Kingroon KP3S Pro Review

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Recently, we got the chance to test the Kingroon KP3S Pro in our lab. Below is our review of this FDM 3D printer.

UPDATE: See the Upgraded Version, the Kingroon KP3S Pro S1

Kingroon KP3S Pro Review

AVAILABLE ON: US STORE | EU STORE

The Kingroon KP3S Pro is a small FDM 3D printer with a print size of 200 x 200 x 200mm. This 3D printer that costs less than $200 is particularly exciting for those entering the world of 3D printing .

Technical Specifications

General Specifications

3D Printing Specifications

Materials

Software Requirements

Dimensions & Weight

Delivery and Packaging

The Kingroon KP3S Pro 3D printer arrived well packaged in a box . The box is stable and the printer is securely housed in several layers of foam.

Under a layer of foam, there is the external power supply, small parts, a manual, and other items.

In the layer below is the printer, which consists of 2 assemblies.

Everything you need to get started, including all accessories, are provided. The quality of the accessories is quite average, apart from the side cutters. There is an open-end wrench, several Allen keys, a side cutter, 3 spare nozzles (0.4/0.6/0.8mm), an SD card and a USB adapter, a small roll of filament (10m) and the installation manual. A few spare screws are also included.

Construction

The Kingroon KP3S 3D printer’s structure is simple and the assembly described in details in the the instructions.

The core printer consists of 3 parts, i.e., base, Z-axis and threaded rod . I was pleasantly surprised by its assembly. Many manufacturers promise assembly in 5 minutes. However, so far, no printer that I have tested has done so.

But with the Kingroon KP3S, the assembly is done in a flash. Simply attach the Z-axis to the base with 2 screws, turn the threaded rod through the nut of the Z-axis and attach it to the motor using the coupling – and you are done.

That’s the whole assembly process. There are no plugs to be plugged in or anything else.

Another feature of the Kingroon is that the X and Y axes have linear guides instead of rollers. This is significantly more expensive. On the positives, it is easier to assemble and to maintain, and it is also more precise.

The cable management as okay. The heating bed has a simple strain relief. The cable harness of the extruder is also neatly routed. A filament holder is included to rotatably store the filament roll on a surface.

However, the filament holder’s position is not the best one given that the printer is often operated with filament from above by the direct extruder.

After assembly, you have to adjust the rollers of the Z axis. Since linear guides are installed on the other axes, you don’t have to do anything except lubricate them a little from time to time.

Build Quality

The quality of the 3D printer is good. Everything is of high quality and stable. The holes fit and the angles of the Z-axis are correct too. With the external power pack, you can save some space since you can store it in a corner.

The USB port and micro SD card slot are conveniently located on the left side. However, I think it would have been better to have full format SD slot, the small micro SD cards are very fiddly .

The print bed consists of a magnetically attached clone of the well-known BuildTak printing plate. These plates are characterized by extremely good adhesion, which can even lead to destruction with filaments other than PLA. However, for beginners working with PLA, it is the perfect printing pad.

Unfortunately, the print bed support is not attached to a spring steel mat, which would have increased stability and durability. This is probably due to the printer’s low price (check price). Unfortunately, there is no pressure bed insulation, but it can be easily retrofitted.

This 3D printer for beginners is operated through a touch color display. During the printing process, you can change the settings, including temperatures, fan speed, etc. It is intuitive to use. You can also change the language in the settings. However, the quality of the translation is not the best. As a result, it may not always clear which button does what.

Unfortunately, the information at the time of printing is quite poor. For example, it is never clear at which printing level the printer is currently located.

The extruder is a Titan clone and works on the single-gear principle. This means that only one gear that guides the filament is driven. The contact pressure is adjustable.

The extruder is designed as a direct extruder. Therefore, the path of the filament from the extruder to the hotend is very short. This makes the printer also suitable for flexible filaments such as TPU.

The extruder is based on a Titan direct drive extruder with a 3:1 gear ratio. This enables the printer to handle various 3D printing materials, including PLA, flexible materials (TPU and PETG), and abrasive and strong filaments like ABS.

Here we have a V5 clone hotend with MK8 nozzle. The component cooling is designed on one side and the air flow is printed. The fan is an axial fan. Apart from the component cooling, the hotend makes a well thought-out impression. However, expect the component cooling to be a weak point .

Leveling

The leveling can be described as “back to basics”. There are no sensors to support you. The only support is that you can move the nozzle to different positions at the push of a button. But you really don’t need that.

The leveling procedure consists of the following:

• Heat the print bed and the nozzle to the printing temperature
• Home all axes and disabling motors in the menu
• Manually slide the hotend into the 4 corners of the print bed and adjust the distance between the nozzle and the print bed using the large screws on the print bed. The distance is correct if a normal sheet of paper can still be pushed between the print bed and the nozzle.

That is everything you need to know about leveling. With the small print bed, this also works very well manually.

Print Results

When I unpack a printer, I put the original filament far away. For the first tests, I always use filament that I know for sure works. This way, I can rule out the filament as a source of error if something goes wrong.

For my PLA tests, I used the gray and red filament from M4P.

To start off, the volume of the printer is quite loud, inasmuch as silent drivers are installed. However, this is usually the case with most budget 3D printers, where at least a few loud fans are installed. For the Kingroon KP3S, the loud noise does not come from the hotend fan, but the fan of the power supply. You can easily exchange the fan for higher quality ones. However, out of the box, the noise is not very loud and you can use the printer in an office.

The SD card contains a ready-to-print model of a Viking on a wheel. I printed this first to find out whether the printer was working correctly. The part came out of the printer quite well. As is the case with other 3D printer reviews we’ve written, I divide this review into a beginner and an advanced part.

Beginner

Here, I evaluated the quality of the printer out-of-the-box quality, which is important for a complete beginner.

I use Cura version 4.13. There is a profile for the Kingroon KP3S , which I selected. I took the PLA pressure profile as a starting point without any changes. I determined the optimal printing temperature with a temperature tower. We previously covered how to determine the optimal hotbed temperature.

Out of the box, the quality of the Benchy is impressive. However, there are some artifacts on the overhangs in the bow and stringing. The artifacts arise because the pressure profile does not really choose the so-called Z-scar, i.e. the beginning of a layer, well. These spots are always visible. That’s why they are usually placed in corners where they are not so conspicuous. But that doesn’t happen here.

Another reason for artifacts, especially in the overhangs, is the component cooling. But for such a quick test without doing any optimization, the result was okay.

For the next test, I chose the Lattice Cube as an endurance test. This endurance test was for component cooling and a large number of retracts. The result was strong stringing and poor print quality in the overhangs facing away from the fan.

However, I have to mention that some printers can’t even manage this cube. This is really the poster kid for an endurance test. The poor quality of the overhangs on the side facing away from the fan indicates a weakness in component cooling .

Next, I printed the Voronoi cat in the beginner’s test. All in all, the result was good. I expected stringing but it was so little that I was pleasantly surprised.

Without any modification on the print profile, the print quality is acceptable. The gray test filament that I used reveals even the smallest error. You can work with the pressure profile as a beginner, but there is still some room for optimization.

Advanced Optimization Test

Since the printer had already produced usable prints without any optimizations, I wanted to test what could still be achieved with the usual setting options without changing the hardware. I made the standard PLA prints on the original print surface. The prints adhere very well and can be removed after cooling with a little effort.

For the tests, I optimized the Cura profile mentioned above. The material parameters were adjusted by means of temperature tower and retract tests and, above all, the printing speed was reduced from 60mm/s to 50mm/s in Cura. I have found that rotating the bench so that the bow is pointing towards the component cooling reduces artifacts.

With these changes, the quality of the print improves tremendously. You can optimize the settings further to eliminate the stringing.

The Lattice Cube became significantly better after the optimization. There are still weaknesses on the side facing away from the component cooling, but these are much less pronounced. There is also slight stringing, but that’s whining at a high level.

The Voronoi cat turned out quite well again. There is slight stringing, but overall the print achieves a good result.

For fun, I also printed the popular octopus, which fills the print bed. The print turned out really really well. All joints could be moved directly without any restrictions and the printed image was very good overall. Perhaps that gives a better picture of the print quality rather than just looking at weaknesses in the endurance tests.

Conclusion

Beginner Test

On the outside, the Kingroon KP3S doesn’t look like it can achieve much. However, during testing, it surprised us in a positive way. This FDM 3D printer does a lot of things right for the low price.

The printer is also easy to assemble and linear guides are far above the standard. I can fully recommend this printer for beginners in 3D printing. It’s even surprising that the printer is not well known.

Advanced Test

Even advanced users who are looking for a small printer with good print quality for PLA can be happy with the KP3S. The unit doesn’t take up much space nor consume much power. With additional insulation of the print bed and better component cooling, the printer can be significantly upgraded.

• Good workmanship
• Good out of the box quality
• Linear guides on the X and Y axes
• Very easy and quick assembly
• Good print bed support for beginners
• Low price
• Profile in Cura available and usable

But there are also some few cons. These include:

• The heatbed is not insulated
• Poor translation of instructions and menu
• Weak component cooling

Overall, this is a good budget 3D printer for beginners that does its job right. It is relatively quiet, the price is affordable, and the assembly is a breeze. I highly recommend the Kingroon KPS3.

BUY ON: US STORE | EU STORE