<p>I own an Ender 3, it's about 3 years old and the issues I have with extrusion, leaking and filament blockage are monstrous.</p>
<p>Examples of problems like this are filament flow issues, filament blockage, and filament leaking out of the sides.</p>
<p>Problems like this take all day to fix, and in the end, they are never really fixed. Everything is so overbearingly finicky.</p>
<p>Not only that, but it seems one of its parts breaks down about every week (this may just be due to its age but I thought I would note it.)</p>
<p>It seems I run into the exact same problems every single time I 3D print. Nothing ever seems to go right. I am getting really tired of it, and I'm wondering if these kinds of problems aren't so frequent/ as big of a deal with more expensive (better) 3D printers, or if this is just normal.</p>

[{'answer_id': 18403, 'author': 'Perry Webb', 'author_id': 15075, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/15075', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I use a German RepRap printer, which is very expensive compared to many of the printers in the questions on this list. I still see similar printing issues on a RepRap to other printers. The settings often control the issues. The RepRap however has a much larger print area that most of the printers referred to on this list.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 18415, 'author': 'The Developking', 'author_id': 32042, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/32042', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Get a real E3D nozzle/extruder and  90\xa0% of the problems disappear. The problem with cheap printers is that they use copies that are poorly build and low quality materials. After that if you want to improve even more you got to get a dual gear system for your extruder motor or a good gear and a body that you can adjust the tension in small steps.\nBesides that, just check if your steppers are well calibrated and do a proper extrusion test</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 18421, 'author': 'BRIAN Wilkins', 'author_id': 32049, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/32049', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>No not at all. The only way to eliminate issues is to practice and break things and learning how to fix it. I have 2 CR-10s, 1 CR-10S5, 1 CR-10 MINI, and 2 Anycubic Photons. They are all heavily modified, and the one thing i learned is that modifications only add to the problems</p>\n'}]
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