I’ve been struggling with my K1 since Christmas. I bought it on sale for Black Friday and no matter who I contact at Creality, no one can tell me what replacement parts to order. K1 parts don’t fit my printer. They want pictures to see what ‘buckle’ I have, because my serial number isn’t enough information, but who wants to tear down a printer just to take pictures? Now my thermistor is broken (a leg weld just fell right off while I was fixing a clog), and I can’t order a new one because what do I order? This printer doesn’t take K1 parts. Every time I order something, it has to get shipped back. I’m annoyed and venting, but also trying to help anyone else considering a Creality printer. Don’t do it. Their support is a joke and they take zero accountability.
I’ve added an image for help explaining the problem. These two JST connections are completely different, but both are supposed to be for the K1. And both of these listings are Creality Official:
I thought everyone knew the company was crap years ago?
Well I wish you would have told me that 3 months ago.
I purchased a K1 Max directly from Creality in October 2024.
This was well after the K1 Max had recieved the K1C upgrades. People had been getting K1 Max units with the small X/Y pulleys and upgrade hot end for MONTHS.
I bought it directly from Creality expecting to get a current revision.
I received a rev1 unit. It had signs of use. I asked Creality to replace it with the current revision and they decline.
It never really printed right. Using their filament and their slicer about 40% of the prints would fail. They kept dragging me along for weeks. I assume this was to push me out of the return window.
They literally never one entertained my suggestion of returning.
Until I call my credit card company. VISA said to box it up, email them one last time demanding a return label for a full refund, and if they did not give me one, VISA would do a charge back.
Whilst boxing it up I noticed another shipping label from before the K1C was released.
So they had absolutely sold me a unit that was not brand new.
Now I have a Sovol SV08 and if I was looking for a new printer I would be looking at the Snapmaker U1
I was just going to ask what you bought instead. The thing is, I really liked Kevin. Yes. I named it Kevin.
Do they think people won’t talk?? What a garbage company. I’m reporting their bullshit to the consumer affairs people.
Anyone have problems with elegoo carbon?
Hi, I know you left this comment months ago, but I wanted you to know that I’ve replaced my K1 (the topic of the thread) with a Carbon, and I cannot possibly exaggerate just how amazing this printer is. Highly recommended. 10 out of 10, no notes.
Thank you for your update! I actually pulled the trigger days after that post and I 100% do not regret it. Thanks for taking the time to follow up; It just reinforces my decision that i made a good purchase.
One thing i will note is if you do connect it wifi, and dont use the online features, block it’s internet access. I found that it had made 22k requests in a months time and I had barely printed anything on it due to old filament breaking.
Glad you got it! I remembered no one ever responded so I figured I should lol I’m sorry it phones home so much though - that’s bananas. What is it doing??
Not sure, havent cared to inspect traffic packets.
Creality made good printers in the beginning, i.e. original Ender and Ender Pro. They used high quality components and offered good value for money compared to what else what available at that time. However, when they had cornered a large part of the market and got known as the brand that made the best beginner printers, things started going downhill. They switched from Meanwell power supplies etc. to cheap noname components, quality control seemingly became non-existent, and they released several poorly designed overpriced printers (E.g. the E3v2 - my first printer - and everything with “max” in the name).
I think there’s a combination of different reasons for why there always have been so many people who believe that Creality make good printers:
- People who have bought their Ender 3/Pro before 2020 actually have good printers, and give them honest praise on forums.
- Fake reviews on the internet, which hype up the product since their only goal is for you to click their amazon affiliate link and buy it.
- Creality paying content creators for positive reviews, including several well known and otherwise respected within the community.
- Buyers who got lucky with the QC and don’t own any other printers to compare with, might think their printers are the best.
- Buyers who are now happy with their Ender after having spent €100+ on “upgrades” and/or days of troubleshooting the printer. I’ve even seen a guy insist that an Ender is a better first printer than a cheaper more reliable alternative, because the 20 hours he spent on his Ender to get a decent print out of it gave him “an invaluable learning experience”.
- And I’ve also seen people who haven’t yet bought any printer claim that Enders are the best beginner printers, just because they’ve read that statement so many times they’ve come to accept it as a fact, and now they’re “helping” others looking for a first printer by answering their questions.
I think my E3v2 is good now, but I’ve replaced the hotend, extruder and part cooling fans. I’ve added a second Z lead screw to fix gantry sag, and I found a manufacturing error where the X belt tensioner wasn’t straight because tightening the screw into the aluminium extrusion bent the plastic (difficult to find, but luckily easy to fix with a metal shim). I’ve replaced the firmware with Klipper, controlled by a Raspberry Pi. And I’ve probably spent at least 50 hours just trying to fix and improve the printer, which I didn’t mind btw, but I think most would prefer a printer which just works out of the box.
In retrospect, I wish I had joined some 3d printing discords and talked to experienced users before deciding on which printer to buy, and not relied so much on google, websites and random comments.
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