Why the Creality CR-10 Smart is not so smart - Honest review

[@MakersMuse]

Very fair, and you're way more composed than I would have been. I think printers on the market now are actually worse than 2017 - promises of 32bit and silent steppers mean nothing when they can't even print properly and have features that have clearly never been tested. That clear filament guide, there's zero chance that was usability tested and only made because people said it was hard to guide filament into the bowden. To their credit, Creality is the only major 3dp company to not beg for a video to be edited or removed after a negative review, at least for me.

[@redwraith6576]

we had this discussion before but somehow it seems that customer are now more like beta tester. We had severl issues with the cr6se and now the cr10 smart. Same with Anycubic and the Vyper. So many people have issues with the sensor, this should have been seen while qc of the printer.

[@samrichard4156]

Guess thats one more reason to stick to a good 3dp company, if you want a very good out of the box experience... like Prusa does it ... yeah sure they also got or make some faults... but in general they just work

[@TheLordinio]

this doesn't even seem like beta hardware. Beta would mean to me that all mayor features are implemented and usable. A 3d printer without electronic or mechanical bed leveling isn't a working printer in my opinion

[@redwraith6576]

@@benchapman5247 you know the heatbed strain relief from the newer models? this was also a model from thingiverse which got adopted. but in that case the author stated that creality asked for his allowance. ​ @TheLordinio same with the anycubic vyper, my strain gauge was defect and also the belt slipped from the motor. meaning I had to dissamble the printer, which was not made for dissasembly. I needed to cut open the magnetic heat bed sticker to get to the screws.

[@redwraith6576]

@@samrichard4156 unfortunately prusa does not offer a machine with this build volume. This is something i would really like to look forward to.

[@maximilianoorona4440]

By the way, your review policy is brilliant!! One of the best things I've seen for KZbin reviews. I'm sick of youtubers showing only good features, and skipping bad ones, just to get a free product from the manufacturer.

[@suyashsonawane1892]

Really Honest Review

[@kikainonakanoakuma]

This video convinced me to abandon Creality except for the flatbed model.

[@ress87]

I got a bit irritated first watching this since he was so negative about the printer I was about to get. Then I realized what an idiot I was. I'll be much happier with the one i bought.

[@AmbitiousPanda]

@@ress87 what did you buy

[@TheRealSamPrentice]

A hundred no's are less agonising than one insincere yes. Great review sir!

[@sed6]

Glad I got a Voxelab Aquila instead. Creality sounds less than interested in developing product consumers want and can use.

[@robnixon515]

Great review. Creality does not seem to be listening to its users complaints about their more recent produce offerings, and that is very concerning. Selling a printer advertised as having automatic bed leveling that doesn’t work is unconscionable, but I don’t expect Creality to take this issue seriously given that their response to a popular KZbinr is to exonerate themselves of blame and instruct the user to manually level the non-adjustable bed. That’s outrageous. As is architecting the electronics so that a Pi cannot be hooked up. At this point it seems as if Creality is more of a marketing firm than a 3D printer manufacturer. Another thing - the meanwell power supply in my e3v2 is literally the only stock part aside from the extrusions and motors that hasn’t failed me in the four months since I bought the printer. Literally ever Creality-manufactured part has failed or presented as defective. Why would anyone *want* a Creality-branded PSU? It’s like Creality has zero regard for how they are perceived. It’s a very egotistical, even narcissistic organization.

[@kiwicolourstudio5309]

@@robnixon515 it's crazy the ABL isn't working properly on this machine when it uses the same system as the CR6 SE and CR6 Max both of which work very well (at least in my experience of using them). Creality seems to have highs and lows - I'm sure this machine will be good in 6 months but a shame to see such a poor result at this time. They have been in the game long enough to do better than this.

[@Fanaticalfentons]

@@robnixon515 A Raspberry pi can be hooked up. It’s a 2 minute job to do it and is straight forward 👍🏻

[@robnixon515]

@@Fanaticalfentons how is it done?

[@MrChalboy]

I have a suggestion with reasons why Bed leveling failed based - I noticed at 9:35 I didn't think you had the SD card in. With the CR-6 the community firmware devs noticed that Creality save the bed leveling to the SD rather than EEPROM for some reason, without an SD card in there it may not have been saving it.

[@Northumbrian08]

Thanks for this comment as it seems to have worked for me. I was literally pulling my hair out with the ABL problem but it seems to now be resolved after inserting an SD card. I can only assume its due to the firmware update as I never had this problem before.

[@jasonm1135]

@@Northumbrian08 do you still like using it?

[@ransombot]

I really like your reviews. You do a good job at breaking down the good and bad, and not getting stuck raving about the good, or ranting about the bad. Thanks.

[@diegovd7215]

Didn't Steve Jobs say something close to: "When Marketing takes over Engineering... it's the beginning of the End" ?

[@stich1960]

If he did it would be absolutely hilarious

[@tldr365]

He must be doing flips in his grave then.

[@TommiHonkonen]

yeah but apple doing that since forever

[@BeefIngot]

@@TommiHonkonen People who say this really dont pay attention to apple products. They put business ahead of both marketing and engineering, but they dont do anything thoughtlessly.

[@tasmedic]

This, from the guy that sold phone hacking tone dialers designed and built by others, at different prices, depending on how the buyers were dressed? That's pure irony, and insincere irony at that.

[@Filmman586]

Thank You. I just cancelled my order. Appreciate the honest review.

[@Filmman586]

Do you recommend the Viper?

[@davidporter8241]

@@Filmman586 My question as well. I have high hopes some competitor will wake up creality so reviews like this are not necessary. There are several Vyper reviews out there, sadly lots of bug issues are being expressed.

[@X0X0LFertilizer]

Anything Anycubic or Creality is sure to be mediocre. But, if you are willing to tinker and mod it , it can be better than MK3s

[@PiefacePete46]

Michael, your reviews are essential watching for anyone who wants thorough, unbiased, and informed assessment of a product. Many thanks again.

[@SimPilot-dl8zy]

I agree with you one hundred percent. I have watched a few of their live shows and they asked several times what people wanted and they keep saying yes but not doing anything to improve their products. I for one will not spend anymore money on their products until they start producing efficient Printers. I guess what I am saying is stop flooding the market with a new machine release every month and concentrate on giving the public one or two perfect machines. The Cr 10s Pro that I bought a couple years ago is probably one of the best purchases I made and even though it has had a couple issues it has run flawlessly. I am really considering spending more on a higher end machine in the future as I am finding other Companies are actually working with their customers to ensure they get what they paid for. Love your Chanel and all you do for the Community. Randy

[@TeachingTech]

The Pro I reviewed was also great after I did some fixes. Easy to use and high quality. It shows the potential of these machines if they were properly sorted.

[@just.some.dud3]

Outstanding review, Michael. Greatly appreciate how thorough and honest you are. Cheers!

[@miguelm4845]

Michael, thank you for the invaluable service to the 3D printing community. This vid is a great example of professional objectivity and honesty.

[@kymbo2117]

I am very happy i watched your review as i was literally about to walk out my door and go and buy this exact printer .had a last look on the website to make sure it was still in stock and your video review popped up after the creality advert showing how easy it was to assemble but after watching your review it answered what questions i had about it and i quickly changed my mind . thankyou for your honest review . this printer should not even of been released to the public in it present state as it has to many inherit problems even for an experienced printer user . what is creality thinking . i know they are the cheap end of the market but you still expect it to work as advertised . again thankyou for saving me constant headaches and $650 AUD

[@Fanaticalfentons]

Very honest review. Had mine for 5 weeks now and touch wood I’ve been very lucky with level bed and no other issues. A lot I know have had terrible problems with bed levelling and it been so hit and miss. On paper it had good potential it just seems to be missing and had very little failures. My fans don’t seem to be as loud as yours thou think. Very disappointed with the z axis adjustment is not finer. Hopefully some decent firmware updates in the future.

[@nikoraasu6929]

I really wish Creality would start releasing less new printers but with actual thought behind them. If they keep making mediocore (or bad) printers, they're not gonna satisfy most of us...

[@petercallison5765]

I sell 3D Printers. Customers want the latest model and I have to deal with endless problems and returns. I still sell Ender 3s and nobody ever complains about them. Mind you I now recommend The Lotmaxx Sc-10 to newbies and so far so good.

[@AndrewAHayes]

@@petercallison5765 I have six FDM printers 5 Chinese and a Pro3D V-King 400 that I built myself and this one and an Ender 2 are the only ones I dont have problems with, I shall not be buying any more Chinese 3D printers as they all have something that fails or does not work

[@BeefIngot]

@@AndrewAHayes What type of nonsensical xenophobic nonsense is this. You buy 5 crappy cheap printers from bad companies and blame it on a nationality because you buy a significantly more expensive printer from a different company that builds enthusiast printers to dunk on it?? Ridiculous. How about you be honest compare those printers to something like a Bambulab X1C, another chinese printer but this time not a bargain bin basement printer you use to justify your unfair reasoning, but one with effort and engineering put into it?

[@MrGerhardGrobler]

Hi, Last year I bough the Ender 3 S1. Basically a build and print printer. The ABL works fine. The print quality is awesome. So I bought the Ender 2 Pro's after watching #CHEP's video on them. I have yet to be disapointed in their print quality. And so easy to assemble.

[@nikoraasu6929]

@@MrGerhardGrobler Prusa would still be a better choice than a chinese printer in 90% of situations

[@scottwood5515]

I just ordered one of these as my first printer and I wish I had seen this video first. I will hopefully receive an updated version as this video is over 1 year old. Thanks for the heads up on some of the issues. I am new to the community and am looking forward to having a great new hobby and learning about these machines.

[@almarma]

Did you got it? Does it work fine now? I was exploring the market and this printer looks like a good candidate for me, until before I watched this video. I'm very sceptic about getting it now that I know all its flaws.

[@peppe15]

Thank you for this review. I was buying this printer but you helped me to save my money 👍

[@dleland71]

Good & honest review. I own a E3v2 and am completely happy with it, but I wouldn't own this printer, even for free. Thanks for the "heads-up".

[@aim6mac]

i don't think after this honest review Creality no more will send you printers... LOL, but thumbs up for your honesty , i love your content!

[@TechBrewGamer]

10:35 ~ this seems like an auto response to a non auto bed level system. I don't think they understood your question. There is an ender 3 v2 firmware that shows you the saved mesh. does this one have the same thing? where you can see the mesh?

[@TeachingTech]

I can't connect to the mainboard to see if the mesh is stored in EEPROM without opening up the machine and disassembling the Creality box. Unless the touch screen is modified to include feedback the user is in the dark.

[@NoMoreBsPlease]

@@TeachingTech Isn't there GCode to read out the saved settings? I thought M501 spit it out somewhere?

[@ciskje71]

@@TeachingTech use M420 S1 after a G28

[@lionheart13061994]

@@NoMoreBsPlease You can do this (M503) but on this particular printer you'd have to disassemble the electronics as the Mainboard USB port which is normally used to connect to a PC is blocked by the Creality WiFi Board.

[@eclarkmx]

Michael, I believe you are in the right track. Creality and other cheap 3D printing manufacturers are confusing the term DIY with buy trash and fix it yourself. Yes we like to tinker with machines and working with settings but we should get quality product from the start, and not being used to find out what they need to fix.

[@mururoa7024]

Thank you accepting to be the guinea pig so nobody else has to!

[@flukve3574]

Thank you so much for this review! Have been thinking about getting something new, but will be sticking to my heavily modded CR-10 V1 that prints like a dream.

[@dougs6460]

I just received (Apr 2023) a new CR-10 Smart machine and once I got it set up, I was amazed how quiet it is compared to my 2017 CR-10. I had no idea what the clear plastic piece was, and thank you for your insight. Auto bed leveling is slower now because it has 25 touchdown points instead of your 16, and still no way to compensate for the nozzle being too close and damaging the print surface. I will say the 2 test prints I have completed had excellent adhesion and the bed had to be stone cold before the print could be released and could not be pried off before that. I would be interested in hearing if the auto-level function can be disabled for subsequent prints during a session.

[@AndrewduToit]

Wow I am glad I found this video. Must have missed it in July. But I just received an email of Creality's black Friday deals and I immediately gravitated to the CR-10 Smart since I am looking to go bigger than my Ender 3v2. But after this video I have second thoughts. Thanks for your honest review. Still love your channel.

[@frankwalker232]

the best review on all youtube! fantastic, thank you. i bought this printer on bangood yestarday XD. i already have ender 3 V2.... i hope that all will be ok

[@jb3d247]

Thanks for the honest review. I just noticed on Creality's site they are not shipping this printer from China to Australia now.......

[@kikainonakanoakuma]

Haha, they just got shredded in the review and now they're just not going through with it

[@veritanuda]

Absolutely right. ABL not being used even after doing the probing is unacceptable. Myself I have a pimped Ender 3 with BL touch and the 2 things I do before any print is wipe the bed down with Isopropyl and the do a 16 point check with the Bed Visuliser plugin from Octoprint so I can see how far things have drifted or moved. Touch wood, I levelled the bed last year and it has remained within .1mm tolerances so far. ABL is important if you are a newb and have no idea of why it is important, epecially on a glass bed. As to the other short comings.. well at least it does seem it will be hackable once enough are around for people to test on and installing Marlin will go to a lot to help some of the glaring errors we are seeing. Thanks for the honest review. I love my Creality printer and too am disappointed they are fumbling with the ball.

[@Jessterrr]

Outstanding! I just watched a review of the same printer by someone else and it was nowhere near as comprehensive and in the end, "they liked it." Your coverage of the Creality Cloud needs more attention as Creality needs to just drop the product and stop "acquiring" prints as if they were part of their library. It's shady. I never thought that a company as large as Creality would resort to content scraping to build their own site. Thanks for doing an thorough and forthright review.

[@saifalharazi1551]

i bought it and mine works more than perfectly !!!

[@NoName-vg1gz]

Could not agree more. QC is a vital key in retaining customer satisfaction. I recently purchased my first 3D printer (Ender 3 v2) and after the second print the part cooling and motherboard fan had already started to squeal. It is really not worth the time and effort to send the printer back so i just replaced them with "Well Known" brand. Great video.

[@greggsvintageworkshop8974]

What an honest and awesome review. Shame on Creality for over promising and way un-delivering.

[@thedarksage328]

Looks like I won't be getting a Creality printer anytime soon. Great review! Very comprehensive!

[@Northumbrian08]

Thanks to a comment on this vid I now think I have resolved the bed levelling problem by inserting an SD card into the printer. For whatever reason the printer would print too close to the bed, almost digging into the glass after ABL. I was literally pulling my hair out trying to resolve it and went through all the procedures I could find online to no avail. However after inserting an SD card in, it has started to print normally again after ABL. Why the problem started in the first place is beyond me as it printed great since purchase a few weeks ago. Maybe it was the firmware update, I don't know. But I thought I would post this to help anyone else with the same problem.

[@robertliptrott7358]

This was a good review which is very useful for newbies like myself, if this machine had been my first one it probably would have left me scratching my head for a while,keep up the good work,it much appreciated

[@3dbronze]

I think Creality’s main issue is that they try to update everything at once because they think bullet points sale printers. In actuality, what sales printers is one or two strong upgrades and reliability. If this printer simply had smart bed leveling that worked amazingly well and fast it would be worth it to me. I don’t need a fancier screen or 32 bit or anything else. I have three creality printers right now, but I haven’t used them as much lately because I find myself constantly changing nozels and messing with bed leveling (mostly because my prints have large full bed bases). I want something that levels easy, fast and is reliable. Looks like maybe I need to stop throwing money and time at Creality, buck up and buy a Prusa. Thanks for the very honest review! You saved me time and money!!!

[@DuhRake]

thank you, I was wondering about this printer and this showed me all the info I need

[@sandwichgod4659]

Could we get a review of what printers you are using currently and would recommend?

[@NuarStanger]

Another great video and a very honest review. Thank you. It's so frustrating and down right annoying that Creality's quality control is still non existant! I'll never forget receiving a brand new Ender 3 Pro that was wired incorrectly causing the x stepper driver to burn out... thankfuly I was familiar with the machines and immediately ordered an MKS Gen L board, but a total newbie would most likely get frustrated and never return to the hobby. That or they would spend a grand on a Prusa machine.

[@roysigurdkarlsbakk3842]

I once said that the perfect 3d printer for starters, was an ender 3, like, the original. It works out of the box, prints nicely, somehow, and all you need to replace is the extruder to make it last a bit longer and perhaps just work, and the hotend, since the one its got really sucks, and add ABL, since it hasn't got any. Also, there's the thing about the drivers, which are soldered on the mainboard, so better get somethingthing nice from SKR or something. Also, get a new build plate and perhaps fix a chassis for the printer if you want to use some styrene based filament or something else that's hard. Again, the bowden tube setup works ok, but for flex, it's a no go, so better get a sherpa mini or perhaps an orbiter instead and while you're at it, replace those nozzles with some 3D Solex ones that actually work with large nozzles without having to replace everything. After all of this, well, you'll have something that works rather well, perhaps like a prusa i3 mk3s or maybe even better, but the time and money spent on the way, tought you a lot.

[@jimbrust486]

Great to hear your very complete and fair review.

[@leemaxwell5035]

Good review. I originally wanted the CR-10 Smart as my first printer but they kept pushing back the date for availability and I opted for the Ender-6 instead. Now I'm glad I did.

[@Shadow_Banned_Conservative]

I'm very surprised how bad this was. I have the CR6-SE and it's probably my favorite printer. It's been reliable right out of the box with a very slight adjustment to the Y rail eccentric bolt, it was a little loose out of the box. Especially for the ABL which is supposedly from the CR6-SE, again mine has been flawless. I've only leveled the bed once out of the box, and one other time when I had to move it and it got knocked around a bit. I considered getting the CR10 on sale, but I might have to pass after this. I guess more motivation for something more modern and hopefully faster printing. I'm very much enjoying your channel and have turned a couple of people your way for how-to learning.

[@Lakusus]

My opinion is that you definitely received a lemon. Currently, I have 2 CR-10 Smart 3d printers and, aside from adhesion issues (couldn't get prints to stick without spraying LOTS of spray-on adhesive), I've not had any major issues, with them, and only very few minor issues. I will admit that I did have to return 2 of these printers, in the past, as there were component issues, meaning there were glitches in the touch screen that made one printer totally unusable and the other printer had a massive print failure that completely coated the bottom of the hot end assembly with filament. This last issue was entirely my fault for starting the print and then leaving, only to come back to what I thought was just a spaghetti mess, but turned out to be much worse. I did give it a go at trying to clean it up and spent ~2 hours working on it only to finally say screw it and returned the printer to Micro Center where I had purchased it. The only caveat is that MC required the printer to be disassembled enough to fit back in the original box (sans packing foam) so that it could be completely closed. These two printers, that I now have, are beasts and I've put probably 1500-1600 hours of printing through each with very minor and few issues. I have had them both for a little over a year, now, and would definitely recommend others to get one, especially if they're new to the game as these are very straight forward and user friendly, IMO. The auto-leveling feature works just fine on both of them. Usually, if I have a print that is messing up, all I have to do is auto-level the printer and the issue is resolved. Oh yeah...I DO agree that the wifi IS total junk. I've never been able to connect wirelessly to ANY of these, but that's not an issue for me as they are both mere feet away...and I need the exercise. ;) One more thing: as for the camera? I use a Wyze camera that plugs in to the USB A port strictly for power and this works flawlessly. To conclude, I would say get one, especially if you're just starting out. If it turns out to be a lemon (and you can pretty much find this out right away), just disassemble it, throw it back into the box it came in and exchange it for another. If you get one that works like both of mine do, you'll be very happy with it!

[@tannguyen9786]

Thank you for always been true to your review. Great job

[@RDTOYS]

Really so deep and honestly review video bro

[@markmcd2780]

Thanks for your reviews - they help newbs like me to see pros and CONS ( :D more important it seems than the Pros) before we buy. As others have said, I was looking at this for the print size - I have some specific projects in mind that would be a bit annoying on a small workspace - and the fancy extras. I have spent days looking for a printer with good reviews and a large print space that has direct extruder + ABL built in + good cooling + upgrade possibilities for the future. The lack of a manual system for BL seems odd - many others have ABL AND manual so you can do basic level before engaging the ABL - seemed a logical thing to have. Given some of the failures of ABL I've seen, the blind faith in their system is a little odd. The one thing Creality have going for them is the huge supporter community - it seems pretty easy to get assistance for anything bu the CR-10 Smart is maybe a bit new to have built a base of support. Now I'm looking at the Artillery Sidewinder X2 - bit concerned searching for anything on it might get me on a terror watchlist though. :D

[@Nurgelrot]

Great review. 100% agree with your conclusions on what they should have done.

[@AndrewAHayes]

I have to take my hat off to you Micheal, some YT channels (just a few) only interest seems to be the accumulation of free stuff with no objectivity whatsoever

[@spedi6721]

Thanks for this smashing review. Flooding the market with useless products doesn't help anyone. If you are a beginner and think "no, I don't get one of these cheap 150 bucks things, I want something better", but they end up with a more or less useless machine spending 500 bucks. That's insane! There is simply nothing that makes the printer stand out in any way. Functioning ALB isn't a new thing where nobody knows how it works. This thing is just recycling parts. Maybe they can't sell the creality box itself so they have ppl sitting dismantling them and putting them into the printers to get rid of them. And the fans are the cherry on the cake. If they continue that way, they will shoot themselfs out of orbit.

[@jeremyhsu8363]

Thank you for this review, I might haven gone and purchased it if I hadn’t watched your review

[@mortenudns4152]

Good review! I also own the CR-10 Smart. Luckily the bed was straight/level/flat. I had issues with the extruder. After upgrade to the metal version meant for the CR-10 it has worked very well. To bad Creality QA sucks. They are loosing a lot of money on bad reviews. After opening the printer, it is possible to expose a usb-cable for connection to Octoprint. To bad they did not do this default.

[@goofylookingmofo]

Nice to see an honest review covering both good & bad points. No karate chop during assembly? Maybe a boot to the head of the QA team?

[@bkdroid]

I have been fighting with my new CR-10 Smart for the past 3 weeks. And run into every issue you noted, and more. Creality QA and especially Support is really terrible. I've had to engineer my own solutions to each issue where support provided unhelpful replies once every couple days. Mine has the bonus issue of e-steps being way off, and no way to adjust them. I also found that the dual-z was assembled unevenly. One side was a full rotation higher than the other.

[@NovaToymation]

Did the adjustments fix your printer and were you able to get it auto leveling? I’ve been trying to get mine leveled for a week by Creality’s daily recommendations for me an no luck yet. It levels the center of the bed great but makes no adjustments beyond that.

[@bkdroid]

@@NovaToymation I printed a bunch of first layer test prints and tensioned the screws in the aluminum bed until it was almost perfect. Spacers like in the video would be better, but take a lot longer. Unfortunately I've yet to reach the end of the issues with this machine.

[@rickkap8502]

Thank you so much for this honest review. I was in the market to purchase this printer when they first advertised it but couldn't find anybody reviewing it. Creality did do a live show where you could ask questions and they performed a few prints using PLA but they struggled to get the model to stick to the bed whilst printing and it was a disaster. With this being there 'NEW' flagship printer i was eager to purchase it, but the thing that put me off was with the ABL and after watching the liver performance, trying to get the model to stick to the bed.. The fact that the nozzle is being used as the sensor, there have been times when after i've printed a model some filament has been left behind on the nozzle and i thought that this would make the bed levelling inaccurate and decided at that point to go for a Prusa i3 MK3 and i've never looked back. After watching your review this probably wouldn't have made any difference. I now know i made the right decision and i'm so glad that i didn't buy one.

[@markam67]

Thank you so much for a great review I had been waiting to see how this printer was going to perform. It was going to be my first printer but it seems I will now be going the route of getting a more basic proven printer and upgrading it over time.

[@justinchampion5468]

Thanks for a great review... I'm normally a Creality fan (I love my modded ender 3) but this ^ printer seems like a half-baked rush-job. I use Octoprint on a RPi3 with a CSI connected Camera and I love the setup.

[@rrrubiera]

Thanks for your review . I had been considering this printer since I have a CR6SE which I am happy with. I will look for something else in the 300 x 300 x 400 arena.

[@chemicalartist3d289]

My Cr10spro v2 also never used the abl even when i added G29 to the starting gcode... turned out that i needed to add M420 S1 too to get it to load. Still not the best ABL but now there is at least some compensation. Creality expects you to run the Abl once before every print manualy and then it should be loaded automaticly ... but since its creality .... it doesnt work.

[@MucitPilot]

Hey bro, I am also suspicious about the same issue with my v2. Before every print it makes the abl session but I think it’s not compensating the new measurements. I’m not so experienced with the gcode details. What should I do exactly? Thank you

[@chemicalartist3d289]

@@MucitPilot if you use cura you need to edit the starting script (Settings-> Printers->manage Settings-> Machine settings for your printer and then add: G29 ;Auto bed Level M420 S1 ;Save and use the Mesh after G28 to your Starting Gcode. Its not a 100% guarnte fix but i have quite a high success rate with that change. Additional advantage of that is that if you change bed or nozzle temps you have some compensation for that too since this makes your abl run at the start of every print.

[@MucitPilot]

@@chemicalartist3d289 thank you for your detailed answer. I use Cura and when I checked my startup gcode I have g28 then g29. There’s no M420 S1 code. I will add that to my startup and try. Thanks again.

[@eideticex]

@@MucitPilot It's to note that G29 really doesn't seem to work reliably on my Ender 3 V2. Sometimes it'll enable leveling, sometimes it wont. Easier to just set a post process script to add M420 S1 after G28. The firmware option isn't even as reliable as good ol' find and replace.

[@MucitPilot]

@@eideticex thanks

[@Garage3Dcl]

Tenemos 2 de estas impresoras y funcionan muy bien. Al montarlas solo debes tener la precaución de ajustar bien las ruedas de deslizamiento. La retracción que hemos usado mayoritariamente es de 8 mm y 45 mm/s de velocidad. La funcionalidad smart es con la aplicación Creality Cloud, la cual también funciona bien. No hemos tenido que hacer ninguno de los ajustes indicados en esta review. Bueno, saludos y gracias por el video y los detalles.

[@gratefulamateur1393]

Esta impresora no tiene ruedas de deslizamiento.

[@pirobot668beta]

Insert M420 S1 in your start code. M420 S1 M28 no leveling. M28 M420 S1 leveling! M420 S1 can be set and saved in firmware, if you don't want it in gcode.

[@ciskje71]

G28 clear the ABL, you are correct. M420 S1 reenable it.

[@andreknudsne7648]

just bought the same printer and have the same problem.. where do i type this code in the G-code?

[@TheJacklwilliams]

After a great deal of learning on my 240 dollar Anet A8 Plus I'd say, bedleveling is a must for the next one (though i finally learned how to manually dial mine in which rocks) and I can honestly say without a live USB port I'd not buy it. I don't use Octo yet, but will soon. I use Pronterface and have since the first week. Having control over my printer from my desk is paramount. Not an option and? After your review I struggle to see ANYTHING about this printer that would make me pony up 500 beans for it. As always, you and Angus are my go to guys, don't leave out Stefan at CNC Kitchen either. Thanks so much for a straight forward look at the product.

[@brentmcdonnell360]

This was a great video! It was very frustrating to see all the kinks in the design, as I was considering getting a product from creality soon. It would be nice to have a good base 3D printer that you could either keep as-is or add upon, but good to know this isn't a good option. Very thorough and well done, thank you for your services!

[@robertwoodbury8718]

I've been struggling with getting mine leveled and suspected that the ABL wasnt actually working glad I won mine and only paid shipping...

[@willrh1022]

Same here the leveling doesn’t work

[@joshua43214]

Just dump the Creality OS, and install Klipper. You will wonder why you didn't do it on day 1

[@willrh1022]

@@joshua43214 what does klipper do differently with this machine?

[@B3DPrinting]

@@joshua43214 he said that a pi doesn't respond in the USB, so the board would have to be changed also.

[@joshua43214]

@@willrh1022 Klipper will not only make all the printer actually work. It will make it work better.

[@EionSmith]

A printer with pre-cut-out, pre-wired spot for a designated raspberry pi is a brilliant idea.

[@boggisthecat]

Or just include one. They’re very cheap if you buy in bulk.

[@sharkbytecomputer]

@@boggisthecat They would probably include a 1gb model of the 4 or an older model....i would prefer at least a 2 or preferably the 4gb model. Not that a printer needs it, but more headroom on resources is always good for the long term uses

[@boggisthecat]

@@sharkbytecomputer You have to remember that the microcontrollers used to run the printer are orders of magnitude less powerful than an RPi. I ran my Ender 5 Plus from Octoprint running on a version 2 with 1 GiB. It wasn’t super fast, but it worked OK. (I did this because the display got borked trying to update the firmware, and it took a few weeks to source a replacement.)

[@zeealpal]

Biqu BX? I have one, it has a 7" touchscreen, you can directly connect a Pi 3/4 to it, power and HDMI

[@BrenQ99]

Thank you! You saved me a massive headache; I will be avoiding Creality.

[@GamesJames]

Amazing video and well done! I decided after my first creality and switching to prusa I’ll never buy creality anything ever again. On my second i3 with an mmu now! Thanks for your hard work!

[@11magic1man11]

I bought one and the first one would not go above 210 degrees on the nozzle. Everything else was fine. Printed good, levelled decently Enough, so quiet i had to keep checking to make sure it was running. Finally got tired of the nozzle heating problem so i sent it back and got a replacement. Fan is substantially louder but otherwise works fine as far as I can tell. It's printed everything i have needed it to so far.

[@Ungluedstarfish]

do you know how annoyed i would get if my printer shut off everytime it took me over 30 minutes to decide what i was printing next

[@klaudio001]

Thanks for your accurate review.

[@DarkWaves]

hi ... I'm one of the people who bought this machine on early stage and have the same issues specifically the bed inconsistent... I wish if it possible to have an other videos of how to make my printer better or a work out for these defects. Best regards with many thanks and gratitudes.

[@mycreativeworld7914]

I had a several ways, don't know if this would help: 1. Adjust the z-offset. If the slice height stays at 0.2 mm, the Z axis can be lifted and compensated by 0.2 mm before printing. For details, see Page 9 of the manual. 2. The screw under the glass bed is loss to cause the bed to be uneven. You can disassemble the glass bed and re-screw the 16 screws and see if this would work. 3.Waiting for Creality to update the firmware

[@seantu1496]

Just wondering, who else who is reading this and remembers when just getting the Stanford Bunny to print was the ultimate test of the 3d printer you built, copy of Skeinforge you had to tweak, and a lot of praying that the thing would actually work?, instead of just buying something, downloading the software, and adjusting some settings? Gotta love progress, but do miss the conversations with the guys who were figuring out the hard problems back in the day, which got us to where we are now.

[@bbruinsma1]

I received and installed this printer yesterday. What a disaster ! The y-axis bed guidewheels where way to loose, resulting in huge play. Furthermore the two Y-axis guides proved not to be parallel. I had to take the printer half apart to be able to resolve these issues. Also the filament clamping mechanism was adjusted way to tight, and since there is no indication of the tightness on the outside, I have to disassemble and re-assemble the filament clamp mechanism to assess what the issue was. My first print did not adhere to the bed at all. Turing around the bed plate and printing on the clear glass backside resolved this problem. Later I discovered that the actual bed temperature was about 10° below the indicated value, so this might also have an effect an the adhesion. Finally I was expecting to be able to send files to this printer directly via Wifi. This is not the case however. I turn out to need to do this via Creality Cloud plug-in. Totally unnecessary from a technical point of view, and it makes you wonder why..... All in all I would strongly advise to NOT buy this printer. I wish I have been more thorough and watched this video before buying.

[@markmcd2780]

"I turn out to need to do this via Creality Cloud plug-in. Totally unnecessary from a technical point of view, and it makes you wonder why...." I think the answer is above in several posts - they take ownership of everything uploaded to the cloud so they build their library with unauthorised theft.

[@GazzManX2]

Ah man, I didn't set out to steal peoples models. I just downloaded them to print for myself but had to upload them before I could. I've said in my profile that I'll delete or give credit when asked. Sorry everyone.

[@ScottLahteine]

The Creality CR-10S was the first manufactured 3D printer I ever bought, and I still love it for its simplicity, openness, and customizability. I've replaced the electronics with a 32-bit board and silent steppers and added an EZABL probe, and it remains my daily workhorse printer. People also seem to love the Ender-3, which is a near-perfect affordable and expandable hobbyist printer, supporting a whole side economy of add-ons and third-party "E3" boards. I used to compare Creality's ascent to the early days of Apple, because at the start they seemed to "get it." So it is disappointing to see them falling down in so many areas lately, kind of like Apple did under John Sculley, trying to "milk it for all it's worth" and losing focus. I really hope that Creality will course-correct, cut their product line down, and return to the roots of what made them so admirable in their debut years.

[@lunchbox1341]

This is very true, I am a happy owner of an Ender 3 Pro, installed a Bltouch on it, a skr mini got an all metal hotend, and it works great. But what creality is pumping out right now just seems like a cash grab after their success with their previous printers.

[@davidedwards5461]

Wonder if it is time for another quick review of 3D printers ie the 'best' value/most reliable ones on the market now?

[@MajJokhadar]

Bought that printer 2 years ago, somehow without watching this video. Today i am watching it and i completley agree with all you said. Bed leveling and interface were later improved. Just a friendly advice: Stay away from this printer!!

[@bartacus3521]

I have to admit, even though I like my Creality machines, they do questionable things. I just picked up an Ender 3 V2, and while I love the new LCD screen, I've already replaced the firmware due to lack of features and control, and replaced that with JyersUI. The new hot end shroud looks very nice, and I appreciate that at least on mine, the bowden tube fittings look substantially beefier than the ones on my old Ender 5 Plus. But then they keep shipping these things with a cheap plastic extruder, and those awful stock rounded bed springs. The spring upgrade is something most EVERYONE does, and it only cost pennies. They seems to fix *some* things, and ignore others. On the plus side, I still think that even though I'm running custom firmware, and a few light mods, it prints beautifully, so I don't feel ripped off. I'm happy my E3 V2 wasn't as awful as this disaster, LOL!

[@blacklce87]

I agree with this, creality is very notorious for terrible quality control. I swapped out seven cr10v3s at my local store before I said no more, and it wasn't because I don't know how to use a 3d printer, ive worked on 3d printers for years. There are many problems with these notably the hotend bearing quality as well as the often uneven beds that cannot be properly leveled. Creality has been a nightmare for me. But I still have not found a really good quality large size printer.

[@morturn]

Super video that will save a lot of heartache, especially for the less experienced.

[@RicLasDoto]

Well made review. Thank you for this.

[@derekhawley9660]

You have saved many people from buying a terrible printer, thanks Michael. What were they thinking of when they built a printer that you can't communicate with using a console? They have lost their way.

[@davetomlinson55]

Love your channel. I have a ender 3 pro, which thanks to you I have it printing really well, so i decided To buy CR10 smart, which even though its printing well it always prints to one side just been printing the Benchy boat on my pro fine, but will not print on the smart, well not in the middle.

[@spearview]

Asking a chinese company not to steal others content without giving credits to the creators is the joke of the year!

[@Daniel-oy4gu]

Thanks for the review creality has delayed my cr10s order to the point they asked if I would switch my model. Now I know to avoid paying more for the smart. Maybe I will get a ender 5 plus

[@SimRacingAddict]

Good man, I was about to buy it. Will stick to 10s PRO

[@Pkaramanos]

The printer seems to be a CR-6 Max with a slightly smaller build area. I am surprised it was so bad, my CR-6 Max has worked great out of the box. The CR-6 Max is very well built compared to my Ender 3V2, I wonder why they dropped the ball on the CR-10 Smart. I haven't tried ABS because I don't have an enclosure yet. In all fairness the ABS test should have been done in an enclosure or at least used a draft shield. Great unbiased review thanks, I would get another CR-6 Max I am old school and like using SD card and the extra build area is nice.

[@MelSavageKiller]

£400 is still pretty cheap in the UK for the size of the build volume and then with a flexible pei sheet to fix the bed. Only problem for me is the firmware as I would still want to run it with a normal abl sensor and octoprint. So will definitely wait until that is sorted but still tempted.

[@bigfilsing]

Buy an Artillery X1 and a flex magnetic bed and enjoy reliable printing

[@MelSavageKiller]

@@bigfilsing Thanks I will check it out 👍🏻

[@MelSavageKiller]

After a couple of days of doing research and watching loads of reviews including a good one by Thomas Sanladerer it seems the Artillery has it's own issues. Guess the search still continues.

[@mgpmbass3616]

Thank you for this review. I'm looking to get my first 3D printer in the very near future and the CR-10 "Smart" was going to be my choice. But after I watched this and a couple of other reviews, it's gonna be a no for me. With that said, what printer in this size range do you recommend for a beginner within the $500.00 or less price range? I mainly want to print R/C and Control Line model airplanes so print accuracy is a must as well.

[@AAAAAAndreyAndreev]

that is just it ... im searching for the same and this thing was the only one that can make big prints and doesn't cost a fucking arm and a leg ... and now i have no idea what to do because im not buying this crap

[@to-mi1949]

@@AAAAAAndreyAndreev did you find a printer? Btw regarding printing big things... you have to split up the model in pieces, then glue the pieces together. You can print a life size car on any printer actually

[@dariusvelz9124]

@@to-mi1949 and what about big boxes for example? That need certain consistency of the material

[@ddt_tv260]

This, for me, is on par with all past creality releases. Creality printers are all fantastic printers at a great price point, so long as you modify them enough that the creality footprint doesn't exist.

[@jchristensen2022]

Watching your review it seems that the only thing that the printer has going for itself is, its marketing. I found that Crealities marketing is all gloss and sparkles and you have to get passed all the BS to see the real thing. If Creality is "stealing" models from other sources without acknowledging the creator to add to their own model source website, I wonder if this is the core of their business... to burn copies! Great honest content...keep them thinking.

[@zerant]

Since I got one of the first Ender 3, 2nd hand (no Pro no V2, plain old ender3) I had so many problems with it. I needed to upgrade the bed to an glas one, put an SKR e3 DIP with 2209 in it and tried to print. I got the same results as you did with the CR-10 Smart... Its kinda sad, that they still dont get stuff fixed after 3 years, still the same issues. Thanks for the review. PS.: I guess they are putting the Creality Cloud stuff in it, because no one wants it and otherwise it would be a waste of money for them.

[@matthewlim-dot-ml]

it has no leveling knobs but also cant make a mesh bed... how did this thing get past QC?

[@hongtse6723]

They don't have a QC they want to sell novelty

[@brunopacola]

I'm parachuting right now... Which printer to buy with large area and ABS or nylon printing? The printer doesn't need to be closed, I can make an easy acrylic case over here

[@dwho3]

same

[@briguy9915]

$500 for a printer where the ABL doesn't even work? No thanks!

[@kikainonakanoakuma]

👍

[@AndrewAHayes]

The ABL does not work correctly on any of Creality's printers using their own BL Touch firmware, for some reason they cant seem to set the XY offset between the nozzle and probe correctly so you end up with only 4 fiths of the bed probed and the parts that are probed are out of true

[@Enigma-Sapiens]

Great review and I agree with you!

[@shrimpwtf]

i’ve replaced my mainboard on this printer with a cr-6 se btt skr, and installed klipper which meant i needed to make a hole in the front of the printer to access the micro usb port. with working abl and properly tuned down this printer is pretty impressive i have to admit, but the stock firmware and board and lack of micro usb access just isn’t acceptable

[@reinholdu9909]

👍👍👍 Thanks Michael ...👊...fully deserved. Too bad your honest&free advice in the conclusions is so much wasted with them!

[@mickaelbettembourg7249]

When Creality annonced the reelase of the CR10-Smart, i was thinking this was an upgrade of the CR10-S series, but in fact, when i see some review... I have the CR10-S-Pro-V2, and it work really like a charm out of the box (just the original bed is not really good, but your can buy a glass one for 25$). ABL work really nicely, never re-levelled the bed since more than 8 months... Just a bit loud. So i think for about 50$ more, you need to buy CR10-S-Pro-V2 instead of the new CR10-Smart. At least while they do not have solved the different problems.

[@maximilianoorona4440]

Not being able to connect Octoprint is unacceptable, provided Creality Cloud sucks (I tested the Creality box, and it is now unconnected collecting dust on a corner). Also, auto leveling with the nozzle and not creating a mesh?!!! Thanks for your review, this printer is a clear NO GO.