Elegoo Centauri Carbon Review

What this machine is for

There is a specific person this printer answers. They have read our beginner picks, accepted that an open frame is the sensible first machine, and then got stuck on one thought: I can already see myself wanting ABS. Historically the answer was to buy the open-frame machine anyway and replace it later, because an enclosed printer cost roughly twice as much. The Centauri Carbon is the machine that made that answer optional.

Everything below is read from Elegoo’s own published specification sheet on 2026-09-06. We have not printed on it, and we say so on every page that recommends anything.

The specification, and what each figure means for you

256 × 256 × 256 mm, on a 260 × 260 mm plate. The same working envelope as a Bambu Lab A1 or P1S, and comfortably more than the A1 mini. In practice that is most of what a first year prints, plus the things that do not fit inside 180 mm.

320 °C nozzle, 110 °C plate. Both figures are higher than anything else on our shortlist, and the plate is the one that matters. 110 °C is what keeps a large ABS or ASA part stuck down for the several hours it needs. Elegoo qualifies that figure with “at 25 °C ambient,” which is honest of them and worth reading: a cold garage is not the test condition.

PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA, TPU, PET, PC, PA and fiber-reinforced grades. That is a wider list than any open-frame machine can publish, and it is entirely down to the box. It comes with a brass hardened-steel nozzle, which is the part that makes the abrasive fiber-filled materials survivable rather than a consumable expense.

500 mm/s maximum — and 250 mm/s recommended. This is the number the marketing does not lead with and the one we would check first. Elegoo publishes both figures on the same line. Treat the recommended figure as the real one; every printer’s headline speed is a straight-line ceiling that no object with corners in it ever reaches. The acceleration figures follow the same pattern: 10,000 mm/s² by default, 20,000 mm/s² as a maximum.

121-point auto-leveling and full-auto calibration. The setup steps that used to end people’s interest are handled. If you have read our bed leveling and Z-offset page, this is the machine doing both for you.

398 × 404 × 490 mm and 17.5 kg. It is nearly half a meter tall and heavier than any open-frame machine on this site. Measure the shelf, and put it on something that does not bounce — our placement page covers why that matters more on a fast machine.

350 W at 110 V, 55 dB or below. The power figure is the same as a Bambu Lab A1 despite the enclosure, because the plate does most of the drawing. The published sound figure is unusual — most manufacturers do not print one at all — though 55 dB is a number without a test condition attached, so treat it as indicative.

The one thing it does not have

Elegoo’s own sensor table lists a camera, filament run-out detection, power-loss recovery, full-auto calibration and automatic filament unloading as present, and marks clog detection with a dash. It is not there.

That is worth knowing rather than worth panicking about. A clog on a machine without clog detection means a print that keeps moving while nothing comes out, which wastes hours rather than filament. It is also a failure mode you can largely avoid with dry filament and a clean nozzle — see why nozzles clog and how to clear one.

The software situation, which nobody checks before buying

Elegoo publishes ElegooSlicer as the recommended software and lists Orca and Cura as supported, with STL, OBJ, 3MF and STP accepted as input. That matters more than it sounds. A slicer is the program that turns a downloaded model into instructions your specific printer understands, and a machine with a well-maintained profile in a mainstream slicer is a machine you can keep using after the manufacturer moves on.

Practically: everything on the model libraries downloads as STL or 3MF, so anything you find will open. Orca in particular is the slicer a large part of the enthusiast community has settled on, and having a supported profile in it means you are not dependent on one company’s software staying good.

What the sensor list means for your first week

Elegoo publishes a camera, filament run-out detection, power-loss recovery, automatic filament unloading and full-auto calibration. Read in order of how often each one saves you:

Full-auto calibration and 121-point leveling is the one that decides whether week one is enjoyable. It is the difference between a machine that starts printing and a machine you have to earn the right to use.

Filament run-out detection earns its place on the first long print. Without it, a spool that ends at hour six leaves the printer drawing air for the remaining three.

Power-loss recovery matters if you live somewhere with unreliable power, and does nothing otherwise. Nobody should buy a printer for it.

The camera is genuinely useful for checking a long print from another room, and it is not a security camera. Elegoo does not publish a frame rate for it on the specification sheet, so we cannot tell you whether it is a video stream or a slow series of stills.

The heat and the room

Two published figures deserve reading together. The plate is rated to 110 °C at 25 °C ambient, and the machine’s stated operating range is 5 to 40 °C. Elegoo is telling you, in the polite language of a specification sheet, that a cold garage in January is outside the tested conditions and that a plate rated to 110 °C may not reach it there.

That is not a criticism of this printer specifically — every machine has an ambient assumption and most do not publish theirs. It is a reason to think about where the printer lives before you order it, particularly if the answer is an unheated space. The rest of that argument, including vibration and surfaces, is on where to put your 3D printer.

What the enclosure actually buys, and what it costs

Two things. It holds chamber heat, which is what stops ABS and ASA contracting off the plate as they cool. And it contains most of the noise and the smell, which is frequently the real reason people buy one: a printer running overnight in a studio flat is a different proposition inside a box.

What it costs is subtler. For PLA — which is what your first year is, whatever you currently intend — a warm chamber is mildly unhelpful, because PLA prefers to be cooled quickly. Enclosed machines vent for exactly that reason, which is another way of saying the enclosure is switched off for the material you will use most.

Who should skip it

Anyone whose honest answer to “what will you print” is still “I am not sure.” Every advantage this machine holds is aimed at materials a first year does not reach, and a bigger, more capable printer is not an easier one. Buy an A1 mini and spend the difference on filament.

Also skip it if the deciding factor is community support. The Bambu and Creality lines have years of forum answers behind them; a newer platform has fewer, and when something goes wrong at 11pm that gap is real.

What to buy with it

A kilogram of PLA to learn on before you go anywhere near ABS — our PLA picks are three mainstream spools with published tolerances. Then read setting up your first printer before the box arrives. If you are cross-shopping this against the enclosed Bambu, we put them side by side on Centauri Carbon against the P1S.