Ender 5 (Pro & Plus) Bed Size & Build Volume

The Ender 5 Plus is a larger size, all-around more capable machine with a bigger bed, that follows on from the Ender 5 Pro, next in a successful family of printers. This will likely help maintain Creality’s leading position in this sector of the market.

We review the dimensional and functional changes between the two and guide the reader to see the machine’s benefits and issues.

With Ender 5 Pro, you can print in 220 x 220 x 300mm bed size. The Ender 5 Plus is larger in size and offers a bed size of 350 x 350 x 400. In terms of print volume, the Plus variant of the Ender 5 beats the Pro.

What Is The Bed Size Of Ender 5 (Pro/Plus)?

Bed size and build volume can be critical factors for some users, and not so much for others. If you’re someone who undertakes massive builds, well done for both needing and rising to the challenges they present, which can be significant.

For most users, it’s a rare occurrence to build that big of a project, and in most cases, it can be accommodated by printing in parts and bonding. But makers are very often not easily satisfied people.

And it’s a basic fact of life; bigger is generally better. Always keep one of Henry Ford’s more profound aphorisms in mind:

 “If you need a machine and don’t buy it, then you will ultimately find that you have paid for it and don’t have it.”

Ender 5 Pro

The Ender 5 Pro is an upgrade of the successful Ender 5 machine, with a number of valued and effective improvements over the original. But the build table dimensions remained unchanged — 220 x 220 mm.

Of course, recommendations for printing suggest a margin of 0.25” from the table edge, so the safe, usable area is a little smaller.

And size isn’t usually a two-dimensional thing — so remember the height! In the case of the Ender Pro, it remained at 300 mm, the same as the Ender 5.

Ender 5 Plus

Likely in recognition of changing market expectations, the Ender 5 Plus made a big leap in table size — to 350 x 350 mm, making an altogether bigger and more imposing machine.

And they didn’t skimp on height, either — increasing from 300 to 400 mm. In some ways, that’s a more substantial change than the bed size jump.

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Can You Increase The Bed Size Of Ender 5?

The quick answer is yes!

Some users have successfully upgraded the bed size to 300 x 300 mm on the Ender 5 — though some other modifications will be required to make it work. Nothing drastic, and not hard to reverse if you don’t like the outcome.

But an extra 80 mm on X and Y is a big deal, getting you halfway to an Ender 5 Plus table (note: only table, not build height).

This type of hack can be a very satisfying task, especially when it has a relatively low risk of failure, given the community’s interest in sharing experiences.

The Ender 5 Pro will be amenable to the same mod approach, as it’s structurally almost identical.

It looks very much like nobody has yet hit dissatisfaction with the Ender 5 Plus bed size — but watch this space! These machines may not have been built to hack, but they were built for hackers!

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Differences Between Ender 5 Pro And Plus

Here are some key differences between Ender 5 Pro and Plus:

Dimensions

The Ender 5 was a big step after the successful Ender 3, which had a flat, gantry-type frame. This led to a reputation for wobble, which inevitably affected print quality, and Creality learned from this.

The Ender 5 Pro, with its stable, box-framed form, has outer dimensions of 440 x 410 x 465 mm (X-Y-Z). The size was inherited from its predecessor, the Ender 5.

This gives a working volume of 220x220x300 mm — which was considered pretty big when the machine was launched. These dimensions are unchanged from the predecessor, the Ender 5.

Launching the Ender 5 Plus, Creality made a leap in terms of size. The Ender 5 Plus stands a lot bigger, at 632 x 555 x 619 mm (X-Y-Z). This delivers a build volume of 350x350x400 mm, along with several detailed changes that are worthy of note.

Wisely, Creality somehow revised their layout, to bring the PSU and the filament spool within the frame, so the up-size doesn’t have quite as much impact on the machine footprint as the raw numbers suggest.

Features & Functions

Ender 5 Pro comes with an upgraded motherboard (V1.15 Silent Mainboard, including Marlin 1.1.8 and Bootloader installed) that makes a lot less noise and improves the step precision of the axis drives.

This board also included thermal runaway protection, reducing the risk of serious machine-damaging issues.

Ender 5 Plus will auto bed level, which is a big plus and brings the machine that much closer to plug-and-play.

The inclusion of the ANTCLABS neat contact-triggered BLTouch sensor enables assessment of the off-horizontal of the bed surface and automatic compensation. This delivers fewer print failures due to canted build surfaces, greatly improving reliability.

This was upgradable on the Ender 5 Pro, but the process is not so easy. 

The inclusion of a metal extruder kit is a small change, the benefit of which only shows up later as there is less wear and greater stability.

This includes Capricorn PTFE tubing, which is a big plus in smooth feeding filament, and for those who’ve dealt with the junk and jams of a worn extruder and guide tube, you’ll feel the benefit.

The Y-axis motor has been upgraded to a double shaft, 48 mm, 42-48 stepper. Stronger, fewer missed steps, better prints.

The addition of a 4.3” touch screen is a big improvement, making the user interface feel more direct and natural, and allowing more eyes on setup, jogging, and operation.

An additional lead-screw on the Z-axis is another big improvement, stabilizing the drive and reducing the likelihood of build errors. The Ender 5 and Ender 5 Pro have only a single lead-screw that is made for a much less stable build platform.

Every printer needs filament end sensing, and the Ender 5 Plus has it.

Knowing that the filament has broken, jammed in the extruder or the spool, or run out, end sensing allows for quicker intervention and more hands-off operation, giving confidence that your builds will be complete.

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Conclusion

The Ender 5 Plus is not only a bigger machine than the Ender 5 Pro, but it’s also a considerably more capable platform that has ironed out a lot of the bugs and niggles that the Pro had. Not all of them, perhaps — but Creality does need to keep their place as not among the higher-priced machines, and the compromises look like they’ve struck a good balance.

If big prints are on your to-do list, the Ender 5 Plus delivers on this big time.

Noted by some, the positioning of the BLTouch sensor is a surprise, as its 7 cm offset from the print head means that a big piece of the build table is not accessible for level testing. It is okay if it’s flat, but not if the table is warped.