It seems like they're all really expensive, with most halfway decent ones being over $1000. It also seems like they're really finicky and hard to get working consistently.
Are there any 3d printers that are actually a refined product, something you can just get and start using? I don't want to spend most of my time fiddling with the settings and having to buy a ton of upgrades in the hopes of getting it to be a functional machine that can actually be used to print out parts.
If there are any out there that are basically self-maintaining or highly automated in terms of configuring themselves correctly, is it only the really expensive ones, or are there more affordable sort of "get and forget" printers that you can just set up and start using?
Ender 3 S1 has been pretty great for me. I mainly do functional prints and it can do some pretty fine detail. I learned a lot by doing and tweeking settings as I went along. Not even the high dollar consumer grade ones will be "self maintaining" or just be able to load a file and print perfectly without knowing what settings to tweak to get which results. Getting a $500+ printer has some features that will make certain things easier, but you're probably not going to care about those features unless you're doing production work.