I Printed the Same Model on a $200 Printer and a $1,000 Printer

3D Printing
1

I’ve always been curious about one question:

Does spending more money on a 3D printer actually make a big difference?

Many beginners struggle with the same decision:

Should I buy an affordable printer first and learn along the way, or save money and get a higher-end machine from the beginning?

So I decided to do a simple comparison.

I printed the same model using:

  • The same PLA filament
  • The same 0.4mm nozzle
  • The same 0.2mm layer height
  • Similar speed settings

The only difference was the printer itself.

Here is what surprised me.

Print quality

Honestly, the difference was smaller than I expected.

Both printers were able to produce a good-looking print.

But after looking closer, I noticed some differences:

  • The more expensive printer handled overhangs better
  • Surface quality was more consistent
  • There was less ringing on sharp edges

However, the cheaper printer was still much better than I expected.

The biggest difference wasn’t the final print — it was the process.

The more expensive printer saved me a lot of time:

  • Less calibration
  • Fewer failed prints
  • Less troubleshooting
  • More time actually designing and printing

The cheaper printer was not bad at all, but it required more patience and adjustment.

My personal conclusion:

I think many beginners focus too much on the final print quality.

The truth is, most modern 3D printers can produce impressive results.

The bigger difference is the user experience.

A cheaper printer can teach you a lot about 3D printing, but a more expensive printer allows you to spend more time creating instead of fixing problems.

I’m curious:

Would you rather buy a cheaper printer and learn everything yourself, or pay more for a smoother printing experience?

What was your first 3D printer, and would you buy the same one again?

2

My first printer was an Anycubic Mega X. I own a Bambu now so no. I would never ever buy an Anycubic for any reason.

You are right about overall quality but user experience was night and day.

3

Not sure what your cheaper printer was but something like the i3 based Creality Ender does pretty well. Sure you have to initially know that the bed needs to be level and how you test and calibrate that. Not hard for even a middle school child and once you got it figured out then it takes only a couple of minutes. Unless you bang on your machine or are rough with it the calibration says the same for months at a time.

But you also get to see it homing and can see the end stops. Do you have to mess with them? Not usually but you know they are there. What I’m getting at is if you get a cheaper 3D printer and know the ins and outs of how it works and what’s required to make it work then you understand the basics of how the 3D printer works. Now you’ll understand maybe enough so when you spend 10x on a fancy 3D printer and something goes wrong, you can troubleshoot it enough to do the repair yourself or know how to explain to support what’s wrong. As opposed to standing there looking at it with glazed eyes for a few days while the new replacement is delivered.

Of course one 3 hour class on “How does a 3D Printer Work and How to Make Something” could jump you right to the expensive one. But who’ll do that.

My first 3D printer was a home built Mini Kossel which I then used to make parts I mailed to others for free so 10 others could make their own Mini Kossel 3DP. Then I bought one of the first Ender 3 machines then got a Makerbot Replicator for free and fixed it. Then mod’ed the Ender with BL-touch and filament run-out and upgraded Marlin with input-shaper capabilities. It’d become quite the reliable workhorse. Recently I purchased one of the first Elegoo Centauri Carbon 3DP for under $300 and it’s been amazing.

I’ve worked with a number of Bambu Lab machines from the X1C to the P1S and they are reliable too but the software is nutso with the failed security stuff, network firmware updates, etc.
OrcaSlicer with the Elegoo CC1 does the trick.

4

Thanks for sharing such a detailed perspective. I actually agree with a lot of what you said.

I think learning the basics of how a 3D printer works is extremely valuable. Understanding things like bed leveling, extrusion, calibration, firmware, and mechanical components definitely helps you become a better maker — and it makes troubleshooting much easier when something goes wrong.

I also think older or more affordable machines played an important role in bringing many people into 3D printing. A lot of experienced users probably learned more from modifying and fixing their first printers than they ever could from a fully automated machine.

At the same time, I think this is where the difference between beginners and experienced users comes in. Some people enjoy the process of tuning and upgrading a printer, while others mainly want a reliable tool to turn their ideas into reality without spending hours troubleshooting.

Your journey from building a Mini Kossel to modifying the Ender 3 and testing machines like Bambu and Elegoo is really interesting. It’s a great example of how much the 3D printing experience has evolved over the years.

I’m curious — after using so many different machines, do you think modern beginner-friendly printers are changing the way people learn 3D printing, or do you think everyone should still start with a more hands-on machine?

5

I completely agree that the user experience is where the biggest difference shows.

A lot of entry-level printers can still produce great prints, but the amount of time spent troubleshooting, calibrating, and adjusting settings can really change the whole experience.

Moving from an older machine like the Mega X to a Bambu is probably a huge difference in terms of workflow — less time fixing issues and more time actually printing.

I think that’s the key point for many beginners: the question isn’t only “what can the printer produce?” but also “how much effort does it take to get there?”

Out of curiosity, what was the biggest improvement you noticed after switching to Bambu — print quality, reliability, speed, or just the overall convenience?

6

Some photos would be nice…

7

My biggest issue with newer printers such as my Bambu, is that it takes a lot of time for it to print a quick print that I need while designing something compared to my old bed slinger in which I could have a prototype of my prototype set up and printed in the same time it took for my Bambu to self calibrate and get ready to print.

8

“Out of curiosity, what was the biggest improvement you noticed after switching to Bambu — print quality, reliability, speed, or just the overall convenience?”

All of the points mentioned above. And to be honest I may have just gotten a lemon but I had issues with reliability, quality control on the machine, slow prints, print quality, and convenience was definitely not at the top of the list. I had to replace the hot end nozzle within the first month and a half and then a couple of times a year. The heated platform would not stay flat. The print quality was mediocre at best.

Bambu for all its ills revolutionized the commercial hobby 3d printer market with a fast, reliable, good print, convenient printer. Thankfully it forced many of the other companies to follow and start making very good machines.

I am in the user bracket that my 3d printer is just a tool for my 3d art. I do not want to be modding it out of the box. I just want the tool to work.

9

If you make a cake from a box then you can only ever make a cake from a box. But make a cake from a recipe which has maybe 10 ingredients and now you can not only make that cake, you can make 2 cakes, or 1/2 a cake or other variations.

Making a cake from a box does get the job done just as will a 3DP with cloud slicer and a selection of figurines to make. You can do a little but the machine can do so much more if you knew how to use it. So being we are on a forum for “makers”, my vote is for people to get something which does require a little bit of user input and helps them learn the process, system and machine just a little bit. If they run many dozens of rolls of filament though that machine, upgrading to a less ‘manual’ machine can have its benefits AND the operator will understand those benefits.

10

For me, the price appears (almost) directly in proportion to print vloume. My first printer was a kickstarter “Rose Go” good price but 100 mm cube. My Next n Elegoo Neptune max. Huge print volume and about twice the price.

11

For beginners, it’s always wise to start with something economic.

12

Yeah, you aren’t paying for precision. Precision is basically a solved problem.

You are paying for things like:

  • Speed
  • Capacity (volume)
  • Ability to handle “difficult” filament (things like chamber heating)
  • Not being locked in to a vendor
    • Parts interchangeability
    • Operation (not being a subscription service trying to “monetize” you on a recurring basis)
  • Support for more than a very short warranty
  • Quality
  • Openness
  • Following intellectual property laws

I see two kinds of “help me buy my first printer” questions. Broadly:

  1. I think I’d like to learn about 3D printing, but I don’t really know what I want to print
  2. I have a specific project or type of project in mind, and know what tradeoffs I want to make

The first kind comes down to budget.

  • If you are comfortable spending $750–2000 on a hobby you don’t know whether you will actually enjoy, buy a machine that will print fast, will last, will be repairable, and will be supported by the manufacturer for a few years. Details can determine whether you would be more comfortable with Prusa, Sovol, Qidi, etc.
  • If you want to keep it at the $200–300 range, buy an Ender 3 or equivalent, and trick it out with features if you want as you go. It will print slower but will work fine for most folks’ usage.
  • If you are in the middle of that cost range, are comfortable supporting a company that has violated intellectual property law, don’t mind if updates required to accept security fixes arbitrarily remove features that you might have come to depend on, are comfortable being part of a captive market for non-standard parts, don’t mind if all your models are sent to China, and expect to be buying a lifetime-limited good, then you could consider Bambu. I never recommend them, though; their continued adverse actions against the community and their customers have earned my ongoing disrespect.

The second kind requires articulating those understood tradeoffs, and the answer is different per person.

Me personally? If you search the archives here, you’ll find early posts from me (more than a decade ago) where I intentionally bought a cheap printer assuming that its problems would teach me about 3d printing and I would modify it as I went to learn about it. I did learn a lot that way. But the kinds of problems I ran into early are mostly not problems that exist on any printer on the market today.