Review on SainSmart Ender 3 3D Printer Printing by Jake Pavelko

TLDR - Serious mechanical problems, poor quality control and surprisingly poor and slow customer service. Save some extra money and just buy a Prusa. The Ender 3 worked pretty well for about two weeks, but I didn't know much about 3D printers at the time. I noticed right away that the hot end was crooked but looked at it as I was very excited to start typing. I noticed that my base layers became very uneven even when I was very diligent about leveling the bed. I tried to add automatic bed leveling with TH3D's EZ-ABL. That's when I really started to discover all the problems with this printer. I found the frame was nowhere near square. When trying to fix this, I found that the left Z-axis strip was miscut and heavily forward-leaning. Some work with an angle grinder has mostly fixed this problem, but isn't it taking too many straight cuts? The portal is a different story, it just won't stay on the same level no matter how hard I try. I also got very inconsistent results from ABL and the z-offset was far away even between consecutive prints. Sometimes the first layer was insanely high, sometimes the nozzle hit the layer. Tim from TH3D was very helpful and ABL was ok. All problems were due to mechanical issues with the printer. I then discovered that the Y-axis rod was deformed, causing the greenhouse to move up and down as it slides along the track. I also found that there was no buffer between the eccentric steel nuts used to adjust the tension of the rollers and the aluminum bed and gantry frame. As a result, the eccentric nuts shear off the aluminum every time you use them to adjust wheel tension. So the more I tried to fix the problems, the worse they got. This is probably why the platform won't stay level and this will greatly aggravate the bouncing and rocking of the bed. Also, when adjusting the eccentric nuts under the bed, aluminum chips got into the roller bearings and worsened the bouncing of the bed. And as if all that wasn't enough, the ribbon cable going to the controller box shorted out and blew. I literally struggled with this for months. I contacted SainSmart and they responded first asking for photos and videos of the issues which I provided them. They even said they are preparing to send me spare parts. However, there was no reaction. I don't get anything for a week or more before I send an update request, but the updates are slow and not very helpful. I'm not sure if they will send me replacement parts or not. If I had known what I know now when the printer arrived I would have returned it. While waiting for the company to send me the parts, I ordered and received a fully assembled Prusa I3 MK3 (if you look at the delivery time, that should give you an idea of how slow SainSmart is in getting me parts). Prusa is a dream come true compared to Ender 3. Everything works right out of the box! The essence of SainSmart Ender 3, be careful! If you are in any way planning to get this printer cheap then update the details like adding an ABL, tuning a better hotend, buying a Simplify3D etc. Just save your money and buy a Prusa. It comes with all the upgrades you could want and more, plus software designed to do it. I'll update this post if SainsSmart ever sends me parts, but I don't have high hopes at the moment.