Creality Sermoon V1 Review

Cubed 3D models offer significantly better and more reliable performance than the bed pushers like Ender 3 and it’s clones. The Creality Sermoon V1 is one of the cubed printers we have tested of late. Find out what to expect of the unit.

Unfortunately, there are still very few good choices when it comes to the increasingly popular fully enclosed 3D printers. Most of the printers are relatively expensive. As a result, beginners are interested in them. However, that could change now with the arrival of the new Creality Sermoon V1.

Creality Sermoon V1 Review

AVAILABLE ON CREALITY | AMAZON

I like cubed 3D printers that are fully enclosed. Therefore, I’ve been making an effort to test every new model that comes out in this category.

I have tested various enclosed 3D printers over the past years. Some of these come from Anycubic, Creality, Flashforge, Flying Bear, Qidi, Tronxy, Two Trees, and Ultimaker. We’ve even bought a few for the Test Lab because we wanted to know if they might be more appealing for different users than us.

Cubed 3D printers have more complex construction. As a result, they are unfortunately more expensive than printers with simple bed pushers (e.g. Creality Ender 3 and itsclones). However, enclosed 3D printers offer significantly more performance and much less potential for frustration.

But there are also negative examples among the printers (e.g., Flashforge Adventurer 4, Tronxy D01,etc.). So far, the best enclosed 3D printers for beginners are the top models of Flashforge Guider II(s) and Creator 3. You can buy them, unpack, start printing and get nice printing results without tweaking any setting.

But now to the model to be reviewed here; the Creality Sermoon V1. This unit has nothing in common with the older Sermoon D1, apart from being manufactured by Creality.

The Creality Sermoon V1 stands out from most cube 3D printers in that its bed moves in the Z-direction, it has a complete enclosure (which allows the processing of more critical materials) and has a direct extruder (which means it can print flexible filament).

In terms of price, the Sermoon V1 competes with the Flashforge Adventurer 3 (which, by the way, is just a bed pusher with a Bowden extruder in the case), and is half as expensive as its successor, the  Adventurer 4 that we don’t like. The target group of  this printer is families with children. As you may know, most 3D printers for children are often toy models that look interesting for the first steps, but are not useful in the long term.

Technical Specs

General Specifications

3D Printer Properties

Materials

Dimensions & Weight

Overview of the Creality Sermoon V1

View from the front: the slot for the normal-sized SD card is at the bottom right On the left picture: It’s a bit unusual that the Z guide is on the right side of the device. However, that’s fine as it still works
	From behind: We see the mains switch and cold device socket. From right: There is the filament spool, whose holder can be folded away when not in use.
		Inside the box, we have the Quick Start Guide and Leveling Map. There are also lots of accessories, including a spare nozzle and 200g PLA filament on a small spool (see above).
The Creality Sermoon V1 is pretty compact and unobtrusive. The plexiglass cover can be removed. The best thing is that it doesn’t rattle during use. This printer is built according to the Makerbot principle. However, the Z guides are on the right instead of at the back (here the transport lock is still in front).
	On the left, we see the “Sprite” direct extruder from above. The hose guides the filament. And on the right, from the bottom there is a silicone sock on the heating block. The cooling fan is installed on one sided but is powerful.
		A few more detailed views of the extruder: from the right and from behind. The extruder is clean and tidy. The ribbon cable is firmly fixed.
Right side panel removed: view of the inner parts. As you can see, it’s tidy and easily accessible in case of problems. The unit also comes with a new 32bit motherboard.
	The Sermoon is installed with the Creality Cloud WiFi box . The MicroSD slot of the DWIN touch display is easily accessible if you want to flash its firmware. I put the card in there just to make it clear.
		The cubed 3D printer has an easy-to-use menu system on the vertical 4.3″ touchscreen. You can ignore the PLA mode and ABS mode. These are meant for beginners.
Two more menu pages. The menu options are sufficient for normal operation of a home user.
	The printer has a typical DWIN touch screen. There is very limited file selection. Just a maximum of 20 files, and no subdirectories. Everything you need during printing is there.
		The printer has a non-manual level bed with the magnetic foil. The flexible steel plate attached to it seen from below.
Unfortunately, positioning the flexplate is a bit frustrating since the magnetic mat pulls strongly and there are no guides or stops. So I designed and printed some myself. Three guide are enough to significantly increase comfort.
	Without calibrating the extruder steps or the flow, we got a perfectly closed surface of my test square . Thanks to the direct extruder, there is no stringing nor even the finest threads in the Ooze Retraction!
		Oh well, the vase mode can work with Creality after all! There was absolutely nothing wrong with my little vases .
The 20 mm test cube also comes out flawless. And the 3DBenchy looks very nice too.
	The Benchy looks great when printed at 60 mm/s, 0.40 mm line width and 0.20 mm layer thickness at most with the Flashforge Guider II(s), which costs 2-4 times as much.
		Here’s what the printer looks like when you remove the bottom: pretty much empty. We see a small, cleanly connected 150 W/ 4 V no-name power supply.

After these few tests, I was impressed by the Creality Sermoon V1. In fact, I am surprised by what Creality has achieved at this price point.

This is a printer that can be used right out of the box by a beginner. The unit does not compromise on quality and performance. Therefore, it should be usable for a long time as you get more experience and think of getting more high end 3D printers.

The Z-moving bed creates far fewer unwanted artefacts than bed-pushers (like Ender 3 & Co.), where the print object is constantly moved in the Y-direction, creating more visible dirt effects as the object gets larger and higher.

Creality Sermoon V1 Build Volume

The Creality Sermoon V1 has build space of 175 x 175 x 165 mm^3, This is relatively small, given that all the Ender 3 clones have over 200 mm in each direction. However, its predecessor in this price range and target group, the Flashforge Adventurer 3, is only 150 mm in each direction. Moreover, its successor, the Adventurer 4, is larger but also twice as expensive and is, unfortunately, of no use because of the bad Bowden extruder.

In my opinion, large installation space is also totally overrated, especially if you only print small gadgets. After all, FDM 3D printing is a slow-moving affair. The 20 mm test cube, for example, takes about half an hour to print although it is only 25% full and is not really complex. For me, the installation space of this device is sufficient.

Direct Extruder

It is also good that direct extruders are finally gaining ground in the cheaper devices. The extruders do not have many of the problems of the Bowden versions, for example,  you can use softer flexible filaments with them while a Bowden extruder cannot handle the material. How are you supposed to push a rubber band through a long, thin hose (Bowden extruder)? This needs to be pulled as close to the nozzle as possible (Direct extruder).

Print Bed

The print bed comprises of flexplate with FakeTak film. This is currently probably the best mix of comfort and reliability for normal applications. Everything sticks to it without any problems and after cooling, you can easily remove models by slightly bending the plate taken out of the printer. If any filament does not stick or sticks too well, first smear some of the enclosed glue stick on the film.

Bed Leveling

Unfortunately, you cannot level the bed manually as there are no adjustment screws. Moreover, the leveling doesn’t work automatically either. However, the manual determination of the distances from nozzle to bed at about five points via the menu using a sheet of paper and moving the nozzle up and down via the display works well and easily. For normal applications this is fine.

Display

Like almost all touchscreens on 3D printers, the menu is a bit basic but completely sufficient. It is also clear and intuitive to use.

The spool holder is practically positioned on the right side of the housing. It is foldable and wide enough for large spools of filament (e.g. 3DJake ecoPLA).

With larger printed objects made of PLA, the hood can be easily removed so that the interior does not get too warm and the models become soft again unintentionally. For ABS and other technical filaments, the complete housing is actually mandatory.

I haven’t tested the WLAN/cloud functionality, yet.

Slicer

The Sermoon V1 is shipped with the Creality Slicer. However, the slicer is also only an adapted Cura version. Depending on your preferences, you can either use it or simply use Cura.

The printer has no exposed USB-B connector. However, since everything is preset and calibrated properly, it doesn’t need one. Moreover, printing directly from the PC would be unreliable anyway.

However, when printing from an SD card, you have to consider a few peculiarities of the DWIN display (which is used to select the print file):

• First, copy everything from the SD card to the PC
• Format the card in FAT32 format
• Copy a maximum of 20 g code -Copy files onto it
• Ensure the file names have a maximum length of 20 characters, ideally only letters and numbers (no special characters or umlauts!)

All of my test prints came out flawlessly the first time, without me having to tweak anything. Unfortunately, this is not what you should expect of all 3D printers, especially not those in the lower price ranges.

Conclusion

The Creality Sermoon V1 is a great 3D printer for a beginner or a family with children, if you are willing to spend about twice as much as for an Ender 3 (clone). The upside is that you get a device that is suitable for the living room, works perfectly out of the box and has a clear added value compared to the cheap bed pushers.

In a nutshell, the added value is: bed moves in the Z-direction, housing, direct extruder, flexplate, cleanly constructed and calibrated. This means that the printer can handle more materials, you don’t have to tinker with the settings, and you get clean prints.

Sermoon V1 vs Sermoon V1 Pro

There is also a Sermoon V1 Pro model, which offers a few more features. These are:

• Integrated camera to monitor the print via smartphone app
• door sensor, i.e. a kind of child/cat protection that pauses the printing process

Apart from these, all other features are the same. Buy whichever you feel is great for you.

AVAILABLE ON CREALITY | AMAZON