department... (also on the BL touch front, there is stock firmware and instructions for the BL touch or clone, I use alexs and have ABL on all my printers so i cant say for sure how good the stock BL touch firmware is, but it does exist)
I don’t own a printer yet and I was really considering that one. But after seeing those issues that other reviews didn’t ever mention. I’m rethinking of even bothering to get one. Yes because of price
I think the only way to rescue 3d printing from its current state would be to ban the importation of these blatantly unsafe machines. It's clear there's going to be no end of trouble in a few years once everyone's Ender 3s start wearing down. Nevermind the inferior clones.
I don't think I can't look at my printer without mentally dubbing it "borderline disgusting" from here onwards.
I started looking through this since I have the printer. I got it for free at the last MRRF I was at.
The printer has a v1.2.4 firmware update. There is actually one for the G32 (no sticker specifying which printer else than the one with the serial number) without the bltouch and one with the bltouch.
OOF the frustration is real and TOTALLY understandable. This level of danger is not to be accepted. This race to the bottom HAS to cut corners if companies are to keep making money and safety is NOT ONE OF THOSE CORNERS TO CUT. Thanks for bringing light to this Tom! Hopefully this video will bring Flashforge Voxelab to make a change to the Aquila. We followed this whole debacle on twitter and are glad to see it if safe now, but you definitely should not have to go through this. For newbies this is a no go!
Cheap printers are nice, but if they don't have standard safety features they can get filed away with the Anet A8 as far as I am concerned!
Awesome shirt! the video was good also. You hit the nail on the head, flood the market with clones of clones. Glad to see the reviewers are trying to keep the industry in check. Love the wrap up! Burgers! Awesome!
Installed Alex's Marlin firmware on my Voxelab Aquila, printed a Satsana fan shroud to use a 5015 fan, and have never looked back. It prints better than all my Creality 3D printers and is less expensive. Best bang for the buck in the entry level 3D printer category.
I wish I watched your video before I bought my Voxelab S3. The bright side is that is that it is an Ender 3 clone so I can always convert the machine over to custom firmware and Ender 3 board.
I bought one of these specifically to be a platform for tinkering. I was planning on tweaking the firmware anyway, but thanks for pointing out the safety issues so I know to look for them. And I agree, shipping them with safety issues like that is completely unacceptable, especially because many people will buy this as their first printer. I had my first printer for two years before I even bothered to touch the firmware. That's a lot of time for something to go wrong.
And as far as justification to exist? It's $100 cheaper. That's about it.
The funny thing is, you can still get an original ender 3, put proper firmware on it (marlin, klipper, whatever you want) and start 3d printing for 130€ (or maybe 150 if you don't have the equipment to flash an old 8-bit melzi, though i think all ender 3s sold now have 32bit and a bootloader pre-installed).
And yes, I did quite some "upgrades" to my ender 3. But the ones I'd really recommend would be: Spring Steel Printbed, an original Slice Engineering BiMetal Heatbreak and better part cooling (which you can print with the printer), And if you really feel like you have to push the price well beyond 200€, get a new board with TMC2209s.
Thermal runaway protection is enabled by ONE LINE in the Marlin firmware. How could they manage to do it wrong?
That is exactly why we have things like VDI 2222-1 that tells you to first analyse the problem, find solutions for all the single problems to solve and then combine different parts. It prevents engineers to develop the ever same solutions and never get to better solutions.
I would not even call the process of "developing" a machine like this engineering. That is nothing else than an insult for honest engineers.
I guess just save some money and buy a decent printer?
It seems kind of redundant at this point to ask out of curiosity whether the board has an STM32 or a GD32 processor, but we want to make sure to provide the most proper mainline Marlin configuration for this new entry in the Ender-3 clone crowd since it’s doubtless users will be wanting to upgrade.
Man I really love you. I did review on Aquila 6 months ago and I was happy. But you expert and the point you mentioned very important and open my eyes in other sutff. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
So among all this issues, Wich one to get? A ender 3 for 180$? A Ender 3 V2 for 260$? Or the aquila for 160? As far as I know the aquila is a ender 3 V2 clone, so is silent and prints a little better than a regular ender 3, need some advice here because is so much hazzle and no money to spear.
i think this is one review where Tom did not need to put his disclaimer about Voxelab not having any influence in his review. :)
I don't understand the frustration of having more Ender 3 clones. Having more competition/more choices for consumers is a good thing. How is it a bad thing for society when there is more competition and consumers are able to get more for less? This printer provides most of the features ender 3 v2 at a lower price, hence to popularity. Sure it's got flaws; it would not be priced this low if it doesn't.
Agreed. I'm in uni and didn't have a lot of cash to get a prusa for example, so getting this thing for 150 bucks was absolutely amazing as an entry into 3D printing.
This is exactly like how the computer hardware review sites don't spend much time on the cheaper components or how car review sites only want to talk about the fastest. Tom is a 3D printer expert so he wants to talk about the high end stuff, not the cheap stuff for new people.
@@SiXiam yeah, but I wasn't aware that Tom was required to review this machine for some reason. There are others on CZcams who have already reviewed this machine and pointed out the issues he had mentioned.
@@nmos001 And then they would get the views and Tom wouldn't. If he doesn't want to review the printers thoroughly, then every so often he can give an update video on a few of the new cheap printers and why people should build a $2000 printer like he is. He just hurts his own channel by not wanting to cover the cheap printers that people are going to buy.
@@SiXiam I'm atleast a little skeptical that this CZcamsr with so many subscribers need to depend on this review to attract viewers, but whatever, let's just say that is correct. There is still no reason to get angry or frustrated at companies simply for making ender 3 clones as it still provides a positive benefit for consumers. This printer provides better prices. Other clones may provide some unique features or unique combination of featurs
This mustbe the best Segway too a sponsor that I have ever seen😁
Just looking at those burgers has given me heartburn :)
They're basically 3d printed burgers.
That was a sponsor segue worthy of LegalEagle. :D
I was *going* to say "I think there's value in a printer that offers nothing new and no special features but manages to have a very low price point, and surely this fills that niche?" But then I got to the bit about the bolluxed up thermal protection. Obviously a cut-price printer is going to have to save money somewhere... but the areas that risk major property damage, injury, or even death sure aren't the place to do that.
Interestingly, I checked my bed screws and they were recessed already. So looks like they have started to address some issues.
The first thing I did after watching this video however is flash Alex's firmware to get the thermal runaway protection then order some ferrules and a crimper. Thanks for the thorough review, I now have a prioritised list of things to replace or add
The sponsor segway kill'd me ;)
I just got one and once levled I get amazing prints. I also noticed that they fixed alot of the issues that you are bringing up btw
I am so glad I brought a Prusa Mk3s. Fun to build and just worked. I know it is much more expensive but I decided to wait and save up for longer.
It has auto-load and unload, it doesnt have anything to do with a runout sensor. I love mine, works well
Great video! Hope that many consumers and manufacturers see it! Bought my Craftbot 1 back in 2014 and it still works great. It already had a graphical UI and touch screen and PEI print bed. Now, 7 years later companies come up and praise it as new. Ridiculous.
This is my 2nd printer had it for like 1.5-2 years barely used until recently and have been doing some slight upgrades. Got it for 175$. Just upgraded to Alex FW today
I like all your details but honestly I've had an e3v2 for about 2 years without issues on the PTFE hotend or the extruder gears. I'm not sure whether some of this might still be leftovers from what you learned about older printers while by now the same technology doesn't have some of these issues anymore.
Hi Thomas.
I just discovered your channel after I recently started to research 3D printers for a purchase.
I'm in the position where I'm about to start a R&D project, developing a device for a very 'high-profile' client. Therefore I need something that gives me as few headaches as possible and excellent results coupled with easy to use tools for my rapid prototyping needs.
I must say that I've got an enormous amount of useful information in just a few days by watching your channel. Everything from suitable materials to hardware to be purchased. Thank you so much for your effort and kudos for a very easily digested style of propagating knowledge! Five stars! ✨
And yes, I've landed at the Prusa i3 MK3s+ as my machine of choice for my first filament printer used for this project. Possibly also a Prusa Mini to be able to do some tinkering while the other is occupied.
These will be used for printing a sort of 'device holder' to hold a device which is going to be measured optically and acoustically. The precision of the printer output will be important since it will need miscellaneous inserts like threaded bushings and screws, rubber cushions, etc. Also the visual appearance of the prototype product is of importance. I think my choice is the correct one all things taken into consideration. ☺️
If I want a good burger, and I don't want to make it myself, I go to a local tap house which makes them to order, from scratch. Five Guys does a passable job in a time crunch if I go for a chain. The big "drive-thru" chains are only useful if I'm hungry and literally nobody else is open. (I understand Whattaburger and In-N-Out make good burgers as chains, but those aren't local to me.)
Incredibly well done. Along with many others, I do plan to get this as my first printer, but will update the firm ware immediately and am planning to add bltouch immediately as well.
Really is a shame there isn't much 'new' in the budget market. It's like an Ender 3 clone every week; not even remotely innovating any existing part of it.
I feel like these are good "upgrade printers" or 2nd printers for some. Got a voxlab myself with a few friends and they love it @ $168-188 price point makes it a good gift and starting point for some. Key component is the silent drivers. I just wish they used better fans, but i already replaced those for $10 and 1hr of my hobby time.
I will replaces the clips and add some insulation under the bed after seeing this video, TY!
Did you find quieter fans that drop in? Looking for some to quiet this machine down a bit as the stock ones are noisy. Agreed though, this is my 3rd printer and after doing research and being aware of minor upgrades which go a long way, I love it.
@@SpeedyPotato_
WINSINN 40mm Color LED Fan 24V Hydraulic Bearing Brushless 4010 40x10mm - High Speed (Pack of 4Pcs)
"its fine if you need a hobby", after my friends buying 1stgen printers I saved up for a few years extra and bought a Prusa. Cad is enough of a new hobby, no need to be a printer technician.
You will not be spared from becoming a 3D printer technician, because the underlying technology is unreliable and prone to wear; this is why if you're a major business, you buy Ultimakers, and you buy them on a service contract, and you buy more than you need, and you spend tens of thousands on the endeavour with the goal of having just one or two machines operational at all times - they will still break down, but then it's the service company's problem, not customer's.
The best thing you can do in a home setting is not having to be a proficient technician on day 1 or within just a couple weeks of ownership, which would probably overwhelm most people, and i think Prusa products are very adequate in this regard.
It's pronounced a-kee-la. I bought the C2 model and it's the best 3D printer I ever bought. It's also the first 3D printer I ever bought, but I'm glad I bought it. I would have appreciated you telling us what the 'easy fix' is to lock the wheels (1:45) rather than just complaining that the manual doesn't tell us (neither did you).
...You mentioning locking the bed wheels or they loosen over time got me to check mine.
...I'll be back in a minute.
Wow ! I hope the companies take some of this to heart.
Also, A&W Canada burger
Looks like Voxelab watched this video then came out with the X2. I just bought an X2 and it has none of the problems you mention in your video. Well maybe the thermal run away but not sure how to tell. Word is they are releasing the firmware source so shouldn't take long for that issue to be a done deal. For what I paid I'm a happy owner.
3D Printer Exists:
Thomas Sanladerer: FIRE HAZARD!!!!