Adventurer 4 3D printer | TechRadar
Adventurer 4: One-minute review
FlashForge Adventurer 4 is a 3D printer that’s designed for high-end users, those who are familiar with the hobby and want to take it to the next level.
Makers looking for a 3D printer to fit amongst traditional tools in their workshop may appreciate the Adventurer 4’s case and fan, which help to keep the print bed relatively clean and dust-free. Users will also appreciate the ability to monitor the 3D printer from afar, with live camera feed showing how your print’s progressing.
But at the same time, this $850 / £700 / AU$1,088 tool lacks basic high-end features, like true auto-bed leveling. We were also underwhelmed by any of its cool add-ons during our testing: the low resolution on the camera, for example, leaves a lot to be desired, particularly if you’re hoping to share a cool time-lapse of your build on social media.
The printer can also really struggle with some classic FDM printer issues – like producing prints with steep overhangs – which is a shame since we’ve tested cheaper printers that don’t struggle as much in some of these areas.
That said, if you put the time into perfecting your setup, and factor in the device’s limits, you can create some great-looking 3D prints.
Adventurer 4: Pricing and availability
The FlashForge Adventurer 4 3D printer costs $850 / £700 / AU$1,088. For that price, you’ll get the printer, two swappable nozzles, and 1Kg of filament (the color of ours was red, but you might get something different).
The Adventurer 4 3D Printer isn’t an affordable option. If you’re after something more beginner-friendly, you’d be better off with something like the Anycubic Kobra. The Adventurer 4 is designed for more advanced users who want to upgrade their existing setup. It’s just that a few of the upgrades on this machine aren’t worth the extra cost. You can read more about that below.
Adventurer 4: Design
- The printer is housed in a heavy, large case
- Separate compartment for filament
- Doors feel a little fragile
From the moment the Adventurer 4 arrives at your door, it’ll be impossible to ignore one aspect of its design: it is big. The entire machine is pre-assembled. It measures 500 x 47 x 540mm (19.7×18.5×21.2 inches) which is considerably larger than the 220x200x250 mm (220x220x250mm) that it takes to build (9.7×7.9×9.8 inches).
Adventurer 4 Key Specs
Printing Technology FDM
Supported filaments PLA, ABS, PETG and PC
Increase volume: 8.7 x 7.9×9.8 inches/ 220x200x250 mm
Print resolution: 0.1mm – 0.4mm
Accuracy of positioning X/Y 0,011mm; Z, 0.0025mm
Number of extruders Single; Nozzle diameter: 0.4 mm
Print speed: 10 – 150 mm/s
Ambient Operating Temperature: 8°C – 40°C
Operational Nozzle Temperature: 509 °F / 265 °C
Operational hot bed temperature: 230 °F / 110 °C
Mode for connection: USB, Wi-Fi and Ethernet
Machine size 19.7 x 18.5×21.3 inches / 500x470x540mm
Weight: Machine weight: 26kg
The reason there is a discrepancy in build volume and printer sizes is because the entire print zone is enclosed within a large black plastic box. The main compartment features the actual printer – the bed and extruder. There are two clear plastic walls around the main compartment and a clear front door. Without disturbing the printer’s work, you can see what it is doing through the walls. A second compartment houses the plastic filament. There is a slot on one end for it to be liquified, and then fed into the main chamber.
Unlike resin printers – which typically rely on toxic-fume-emitting materials to produce prints – there isn’t as much impetus, from a safety standpoint, to keep a FDM printer enclosed. The Adventurer 4 has a filter and fan that help keep it odor-free.
The Adventurer’s design could make printing less unpleasant if you don’t like the smell of FDM printers. Additionally, if you’re planning to put this printer in a messy workshop with tools that regularly get coated in wood or metal shavings, the Adventurer 4’s built-in enclosure should help keep its printing bed and components fairly clean.
You can remove the magnetic heated bed from your printer and attach it again with ease. This lets you take the bed out of the box, which is massively helpful if you want to remove prints without fear of bashing the printer’s components.
Adventurer 4: Features
- The extractor fan keeps the printer odor-free
- Camera of very poor quality
- There is no automatic bed leveling
One major disappointment for a 3D printer of this price is that it doesn’t come with automatic bed leveling; instead, you’re given two manual options. You can either set the bed height at the center point, or at nine points across the entire bed (corners and middle of edges, center point, and center point). Based on your inputs, the printer will calculate the average bed height across the rest.
Having to manually level the bed isn’t the end of the world, but it can be a laborious process. This is especially true when you require precision and need to use the nine-point setup option. It’s disappointing that there isn’t a true automatic-leveling system inbuilt, especially when the feature appears in more budget-friendly printers like the Anycubic Kobra. It feels like you’re paying more but getting less.
Another of the printer’s features is also a bit of a disappointment: the in-built camera. If this is the main reason you’re choosing this printer over its rivals, you might want to think again. If you connect the Adventurer 4 to WiFi, you can check the status of your print remotely using the low-resolution snapper. However, this is a very niche application and if you are looking to create an Instagram-ready time lapse of your prints with the Adventurer 4, the quality of the pictures is not nearly good enough.
If you’re desperate to get a camera for your 3D printer, buy a cheaper one and use the leftover money to invest in a half-decent camera and tripod.
But the printer isn’t all bad.
The included extractor fan and filter help to keep your printer odor-free (at the cost of being pretty darn loud) and the FlashPrint slicer that’s included on the memory stick is also pretty good, as far as slicers go.
Slicers are the programs used by 3D printers to turn 3D model files – typically saved as STL files – into something the printer can read. It basically cuts up the model into layers which are fed into Adventurer 4 one at time. FlashPrint works well, and even includes quick set-up options for the Adventurer 4 printer so you can get started fairly quickly – but you might find you need to tweak some of the settings as some of our prints didn’t come out quite right when using the default options.
The Adventurer 4’s touchscreen is located on the front panel. This intuitive interface makes navigating the Adventurer 4’s menus a breeze.
Adventurer 4: Performance
- Can make decent sized prints
- To get the settings right, it takes some tweaking
- Can’t handle steep overhangs
To put the FlashForge Adventurer 4 through its paces, we turned to some of our ol’ reliable benchmarks to see how well it can handle whatever you might want to throw at it.
We love the 3D Benchy Boat and it is our favorite benchmark. (opens new tab) The All In One 3D Printer Test (opens in a new window). These models will give you an idea of the Adventurer 4’s capabilities with tricky geometry, overhangs, and spindly towers. We also began by using the printer’s and FlashForge’s default settings to see if you can plug in the Adventurer 4 and get printing or if you’ll need to tweak things before you have a usable machine.
The models looked great, but we did encounter some common problems.
First, the layers in the models were obvious. The boat in particular doesn’t look like one smooth object, but looks as though it has clearly been constructed by a 3D printer. As strange as it may sound, this is not what you would expect from a 3D-printed model. Overhangs of 50 degrees or more are a problem for the Adventurer 4. These areas of the prints were clearly damaged and would need a lot of work to fix. On top of that, the base layers didn’t quite print correctly, and removing the models from the bed cleanly was impossible.
Although we were able to solve the bed adhesion, layering, and temperature issues by adjusting the temperature settings, the overhang issue remained.
You won’t be using your printer just to create benchmarks though. With that in mind, we used the Adventurer 4 to create a large bust of Spider-Man and a pen pot (which was actually one of the printer’s default models, but we thought it looked neat).
Similar problems were again encountered with this benchmark. Spider-Man’s suit features were decently recreated, and the model looked to be more of a single piece than a mash of noticeable layers, but the overhanging parts were an absolute mess. The pen pot on the other hand, looked as cool as we’d hoped with its mesmerizing repeating isometric pattern being recreated perfectly.
Overhangs are generally more of a challenge for FDM as opposed to resin printers, but the Adventurer 4 seemed to fare particularly poorly in comparison to other printers that we’ve tested in this regard.
Adventurer 4 – Score card
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| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Design | Although the printer is heavy and bulky, it can be easily stored in a case. | 4/5 |
| Features | Although the camera is well-made, it is too low-res and lacks auto levelling. | 2/5 |
| Performance | While the print quality is good, there were major issues with overhangs. | 3/5 |
| Value | Although this printer is a good value for money, we have cheaper options that are better built. | 3/5 |