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The 3D printing community has seemingly been obsessed with overgrown maximum build volume printers. The petite Sovol Zero is a refreshing change from these backbreaking behemoths. It’s a Core XY mini based on the open-source Voron 0 design, which we printed, built, and reviewed a few years ago. Unlike the original Voron, the Sovol Zero is a mostly assembled, plug-and-play machine.
Sovol has declared this to be the fastest 3D printer currently on the market, with acceleration rates up to 40,000mm/s². The profiles included with it have impressive speeds that are much faster than my Bambu Lab. However, 3D printers can’t go faster than physics, so the speeds this – or any – printer can hit are largely dependent on the size and shape of the model. For example, on the Cute Flexi Octopus I printed out, the printer barely pushed past 100mm/s due to all the tiny parts.
It takes full advantage of its enclosed build by including a hotend that can reach 350 degrees Celsius and a build plate to 120 degrees Celsius. There’s no need for an active heater on a machine this size. You can check the chamber temperature on the Mainsail screen but not on the Zero’s tiny interface. This makes printing in technical filaments a breeze.
The Zero has a retail price of $499 and is on sale for $429, which is quite a bargain in both price and time saved from the current print-it-yourself $694 Voron V0.2 kit. It also has a slightly larger 152 mm build plate, making it closer in size to Bambu’s A1 Mini and the Prusa Mini, both of which have 180 x 180 mm build plates.
The Sovol Zero is a delightful machine, but rather niche and with an odd mix of old and new tech. Performance-wise, it’s right up there with the best 3D printers we tested, but it narrowly fell short of making the list. My only true complaint would be the noisy fans and stepper motors that sound like happy droids whistling while they work. But is that really a negative?
Specifications: Sovol Zero
|
Build Volume |
152.4 x 152.4 x 152.4mm (6 x 6 x 6in) |
|
Material |
PLA/PETG/TPU/ABS/ASA/PC/NYLON (up to 350 degrees) |
|
Extruder Type |
Direct drive |
|
Nozzle |
.4mm |
|
Build Platform |
Double-sided PEI spring steel flex plate |
|
Bed Leveling |
Automatic-Eddy Current Sensor-Levels in seconds |
|
Filament Runout |
Sensor Yes |
|
Connectivity |
USB, LAN, Wi-Fi |
|
Interface |
2.5 in monochrome screen with knob |
|
Machine Footprint |
350 x 450 x 475 mm (13.7 x 17.71 x 18.7 in) |
|
Machine Weight |
14 KG (30.8 lbs) |
Sovol Zero: Included in the Box
The Sovol Zero comes mostly pre-assembled, with the screen, spool holder and filament runout sensor bagged separately. Also in the box are a paper copy of the manual, Wi-Fi antenna, USB drive with a copy of OrcaSlicer and calibration prints, power cord, scraper, nozzle cleaner, flush cutters, tool kit, PTFE tubing, a fan cover for the filter fan, a spare silicone brush, and spare brass and hardened steel nozzles.
Design of the Sovol Zero
According to rumors, the Sovol Zero was almost called the Sovol 08 Mini, but thankfully, someone talked the company out of it, and the Zero was allowed to stand on its own. If you’re curious about the name, the Zero is inspired by Voron’s open source Voron 0 design – technically the Voron 0.2 – which has a slightly smaller 120 x 120 x 120 mm build volume.
The Zero is like a classic muscle car: simple, heavy, and loud. There are not a lot of plastic parts. It’s mostly made of steel plates and glass panels, with some iconic Sovol Blue injected molded accents. It weighs at a hefty 30 pounds, way more than a typical bed slinger. It probably needed all the weight to keep it from vibrating right off your table because, like a muscle car, the tiny Zero hauls booty. It has super squishy, shock absorbing feet, and Klipper to cancel out the vibrations.
The tool head has a dual-gear extruder with the ubiquitous Sovol wheel flipped around to face the rear. It has a “normal” sized nozzle that looks like a standard V6, but Sovol is offering a drop-in replacement kit that includes the ceramic heater and thermistor pre-assembled for $36.99 or $11.99 for a kit. Sovol rates the nozzle flow at 50mm³/s, which should be able to keep up with its claim of 40,000mm/s² acceleration.
The 3.5-inch minimalist screen is a throw back to previous generations with a monochrome display and selector knob. It’s quite primitive compared to what we expect on modern printers, but honestly, I don’t use it much as Klipper lets me use Mailsail to send files from my PC.
The X and Y axis run on linear rails, and the Z axis runs on twin linear rails with two lead screws belted to a single stepper motor. The belts keep everything in sync.
For bed leveling, the Zero uses both a pressure sensor built into the hotend (which taps) and an eddy current sensor that zooms over the plate to scan it. It also has accelerometers in the tool head and the bed for Klipper’s vibration compensation, which reduces unsightly ringing artifacts caused by vibration.
A built-in camera allows you to monitor your prints from Klipper’s Mainsail screen. It’s not the best camera for capturing timelapses, but it will let you see how your prints are doing. Klipper also makes sending files extremely easy over WiFi without needing to talk to a Cloud server, plus there’s a port for a USB drive. The machine can also be used with the Obico App for remote monitoring and spaghetti detection.
The Sovol Zero has an abundance of cooling fans. There is a large 5020 parts cooling fan in the toolhead, a massive auxiliary cooling fan in the rear of the printer, and a filtered cavity heat dissipation fan on the right side. This fan requires a magnetic cover outside the case when running high-temperature filaments like ASA, ABS, or PC.
The motion system of the Sovol Zero may be noisy, but you’ll never hear it, given the complete cacophony of all the fans listed above. This may be the loudest, fastest printer we’ve seen since the FLSUN S1 Pro. The stepper motors are also quite chirpy and sound like an astromech complaining about how you haven’t changed your primary buffer panels like it asked – if you’re the nerdy kind, you might not mind the noise.
Assembling the Sovol Zero
The Sovol Zero comes almost fully assembled. The Wi-Fi antenna screws on to the right side of the printer, along with the filament runout sensor. The spool holder is screwed into the rear. In all, there are only three screws. The screen slots into the bottom front after attaching the ribbon cable.
Leveling the Sovol Zero
Bed leveling and Z offset are automatic and done at the beginning of every print. The eddy current sensor allows the scanning of the bed in a matter of seconds and does an excellent job.
Loading Filament on the Sovol Zero
Loading filament is very simple and easier than with our Voron. Simply place the spool into the side-mounted rack and feed the plastic into the reverse Bowden tube until it reaches the hotend.
The factory set the filament load temperature to 250 degrees Celsius, which is fine for most filaments. For running higher temperature materials like PC, ABS, ASA, and Nylon, this can be adjusted in the Macros.cfg in Klipper. We set it to 300 degrees Celsius to help clear more stubborn filaments.
Reverse the process to change colors or remove the filament.
Preparing Files / Software for Sovol Zero
Sovol included a copy of OrcaSlicer, a free third-party slicer based on Open Source PrusaSlicer and BambuStudio. The included profile worked great for everything except TPU, which required some tweaking.
Printing on the Sovol Zero
The Sovol Zero comes with a sample coil of white PLA, which I didn’t bother using. If you want more colors and materials like silks and multicolor filaments, you should check out our guide to the best filaments for 3D printing for suggestions.
Speed Benchy’s are tricky, as you’re often judging someone’s slicer skills rather than the printer. The Zero came with a presliced and absolutely eye-popping eight minute and 27 second Benchy that printed a bit wobbly, but quite well for an under 10 minute print. When I tried to replicate it, I got a decent looking 14 minute and 49 second boat with slightly rough layers in the middle. There was no sign of ringing and just a stray bit of wisps. My boat was printed in Polymaker Red PLA, and the Sovol sliced boat is in Creality Blue PLA.
I should briefly touch on the paradox of superfast printers: they are limited by physics. No printer can hit its top speed immediately. It has to accelerate to that speed, then slow down when it has to corner. The flexi Cute Octopus I printed reminded me of that – because no matter how I sliced it, I couldn’t get it to print faster than around 85 minutes.
Looking at the speed charts, it didn’t make any sense. Then, I figured out that the charts showed me the estimated speed, not the actual speed. Prusa Slicer is able to show Actual Speed, so I sliced the Cute Octopus for my MK4, a machine with less than half the acceleration rates, and found that it could print it in 82 minutes. Below is the “actual speed” and you can see the printer is constantly revving up and slowing down.
The flexi Cute Octopus is an excellent print to test bed adhesion, plus I can give them away to kids when I travel to festivals. I was able to fit two Cute Octopi on the bed, and they printed in two hours and 58 minutes. I used a 0.2 mm layer height and PLA default speed settings, with a max speed of 500mm/s on the infill that it never reached. This was printed in Polymaker Red PLA.
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To test out the printer’s maximum build size, I printed this Floppy Flounder in PETG. It took five hours and 30 minutes, using a 0.2mm layer height, 3 walls and 10% infill. It printed great and was completely flexible with very little stringing. The top surface is a little rough, but that can be tuned by adjusting the flow or top speed settings. This was printed in ProtoMaker Translucent Blue PETG, a company that sadly is no longer in business.
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The Zero did a good job with flexible filament. I gave it a barrel-shaped can holder that printed fairly well. It could have used some support around the bottom, but that’s more a model problem than a printer issue. The layers are smooth and even, though there are a few rough spots that look like a clog was trying to happen. This could easily be addressed by tuning the TPU profile. This printed in six hours and 13 minutes, using a 0.2 layer height and OrcaSlicer’s default settings. The material is Polymaker Red TPU.
Since the Sovol Zero does high temperature materials very well, I printed a handful of cable organizers in Jet Black Prusament ASA. All the clamps fit on one plate, which printed in 48 minutes and 55 seconds. The print is professional looking and strong with no visible layer lines.
This modular ClampDock is one of my favorite things to print. it currently holds my headphones to the edge of my desk. It needs to be strong, so this is printed out of ABS, PC and TPU. It was originally just going to be PC, but the hinge wouldn’t open, so I switched to ABS, which the Zero had an easier time with printing. This was printed with a 0.2 layer height, 5 walls and a slowed first layer for good adhesion. It took three hours and 10 minutes to print. Printed (mostly) in Polymaker PolyMax PC.
Bottom Line
The Sovol Zero is a compact Core XY 3D printer build like a tank with endless amounts of horsepower. It’s acceleration rate of 40,000mm/s² is backed by a nozzle flow rate that goes up to 50mm³/s. This is all very impressive, but you have to remember that physics exists, and 3D printers need time to ramp up to those speeds. The speed of your 3D printer will always be throttled by the size and shape of your model.
Even so, the models we test printed had excellent quality at speed, even if we didn’t set any records. The Zero’s enclosure worked very well, so high-temperature filaments weren’t a problem.
I’m a big fan of companies that leave Klipper alone and provide a profile to use with regular OrcaSlicer. These tools are more than complete on their own – and it hopefully saved Sovol money in not having to develop their own code and software.
Currently on sale for $429, the Zero is worth the price when you consider the quality of the build. This is a great printer if you want something like a Voron 0, but don’t want to build it yourself. If you want a regular-sized Core XY that’s super affordable, I’d recommend you check out the Elegoo Centauri Carbon. Beginners looking for bargain-priced color printers should check out the Bambu Lab A1 Mini, our favorite pick for beginners who want a little color in their life. It’s only $389 with a four-color AMS unit.
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