If you know what you are doing it isn’t a huge issue.
But enclosures generally provide the following benefits either by design or as knock ons:
- Temperature control. A heated bed or even chamber is obviously the optimal but even just having a big ass bag over there catching all the heat of the printhead goes a long way towards preventing rapid cooling of layers and all the impacts of that.
- Filament guiding/management. A shockingly common issue is that a rapidly moving printhead can increase kinking in the filament or even back feeding and “tangles”. Most enclosure systems come with some form of a bowden tube rig which helps a lot for that as the filament says mostly “stable” as the printhead moves
- This is less of a “guarantee”, but a lot of the enclosed printers also come with a camera of some form. Which helps a lot for when people suddenly get confident enough that they don’t immediately run to their printer at the start of every print and minimizes the “My entire printer is now a blob of ABS. How do I fix that?” posts.
- And… honestly? Bed slingers haven’t really advanced all that much in years. You can buy a brand new printer but it is still an Ender 3 (which I think is actually a Prusa something or another?) whether you bought that in 2015 or 2025. Whereas Core XY (and the few enclosed ender 3s that aren’t just a tent) actually has had a good amount of R&D and starts to highlight the differences between companies.
I am not saying people should throw out their printers and get a new one (although I did late last year but that is more becuase I hate anycubic with a passion. Qidi Q1 Pro is shockingly nice). But if you are buying a new printer and looking at like a 200 dollar difference between a rebranded ender 3 and an enclosed core xy? I would very much say to think that through.
And for a newbie who doesn’t really have the built up skills and Opinions? There is a lot to say about being all but guaranteed a solid benchie and califlower right out of the box.
TheRealKuni@piefed.social 4 days ago
Enclosure makes printing some plastics much easier/safer, and it’s become common/inexpensive enough to be a “default” option, especially with options like the Carbon being so affordable.
But the tool has to fit its purpose. If you only print PLA/PETG, then it’s not really necessary. I mostly leave the door off my printer, and only attach it when I need to print ASA or ABS.