Creality Original Ender 3 Direct Drive Upgrade Kit, Comes with 42-40 Stepper Motor Hotend Kit, 1.75mm Direct Drive Extruder Fan and Cables Support Flexible TPU Filament

Purchased this upgrade to get away from the sidemount feeder stepper and Bowden tube setup. This one change brought my print failure rate down drastically and it was super easy for me to install.

I bought this so I could began printing tpu. I was shocked at how well designed and built this assembly was. I usually refrain from doing printer upgrades because I hate having to do extreme, hacks to my printer (changing firmware, cutting or modifying the circuit, cutting or modifying the frame, modifying the belts). This piece is super easy to install onto the frame, If you loosen the bottom wheel, your old one will slide right off and your new one will slide right on, this is nice because you dont have to take your frame apart. I like that all the cables match the originals and there are no extras. Snap a picture of the circuit board before disconnecting your original, look at the picture and copy it with the new one! No looking at schematics, or having to solder and heat shrink. I like that the cable utilizes the original frame notch for securing. I like that the extrutruder cable is an extension to the original. You dont have to mess with the braided sheathing and take a chance at messing it up, you just plug the male end of the extension , to the female of the original. This keeps the printer looking good because your still concealing the majority of the cable in braided sheath. The MTA connector connecting two can only be plugged in one way and feels tight and snug. The head is fully assembled with a .4 nozzle, the head feels strong, and durable, bearings feel good. The images are right after I installed the head. Re-leveled my bed, and this is the first print to come out, it was my test print. I only made ONE change, I adjusted the temp up 30 degrees up to 250. No other printer changes or slicer changes. With as good as this part was designed, I plan on checking out other OEM Creality upgrades. I give this an A+ and cant wait to try other OEM upgrades.

Great upgrade. Makes filament install much easier. Smooth prints. Only downside is install is very tideous. Requires going into processor board, removing hot glue securing very small connectors removing tape bundling wiring harness

I bought one of these for one of my Ender 3's and liked it so much that I bought a second one for my other Ender 3. The first one worked fine for about 2 months and then the extruder gear started clicking like a mad man. Then, in almost the same time frame, the second one started clicking and not extruding as well. Well, I am nearing the end of an 8 month print (full X-01 power armor from Fallout 4) so I really needed to get back running and I decided to try something to test a hypothesis, I took the stepper motor off and ran my old bowden tube to the hot end. Yay, it is printing again. The possible reason for this that I can think of is that the heat from the extruder is making the filament (Sunlu PLA+) to soft for the extruder to continue to push though. It blocked the short bowden tube and was causing serious clogging issues. These hot ends really are quality hot ends and the stepper motors are also Creality branded, I just do not believe that they should be configured in this manner.

Works great. A bit hard to get level but not sure if that's the machine or the house. Creates with a lot detail

I find that buying OEM parts and replacements are usually the way to go. In this case I just want my Ender 3 V2 to keep printing. I bought this so that I could print TPU more reliably. Seems you need direct drive to do that! Just keep in mind that with this unit you can now reduce the amount of retraction from 6mm down to 1mm or less depending on the filament you are using. Direct drive does not need the extra length that a Bowden tube required. And when you do get a clog... it's easier to push it through. For the Ender 3, it doesn't seem to be an issue with the extra weight on the hot end. If you think that it does because of flexing you can always add an extra Z-axis for dual Z drive.

The best upgrade for my Ender 3 V2!!! I’ve always wanted a direct drive extruder but thought it would be too much work to upgrade. I should have done this years ago, it was so easy and took maybe 20 minutes to fully install and get back to printing. This solved so many issues I was having with my prints that it’s already payed for itself in previous wasted filament.

I read the reviews, much like everyone else, and spent the time to weigh my options. I came to the conclusion before doing any research that this was worth the price. Let me say, I was right. I got what I paid for, Junk. Does it function as a direct drive extruder? Yes. I will not lie, it works like it says. However, it is terribly designed, and causes major issues of clogging, breaking filament, and the extruder not being strong enough. I am going to be plainly honest and say that I am still quite new to 3d printing, even though I have a few years under my belt. I will also caution you from purchasing this product for any other reason for entertainment or research. The instructions for installing it were straight forward, however, having to disassemble nearly the entire printer to install it, not so great. I should also mention that if you have a clog, you have to disassemble the entire gantry just to maintain it. I was using all Creality parts and filament for the time I was using this direct drive extruder, and I can say 100% it is not worth it. Stick with your Bowden tube, or go with another direct drive system because this is not worth the hassle. If you are still learning, and looking to figure out something new, go ahead and purchase this as it is low cost enough to use as a training example of what not to purchase, and how to fix a broken direct drive system. Outside of that, if you are looking for functional parts that will not fail, look elsewhere.

The box was pretty beat up, but the parts are good,