Best Ender 3 S1 Cura Settings and Profile

To get the best results for your prints on your Ender 3 S1, you need to fine-tune your Cura settings. There are a few different ways you can do this, so let me take you through the process to get the best Ender 3 S1 settings for Cura.

Keep on reading to learn more.

Best Ender 3 S1 Cura Settings

As you may know, the best settings for a 3D printer will vary depending on your environment, your set up, and what material you are using. Settings that work really well for someone, might need a few tweaks to work really well for you.

Here are the main settings we’ll be looking at for the Ender 3 S1:

Printing Temperature
Bed Temperature
Print Speed
Layer Height
Retraction Speed
Retraction Distance
Infill Pattern
Infill Density

Printing Temperature

The printing temperature is simply the temperature that your hotend will heat your nozzle up to during the printing process. It’s one of the most important settings to get right for your Ender 3 S1.

The Printing Temperature varies with the type of filament you are printing with. It is usually written on the packaging of your filament with a label and on the box.

When you increase your printing temperature, it makes the filament more fluid which allows it to extrude faster out of the nozzle, though it needs more time to cool and harden.

For PLA, a good printing temperature for the Ender 3 S1 is around 200-220°C. For materials like PETG and ABS, I usually see around 240°C. For TPU filament, this is more similar to PLA at a temperature of around 220°C.

The best way to dial in your printing temperature is to 3D print a temperature tower with a script to automatically adjust temperature within the same model.

Check out the video below by Slice Print Roleplay to see how it’s done in Cura.

Printing temperatures that are too high usually leads to print imperfections such as sagging, stringing, and even clogs in your hotend. Having it too low can also lead to clogs, under extrusion and just poor quality 3D prints.

Bed Temperature

The Bed Temperature simply determines the temperature of your build surface. Most 3D printing filaments require a heated bed, except for PLA in some cases.

An ideal bed temperature for the Ender 3 S1 and PLA filament is anywhere from 30-60°C (I use 50°C). For ABS and PETG, I see temperatures of around 80-100°C work successfully. TPU usually has a temperature near to PLA of 50°C.

The filament you are using should also have a recommended temperature range for your bed temperature. I usually stick where somewhere in the middle and see how it goes. If things stick down and don’t sag, then you’re pretty much in the clear.

You can adjust the temperature by 5-10°C while doing your testing, ideally with a model that is quick to print.

Check out this pretty cool Bed Adhesion Test to see how well you have your 3D printer dialed in.

When your bed temperature is too high, it can lead to your 3D model sagging since the material is softened too much, and another imperfection called Elephant’s foot where the model bulges at the bottom.

When the bed temperature is too low, it can lead to poor adhesion to the bed surface and failed prints in the long run.

You can also get warping which is a print imperfection that curls up the corners of a model, which ruins the dimensions and look of the model.

Print Speed

The Print Speed adjusts the overall speed at which the model is printed.

An increase in the Print Speed settings reduces the duration of your print, but it increases the vibrations of the print head, leading to a loss in the quality of your prints.

Some 3D printers can handle high print speeds without a significant reduction in quality up to a certain point. For the Ender 3 S1, the recommended Print Speed is usually 40-60mm/s.

For the Initial Layer Speed, this is important to be much slower, having a default value of 20mm/s in Cura.

At high Print Speeds, it is advisable to increase the Printing Temperature because it will allow the filament to flow easily and keep up with the Print Speed.

Layer Height

The Layer Height is the thickness of each layer that your nozzle extrudes (in millimeters). It is the main factor that determines the visual quality and the total print time for the model.

A smaller Layer Height increases the quality of the print and the total print time required for the print. Since your Layer Height is smaller, it can produce smaller details better and leads to a better surface finish usually.

A thicker Layer Height does the opposite and reduces the quality of your model but significantly reduces the print time required for each print. It means that there are much fewer layers to 3D print for the same model.

Tests have shown that 3D models with a thicker Layer Height makes the model stronger since there are less breakage points and a stronger foundation between layers.

The best Layer Height usually falls between 0.12-0.28mm for a 0.4mm nozzle depending on what you are going for. The standard Layer Height for 3D prints is 0.2mm which works great for a balance of quality and speed.

If you want high quality models, a 0.12mm Layer Height on your Ender 3 S1 would work great, but if you want quick prints, 0.28mm works well. Cura has some default profiles for quality such as:

Standard (0.2mm)
Dynamic (0.16mm)
Super Quality (0.12mm)

There’s also a setting called Initial Layer Height which is the layer height for your first layer. This can be kept at 0.2mm or it can be increased, so more material flows out the nozzle for better adhesion.

Retraction Speed

The Retraction Speed is the speed at which your filament is retracted back into your hotend and pushed back out.

The default Retraction Speed for the Ender 3 S1 is 35mm/s, which works well for Direct Drive extruders. I’ve kept mine at this speed and had no problems with retractions.

A Retraction Speed that’s too or low can cause issues such as under extrusion, or grinding the filament when it’s too fast.

Retraction Distance

The Retraction Distance is the distance your filament is pulled back for each retraction.

The greater the Retraction Distance, the more the filament is pulled away from the nozzle. This reduces the pressure in the nozzle which leads to less material oozing out of the nozzle ultimately preventing stringing.

When you have a Retraction Distance too high, it can pull the filament too close to the hotend, leading to the filament getting soft in the wrong areas. If it’s bad enough, it can cause clogs in your filament pathway.

Direct Drive extruders require a shorter Retraction Distance since it doesn’t travel as far as a Bowden extruder.

The Retraction Speed and the Retraction Distance both work hand-in-hand, as the right balance has to be met for both settings to get the best prints.

In general, the recommended Retraction Distance for Direct Drive Extruders is between 1-3mm. The shorter Retraction Distance of Direct Drive Extruders makes it ideal for 3D printing flexible filaments. 1mm works well for me.

Infill Pattern

The Infill Pattern is the structure that is used to fill the volume of the model. Cura offers 14 different infill patterns which include the following:

Line and Zigzag – Models that require low strength, e.g. miniatures
Grid, Triangle, and Tri-Hexagon – Standard Strength
Cubic, Gyroid, Octet, Quarter Cubic, Cubic Subdivision – High strength
Concentric, Cross, Cross 3D – Flexible filaments

The Cubic and Triangle infill patterns are the more popular choice for 3D printer enthusiasts for printing since they have high strength.

Here is a video from 3D Printscape on the different Cura infill Pattern Strength.

Infill Density

The Infill Density determines the density of the volume of your model. This is a major factor that determines the strength and the top surface quality of the model. The higher the Infill Density, the more material fills the inside of the model.

The usual Infill Density you see with 3D prints is anywhere from 10-40%. This really depends on the model and what you want to use it for. Models that are used for just looks and aesthetics are fine to have a 10% Infill Density, or even 0% in some cases.

For standard models, a 20% Infill Density works well, while for more functional, load-bearing models, you can go for 40%+.

The increase in strength as you move up in percentage does give diminishing returns, so you don’t want to have this too high in most scenarios, but there are some projects where it makes sense.

An Infill Density of 0% means the internal structure of the model is totally hollow, while at 100%, the model is completely solid. The higher the Infill Density, the more the print time and the filament used during printing. The Infill Density increases the weight of the print as well.

The Infill Pattern you use does make a difference on how full your 3D model will be with Infill Density.

Some Infill Patterns perform well at lower infill percentages like the Gyroid infill pattern which can still perform well at lower infill percentages, while the Cubic infill pattern will struggle.

Best Ender 3 S1 Cura Profile

Cura Print Profiles are a collection of preset values for your 3D printer slicer settings. This allows you to have a specific print profile for each filament you decide to print with.

You may decide to create a Cura Profile for a specific filament and share it with the public or download a particular profile online and use it right away. You can tweak an existing print profile to your liking.

Here is a video from ItsMeaDMaDe on how to create, save, import, and export print profiles on the Cura slicer.