Microswiss NG™ REVO Direct Drive Extruder for Creality CR-10 / Ender 3 Printers

I have installed multiple hotends on Ender3's. I've even designed and built my own. The Micro Swiss is absolutely the easiest install I have ever seen. Not only does it make your printer look beautiful, it also heats and extrudes filament so beautifully. This hotend is going to be my go to recommendation until I find something better, but it's really hard to imagine there could be anything better out there.

This is the second direct drive I've had for the Ender 5 Pro. I originally had the MS direct drive with the standard nozzle, but I absolutely hated the hot end. On the recommendation of a friend, I bit the bullet and sprang for the Revo version, because despite how pricey the nozzles are, they eliminate a lot of weak points in the hot end/nozzle assembly.

Generally I've been really happy with the results. The installation was especially easy, since I had already done one MS direct drive installation, and I appreciated the detailed PDF instructions that were linked in the item description. Changing the nozzles is really easy, and I've been experimenting with sizes other than .4 as a result. Yes, they are expensive, but you can find them reasonably priced, especially as bundles and stock up. And it is worth SO MUCH to me to not have to deal with all the failure points in a traditional hot end any more.

I have one cautionary and one negative note. The cautionary note - if you are new to the Revo nozzle, I highly recommend taking the one that comes with it out and reinstalling it without the fan shroud on, so you can see exactly what happens when it is in its proper place. It is very easy to underestimate the amount of turns it takes to get the nozzle seated properly and I speak from experience that you do NOT want to do that!

The negative comment, and the reason I took of one (and almost two) stars is - why, why, why does MS make a nice item like this and then make the heater and thermistor cords SO DARN SHORT? When I am connecting something new, I want to at least be able to run the connections at least partially down into the cable sleeve (preferably all the way through, but I'd settle for part). I don't want them cluttering up and adding weight to the drive. Really annoying part of what is otherwise a pretty nice piece of equipment.

I had an older Micro-Swiss direct drive that I broke. I didn’t think a new extruder would make a big difference. It does. Everything I’ve tried has worked better, or even things that didn’t work…did. Extra-soft TPU. Polycarbonate. I just had a great print from nylon, which didn’t seem possible. Also, the REVO nozzles are worth more than expected.

The guys got me lined up with the files I needed and all is well now

Amazing, print quality better than ever,
Base machine CR10 S5
SKR1.4 Turbo with TMC 2209 drivers running Klipper
PEI Sheet to shave weight
ADXL345 with input shaping
GT2 Belts

12V Version

Great control and damn near silent. Able to run faster since the extrusion is more consistent which let me take advantage of the Input shaping to even make the monster sized printer have good quality prints.

Minor issue, I actually got to witness the provided butt connector let off a tiny orange flash before the heater cartridge stopped working and klipper did an emergency shutoff on its own due to the heater not not working as intended. Manually resetting and forcing the temp to raise didn't do anything but the thermistor is still reading out a reasonable temp, so definitely the heater's connector decided to blow... for some reason. I'll be switching the connectors back to molex. Not even at fault of the part, just I have a feeling I got a lemon connector because I had to super crimp them just to cut the insulator and get the thermistor to properly signal.

But other than my misadventure, great!