FlashForge Adventurer 5M Review

The Adventurer 5M turned out to be one of the more consistent performers in our tested lineup. It wasn't a standout in any one metric, but we couldn't find too much to criticize either.

Performance Comparison

Print Quality

You should know right off the bat that the 5M is pretty average in our highest-weighted and most important category. After evaluating our standard run of prints, there were some surprising wins and losses.

FlashForge clearly focused on attempting to lead the game in print quality at their price point with some key features. The body is built in what they call a 'CoreXY' structure, meaning the Z-direction (up & down) is very stable with 4 vertical arms, and the print head itself moves in both the X (side to side) and Y (front to back) directions. This can be more stable than the more standard 'gantry-style' designs seen in competitors with 2 vertical arms and the print bed handling the Y direction, or even a 'cantilever' design with just 1 vertical arm. Additionally, FlashForge advertises a 'vibration suppression algorithm' for the extruder. Both of these should theoretically lead to less wobble and tighter wall thicknesses, meaning better surface and print quality overall.

In practice, using standard out-of-the-box settings, we saw all sorts of concerns. For starters, 90° corners, like those seen in our Tower and Cube tests, either turned out too rounded or sharply protruding at an angle much sharper than 90°. Our single-walled vase test resulted in gaps, flat surfaces showing visible waves, and overhangs and angles showing issues at short spans and relatively shallow angles.

Ease of Use

Another key metric the 5M aims to hit is a simple, quick setup, and boy does it deliver. We had to spend just 12 minutes setting up the unit, which only required the installation of the screen, the filament roll holder, and a couple of safety screws to be pulled out. Screen prompts guided us through the rest of the process, including a self-leveling bed feature.

The FlashForge software that comes standard is also quite user-friendly, but we found that it occasionally lost connection with the printer. The connection can be made via Wi-Fi or directly through a USB port.

Print Capabilities

The build volume is pretty middle-of-the-road from what we've seen, at 220mm x 220mm x 220mm (8.66" in X, Y, and Z). In all honesty, this should be plenty big for the typical hobbyist. We will note that the slicing software fought us a bit as we attempted to test the full advertised dimensions. We were only able to get a maximum 217mm x 217mm bed print, 2.71% less than advertised.

The extruder print head is all-metal with a maximum temp of 280°C, which means it is plenty capable of printing some of the more exotic filament types. Furthermore, the 4-arm, cube-like structure means that it is relatively easy to add some walls for a fully enclosed print chamber (FlashForge sells an 'official' kit); this helps help heat control, needed for those exotic materials which can be finicky and sensitive to temp swings during printing.

We found no issues with the textured PEI print bed, so adhesion is of no real worry. We were also wowed by the speed the 5M is capable of. This thing is fast, printing our popular Benchy model in a breakneck 26.8 minutes.

Support

FlashForge is a subsidiary of the Zhejiang Flashforge 3D Technology Co., a Chinese company. As far as we could tell, US-based support was limited to their industrial arm. Our email contacts with China were usually returned overnight.

The manual was fairly short and sweet, but we still found it sufficient for the most part, especially given how easy the 5M was to set up and run. Disappointingly, though, there was a noticeable lack of further support materials online, like videos for repairs or part replacements. We did find a Wiki run by FlashForge, full of additional community-made support, which is helpful.

Should You Buy the FlashForge Adventurer 5M?

For an all-around, decently performing desktop 3D printer, we feel comfortable recommending the 5M. It won't knock your socks off, but it won't let you down, and it is definitively user-friendly. If you're willing to put in the work fine-tuning the slicer settings, this guy could be a printing workhorse for all use cases.

What Other 3D Printer Should You Consider?

Not everyone needs an enclosure-ready frame, or the full build volume found here. The diminutive Entina Tina2, for example, achieves a great value by stripping away many of the bells and whistles, leaving strict functionality. The AnkerMake M5 is a top-tier FDM printer, and the Bambu Lab A1 mini gives users the option to dip their toe into multi-color prints.