On this page we are going to review a very popular budget 3D printer for home use – the Monoprice Select Mini 3D Printer with Heated Build Plate, Includes Micro SD Card and Sample PLA Filament. This is a fantastic 3D printer for under $300!

We are going to examine exactly what you get for this budget price, opinions from existing customers and whether we recommend buying this 3D printer or going for one of the other best sellers such as the Dremel DigiLab 3D20 3D Printer or the HICTOP CR-10 3D Printer Prusa I3. There are many 3D printers for home use to choose from and on this website we review the most popular to help you choose the best 3D printer for your budget and use.

Is The Monoprice Select Mini 3D Printer Suitable For Beginners?

Because the Monoprice Select Mini 3D Printer arrives fully assembled and calibrated it’s ready to go straight out of the box making set up much easier for the beginner. This is an incredible 3D printer for the price so if you are interested in buying it you can get the latest price through the link below.

Included with your purchase you get a micro SD card with models already installed on it so you can print these examples straight away. The easy navigation controls and intuitive menu system add to the simplicity of use making this 3D printer one of the easiest to set up and use for the beginner. At the same time it has enough functionality and usefulness to keep the experienced 3D printer user busy and productive.

Now let’s look at the Monoprice Select Mini 3D Printer in more detail.

The Monoprice Select Mini 3D Printer Review

One of the first things you notice about the Monoprice Select 3D Printer is that it arrives fully assembled which means you won’t be trying to follow difficult instructions trying to get parts to fit together properly to set up the printer. If you are a beginner at 3D printing this is a very attractive feature to bear in mind when deciding which 3D printer would be best to buy. If you are more advanced at 3D printing this printer is very worth considering because of the range of filament types supported (see below).

The next thing you notice is the small footprint and compact desktop design. This, together with it’s open frame design, makes the printer suitable for use

on just about any size of desk.

In the delivery box you will get the fully assembled printer, the AC power adapter and cord, filament rack, plastic bed scraper, a hex wrench for leveling the print bed, a Micro USB cable and a MicroSD card ready loaded with designs for you to print straight away. Even though the Monoprice Select Mini 3D Printer is ready to use right out of the box don’t forget to read

the user manual first as you don’t want to make any mistakes when using it, especially for the first time. A copy of the user manual can be accessed through the printer’s listing on Amazon.com – click here.

What Filament Types Does This 3D Printer Use?

The combination of a heated build plate, nozzle cooling fan and wide range of extruder temperatures makes the Monoprice Select Mini 3D Printer suitable for any filament type not just the basic types of ABS and PVA but also the more advanced types such as wood and metal composites as well as dissolvable PVA. The sample filament included is not colored and is 1.75mm in diameter and about 10ft in length which is only suitable for printing a very small item – definitely not the “Lucky Cat” included on the MicroSD card. Best to order a filament pack at the same time as buying the printer then you know you’ll be able to print whichever of the sample designs on the included MicroSD card you like.

Connectivity And Support

The printer houses a Micro USB port and comes with Micro USB cable and is capable of being used by either a PC or Mac. Alternatively just copy 3D model files to a MicroSD card and you don’t need to connect it to a PC if you don’t want to. The added advantage of this is that you could use the printer with Linux or Chrome via MicroSD. Software support includes both Cura and Repetier but it’s not limited to these; you can just about use any slicer you choose.

One of the great things about buying a Monoprice 3D Printer is that they provide technical assistance online via live chat on the Monoprice website or by phone on Monday through Friday.

Full Specifications For The Monoprice Select Mini 3D Printer

Economy metal structure 3D printer. Marlin instruction set compatible firmware. Plain G-code is directly supported.

Type	FDM 3D printer
Build Platform	Aluminum Heat Bed
Extruders	1
Nozzle	0.4mm Dia.
Max Print Speed	55mm/sec (Higher speeds may results in loss of detail)
Print Precision	0.1-0.2mm
Optimal Layer Height	0.04375, 0.0875, 0.13125, 0.175, 0.21875, 0.2625, 0.30625
Build Size	120*120*120mm (4.7“ x 4.7” x 4.7“)
Max Hotend Temp	250°C
Max Bed Temp	60°C using on board controls / 85°C using G-code
Precision	X / Y axis 0.1mm, Z axis 0.04375mm
Filament	1.75mm dia ABS, PLA, PETG ; also possible- HIPS,Nylon and Wood filaments
Connectivity	MicroSD card, Mirco USB connector
Baud Rate	USB: Any is okay. 115200 Works without issue. Higher rate should work also.
Display	IPS color LCD screen (non touch)
AC Adapter Input Power	100 ~ 240 VAC, 50/60 Hz
Input Power	12VDC, 7A (Jan. 2017 – current) / 12VDC, 10A (May 2016 – Jan. 2017)
Power Consumption	84W (Jan. 2017 – current) / 120W (May 2016 – Jan. 2017)
Input File	GC, GCODE (STL & OBJ files must be converted to G-code)
Compatibility	Windows, MacOS, Linux
Dimensions (H x W x D)	13.5” x 11.3 x 7.5“ (343 x 287 x 191 mm)

Customer Opinion Of The Monoprice Select 3D Printer

The Monoprice Select 3D Printer has been available since May 2016 and proven very popular. Looking at opinions of customers on Amazon we see that over 600 people have posted their thoughts and over 70% are 5 star or 4 star with an average 4 star rating overall. This means that most people who buy this 3D printer are very happy with it and why shouldn’t they be? You get a great 3D printer that is perfect for home use with the flexibility to be used for complex prototype modeling. One customer said he used it in architectural design to create a prototype model of his ideas.

The five star rating comments range from beginners to more advanced users. Many were amazed at the quality of the print they could achieve for such an inexpensive printer. One

was amazed that the quality of a robot printed by the Monoprice Select Mini 3D printer matched that of a Markerbot 3D printer costing over ten times as much! Another common positive comment was the ease of use especially from those who had never used a 3D printer before.  “Really loved the printer one of the best buys for a very cheap price. Very accurate and easy to use.”

One thing to note is that customers said you should spend the time to make sure the print bed is dead level before you start anything else. “Once I got the bed leveled and figured out how much masking/painters tape to use …. I printed a ton of pieces ”

Looking at 3 star comments they mention that the print bed doesn’t seem to get hot enough when using ABS filaments but PVA is perfect.

One or two customers mentioned that their machine broke down and needed to be replaced. They found it difficult to get it replaced directly from Monoprice but as they bought it from Amazon they turned to Amazon for help and were blown away by the helpfulness of Amazon customer support.

With well over 400 really positive responses from customers we’re very confident you will be very highly impressed with this printer.

Where to buy the Monoprice Select 3D Printer?

We’re recommending you buy the Monoprice Select 3D Printer from Amazon.com where you can see if it is in stock at the time of ordering, you can get a super fast delivery and the excellent Amazon customer care.

Our Verdict

There are many advantages to buying the Monoprice Select 3D Printer especially if you are new to 3D printing so we would give it 8/10. The pros include: it arrives ready assembled, the menus are very intuitive and the navigation controls easy, light weight with a small footprint, clean and sleek design making it look attractive on any desk, uses any size filament spool and, once calibrated, it just works, quiet printing operation, quality quality (so good we had to say “quality” twice) prints – comparable with much more expensive printers. One of the disadvantages is that it can be very slow to start printing making you think it’s broken and not going to print – patience, patience. Printing is also slow and can take hours to finish some designs but for this price giving this quality of finished printout you really can’t go wrong. Are you still reading this? You should be going straight over to Amazon to get one. Click the banner below to order or read through the customer comments for yourself.