There are plenty of good options when you look for amazing but affordable FDM printers out there such as the Ender 5 Pro Vs Plus. These printers are already good out of the box so you may not need to upgrade them later but, they are also pretty much the same to each other. They can be a good upgrade for those who already have the older Enders as well but, before deciding to choose one, do check what they can offer below.
In this article, we are going to give you information about:
- What to Consider Before Buying a 3D Printer
- What are Ender 5 Pro and Plus
- What Ender 5 Pro and Plus Look Like
- How are the Board in Ender 5 Pro and Plus
- How are the Hot End in Ender 5 Pro and Plus
- How are the Extruder in Ender 5 Pro and Plus
- How are the Z Axis in Ender 5 Pro and Plus
- What else Ender 5 Pro and Plus can offer
- Ender 5 Pro Vs Plus
3D Printers
Printer is a very useful equipment to have in your house or workplace including home office because they are capable of turning your digital documents into a real document on papers which can be used for various purposes such as editing, sharing, or even documenting. As humans also need more capable machines and have diverse needs, technology has to follow the demand hence we have 3D printers. As the name suggests, 3D printers are creating three-dimensional objects based on your compatible design file.
- Printing Material
After deciding whether the machine is worth or not, which is highly based on your personal needs and application, it is best to decide what material to use in your machine because it also separates the technology they are using. For the end-consumer level products, what often being used is either resin or filament type. Both of them are excellent and should do well in home printing but in general filament material is more common in this type of application.
The printer technology used is called FDM which uses filament as it melted them and deposited through the hot end onto or on top of the building bed. Then the filament is added layer by layer until your final model is created so in idea it is like stacking layer on top of layer which previously have been made. Resin printers are also making objects layer by layer but instead of on “top” of the building bed, your model will stick below the building plate.
- Noise Emission
Just like any other machine and even regular printer, your 3D printers will also create noise when in operation. Even regular inkjet printers including some laser models can be noisy when printing documents or photos but you can expect to hear more from a 3D printer. The machine will have various sources of noise both on the processing unit itself and the components, especially a fan located on the hot head cover. In most cases, the cheaper models usually create more noticeable noise compared to the high-end options.
- 3D Printer Speed
Just like with a regular paper printer, your 3D printer will also vary in terms of speed and it is usually not a very concerning part as long as they are not noticeably or prominently taking a long time to print a model compared to the other alternatives. In general, FDM printers that use filament are much faster than your resin printers or SLA models and note that with the cost of being faster, while smaller objects may look just as good, faster printing larger models may reduce the details.
| Ender 5 Pro | Ender 5 Plus | |
|---|---|---|
  |   |
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| Product Dimensions | 8.66 x 8.66 x 11.81 inches | 29 x 29 x 12 inches |
| Shipping Weight | 28.66 Pounds | 51.2 Pounds |
| Best offer | Check price | Check price |
About Ender 5 Pro and Plus
Both technologies are very useful and good for home use based on what fits best in your personal preference and budget range because usually the cost to print with filament is cheaper than resin and also less messy yet, may not be able to give the same amount of detail. If you are here then it means 3D FDM printers are what caught your attention and for this type of machine, there are hundreds of them out there from different models and different price points.
The majority of them are working reliably but different machines can be slightly different to each other as well so we do recommend picking from those more well-known names as it will cut your shopping process and makes everything more convenient when shopping without compromising quality. When talking about 3D FDM printers, Creality is always in our list because their machines are amazing for starters and for almost any end-consumers who want to have a useful machine at home.
Just like any brands however, they do have various models to offer and this can be quite confusing especially if this is your first buy or when you need to find an upgrade of an older printer we have been already using. For those who want to buy a ready to use machine and not planning to upgrade much or doing any upgrade later, Ender 5 Pro and Plus are two amazing options to consider. They are close brothers and very similar to each other.
They are not an entry-level model considering the Ender line but certainly affordable, a starter for anyone who wants to jump start into the hobby. They are already improved from the lower model of ender that you can check in our Creality Ender 3 Pro Vs Ender 3 so in terms of capabilities we can also hope to see much from these machines yet, when it comes to print quality, we do think they are similarly good right out of the box.
Ender 5 Pro and Plus Design
Let’s check out their external quality first and when you put Ender 5 Pro and Plus side by side, it is very apparent that the Plus model is indeed “plus” especially in size as this machine is bigger than your original and Pro version of Ender 5. This is also affecting their build volume as the Plus machine is capable of building an object up to 350 by 350 by 400 mm instead of 220 by 220 by 300 mm.
Besides more space to allocate, another prominent difference is now they put the spool for filament inside the housing instead on the outside. The pillars and overall build quality of these models are the same and they still use the 4 pillars style in which what moves up and down is only the bed plate while the rest are done by your print head. Another prominent difference is now the screen is built into the main board housing but it is also touch-sensitive just like many SLA machines.
Ender 5 Pro and Plus Board
Moving further, now let’s see what’s different from Ender 5 Pro and Plus and the first part we want to mention here is their electronics. Creality seems to use the electronics from the CR10 machine instead of the original Ender 5 and Pro variant. This model has a main board of A4988 model while on the other hand, your Pro machine will come with a 115 board which many may prefer better as it is a silent board hence it can be a great option for those who worry about noise while printing.
Ender 5 Pro and Plus Hot End
The next part we want to talk is their hot end and as you may guess, both of them have many plastic in this area and this can be concerning for some but our focus is on the Bowden tube which is pretty basic in Ender 5 Plus as this is the same white, transparent tube we have on the original Ender 5. The Pro model at least has upgraded this with the blue Capricorn tube which you may want to do as well when getting Plus variant.
Ender 5 Pro and Plus Extruder
Not only Ender 5 Plus comes with a standard hot end and standard Bowden tube, it also comes with a plastic extruder in which the Pro version is already using metal or aluminum. The metal or aluminum extruder is also a common modification people usually did in their original Ender 5 machine. But, side by side the extruder is bigger in comparison and probably does fine in printing but, personally we want this printer to be more rigid and the thing with metal extruder is we don’t have to worry about flex.
Ender 5 Pro and Plus Z Axis
The next important difference that we think will affect the machine overall quality is the Z screws. As you can guess, the original Ender 5 and Ender 5 Pro are using a single Z rod while the Plus uses two. This is also what many people upgrade on the original machine but with dual Z, the bed is supported by two rods with a motor on each one of them and this ensures its stability so we don’t need to worry about the bed falling or similar issues.
Ender 5 Pro and Plus Feature
On the feature part, one upgrade we love in Ender 5 Plus is the factory filament run-out sensor which is not always available in your machines especially the affordable range yet, we can always do some modification later and having one in this machine is very helpful because it is a large machine and useful if you will be printing a large item as it needs a prolonged time so when there is a problem we can quickly fix them.
Ender 5 Pro vs Plus
These machines are quite different from each other and while they are good right out of the box, we can still upgrade a lot from them just to make everything better or sit well in your preference. The differences beside noticeably larger build volume is now Plus variant has a non-silent motor, regular Bowden tube plastic extruder, yet it also has dual Z rod for stable bed and filament run-out sensor.
Conclusion
All in all you can pick any of them as they are great options but, unless you will need the extra build volume, we do think the Ender 5 Pro is a better option in terms of less part to upgrade while performance wise they are just as amazing as many other Ender machines.