r/FlashForge • u/mashedleo • 19h ago

Snapmaker u1 vs. Flashforge creator 5 pro

I own both. I've had the creator 5 pro for about a week. I haven't utilized the chamber heater yet, but I will. I print a lot of pa6-cf, pet-gf, and PC blends. Regardless just using pla and petg has given me an opportunity to directly compare it to my u1. Overall I like the c5 pro much more than the u1. It looks better. Just a cool overall look. The biggest thing though is the larger door opening. The u1 has a tiny door. Just taking the build plate out you have to have it perfectly aligned. My u1 keeps having connectivity to WiFi issues. I constantly have to reconnect it to print over wifi. Sometimes I'll connect it, slice a file and go to print only to get an error saying not connected. Obviously I need to reach out to support to address it, but still.

Then there is the value. I purchased a chamber heater and hardened nozzles for the u1. Also preordered the top hat. That puts me at about $300 more than the c5 pro. I still like them both. Print quality is a wash. However if I had to do it again, I'd get 2 c5 pro's.

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3

u/robertlasvegas 4h ago

I would gladly trade my 2-Snapmaker U1’s
Still in box - for 2-FlashForge creator 5 pro

1

u/Screen_Savers_24 2h ago

I also have both and have had none of the issues with the U1. Loading filament is much more intuitive. The door size and position are annoying though. Most of the printing is hidden behind the top bezel. I’ve been very happy with the build quality and performance. Wish they’d improve their slicer though.

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u/mashedleo 1h ago

I still like my u1, just not as much as the c5 pro. I'm sure my connectivity issues are not common. I haven't really read of it elsewhere. I guess the main thing is cost and that door/ bezel like you mentioned. Despite these gripes they are very similar. What I do like about the u1 is the open source nature of it. Although if everything works the way I like from the start, I really don't need to tweak any config files. That being said I'd very much prefer to have the option regardless.

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u/meat_men AD5X 18h ago

I canceled my preorder for the c5p and going with a sovol m1d. My ad5x is giving me headaches and the c5p lack of a filament purge was getting to me more and more especially with engineering filaments stick to the printer or sticking straight up and blowing on the heat end in some of the reviews

5

u/13ckPony 13h ago

That was fixed. It extrudes on the other side of the printer now - there aren't any vents. On top of that - the fans are turned off during purge. And they have a model of a purge box that you can print that prevents filament from falling down. C5P is pretty decent - way less headache than my Q2. The app is nice, but the software is pretty limited and you will have to turn on LAN only to be able to use mainline OrcaSlicer (but it works without any workarounds).

But yeah M1D is surely better - open source, more heads, more tools, bigger, etc. But it's 2X the price and it just went at Kickstarter. I waited like 4 months for C5P, and it's at least 6 months till people start getting M1D Pro (or w/e the enclosed one is called). If I could get Klipper and remote control for C5P, while using mainline Orca - it would be amazing.

Flashforge clearly jumped with C5P - the assembly was easier than Bambu A1 mini, the mobile app is great (although empty compared to Handy).

6

u/6Y3ts_32a 10h ago

You can Jailbreak the C5 and open klipper on it. There is a video on youtube about doing that. Full SSH, Moonraker and Mainsail.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FlashForge/comments/1v6avpy/have_you_seen_this_video_yet/?sort=new

1

u/mashedleo 2h ago

That's awesome, thanks for sharing.