Nozzle & SpoolWhich printer to buy, what it'll really cost, and what to avoid.

Anycubic Wash & Cure Plus

Published · Researched 2026-09-20

The elephant in the room, up front: this machine is dead. Anycubic has moved it into its official end-of-life collection. Everything below is a buying guide for a corpse — which, at the right price, can still be a very good corpse. New 2026 evidence (3+-year durability reports) actually strengthens the case for a clearance buy, while the successor line's own build-quality complaints weaken the reflex to buy the newer machine instead.

What this is: Anycubic's large-format resin wash-and-cure station, launched April 16, 2021 ($169 presale for the first 1,000 machines, then $249). One base drives either the washing bucket or the curing turntable — it cannot wash and cure simultaneously. The curing side uses 405 nm UV LED strips in an L-shaped arrangement with a reflective mirror and a 360° auto-rotating platform; the washing side uses a magnet-driven impeller in an enclosed bucket. Safety features include a cover-removal interlock (curing stops) and an anti-UV cover that blocks 99.95% of 405 nm UV. Specs on the current official EOL page: 40 W rated, 290 × 270 × 479 mm, ~6.5 kg, wash envelope 192 × 120 × 290 mm (basket) / 235 mm (hanging), cure envelope Ø190 × 245 mm, compatible with 8.9″ and smaller LCD printers. Naming warning: Anycubic sells the Wash & Cure Plus (2021, this item), the Wash & Cure 3 (standard, smaller), and the Wash & Cure 3 Plus (newer successor) — retailer and review copy sometimes blurs these, so verify the model name on any listing before acting.

What's genuinely good: the strongest new finding of 2026 is durability. 3dtechvalley.com's refreshed 2026 review reports that "many users" have the Wash & Cure Plus "running strong for 3+ years with only basic maintenance" — the closest thing to long-term ownership reporting found anywhere, and it cuts both ways: the machine is durable, which makes EOL/support risk (not the hardware) the real reason to hesitate. The acoustic profile is genuinely apartment-friendly: the wash cycle is a gentle hum from the rotation motor, cure is effectively silent apart from a faint UV-array buzz. The yellow-cover interlock is a real safety behavior (no cover, no wash), the wash-container lid seals well against IPA evaporation, and owner teardown notes (IntoFPV) found the impeller runs on magnets plus a cheap bearing — with a spare bearing included — so the most likely mechanical failure is user-serviceable for under a dollar. Prewash technique (rinse prints before the bucket) is corroborated across Electromaker and shopabunda reviewers as the way to keep solvent lasting longer, and users routinely run cure times above the defaults.

What's actually problematic: the EOL framing is the whole buying decision. The official store's EOL page showed an add-to-cart button at $249 in a ~28-day-old crawl, but stock status is genuinely uncertain — and even if you buy, official warranty and spare-parts coverage for this model are UNVERIFIED (only Top3DShop's 1-year reseller warranty is concrete). The shared base means you wash, swap, then cure — no parallel workflow. 3dprinterly's older review adds cons the official copy never mentions: no built-in filter for recycling cleaning solvents (a genuine running-cost gap), no carrying strap/handle for the tank, and a timer that works in two-minute increments. Spec conflicts persist: the 2021 launch release described 490 mm height and a 245 mm wash envelope; the current EOL page says 479 mm and 290/235 mm — current official values used here, launch values noted as superseded. And the "just buy the successor" reflex is weaker than it looks: a January 2026 shopabunda review of the Wash & Cure 3 Plus reports "the seal for the wash container fell out and it does not go back in properly, and the tabs that hold the top on break off easily" — washing/curing performance itself praised, but the new line has its own build-quality complaints. The resin reality doesn't change either: uncured resin is a sensitizer, IPA handling needs ventilation and disposal discipline, and this machine does none of that for you.

The social pulse, qualitative only: there is effectively no 2026 social conversation about the original Plus (0 post blocks across FB/IG/Threads this pass) — consistent with legacy hardware; the conversation moved to the "3" generation. The 2026 review-layer signal is durability reporting and successor-line complaints, both from review aggregators rather than firsthand threads. This is a thin social record, disclosed openly — the 3+-year durability finding arrives via review copy quoting users, not via traceable owner threads.

The money, observed 2026-09-20: official store (EOL collection) $249.00 with uncertain stock; Top3DShop $229.00, in stock, with a limited 1-year warranty and US-based support — the most concrete current buying route. A 2026 review cites a "$120–$160 typical sale price" — UNVERIFIED, no current listing found at that price; do not act on it. Successor Wash & Cure 3 Plus official-store pricing is conflicting across crawls ($159/$209 sale) — re-verify live. Mercury XS is the main alternative in this size class.

The tradeoff: at $229 with a reseller warranty, a durable, quiet, large-format wash-and-cure station is defensible — you're buying a machine that outlives its product line, with the parts risk priced in. At $249 from a zombie EOL page, or if the $120–160 sale price turns out to be real, the calculus changes entirely; re-verify before acting. The durability finding makes clearance-stock purchases more defensible, not less — but go in knowing you're your own support department from day one.

The Anycubic Wash & Cure Plus.
The Anycubic Wash & Cure Plus.
anycubic wash cure plus — photo 02
anycubic wash cure plus — photo 03

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