The best 3D printers for 2022

Even though affordable 3D printers have been around for many years, they’re still very far from mainstream.

This is due to a number of reasons. First, many don’t think they have the time or need to use a 3D printing machine. Unless you’re going to set up a side hustle 3D printing things to sell, you’ll probably struggle to think of half a dozen things you can usefully print.

The other is that they’re not exactly automatic. An inkjet printer, for example, can be connected and printed a photo immediately. A 3D printer, however, needs some tweaking before printing anything.

There’s a third reason: consumer 3D printers are single-colour devices. You can only print one color at a given time with one nozzle. You can stop a print, load a different colour and continue, but because of the way that they print one layer on top of the previous one, colours can only change throughout the height of the thing you’re printing.

Printers with multiple nozzles exist, but they’re too expensive for most consumers to justify buying.

Then there’s the speed. Printing small objects can take hours, while large items may only take a few days.

Finally, until you’ve spent time getting to grips with a 3D modelling app such as Adobe Fusion, you’ll be limited to printing objects that other people have designed. There are lots of them, but if you want something bespoke, you’ll have to create it yourself, and that has its own steep learning curve.

As long as you’re prepared for this and don’t have sky-high expectations of being able to print intricate, articulated models from the off, 3D printing can be extremely rewarding.

We’re focusing mainly on FDM (fused deposition modelling) printers here, as this is the most popular type, but there are also resin 3D printers. The resin printer works in a very different way and is designed to print small, complex models.

1. Anycubic Viper

There are pros

• Auto levelling
• Touchscreen
• Filament feed with dual-gear

With 3D printers you tend to get what your pay for, and the Vyper is right at the top of the list. You get (proper) Auto Levelling, touchscreen, PEI Sheet, and decent build volumes of 240x240x265mm.

It’s easy to assemble, prints reliably and offers good quality with minimal tweaking.

You’ll get better quality from Creality’s Ender 3 S1 Pro, but that’s more expensive, and you’ll forego fully automatic bed levelling.

The Vyper is a good choice for most. It offers high-quality, affordable quality and reliable layers.

Please read our entire article
Anycubic Cyper Review

2. Creality 3D Ender3 S1 Pro

There are pros

• Fantastic print quality
• All the features you’d want

Cons

• Auto-levelling requires manual input
• Better touchscreen interface

The S1 Pro might not be the budget 3D printer you’d expect from an Ender 3, but that’s because it has had all the bells and whistles thrown at it.

Please read our entire article
Creality 3D Ender Pro 3 S1 Review

3. Voxelab Aquila S2

There are pros

• Nozzle goes up to 300°C
• It’s Affordable
• PEI Sheet

Cons

• Manual bed levelling
• No touchscreen

The Aquila S2 is a less expensive alternative to others here, but still has most of the features you’d want, including a PEI sheet that helps prints to stick while printing, but makes it simple to remove them afterwards.

You can print with a variety of materials, including PETG, thanks to the fact the hotend can reach 300°C and the bed 100°C.

Bed levelling, though, is manual, and there’s no touchscreen: the colour screen is operated using a knob.

When you’ve levelled it, though, prints are great: we had success with several print-in-place models, but like most of the printers here, you may find intricate models require a raft to succeed.

Please read our entire article
Review Voxelab Aquila S2

4. Creality Halot One plus

There are pros

• Easy to use & reliable
• Compatible with many slicers
• Great print quality

Cons

• Printing is a continuous process that involves fan running
• Post-printing cleaning and curing is required (as with all resin printers).
• It is more expensive than its rivals

Halot One Plus resin 3D printer is easy to use. It has large build volumes, prints consistently and with high quality. It’s quite expensive compared to rivals, especially in the UK.

Halot One Plus, a resin printer is different from the rest. The Halot One Plus prints without the need for filament reels. Instead, liquid resin is used to cure it layer by layer with UV light.

Build volume is smaller than the FDM printers here, but it’s still relatively large for a resin printer, and the screen’s high resolution means models have lots of fine detail.

In our testing, the Halot One Plus performed flawlessly. However, if you’re interested in a resin-printer, you will need to buy a separate cleaning and curing device. It looks very similar to a resin print and occupies about as much space on your desk.

Please read our entire article
Review Creality Halot one Plus

5. Creality Sermoon 1 Pro

There are pros

• Below is a copy
• Easy to use
• Auto levelling

Cons

• Volumetrically small
• It’s expensive

The majority of 3D printers open but the Sermoon is completely enclosed. This, and the fact it has a touchscreen interface designed for beginners, means it’s well suited to kids.

There’s a safety feature that pauses printing when the door is opened, but the enclosure also means you should be able to print with warp-happy materials more easily.

However, that isn’t quite the case as the heated bed can reach only 80°C, but you really need 100°C for ABS. 

The build volume of 175 x 175 x 165mm might put some off, but if you’re after a 3D printer that arrives fully built and is relatively simple to use – and you mainly want to print using the common PLA filament, it could be ideal.

The main issue is the high price, but if that’s not a hurdle, then it’s a decent choice.

Please read our entire article
Creality Sermoon Pro Review

3D printers: a buyer’s guide

These are the things to consider when selecting a printer.

Auto levelling

Unless the surface on which objects are printed is perfectly level, prints won’t stick to it and will fail sooner or later.

Do you find manual levelling tedious? If so, get an autoleveling printer. Be careful. While some printers may claim they have automatic levelling capabilities, others rely on the user to complete most of the work. This is why you should read customer reviews and be familiar with what to look out for.

Warm bed

Almost all 3D printers have them, but a few still don’t. A heated bed will help prints to stick: don’t buy a printer without one.

PEI Sheet

Prints that stick can make it difficult to get off the bed. It is very helpful to have a PEI (polyetherimide), bed sheet.

A flexible metal sheet is substituted for a glass sheet. It has a textured coating and is held in place by a magnet that’s the same size as the print bed. Once the model is printed, simply take the sheet off and flex it until the model comes off.

Touchscreen

The cheapest, most basic 3D printers  use a monochrome screen with a rotary dial. Go more up market and you might get a nicer colour LCD screen, but if you can, get a printer with a touchscreen as it’s so much quicker and easier to use.

Size

A printer’s build volume tells you how big an object it can print. You should assume that the volume actually printed is smaller than specified. Therefore, you might choose to buy a printer that can print a little more than the maximum size object.

It can be hard to know this, and remember that a bigger volume means a bigger printer, which you’ll need space for.

The largest models need to be printed in sections.

Temperatures

PLA filament is most commonly used for printing. All 3D printers have nozzles that go up to the 220°C or so that PLA requires. But if you want to print with ABS, PETG or another type of plastic, be sure to opt for a printer that can go up to around 300°C.

Also, be aware of heated beds. Some won’t go beyond 80°C, but you’ll need 100°C or more for successful ABS prints.

Run out sensor

With large models taking many hours to print and the fact that you can’t always know if there’s enough filament left on the reel to complete it, a run-out sensor can be a life saver. The sensor detects filament running out, stops printing and allows you to continue printing by loading a new reel.

Without one, the filament could run out and the printer will carry on printing thin air, and you’d be none the wiser.