Testing 3D printers is an in-depth process. Printers often do not use the same materials, or even the same process to create models. I tried SLA, 3D printers that use resin and light to print, and FDM, printers that melt plastic on a plate. Everyone has a unique approach. The core qualifiers I look at include:

• hardware quality
• Ease of setup
• Bundled software
• The appearance and accuracy of prints
• healing
• Company and community support

A key test print, representing the (now obsolete) CNET logo, is used to determine how a printer bridges gaps, creates accurate shapes, and handles overhangs. It even has little towers that help measure how well the 3D printer handles temperature ranges.

When testing speed, we slice the model using the standard slicer the engine ships with at its standard settings and then compare the real-world print duration to the slicer’s statement completion time. 3D printers often use different slicers, and those slicers can vary in their estimated completion time.

Let’s use it PrusaSlicer to determine how much material should be used to print and divide that number by the real-world time required to print, giving us a more accurate number for the speed in millimeters per second ( mm/s) that the printer can use.

Each build plate needs to heat up to a certain temperature, so we use the InfiRay thermal imaging camera for Android to check how good they are. We set the build plate to 60 degrees Celsius — the most used temperature for build plates — waited five minutes for the temperature to stabilize, and then measured it in six separate places. We then took the average temperature to see how close the 3D printer was to the advertised temperature.

Testing resin requires different criteria, so I use the The Ameralab standard test: print a small resin model that looks like a small town. This helps determine how accurate the printer is, how it handles small parts and how well the UV exposure is at different points on the model.

Several other anecdotal test prints, using different 3D models, were also run on each printer to test the longevity of the parts and how well the machine coped with different shapes.

For other criteria, I checked the company to see how well it responds to support questions from customers and how easy it is to order replacement parts and install them yourself. Kits (printers that only come semi-assembled) are judged on how long and difficult the assembly process is and how clear the instructions are.