Creality Official Direct Drive Extruder Upgrade Kit for Ender-3, Ender 3 Pro, Ender 3 V2 3D Printer

The Creality Official Direct Drive Extruder Upgrade Kit is an excellent enhancement for anyone using an Ender-3, Ender-3 Pro, or Ender-3 V2. Installation was straightforward with a clean design and clear instructions — it took me less than an hour to fit it, and everything aligned perfectly without modification. Once installed, the difference in print performance was immediate. Filament retraction and extrusion became smoother, and stringing was noticeably reduced. It’s especially effective for flexible materials like TPU, which feed much more reliably through this direct-drive setup compared to the standard Bowden extruder. The components feel sturdy and well-machined, with good tension on the gears and a solid mounting bracket. Being an official Creality product, all parts fit seamlessly and maintain the printer’s rigidity. Overall, this upgrade is absolutely worth it if you want improved printing consistency, smoother extrusion, and better control over fine details. It’s a great quality-of-life improvement for any serious Ender user.

Bought this to upgrade my ender 3 max which already had direct drive but cost me 40mm of X axis because of my design. You do lose some Z height and if you are using this on a max variant you will lose the 2nd part cooling fan also, but given how well my Ender 5 Plus prints with just 1 part cooling fan I didn't mind trading that for the 40mm reclaim on the X axis. Installation is easy if you are comfortable with the components of 3D printers and took me <30 minutes which included upgrading the small PTFE tube between the stepper motor and extruder to Capricorn tube. I also had to reuse my old hot end cables as this is suitable for the Ender 3 / Pro / V2 which means the wires are not long enough for my printer. Because I already had direct drive I didn't need to alter most of my print settings and my prints are exactly the same as they were before which means this is working brilliantly. I tuned my retractions a little more given the rigidity upgrade so now I have 0.6mm @ 40 mm/s which helped reduce stringing to nearly 0. My biggest issue with this is the plastic drive feed used on the stepper motor. All metal to me means this should be the upgraded metal version too. I did reuse my old drive feed but I had to sand the connector that holds the stepper motor to the extruder plate to make this fit. This is not really a required thing to do but it gives me peace of mind that the drive feed mechanism won't break or split as the plastic drive feeds tend to do that after a while. I would still recommend this to anyone wanting to move from a bowden setup to direct drive as this is a very quick and cheap upgrade which will help improve print quality almost immediately when you adjust your print settings.

Nice bit of kit. Very well made. And well worth buying as an upgrade to your printer. I got this with other bits to upgrade the printer and best thing I did. My only issue with it which I had to do. Is where filament gone in to it i had to fit a bow tube fitting to it so I drilled it and taped a tread to hold bow tube to let filament go in with very little drag. As it was designed to be fed in from top but my printer sits on shelf in office and filament sits to lef too printer in a dryer and feeds from there so due to the angle it kept braking or get stuck as in was going in to hot end. Also what was nice is the cabling is very neat with it ready to go so all you got to do is run it to the board inside and with instruction which are english it is nice and easy to fit

Would get 5* but I was quite disappointed by the description saying "all metal" and I find the drive feed spring arm is plastic (like the original - which mine snapped on before). Luckily, I could take my upgraded metal one off my old extruder and put it on this one to replace it though I did have to "sand" a little of the plastic bridge down to accommodate the screw for the spring (as the plastic one doesn't use a screw for the spring) so out of the box I am having to customise it a bit. However, now it is on, and wired up, worked first time with just a re-leveling of the bed and already printing clean models and definitely showing an improvement already on my old bowden system (not got anymore z shifting and super clean walls). May need to design and print some cable holders and rethink my filament runout sensor positioning but that is part of the fun of 3D printing. Definitely worth the upgrade as not expensive, just be prepared for the plastic parts that are on it and consider upgrading them now before they cause you issues down the line.

This was marginally more expensive that replacing my Ender 3v2 extruder and fans with the standard item and this init includes the direct drive unit as well. This took all of 30 minutes to install, the online video was adequate along with the wiring diagram for anyone who is familiar with their 3d printer. Everything needed was in the box, from the drive and extruder itself, to the tools required to remove the old items and fit the new. After checking the bed level this was good to go, so far it's proved to be easier to load the filament, the prints have been cleaner as the retractions are sharper even with me using the nastiest filament I could find as a stress test. Noise levels are lower

I bought this direct drive system to add to my Ender 3 V2 and have to say it is worth every penny. Installation was simple and all wiring came with the kit. Not having to have a boden tube on the printer has made retractions cleaner and at shorter distances which means less chance of clogging or jamming of the stepper motor or hotend. Retraction distances were more than halved meaning that the filament remains in the hotend more preventing any excess cooling that could contribute to hotend clogging. The direct drive system also makes filament changes mid-print so much easier and quicker as you have less filament to pull out of the printer or feed back into the printer as the gap between stepper motor and hotend is so much smaller than when using the stock extruder with boden tube. There are also threads on the mounting plates for you to easily install a BL/CR touch bed levelling sensor. The extruder assembly is fairly heavy compared to the stock extruder that uses a boden tube so you may find that you need to reduce your print speeds slightly to ensure optimum quality on corners etc. However, the Ender 3 V2 works very well with this direct drive kit and has made printing that bit more easier too. Just don't forget to re-calibrate your extruder e-steps to ensure that your stepper motor is pushing out the correct amount of filament to ensure optimum accuracy of prints.

Have not been able to use the printer since I changed to this direct drive. Have uninstalled and reinstalledbut neither hot end nor bed heats up.Loud alarm after about 10 seconds of trying to preheat PLA. this in June 2022 and installed upgade in October 22 - original hotend failed. Have been using for a couple of weeks and stopped printing today and extruder not extruding - for no apparent reason. Frustrating thing about these printer is that there are no diagnostics available in the event of failures. I have three creality printers and have varying levels of success with each of them respectively. One has been returned for a repair under warranty. The Ender 3V2 - updated with this upgrade and is not working as of today. Creality searches is mostly advertising gumpf. Update - 23 Mar 23 - Hot end has failed and is spewing filament. Totally distorted, destroyed and clogged. Have had to order a replacement.

Replaced the orifinal on the ender pro 3. Less connections than original but works perfect. Better than i expected.

Aún tengo que ajustar un poco la maquina pero va de lujo, es una mejora 100% necesaria para tu Ender 3. Yo no sé mucho de impresoras y no he tenido problema para instalarlo.

Pour ender 3v2. Installation rapide et fonctionnement parfait. A voir si besoin de renforcer l'axe Z avec un kit creality pour mieux accompagner le poids de l'extrusion directe.

Aufgrund eines Defekts am Gewinde der Düse meines bisherigen Extruders war ein Austausch erforderlich. Im Zuge dessen wurde eine verbesserte Variante in Betracht gezogen. Die resultierende Druckqualität konnte deutlich optimiert werden.

For Ender 5-owners, this item doesn't claim to be compatible with Ender 5, and it's one of the few items that actually isn't, due to the strap driving the X-axis running horizontally on the Ender 5 and vertically on the Ender 3. It's still a good price for a complete stepper motor-included extruder packed with a complete hot end-pack though. Considering there is a lack of plates to hold any direct drive solutions for the Ender 5 you could modify this pack to fit if you are somewhat handy. The only problem to solve is that the handles where you attach the X-axis strap are beneath the X-axis instead of to the left and right of the hot end-house. One alternative that should work is to slap your existing hot end-holding plate on top of this one, or this one of top of it, to get the strap-handles where they need to be, and have the extruder attached on top. The other way, which I chose to go, was to simply attach an angle hook to the handles underneath and then attach the strap to those on the back of the X-axis. This did mean the X-axis movement becomes inverted which I had to correct for in the TH3D firmware I', running. Don't try this one unless you're comfortable with editing and flashing your printer firmware with a custom build. Attached one photo from the back and one from my Octoprint cam. Works like a charm, at least so far.

ja mooi werk past zo op de ender 3 v2 zonder extra instellingen te veranderen beetje uitlijnen dat was het. werkt erg goed top product echt waart nog niet een print mis gegaan na deze update