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Creality Ender 3 V2

Creality Ender 3 V2

By Creality · Budget 3D Printers · 3D Printing · More from Creality

  • Build volume: 220 x 220 x 250 mm
  • Max print speed: 180 mm/s
  • Max nozzle temp: 255 C
  • Max bed temp: 100 C
  • Filament: 1.75 mm

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Summary

A 2020 open-frame FDM 3D printer kit with a 220 × 220 × 250 mm build volume, a textured glass bed and one of the largest modding communities in the hobby. It prints above its price once assembled and leveled, but budget time for manual bed leveling and a fragile plastic extruder.

Strengths

  • Print quality is above average for the price, with good detail and smooth surfaces once tuned.
  • The carborundum glass bed grips warm prints and releases them cleanly once cooled.
  • The 32-bit board and TMC2208 drivers keep the stepper motors quiet; the fans still make noise.
  • The largest owner and modding community in budget 3D printing, with fixes and profiles everywhere.
  • Creality sells official upgrades and spares, and the Meanwell power supply has a good track record.
  • Assembly and tuning make it a genuine learning platform for mechanics and slicer settings.

Weaknesses

  • Manual four-corner bed leveling only, and the bed drifts out of level; a faulty Z-axis limit switch is a reported cause.
  • The stock plastic extruder arm is widely reported to crack.
  • It ships as a kit with several hours of assembly and instructions PCMag found weak.
  • No filament runout sensor, and power-loss resume can fail if the part detaches while the bed cools.
  • The part-cooling fan blows on one side only, so overhang quality varies with print orientation.
  • Superseded in 2026 buying guides by newer auto-leveling machines.

Verified specifications

TechnologyFDM/FFF, open frame, single extruder.
Build volume220 × 220 × 250 mm; chassis 475 × 470 × 620 mm.
Filament1.75 mm; PLA, ABS, PETG and TPU; standard 0.4 mm nozzle.
Nozzle temperature255 °C per Creality’s comparison table; one specialist site claims 260 °C for the V2.
Bed235 × 235 mm carborundum-coated glass plate, up to 100 °C.
Print speed30–60 mm/s working range and 180 mm/s maximum per Creality; a newer official table lists 50 mm/s typical and 100 mm/s maximum.
Layer height0.1–0.4 mm; nominal accuracy ±0.1 mm.
Display4.3-inch color LCD with a rotary knob, detachable.
Bed levelingmanual, four corner knobs; no auto-leveling sensor.
ExtruderBowden with a plastic tension arm.
Mainboard32-bit silent board; Creality Experts identifies the V2 as the 4.2.7 version.
Power350 W rated input, 24 V output, 100–120 / 200–240 V with a rear voltage switch.
Resume after power outageyes; filament runout sensor: no.
DatamicroSD card and micro-USB; no Wi-Fi.
Dimensions24.4 × 18.7 × 18.5 in (HWD), 17 lb; machine mass 7.8 kg.
Warrantyone year, with 3 months on wear parts such as the hotend, nozzle, build plate and belts.
Full research notes and sources

Assembly and first prints

Setup instructions are thin enough that third-party videos are part of the job, and the kit takes several hours to build. Tom’s 3D called the print quality “basically flawless” in a 2020 head-to-head. One owner-reported catch: the glass bed ships with a factory contamination that has to be washed off with hot water and dish soap before the first print, then wiped with isopropyl or denatured alcohol before each use.

Bed leveling and the Z switch

The V2 levels by hand with four corner knobs, and across Reddit, forums and YouTube the same pattern repeats: the bed loses level, a faulty Z-axis limit switch is blamed, or the X gantry sags on one side, and first layers stop sticking. Owners also report knobs that spin loosely on their screws and a rear-left corner crowded by the heating-cable bracket. The common fix is a BLTouch or CR Touch auto-leveling sensor, which Creality sells as an add-on; an auto-probe compensates for small bed variation but does not turn the tramming screws. A November 2024 discussion includes both owners who re-level every few prints and others who report months of stability. Nobody has published a failure rate, so treat this as a known Ender-series annoyance rather than a defect.

Parts, upgrades and running costs

Creality sells official upgrade paths for the V2: PEI build surfaces, BLTouch and CR Touch kits, a full-metal direct-extruding nozzle kit and the V4.2.7 silent mainboard. Consumables are cheap. A Creality-brand 24-piece MK8 nozzle pack is listed at $12.99 at Micro Center (SKU 659628, 2026). A complete replacement hotend is listed at $19.06 on Creality’s dealer portal, and a metal extruder kit around $9.68, both dealer prices rather than consumer checkout figures. A CR Touch is listed at Micro Center at $25.59–$31.99, marked in store only or sold out. Filament has no lock-in: third-party 1.75 mm PLA works, and Micro Center lists Inland 1 kg black PLA+ at $13.99–$14.99.

There is no subscription. A hobbyist printing 2 kg of PLA+ a month runs through 24 kg a year, which at those Inland rates comes to $335.76–$359.76 a year; a light user at 2 kg a year spends $27.98–$29.98. Creality’s 350 W figure is a power-supply rating, not a wall draw: an assumed 120 W average over 200 print-hours a year is 24 kWh, or $4.80 at $0.20/kWh, and 1,000 hours is 120 kWh or $24.00.

Is it worth it?

At $199 or less the V2 is a defensible beginner or tinkerer pick: solid print quality for the money, a glass bed and the biggest modding community in the segment. Between $200 and $259 it is only fair, because auto-leveling rivals sit in that band — Tom’s Hardware names the Ender-3 V3 SE at $219 MSRP as the best affordable FDM printer, and the Anycubic Kobra was listed at $209. From $260 to $279 it is weak, and above $279 you are paying list price for a 2020 kit printer. Creality’s own US store showed the V2 at $179 against a $279 list, sold out, when checked in October 2026; it launched at around $289 in 2020 and PCMag listed an MSRP of $319.99.

Which model this is

This is the original Ender-3 V2, released in 2020 as the upgrade to the base Ender-3: Bowden extruder, plastic tension arm and manual leveling. Do not confuse it with the Ender-3 V2 Neo (2022), which adds CR Touch auto-leveling, a metal extruder and a PC spring-steel plate, nor with the Ender-3 V3 SE (2023), the original Ender-3 or the Ender-3 Pro. The US listing used here is ASIN B09NKWJ35T.

Sources

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Independent reviews:

Owner reports:

Parts and stores:

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