FlashForge Creator Pro Review – Long Term Impressions
See the Pros and Cons of the Flashforge Creator Pro
The FlashForge Creator Pro is one of the most affordable and popular 3D Printers on today’s market. Creator Pro is produced by FlashForge in China. The printer sells for $900 and can be bought on Amazon or through their direct website. The printer is recommended for intermediate to advanced experienced users. See the Review Below..
What about The Software?
The software that is made by FlashForge is awful. The slicing and automatic support material placement is never correct and causes issues with your model. Simplify3D is much better and will increase the print quality. Simplify3D almost always slices correctly and the automatic support material placement is much better and is easier to remove from the model. SImplify3D sells for $100 but is worth the price if you will be printing many parts. Simplify3D also has many more settings and customization options to optimize your models. Also the dual extruder printing is much easier to setup and understand than the FlashForge software. The printer supports .x3g file format for printing. You can slice your file into this format using Simplify3D. There are also many free softwares you can use.
Specifications Overview
The Flashforge Creator Pro has many great features for its price and useability.
- Print Speed- Up to 100 mm/s
- Number of Extruders- Two
- Nozzle Diameter- .4 mm
- Layer Resolution- 100-500 microns
- LCD Controls
- Enclosed Chamber, (Top Lid can be removed for PLA or ABS depending on chamber temperature needed)
- Pre-Assembled, (Plug & Play)
- Filament Diameter- 1.75mm
- Filament Compatibility- ABS, PLA, PVA
- Print Via USB or SD Card
- Heated Build Platform
- Build Volume- 225mm x 145mm x 150mm
The FlashForge Ease of Use..
The Flashforge Creator Pro is shipped mostly pre-assembled but this does not make it easy to use. Like many other printers, the FlashForge Creator Pro requires manual bed leveling since it does not have automatic bed leveling. The bed level must be very precise to achieve quality prints. The printer supports printing from an SD Card and from a computer using USB. It does not ship with WiFi capabilities but you can add it as an add-on. As mentioned, it comes mostly pre-assembled, but it does require you to attach the printer heads, filament tubes, and spool holders. These things are fairly simple to assemble. The filament loading and unloading are easy to understand once you find the filament section under Utilities. Overall it simple to use but, the bed leveling can cause major issues for beginners.If you are a beginner, we recommend finding a printer that does not require bed leveling to this extent.
Flashforge Creator Pro Features
Our favorite part of this printer is its features. The printer is open source with two extruders which allows for dual color printing or water dissolvable supports. It allows any filament brand and is not locked to FlashForge’s material. The heated bed allows you to print ABS filament with minimal warping depending on how well you leveled your bed. The heated bed can heat up to 130C. The extruders can also reach high temperatures up to 280C which allows you to use a large variety of materials. The printer also comes with a blue print bed sticker. When you have leveled you bed correctly, PLA and ABS materials stick very well to the blue sticker on the bed. Overtime you will have the normal 3D Printing problem such as filament jams. The FlashForge Creator Pro makes it very easy to clear jams from the nozzle or from the stepper motor. Overall the features are great for people with experience and can be easy to use depending on your experience.
Print Quality of The Flashforge
The FlashForge Creator Pro’s print quality is average for this price range. The printer can print overhangs very well but has a hard time with small objects. The printer has a range of 100-500 microns and even at the 100 micron setting, very small objects do not come out good, but that is expected of Fused Deposition Modeling 3D Printers. The main factor in the quality of the parts produced is the bed leveling. Bed leveling makes a big difference in the print quality of this printer.
FlashForge Customer Support and Part Availability
The FlashForge customer support is fantastic. If you ordered from their direct website you can email them and they usually respond the same or next day. If you ordered from Amazon and need help, there is a support email on the manual when you receive your printer. When your warranty expires, you may end up needing parts to fix broken parts. FlashForge offers many parts available on their website for sale. If they do not sell the part you need, you can email them to get your specific part. This support and part availability gives the printer even more value for the price.
A Video Review of The Flashforge Creator Pro 3D Printer
Overall Pros and Cons…
Pros
- Mostly Pre-Assembled
- Average Print Quality
- Customer Support and Part Availability
- Sale Price
Cons
- Noise
- Adjustments and Upgrades Needed
- Built with Cheap Parts
- Very Precise Bed Leveling Needed
You forgot a couple of important cons.
1. Old as hell. This design is more than a few years old.
2. Limited build volume compared to all the i3 printers and even the Ultimaker printers. You can buy a CR-10 or a clone of its much cheaper and has better print quality.
3. You also forgot to add that the parts to repair them are expensive. They charge premium prices for parts that would be cheap to replace on any other printer relatively. If your motor drivers go out then they are expensive if you don’t order them from China because they use an old design.
4. The firmware is old. It doesn’t have features such as auto bed leveling that exists in Marlin because it uses an older version of Sailfish firmware that hasn’t seen any major improvements since 2014.
3. You also forgot to add that the parts to repair them are expensive. They charge premium prices for parts that would be cheap to replace on any other printer relatively. If your motor drivers go out then they are expensive if you don’t order them from China because they use an old design.
4. The firmware is old. It doesn’t have features such as auto bed leveling that exists in Marlin because it uses an older version of Sailfish firmware that hasn’t seen any major improvements since 2014.
Yeah we might look into adding on to the pros and cons list. 🙂 its a long term impression of the flashforge creator pro as you see on top title now 😀
I was surprised with all of the “cons”. I thought these were really good printers. It sounds like they have a lot of downsides for the price.
I don’t think that price is very good for all the cons. “built with cheap parts” and “upgrades needed” makes me want to stay far away from this company, especially if they’re charging $900 for this. I would like to have dual extruders in my 3D printer but there are many out there I could work with and upgrade for less money. I have to say this printer looks cool. I like the cover for it. I’d like to get one with a cover and air filter.
Exactly what I was thinking Richard. I could get a CR-10 and upgrade the heck out of it for $900.
Can’t wait to win it!
I am very thankful for the truthful review! Nice to know you guys are so up-front telling the bad with the good. Much appreciated! There are people who don’t have the money to spend on a printer that will cause problems and require more money to fix problems.
Some observations from a newer user of the Creator Pro.
You get what you pay for. I needed a printer to prototype and create very small detail parts for a piano rebuild.
Over 1,000 tiny items produced at 100 microns solid and robust results.
Agree on the Simplify but to be honest if you can’t level a bed then your going to struggle with other things whatever machine you use for 3D.
You can add self leveling but it’s good for minor autonadjustments on Bed inconsistencies – with dual extrude a good raft achieves the same result if you need the quality on small parts.
I for one am a very satisfied user and I looked long and hard before I bought.
I like the enclosure, dual extruder and overall looks, seem very professional, but the lack of automatic bed leveling it’s a deal breaker to me, since I’m a beginer in 3d printing, thank you for the honest review.
i am so impressed with this!! Thanks for the great information!!
This video had a lot of info. I like how the led makes it bright. I would like an auto level on the bed. Sometimes it is hard to level & if you are off a little it will ruin the work!
Parts are very cheap if you don’t go the Flashforge.
Improvements on mine where E3D extruder.
New better quality bearings. Using IGUS at the moment. It’s not noisy at all.
I sometime have to check to see it’s still printing because I can’t hear it now.
Upgrades are bot really ‘needed’ I used it for ages as standard and it worked very well. I’ve yet to see a printer though that owners don’t ‘mod’ withing a few weeks.
The main thing is, with basic maintenance, they are work horses. ppl on my FB group have been using them solidly for four yours +.
Algumas observações de um usuário mais novo do Creator Pro.
Você recebe o que você paga. Eu precisava de uma impressora para protótipo e crie peças de detalhes muito pequenas para uma reconstrução de piano.
Mais de 1.000 itens minúsculos produziram resultados sólidos e robustos de 100 microns.
Concordo com o Simplificar, mas para ser honesto se você não pode nivelar uma cama, então você vai lutar com outras coisas, qualquer máquina que você use para o 3D.
Você pode adicionar auto nivelamento, mas é bom para ajustes menores em inconsistências de cama – com a dupla extrusão de uma balsa boa consegue o mesmo resultado se precisar de qualidade em pequenas peças.
Eu, por exemplo, sou um usuário muito satisfeito e olhei longamente antes de comprar.
FlashForge Creator Pro was definitely a popular option in the past, but seems to have faded in front of other, more efficient 3D Printers. So it’s definitely not a recommended equipment, but not forbidden too due to the price it comes in.
Thank you very much for the review and for all the comments provided.