Elegoo Mars 3 First Impressions
Recently I picked up the Elegoo Mars 3 Resin 3D printer. It seemed like an all around great alternative to the Elegoo Saturn, offering a larger build plate than I already have, and better print quality than the larger Saturn. However, my experience so far has been mixed.
What I’ve Loved
There’s a lot to like about the Elegoo Mars 3. It’s a relatively affordable printer, retailing for between £300-350. For a printer with a larger 4k display, and that offers the quality that the Mars 3 offers, that’s a pretty good deal.
Setting the device up was really easy, and getting my first print done was fast and the quality was highly impressive. At first glance, it was easy to find areas on my miniatures that looked sharper and offered more detail than previous prints on my older Elegoo Mars Pro. It’s not night and day, but if quality is something you’re after, then this has it.
It also has all the buttons and USB port on the front. That’s a personal preference, but I liked being able to access everything so easily.
What I Disliked
Honestly, things fell apart pretty quickly, and I’m hoping that I’ve just got a dud model. However, even if I’ve been unlucky, there’s a lot of things to dislike about this model.
First up, you can see why it’s a relatively affordable printer. The overall build quality is pretty poor compared to other Elegoo machines. Gone is the big metal base, so the printer can often feel top heavy and is easy to knock or move on my desk. The feet are a slippery plastic which doesn’t help matters.
Perhaps the worst thing about the build quality is the build plate itself, it just never feels secure. No matter how much I tighten it, theres wobble on the thing, unlike other printers I’ve used. It never seemed to affect the quality of my prints, but I do have to wonder if that wobble will increase over time.
And finally, the big thing that I had to exchange mine for, the build plates constant attempt to murder the screen. No matter how many times I leveled or homed the printer, it would forget where home is. I’d hit print, only to be welcomed by the grinding whine of the build plate trying to smash through the screen.
This didn’t happen every time, about half the time, but that’s enough to be a worry. I had a look around online and a large amount of users experienced the same issue. The cure is apparently a new board, so hopefully my exchange will rectify this problem.
Conclusion
This isn’t a full review, that will come after I have some time with my exchanged unit, but I can honestly say that the Elegoo Mars 3 is a mixed bag. The quality of prints is fantastic and the speed it prints those off at is great, but the budget build quality leaves me wanting. If there was a pro version, I could see a lot of these issues being sorted, but there’s not.
If you’re not to bothered about the build and you can keep your printer out of knocking distance, then this is a great machine (provided that issue doesn’t crop up again)
Let me know if you have a Elegoo Mars 3. What are your thoughts on it?