This is the new Creality K1C. Creality touts it as the K1
for people who want to print carbon fiber-filled filaments. But I think there's
something else going on. That this printer is
something else entirely. Personally, I think that this
printer is Creality's "do-over". And in this video, we're
gonna see how well they did. Let's get after it. Ah, and before I forget, this is
not sponsored content, Creality did not pay me anything, but they did
send me all of these products and some filament for free to review. Background. Just under a year ago, to much
fanfare, Creality released the K1, a printer which, in many ways, was
their answer to the Bambu Lab lineup. Beyond being their first foray into
CoreXY kinematics, it represented a dramatic increase in performance, speed,
aesthetics, and user-friendliness. Or, at least, it was supposed to. In reality, as you might recall from
my review and many others like it, although the K1 was built on solid
foundations, the printer, at least the model that reviewers received early on, was riddled with problems that made
it pretty much unusable for some. But since then, based on feedback
from members of the community, it does appear that Creality has been
working hard to address many of those issues, at least in the K1C. In fact, as you're going to see,
they have used a pretty aggressive approach of completely redoing or
replacing a lot of the parts thatKwere causing the issues in the earlier K1. Oh, and just a side note here, Some of
the smaller fixes that I'm going to cover here may have been backwards integrated
into the L1 as well But unfortunately, I don't have a new one of those to
compare to you, so if you do please let us all know in the comments which
of these fixes your K1 has and which it doesn't, and then I'll go ahead and
pin that comment once we all hear back. So let's dive in and explore
the first and probably biggest problem that people encountered
with the K1: The extruder woes. More than anything else, the
Creality K1 launch should stand out in your mind for extruder issues. Earlier viewers like Nathan
Builds Robots actually went so far as to replace the extruders
completely on their review models. Later reviewers, such as myself, were
actually sent two extruders in the box in case one of them was plagued by the
all-too-common underextrusion issues. The internet was flooded with talk
about how to fix the issues from moving cable chains to tightening screws
and eventually, Creality actually made some major material and design
changes to the extruder itself. As I mentioned, I don't have a new
K1 to compare this to, so I won't be commenting on whether or not they
were able to fix it in that printer. When it came to the K1C though, Creality
knew that they needed to get this right. Not just because of the damage that
fiasco did to their last launch, but also because this printer is marketed
as being able to print carbon fiber composite filaments, which are already
somewhat prone to nozzle clogs, not to mention being much, much more expensive. You really don't want your entire
print to fail due to underextrusion when you're printing a hundred
dollar roll of carbon fiber nylon. That's why, as you'll note on the
sales page, the very first feature that Creality emphasizes about the K1C
is that it ships with a more robust, all-metal extruder with a hardened-steel,
quick-swappable nozzle, which, together they claim can deliver over a
thousand hours of clog-free printing. I gotta say that's a little bit of an odd
statement to make because why would more hours mean that you're gonna get a clog? If it's all-metal and it's an improved
design, now why not just say that it's guaranteed to have fewer or no clogs. Seems odd to me, but I digress. So, what's the verdict? Well, from my testing thus
far, the K1C has had absolutely none of the underextrusion
issues that I had with the K1. Whether printing PLA, PETG,
PAHTCF, PLACF, or even TPU. I've had nothing but perfect
printing experiences so far. In fact, I think that this printer
may have produced the single most beautiful TPU part I've ever seen. So what else is there to say? Let's move on and talk about
bed leveling and adhesion. Another one of the issues that plagued
the K1 was bed leveling, and adhesion due to improper bed meshing and bed leveling. It just did not seem to be able to
consistently produce perfect first layers. This was one of the key features
that really differentiated the K1 from the K1 Max, as the latter
benefited from LiDar bed meshing. Now, I'm not actually sure what caused
these issues on the original K1, but I suspect that it might have been
something as simple as oozing from the nozzle, causing the readings to
be off as the nozzle probed the bed. Because I was surprised to see that
while the K1C still doesn't come standard with the LiDar sensor of the K1 Max,
its build plate did arrive with a little silicone brush at the back, which by the way, it's eerily similar to
the one on the Bambu Lab A1 series. This is a great idea, and I have
said before that I would really like to see more printer manufacturers
add a nozzle brush just like this. However, I don't exactly love
the way that Creality did it. Instead of putting the brush onto
the print bed platform itself, which I assume would have required them to
create some new molds or new brackets or something like that, they decided to
just glue it onto the print bed itself. That, in turn, means that the bed is only
single sided, in this case, smooth PEI. In my opinion, that's a huge missed
opportunity to add a double-sided bed with texture on the other side. It's also, In my opinion, a big giveaway
that the whole carbon thing is at least in large part just marketing hype. If this printer were really geared towards
printing carbon filaments like CF Nylon or PETG CF, it would come with another
print surface besides just smooth PEI, which, as it says right on there, is
really ideally suited for PLA and is likely to get torn up by things like PETG. Plus, if you're printing carbon fiber
filaments with their unique textured finishes, you're probably gonna want
the underside to have texturing as well and since this printer doesn't
have LiDar, there's really no good reason why it doesn't at least
include an extra textured build plate. Now I don't want to spend too much time
here because I do have a tendency of taking 20 to 30 minutes just to talk
about build plates, but the addition of the silicone brush to the build plate
makes it much more difficult to find aftermarket build plates or use the ones
you already have on the K1C, at a time where there has been a huge explosion of
exciting new print surfaces to try out. Now I guess you could probably find some
silicone brushes and glue them onto the plate yourself, but any double sided
build plate that you're gonna buy is going to be a waste of money since it
won't sit flat once you glue the brush on. So Creality, if you're listening,
if you're not gonna include two print surfaces, then at least give
us the option to add the textured build plate at checkout without
having to buy some whole big bundle. With all that said, I do
have to give it to Creality. The smooth PEI sheet sticks beautifully
to every single material I threw at it, including carbon fiber nylon, without
the need for any glue stick and the silicone brush does seem to solve the
bed leveling issue because my first layers have been perfect every single
time and I guess if you are going to ship it with just one print surface,
this is the one to have so fair enough. But now let's switch over to my second
biggest gripe with the previous model: The firmware and slicing experience. The second biggest complaint I and many
other reviewers had about the K1 was the firmware, slicer, and mobile app. Basically all the software and firmware. To put it gently, they were bad. Both the slicer and the web interface
had extremely limited feature sets that really couldn't take full advantage
of the printer or its potential. What's more, though some early reviewers
were able to jailbreak the firmware and unlock the full version of Klipper
underneath it, Creality was actually actively patching exploits early
on to stop users from doing this. And the smartphone app, don't get
me started on the smartphone app. That's why, when I was given the
opportunity in September to actually sit down with Creality's software
engineering team in Shenzhen, I basically begged and pleaded with them
to take a totally different approach. Instead of trying to out Bambu
Bambu Lab with proprietary and very user-friendly software, why not do
something that Bambu Lab will never do? Give users full control over fully
open source firmware, and then let them do whatever they want. After all, if you're going to use
open source firmware like Klipper, you do need to at least publish
your changes as open source anyways. The team at Creality seemed really,
really amicable, and I was delighted to see that a few weeks later,
Creality published their source code. So, that was fantastic. Fast forward to today, and the entire K1
series now ships with the ability to gain root access right from the touch screen. Instead of locking things down,
Creality has made the decision to allow users, with ample warning of
course, to actually open things up. In fact, they're even shipping these
printers with rooted firmware out of the box, meaning that you don't even
need to flash the device or anything like that to unlock its full potential. You can simply install an open source
installer helper created by a community member right onto the main branch of
the firmware, which will then allow you to install Fluidd or Mainsail,
OctoEverywhere, your own Macros, Klipper's timelapse utility, you could, for example,
link it to your smartphone app of choice, you can slice with any slicer
you choose, or even control the printer within OrcaSlicer. Whatever you want, really. By the way, I do have an entire video on
all the Klipper upgrades that I install on every printer I get, so if you're
curious, I will link to that right here. Oh, and get this, even if you do choose
to customize things and ditch the Creality web interface, Creality has actually fixed
the firmware so that you won't have to sacrifice their beautiful interface on
the touchscreen display on the device. It still works as normal, as does
their own simplified web interface, and even the smartphone app. So basically, as I see it, you're
getting the best of both worlds. You have the full open source Klipper
and the ability to use your favorite slicer on one port, and then you have
Creality's own interface on another, plus the extra convenience and
functionality of Creality's touchscreen design and their cloud services. Now this, in my book, actually puts the
K1C ahead of some other printers that ship with just Klipper and Klipper Screen. After all, most printers that ship with
Klipper will require you to upgrade to a paid, third party service like
OctoEverywhere or Obico to get remote access or print failure detection. And I'll even concede that it does seem
like Creality has continued to improve their web interface, the firmware, and
the slicer, and even the smartphone app. The latter still feels a bit
like AliExpress, with a lot of noise, and points, and popups,
and a not-so-premium design. But they now at least give you
the option to disable the annoying popups and notifications without
sacrificing the printer-related ones. Still, I'm probably not going to be using
the Creality app, the slicer, or even the simplified web interface personally. Don't get me wrong, I understand
and I appreciate the fact that Creality, like basically every 3D
printer manufacturer right now, wants to attract new demographics by
making their printers user-friendly. So I'm actually glad that they're
continuing to improve those elements of the experience. But for more advanced users like
myself and probably you, being able to get under the open source hood
and change whatever we want, even if it's just using a third party
smartphone app, is really a huge boon. It is, in my opinion, low hanging fruit
for any company out there looking to differentiate themselves from Bambu Lab. And Creality has done that masterfully
with this latest firmware, giving us really the best of both worlds. So, bravo. Camera. When Creality first shipped
the K1, it did not come with a camera or AI failure detection. That was reserved for the K1 Max. Unfortunately for Creality, as soon as
they released the K1, Bambu Lab countered them by starting to include the camera
and an auxiliary fan with the P1P. Touche. So, as you can imagine, the K1C,
with its 60 dollar higher price tag, does include a camera for
remote monitoring and timelapses. And unlike everything in Bambu
Lab's lineup but the flagship X1 Carbon, this one apparently does
have AI failure detection capability. Except it's in beta. Also, despite my best efforts, I
couldn't actually get it to work. Which is a bummer, because if it did work,
that would be a major selling point and a big competitive advantage over the P1S. Also, the camera doesn't
work as seamlessly as I would like in third party apps. I can't, for example, get my new favorite
remote printer management app to recognize it, and it doesn't show up in the Klipper
timelapse plugin at all, which I installed through the command line helper utility. Apparently, according to that utility,
my K1C has the latest version of the camera, which is not compatible. So while I'm sure that there can
and will be a fix for both of those issues, right now, I haven't
been able to get either working in order to test them for all of you. Though I will say that this is another
instance where it's really actually very cool to have both the open
source Klipper and Creality's cloud services running simultaneously. Because it turns out that at least
the Creality Cloud version of the timelapses has been working
smoothly in the background. Still, I would like to be able to both
use my own remote management viewing app that I use for viewing all my printers,
as well as the built-in Klipper timelapse utility that has more customizability. So I really hope that someone
fixes all of that soon. And sorry, what's that you ask? Why yes, I am wearing the all new Next
Layer merch, which by the time you watch this video should be available somewhere
in the description with some kind of link. So if you like this and want to support
the channel, there are two shirt designs and maybe if you guys like
them, there'll be more in the future. Okay, hang on because before we get into
the next item on the list, I do need to take a moment and thank this video's
sponsor, which is none other than PCBWay. Sure, the K1C can print all kinds of
high temp and composite filaments. But you know what it can't do? Metal 3D printing, CNC machining,
MJF industrial printing, injection molding, PCB manufacturing,
sheet metal production. But fear not, because PCBWay
has you covered for all of those things and much, much more. They offer incredibly affordable
prices, fast turnaround, and super high quality, no matter the quantity. I even had a chance to tour one of
their many facilities while I was in Shenzhen, and I was absolutely
blown away by the professionalism and scale of their operation. So whenever it is you need to make
for your next project, make sure to check out the link in the description
which not only supports this channel, but also gets you an awesome new
user credit at your very first order. Thanks to PCBWay, our
longest running sponsor. Alright, let's get back to the K1C by
looking into yet another K1 issue that I really hope they've solved: Hot end woes. Even after I managed to fix the extruder
issues and roll my old K1 back to open source hardware, the main reason
that it ended up collecting dust here in the studio was actually an issue
with the hot end thermistor and prints randomly failing in the middle due
to all kinds of invalid readings. Apparently this was a common issue
because when I reached out to my rep at Creality, she knew all about it
and she assured me that they were now shipping a fixed hot end version and she
offered to ship me a new one the next time they had a package coming my way. Due to the war here in Israel breaking
out, that never happened, but I am pleased to report that I've seen no
such issues with the hot end on the K1C. What's more, though, many, many people
reported issues with the K1 hot end cover melting when printing high temp
materials, I have been able to print some things like PAHTCF without any issues
so far, and they actually print it out as easily as PLA if you can believe it. So while this printer might be
Creality's do-over, there definitely is some justification to the marketing
claim that it's also much more suited to printing high temp and
carbon composites than the K1 was. But, and this is a big BUT, I have to
give the disclaimer that reviewers like myself are always trying to walk a fine
line between really thoroughly testing a machine and still getting the review out
before the printer is completely old new. So I wish I could test this thing for a
few months before I gave you the thumbs up on whether things like hot end longevity
or the housing not melting were fixed. But by then, who knows? I mean, Creality might've already
moved on to their next product launch. So, when I say that everything has
been working really, really well for me, keep in mind that I've really
only put about 30 to 40 hours on this machine so far, which is absolutely
nothing in review terms, and only some of that was with high temp materials. Not to worry though, I am going to
keep testing and pushing this machine to its limits, and I do always
make sure to post YouTube shorts. Or community posts, if I ever change
my conclusion or my opinion of a printer after further testing. So, if you want to be alerted of things
like that, just to make sure you don't buy a printer after I have major issues, do
make sure that you're not only subscribed, but also that you click that bell icon so
that you get alerted when I make posts. Speaking of community posts, when I
asked my subscribers what their biggest questions and concerns were about this
printer, one thing came up time and time again: Vertical fine artifacts. On the original K1 Creality chose to
use rather small pulleys on the stepper motors, which resulted in a big problem
with vertical fine artifacts or VFAs. Fortunately, you'll notice that Creality
has swapped these out for much larger ones on the K1C and as noted by Lost in Tech,
this seems to have resolved the problem. From my testing, that's
certainly the case, so let's not waste any more time on it. Instead, let's skip right over
to the loosey-goosey doors. Recently, I got a chance to interview
the one and only Uncle Jessy, link in the description if you haven't already seen
that episode, and one of the things that we joked about is the fact that he will
never live down the time that he shattered the K1's glass door while unboxing it. Yes, Uncle Jessy does seem to have really
terrible luck with new 3D printers, but all jokes aside, this happened because
of a small design flaw in the K1. The door hinge was extremely
loosey-goosey, and would allow the door to swing open
violently and potentially break. Some users also felt that the door didn't
close firmly enough when you close it. Personally, I actually don't remember
that being an issue, and I don't have my K1 anymore to test, it was that bad. But I am happy to report that
the door on the K1C feels great. It not only has a magnet to hold it
shut, but it's also attached to the hinges with a lot more friction. So it can be fixed at any angle you
want, kind of like a laptop screen. This will be great If you want to be
able to moderate the amount of airflow without risking drafts or warping, though
you can also remove the top or just turn on the carbon filter chamber fan
if you want to control the temperature. Same thing. But on top of that, Creality
went way overboard by adding anti-shatter film to the glass. Let's be honest, this feature was
only added to protect you from Uncle Jessy-ing your door if you ever have
to tilt the printer for maintenance, but it is a great addition and it
goes a long way into giving the printer a much more premium feel. Up next, warped beds. Another common complaint about
the K1 was that many people apparently received warped beds. Now, I did look into this really,
really quickly with a straight edge, as well as the Klipper bed mesh, and
I was able to determine that at least on mine, the bed is really quite flat. Nuff said. But what about spool placement? Another thing that many people, myself
included, dislike in a 3D printer is when the only option for mounting a spool of
filament is all the way here on the back. Even if you don't have a dozen
printers on industrial shelves like I do, most of us do want to be able to
push the printer up against a wall. Needing to move it or turn it
every time you want to change the spool is just a pain. Creality hasn't actually fixed that
per se, but they do ship the K1C with a pre-sliced GCode file for a side mount
spool holder, which I really appreciate. But now, let's talk about nozzle
swapping and proprietary nozzles. At this point, we're really
getting into the nitpicky stuff and just looking for faults. But one other thing that people are coming
to expect is a quick swappable nozzle. With things like the E3D Revo on the
aftermarket side, and the Prusa Nextruder, or Bambu Lab A1 quick-swap nozzles on the
OEM side, it is becoming common, possibly even expected, that a nozzle should be
quick and easy to swap without tools. For the K1C, Creality is introducing
a new nozzle type, the tri-metal "Unicorn" system, which is really very
similar to the Prusa Nextruder nozzles. It's cold swappable due to the new design. Some folks will welcome this ability
to quickly swap the nozzle without needing to swap the entire hot end
like you would on a Bambu Lab printer, because I understand that removing the
entire hot end here is kind of a pain. But personally, as someone who already
has a lot of printers and a lot of nozzles, and some of them are very, very
high quality nozzles that I like to use on different printers, I don't welcome
the addition of yet another standard to the already long list of nozzles and
hot ends that I need to keep on hand. I understand that this was done
for better performance, better wear resistance, and easier use. I understand that not everyone
has 15 printers, but I do find it a little annoying. Perhaps, like Prusa has done with the
Nextruder, Creality can release an adapter kit, so that I can use, say, my diamond
V6 nozzles on the K1C if I want to. Till then, I am stuck with the 0.4 nozzle
that it shipped with, unless I want to order some more of these proprietary ones. So, those are, as far as I can
recall, all the different issues that the K1 had, and which, for the
most part, the K1C does not have. But now, let's take a
look at the big picture. The final verdict. In my honest opinion, the Creality
K1C is the printer Creality should've shipped almost a year ago. At the end of the day, it's still
a Creality K1 at it's core, but with a dozen or so fixes that make
the printer perform properly in pretty much all the ways the K1 did. Though these are mostly very small
changes individually, together, they accumulate into a much better
overall experience with the printer. And because this is Creality, the king
of releasing so many models with such confusing names that you literally
don't even know which one is which, yeah, I'm looking at you Ender 3,
V3, SE, instead of just fixing the K1, they created a new version of it. So what's my verdict? Do I actually like this thing? And will I be using it, shelving
it, or getting rid of it? Well, like I said before, as with all
reviews, the requirements of getting this video out before the printer
itself is completely old news, means that I do still need a little more time
before I'm confident that it's a keeper. After all, I have had printers
perform very well during the couple weeks of review, only to crap
out on me or become an overall nightmare just a few months later. But right now, as it stands, I'm
really impressed with the Creality K1C. If I had to describe it in one
word, it would be "phenomenal". And I can't believe that I'm
actually going to say this but I might even recommend it over my
current best printer recommendation for hobbyists, the Bambu Lab P1S. Hold on though, hold
on, don't get me wrong. If you do care about multicolor printing
or you need the extra build volume or you just don't want to mess around with
the firmware and software upgrades and macros to unlock the full capability
of your printer, you'll still be better off with the Bambu Lab, but if this
printer proves as reliable as I think it's going to, quite honestly, it has
a number of advantages over the P1S. Whether that's the open source firmware
that gives you full control over the printer, the hardened extruder gears
and nozzles that are generally reserved for much more expensive printers,
the built-in AI failure detection, when they actually get it working, or
the beautiful touchscreen interface. There's really a lot to
love about this printer. And by the way, did I mention
that it's a full 140 dollars less than the Bambu Lab P1S? The performance is, as far as I can tell,
right on par with the best printers out there, but again, even if it's not quite
up to snuff, the fact that you can unlock a full unrestrained version of Klipper
and tweak everything that you want, from Z-offset and input shaping and more, means
that you can get it perfectly dialed in. So yeah, that's the new Creality K1C. It's actually really good. And while I'm definitely not going
to be getting rid of any of my Bambu Lab machines with their multicolor
capabilities, the easy to load AMSs, and the larger build volumes, this printer is
easily going to become one of the go-to machines here in my print farm that I turn
to when I just need high quality parts printed out quickly and without hassles. So if you're in the market for an
enclosed, fast printer at a great price, I would definitely recommend skipping
right over the K1 and just picking this up instead for 60 bucks more. By the way, if you do appreciate
the review and you want to support the channel, you will find a
referral link in the description. That doesn't cost you anything extra,
but I will earn a few bucks from your purchase, which helps me keep the
lights on, or more realistically, the printers on over here. And no, those few bucks are not enough to
influence or sway my review in any way. I can recommend any printer and earn
the same commission, so you don't have to worry about bias there. On the note of keeping the lights on,
let me also take a moment to thank our YouTube members and Patreon supporters,
particularly our Nylon and Peek members, Chip Cox, 2 Krazy Ketos, Amir
Chen, Kris Miller, and Don Arledge.. You guys rock. That's all for this week, but I will
see all of you on The Next Layer.
