EZ3D Phoenix 3D Printer Review

On January 31st, I paid $100 deposit for a Phoenix 3D printer from EZ3D, based in Colorado. I was cautioned that there was a wait time of 8-10 weeks. I appreciated, however, that instead of demanding full payment at ordering – as many “Kickstarted” 3D printer companies do – they only required a deposit, with the balance due when they ship. Their website also mentioned a one-year warranty on parts, which spoke well for their company and how they intended to do business. I was also intrigued by the software, which was advertised as having the ability to “rewind” failed prints to continue from where it left off. All of these factors left me feeling pretty confident with my purchase, especially given the very reasonable price, compared to other printers out there.

The printer didn’t actually ship until May 14th and it arrived May 19th, approximately 15 weeks after it was ordered. For a new company with a high demand and the normal production start-up issues, this wasn’t that bad. Unfortunately, the problems began as soon as I opened the box. The printer came assembled, but it shipped with no printed directions, no software, and no guidance for how to get started. There was no link to the software on the website, nor was there any kind of support site or forums. After much searching, I managed to find a link to the software buried in a blog post about a software update. There were also no instructions on how to set up the spool holder (I figured it out by finding one of the few videos that showed the top of the printer), or how to get started setting everything up. I submitted a “comment ticket” through the website – the only place I could find to contact the company – asking for guidance. I never got a specific response, but as I had figured out most of my issues on my own, I wasn’t too concerned. I should have been, however, as this was a harbinger of much more serious problems to come.

In trying to level the hot end by following a video posted in their blog, I eventually deduced that there was no way that the hot end could ever be brought within about 3mm of the print surface – the belts, I discovered, were too short. I submitted another ticket, and after several days received a response asking for more photos. Several days after that, EZ3D confirmed that the belts I had been sent were cut too short. They would send replacements in the mail. The replacements arrived with no instructions. If you’ve ever seen this printer, you know that the belts are wound in a very intricate way through many pulleys, gears, and bearings. I managed to reverse engineer how to install the belts by taking many photos as I carefully partially disassembled my pre-assembled printer (NB: There is now a video showing how to do this).

Finally ready to try out the printer, I quickly discovered the software – one of the main incentives for buying this particular printer – is simply not ready for prime time. It is extremely buggy, at best a beta release. The program would not exit cleanly if you shut it down, throwing an unhandled exception that would refuse to let the program quit. You were forced to kill the process with Windows Task Manager. They later updated the software to “fix” this problem, however, the fix was to simply stop handling the exception and let the program quit. Unfortunately, the program did not remove itself from running, so still had to be killed in Task Manager or you would be unable to restart the program. This problem persisted until they released a new client-server version, which still has the server part running all the time. The downside of this arrangement is that the printer often loses connection to the computer, causing the print to simply stop in the middle. The “recover a failed print” option does not work if you manually stop the printer and try to restart (which was necessary because of the frozen client), so was never a useful feature – even though this is the only feature that sets this printer apart from others.

While on the subject of the software, not only is it buggy, but it takes away all ability of the operator to set custom slic3r parameters. There are a wealth of choices in a drop-down box, but as we all know, we often need to “tune” the print to the particular object, perhaps with a slower first layer, a change in temperature, etc. There is no way to do this with the EZ3D software. Unfortunately, because of the customizations EZ3D has made to the Marlin firmware, the printer will not work with other software such as MatterControl, Repetier-Host, etc. The RAMBo board can be flashed, of course, but then it will no longer work with the EZ3D software – and more importantly, EZ3D will refuse to provide support for the printer (not that they provide much support in any event, but more on that later).

I attempted to print in PLA, but never got anything to work at all. I’m not saying I couldn’t get a “good” print, I’m saying I could not get any print at all. Occasionally I could get some filament to extrude, but then the cold end would clog immediately. I submitted a support ticket and (after many days – typical response time is on the order of 5-15 days) was told that “If you have never printed on a 3D printer before I do NOT recommend starting out with PLA. PLA can be very stubborn to print”. This is, of course, simply untrue, as PLA is generally much easier to print with than ABS, however, the extruder and hot end design of the Phoenix is fundamentally flawed in that it can’t adequately keep the temperature of the cold end steady enough for the filament to flow smoothly, nor does it have a PTFE (Teflon) tube in the cold end to reduce friction. But instead of owning up to this issue, EZ3D simply washes their hands of it and says to avoid printing in PLA.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t handle ABS much better. Not only does the hot end still jam repeatedly (requiring disassembly and a two-day bath in acetone to clear), my heat bed would not heat to more than 92 degrees C, no matter how long I waited. I (again) submitted a support ticket, and after waiting the requisite week or so, was told that “There are many factors that can cause a heat bed to not reach 100C. However, as long as it reaches 80C, your [sic] golden for ABS filament.” Ticket closed, no assistance given. Now, his statement is patently untrue. While I eventually had more luck getting ABS to extrude than PLA (which isn’t saying much, since the PLA didn’t work even once), the ABS still would not stick to the bed. Even with ABS slurry, the edges of even small prints would curl up. This is a sure sign that the heat bed isn’t hot enough, as obviously 90 degrees isn’t.

On June 10 – still without a single print, successful or not – I noticed that the z axis belts were slipping off of the counterweight holders. The usual multi-day back and forth with support ensued, and EZ3D finally acknowledged that they had some “bad pours” with their resin parts that was causing them to fail. They said they would send me a new set of counterweight holders to correct the problem. After waiting a week and a half, nothing arrived. I submitted another ticket asking about the status. They claimed it must have gotten lost in the mail, so sent a new set. This finally arrived 18 days after I requested the parts, putting me to the end of June and still unable to use the printer. Unfortunately, the counterweight brackets I was sent also were apparently the victim of a “bad pour”, as they were about 1/8” too thin. They also sent the wrong size screws, which damaged one of the counterweight holders. I requested those parts the same day (June 28th), but as of this writing (August 11th) the parts still have not arrived.

Fortunately, as a maker, I’m never afraid to try to kludge together a solution. With some epoxy putty and a good deal of crafting, I was able to fabricate a counterweight holder that seemed to work, at least as a temporary fix. Someone who bought this printer as a turnkey solution and was unwilling or unable to reverse engineer how it works would have been out of luck, however. Sadly, this was not the only part with a “bad pour”. On July 6th, one of the filament spool holders broke – it simply cracked in half under the weight of an admittedly heavy spool of ABS filament. I requested a replacement, but again, it still has not arrived as of this date.

At this point, it was becoming obvious that the parts in the Phoenix 3D printer are substandard and the entire design has some very serious flaws. More critically, however, it was becoming equally obvious that EZ3D’s support was ill-equipped to handle the no doubt numerous complaints they were facing. They did finally set up a support site with forums, so users were able to begin swapping ideas, but it also became clear that many people were having many problems and were in general being met with silence from EZ3D. I posted a message to the company directly saying that while in general makers are a very forgiving bunch, we absolutely require communication and status reports. There was no response to my message. I learned later they had also shut down their Facebook page due to the overwhelming number of negative comments. One Kickstarter update from EZ3D implied that they were filling commercial (post-Kickstarter) orders first in order to generate the cash flow needed to hire people to make more printers. After the understandably loud complaints from Kickstarter backers, they later clarified to say that they were shipping one Kickstarter printer for each commercial printer sold. As of this writing, however, a number of buyers still have not received their machines and have gotten no response or updates from EZ3D.

As I realized more and more than the design was flawed, I decided to ask for a refund. I realized that I probably should have gone with a standard RepRap machine (the Phoenix is essentially a modification of a RepRap) with a proven design and reliable support. I was told that no returns were possible after 14 days after the printer arrives. However, if you look to their return policy (which is not directly linked anywhere on the website, but can be found at [www.phoenix3dprinter.com]), it says that they will not accept a return after 14 days, but they will also not accept a return until “all support options have been exhausted”. As can be seen, even the most simple of support requests takes far more than 14 days, so the conditions of the return policy are mutually exclusive. Given the cash flow problems EZ3D is having, I do wonder if that’s intentional – a way to say you have a return policy without actually having to accept returns. I explained this contradiction to EZ3D, but never got a reply.

Stuck with the printer, I worked even more with other users to try to get the printer working. By manually feeding ABS filament (for hours!), I was finally able to get a very small part to print, a Prusa i3 part, as I was already becoming convinced the Phoenix’s resin construction wasn’t durable enough to last. To date, this is the only object ever to complete with my Phoenix. It’s not pretty, but it’s a part. I tried printing the Cudding Owls from Thingiverse, but never got a successful print. Several times the printer simply lost connection, but on my final attempt, I noticed that the hot end would suddenly and randomly jump in the X axis by as much as 10mm, ruining the print. I posted a support ticket describing the problem on July 26th about the problem, but to date EZ3D has never responded.

At this point, it was becoming obvious that EZ3D as a company is not going to be around much longer. I very much wanted to get the missing parts, however, so on August 6th, I submitted yet another ticket asking for an update on the status of the parts. On August 8th I actually received a reply saying that “USPS is notorious for losing packages” and telling me to give it another week. The ticket was then closed. Now, I am an avid eBay buyer and seller, and I use USPS almost exclusively. I have never – not even once – had USPS lose a package in 15 years of eBaying. And aside from that, if EZ3D would simply send the package Priority Mail, then they would have a tracking number and could find out what was happening. But three times I’ve been told that parts were sent “that day” and they were “lost” in the mail. I find that extremely unlikely. I have gotten parts from them (including two new nozzles that I didn’t actually ask for – apparently the first batch of printers made had faulty nozzles as well), so I know they have the correct address. No other explanation has been given, however.

The last issue I had with the printer was that on August 8th, I noticed that the fan on the power supply had stopped working. I did get a response fairly quickly this time, saying that “The fan is an unnecessary add-on that has been problematic for us. If the fan stops working, the power supply will get hot, but that's it.“ Ticket closed. Now, I have had PC power supplies overheat and fail before. The Phoenix power supply has no off switch. According to EZ3D, the printer is intended to be left on all the time. Eventually – though maybe not within the one-year warranty period – the power supply will fail and I’ll be stuck.
There are other design flaws with the printer:

- There is no way to level the print bed. The only way to approximately level it is to put shims (I used cardboard) under the feet of the printer.
- The resin is not consistently poured, and some structural and load bearing parts have failed and more are likely to fail as time goes on (and the warranty period has ended).
- The z-axis belts regularly get out of alignment due to the software causing the x carriage to slam into the top and bottom of the printer.
- Because of the way the two z belts are calibrated to each other, the z endstop has to be reset essentially every print.
- The print bed is 2” longer than the heat bed. I believe this is the real reason why the print bed doesn’t get above 90C – the heat bed is simply too small for the print bed. It is also uninsulated, nor is there any way to add insulation.
- The spool holder is mounted on top of the printer. The first time you have a tangle in the filament, the massive spool will come crashing down onto your extruder and print bed.
- The overreliance on belts means that as the belts age and stretch, calibration will become increasingly more difficult. There is currently no way to tighten loose belts other than disassembling the printer and physically cutting the belt.
- The software is so unreliable as to be essentially unusable and without flashing the firmware, there is no way to use any other software.
- EZ3D has thus far refused to release current STL’s for the printer’s many parts, so creating backup parts (for when the printer is out of warranty) is impossible. Eventually the printer will simply be an unusable paperweight.
- The extruder design is fundamentally flawed and prone to jamming.

These flaws are serious, but more serious are the lack of support and willingness to correct the issues in a timely manner. I realize that the lack of responsiveness may simply be due to being overwhelmed with users having problems – but that in itself should be enough to warn you away from this printer.

In short, avoid the EZ3D Phoenix 3D printer, and realistically, avoid the company altogether. There are too many reliable, trusted, and proven designs out there for not a lot more money. If you ordered a printer and haven’t received it, cancel your order. If, like me, you have already received your printer, remove the RAMBo board, the motors, the heat bed, a thermistor, and the associated wiring and purchase the Prusa i3v upgrade kit from MakerFarm. This kit, along with a new extruder (you will also need two GT2 gears), J head hot end (and associated mount), and optionally an LCD screen and RAMBo adapter, will give you a fully-functional Prusa i3v RepRap printer. Colin of MakerFarm is a joy to work with, and his videos and advice are clear and easy to follow. Don’t be afraid of putting together a kit – it’s not hard at all, and Colin’s videos make you feel as though he is building one right beside you and showing you every single step of the way. I had the new printer assembled in a weekend, calibrated in an afternoon, and have never had a failed print yet. It really is that easy. Contrast that to three months of work with the Phoenix and never yet getting a decent print (and only one completed print at all).

In the end, I should have spent and extra $75 and got the MakerFarm kit to begin with. I hope that you will learn from my mistake and avoid EZ3D and their Phoenix 3D printer. It’s a shame because I really wanted this printer to work, but I’m now extremely happy with my Prusa i3v and printing a ton of objects for myself, my family, and my friends.

Good luck with your 3D printing endeavors, and please don’t hesitate to ask any questions.

Thanks for the info. I was seriously considering the EZ3D back in March when I was out to buy my first 3d printer. There were times I was just about to hit the "Buy" button, but in the end, the long lead time and the fact that there really was no info available, no forums, no support area on their website, and really not any info here, caused me to go elsewhere. I ended up buying an I3 Alpha kit from DIY Techshop and while they aren't perfect by any means, I was able to get up and running and have a working printer.

I fell into the same trap. Fortunately I was able to see the "writing on the wall" and requested and received a refund before the bottom fell out. I never received my printer even after waiting several months. I recently ordered a DIY Tech Shop Prusa I3X printer and have had a ball putting it together. Their customer support is light years ahead of EZ3D and I am almost ready to print my first project. Your well crafted entry makes me very happy I cut my ties with EZ3D sooner than later. I still follow some of the comments on their website and all I see is a crowd of very unhappy customers.

Can you please share the Marlin that it uses, I'm sure there is a way to get it running on other software.

[github.com]

Edit: I've found the firmware, I don't see anything that would prevent it from running on Repetier or Pronterface. It's just a preconfigured version of Marlin running on a RAMBo according to configuration.h. Some of the changes they have made seem unnecessary and don't seem to match the description. One of them claims to make the endstops more reliable but all that was done was setting unused endstops in pins.h to -1 which would disable them and then turning the pot current down on the Z axis of one of the many pot configurations available.

If you wanted to move this to Repetier Host, it should be fairly easy to do.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2014 08:21AM by tjb1.

Oh yes, it can certainly be done, but if you make any changes, then EZ3D says they will not offer any support. Still, in my case, I used the parts from the Phoenix to build a Prusa i3v (and have obviously changed the firmware myself), so it's not an issue for me. I can confirm that the Phoenix firmware as installed won't work with Repetier-Host, though.

Quote
Gryffin
Oh yes, it can certainly be done, but if you make any changes, then EZ3D says they will not offer any support. Still, in my case, I used the parts from the Phoenix to build a Prusa i3v (and have obviously changed the firmware myself), so it's not an issue for me. I can confirm that the Phoenix firmware as installed won't work with Repetier-Host, though.

What doesn't work about it when you connect it to Repetier Host, the error is likely very simple and maybe not even related to something EZ3D have done? The firmware itself is simple and based on you have said, what worry is losing support from them?

You would also be better off at this point to find someone else to print your parts or finding a decent seller on ebay. If you can not get a good print out, you are going to spend more money on filament than the parts cost themself. If you want to do it just for the experience/learning/fun, go for it but if money is the factor, see above.

Well, even EZ3D wasn't able to get Repetier to work, but I think you misunderstand. I have already disassembled the Phoenix, taken the parts I needed, and built a Prusa i3v out of it. The newly-constructed machine works great. I spent nearly three months working with the Phoenix and got nothing. I spent three days working with the Prusa and am getting great prints. My only hope with the review was to help people to avoid making my mistake.

Gryff

Quote
Gryffin
Well, even EZ3D wasn't able to get Repetier to work, but I think you misunderstand. I have already disassembled the Phoenix, taken the parts I needed, and built a Prusa i3v out of it. The newly-constructed machine works great. I spent nearly three months working with the Phoenix and got nothing. I spent three days working with the Prusa and am getting great prints. My only hope with the review was to help people to avoid making my mistake.

Gryff

Oh sorry, I thought you were currently trying to print another. Them not being able to do it doesn't mean much, I've helped some that didn't plug power in to the controller and didn't find this out until I ran out of things to troubleshoot since I assumed they got that much correct

I am currently running a phoenix, did have some issues but am getting good results. The software is the limiting factor.
I would like to get it going with Repetier or Mattercontrol but not much luck.

Quote
mwhatch
I am currently running a phoenix, did have some issues but am getting good results. The software is the limiting factor.
I would like to get it going with Repetier or Mattercontrol but not much luck.

What is the issue....no one can help unless you describe the issue of why it will not work. What does Repetier say when you try to connect?

When the printer starts to print the axis try to go way past the limits. Repetier says it is connected, show the printer information and has manual control. Everything seems to work manually, just seems to go crazy after slicing and starting to print.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2014 03:16PM by mwhatch.

Quote
mwhatch
When the printer starts to print the axis try to go way past the limits. Repetier says it is connected, show the printer information and has manual control. Everything seems to work manually, just seems to go crazy after slicing and starting to print.

Those are all very simple issues to fix but you will need knowledge of the firmware.

After looking at this forum thread I decided to give up on this machine - I ordered a kit on 3/6/14 and have yet to get a date for its shipment. I paid the $200 deposit then, as I was not part of the original Kickstarter. Just submitted a cancellation / refund request -- so we'll see how long that takes. My order status checker says 90% of the way there, but their site blog stated all orders as of May 10 will ship within 10 weeks. Well, since my initial order date in March, it is now over 35 weeks, and well past 10 weeks since mid-May. I think that is a long enough for a free loan of $200.

I've been printing with the Phoenix for a few months now and have a pretty firm grasp on it.
Here's a summary of my experience.

1. Their software is rough. I've configured/compiled repetier-host firmware that works well on the Phoenix and posted the configuration.h on dropbox here:
[pastebin.com]
I've only had success printing using repetier-host software/firmware. I think it is mostly due to the lack of slicer configuration for retraction parameters in the Ez3d software.

2. In regards to "the z endstop has to be reset essentially every print.". I believe that is the wrong approach when leveling the z print axis. Because independent motors control each side of the z rail, the rail can skew when the power for the z motors gets turned off. While it would appear as though the z endstop became mal-adjusted, the reality is that the z rail needs to be leveled by raising/lowering one of the motors with respect to the other.
In my experience, before the start of each print the z rail should be leveled by rotating one of the z axis steppers by hand. Now that I know what I'm doing, it takes ~30 seconds before each print to ensure I have a good level.

3. The hot-end on the Phoenix is terrible. Terrible... So far, I've had zero success printing any PLA - most attempts have lead to a hard to clear jam.
In addition, I have yet to successfully print some white ABS from Hatchbox.
I have had a good experience however printing Bright Pink ABS from sainsmart @ 230C. I believe the problem lies with plastics with lower melting points drooping in the heat-break and becoming too wide to extrude.
I just bought a E3D hotend and am in the process of redesigning the extruder&hotend mount to accomodate. When I get done with that I'll try to post here.

4. For anyone who already has a Phoenix or has ordered and doesn't plan on a refund, we have a G+ community with a some users who are posting their experiences:
[plus.google.com]

5. Overall, I am pretty happy w/ the purchase and overall design of the XYZ rails. I feel lucky to have actually received what I ordered w/o significant problems. I'll end up putting another $100 or so to get it running as well as I would like, but am getting some nice results stock.

TL;DR
Use repetier-host and repetier-firmware (http://pastebin.com/Th8pyffG). The Hotend sucks, find some higher-temp ABS and use that to start. Join our G+ community if you own one: [plus.google.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2014 03:40PM by rkroetch.

Hey thanks for the review, as a pioneer in 3D Printing and only being 15 years of age, this printer has been troublesome but of great success once all the problems have been sorted out. This is definitely not an "out of the box working" printer, nor will it ever be, but if you put enough time in it (5 months for me) This thing will eventually work, and really well might I add. Yes the program freezes sometimes mid-print but I've found the print recovery to actually work, every time so far. This printer is poorly designed, customer support is horrible, and parts take lots longer to arrive than you'd expect, and over all the company is horrible but the printer (once kinked out of problems) in my opinion is worth the money, I enjoy the challenge of making the printer work with all the time I have (and diagnosing the problems), and if you are into the wait and the real tweaking experience, then this printer is for you. The only thing to really dis-approve of this experience so far is the support and company in general. If Ez3D could get there act together, maybe their customers would be a bit more satisfied.

I made the mistake of supporting this startup and now I am stuck with half of a machine as they are unable to combine their intellect to ship me the parts I need. They also seem unable to respond to emails for the last 2 months so it doesn't look like they intend to honour their agreement. I wish I were closer to this company so I could go round and take what I paid for. On a good note, I did build a Smartrap and it works great.

Gryffin,

Similar experience with the product. My support has been better than others report but the printer was returned to me, after repairs, missing the power supply and spool mounts. Then after sitting on my desk for a week a belt snapped and the whole carriage fell. Really odd. Now I can't get an email back. So even though I really wanted this to work, I'm moving on. Which really stinks because I've met a number of the people there and the owners and they are really good people. Just not cut out for production flow management.

On the Prusa i3v site, I'm trying to not reinvent the wheel and take advice. So if its not too much to ask:
1.) Which upgrade kit did you use?
2.) Did you have a parts lists or videos you can recommend other than the ones detailing assembly on their site?
3.) Do they detail software install to replace the Phoenix firmware?

Again thanks in advance. Its really cool that you converted. Not knowing where to start is a daunting. This is a whole new book of knowledge but a fun one. My guess is a Youtube video on converting these could net you some AdSense cash.

Sorry for the double post the first one said it did not register as I looked like a "Bot".

Similar experience with the product. My support has been better than others report but the printer was returned to me, after repairs, missing the power supply and spool mounts. Then after sitting on my desk for a week a belt snapped and the whole carriage fell. Really odd. Now I can't get an email back. So even though I really wanted this to work, I'm moving on. Which really stinks because I've met a number of the people there and the owners and they are really good people. Just not cut out for production flow management.

On the Prusa i3v site, I'm trying to not reinvent the wheel and take advice. So if its not too much to ask:
a Which upgrade kit did you use?
b Did you have a parts lists or videos you can recommend other than the ones detailing assembly on their site?
c Do they detail software install to replace the Phoenix firmware?

Again thanks in advance. Its really cool that you converted. Not knowing where to start is a daunting. This is a whole new book of knowledge but a fun one. My guess is a Youtube video on converting these could net you some AdSense cash.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2015 03:43PM by KTall.

I ordered my Phoenix printer on feb 1st 2014.
After 8 months of waiting and empty promises i've had it, so i cancelled my order.
At this point, i allready had payed for the entire printer incl shipping to the Netherlands for a total of 506 USD

The last email reply was within a few days: "I'll put that in the system for you",
and "refund could take up to 10 days.
Those days was no issue for me, but after 4 months now, i'm still waiting for my refund.
I've send numerous emails, which are not answered by anyone (i send them to 3 mail addresses)

This looks like a serious crime! i want my money back like promised!


Note; In the mean time i'v designed end build my own 3d printer which is running perfectly..

If you paid with a credit card, you have some insurance and legal protection with your card. Read your contracts, contact the credit card lawyers and start a free procedure.

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Collective intelligence emerges when a group of people work together effectively. Prusa i3 Folger (A lot of the parts are wrong, boring !)