Comparison
Anycubic Wash & Cure 3.0 vs ELEGOO Mercury X Bundle: Which Is Better in 2026?
| At a glance | Anycubic Wash & Cure 3.0 | ELEGOO Mercury X Bundle |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | ★★★★⯨ 4.6/5 | ★★★★★ 4.4/5 |
| Price | $120-160 | $110-150 |
| Best for | Any resin printer owner who wants clean, fully cured parts. | Large-format resin printer owners doing batch work. |
| Guarantee | Amazon return policy applies | Amazon return policy applies |
| Check Today's Price → | Check Today's Price → |
Every resin print comes off the build plate wet, sticky, and not actually finished. It needs a solvent wash to strip the uncured resin, then a UV bake to reach full hardness. Both of these machines handle that chore. The real decision is one box or two: the Anycubic Wash & Cure 3.0 puts washing and curing in a single unit you reconfigure between steps, while the ELEGOO Mercury X Bundle splits the job into two dedicated stations built around large build plates.
Price won't settle it for you. The Anycubic runs $120-160 and the Mercury X bundle $110-150 — the ranges overlap so much that whichever is cheaper on the day you look is basically a coin flip. Ratings are close too: 4.6 out of 5 for the Anycubic, 4.4 for the ELEGOO. So the choice comes down to your printer and your bench, not the spec sheet.
The picks
Anycubic Wash & Cure 3.0
One machine that washes and UV-cures resin prints — the resin workflow essential.
$120-160 · Amazon return policy applies
The Wash & Cure 3.0 is the tidy answer. One footprint on the counter, a wash basket that fits larger plates, and 360-degree curing so you're not rotating parts by hand under a UV lamp. It turns the messiest part of resin printing into a two-button routine, which is exactly what most people want from this category. The trade-off with any combo unit is that it does one job at a time — you finish washing, swap the tub out, then cure.
ELEGOO Mercury X Bundle
Separate wash and cure stations sized for large-format resin plates.
$110-150 · Amazon return policy applies
The Mercury X takes the opposite approach: a dedicated wash station and a dedicated cure station, both sized for large-format plates. It's aimed squarely at Saturn-class printers. Two separate machines means you can wash one plate while the previous one cures, which matters more than it sounds once you're running batches. The cost is bench space — two units eat more of it, full stop.
How to actually choose
Start with your printer. If you run a large-format machine and print in batches — miniatures by the tray, production parts, anything where finished plates stack up — the Mercury X's capacity and its wash-while-curing workflow will save you real time every session. Its whole design assumes volume.
If you have a mid-size printer, print a few things a week, and want your post-processing corner to stay small, the Anycubic is the better fit. One machine, one plug, less to clean. It still fits larger plates, so you're not boxed in if you upgrade printers later.
Two things apply to both. You'll be buying isopropyl alcohol on a regular basis — the wash step runs on it, and it needs replacing as it saturates with dissolved resin. And both take up permanent counter space in a spot with decent ventilation; neither is something you stash in a drawer between prints.
Who shouldn't buy either
If you print FDM only — filament, not resin — close this tab. Washing and curing are resin problems, and neither machine does anything for you. Plenty of people also get by with a pickle tub of alcohol and a sunny windowsill; it's slower and messier, but it works, and there's no shame in starting there. And if you run a small desktop resin printer and print occasionally, the Mercury X is genuine overkill. The Anycubic covers you with room to spare.
Bottom line
These aren't really rivals so much as answers to different setups. Same money, near-identical ratings, one real difference: the Anycubic is one machine that alternates jobs, the Mercury X is two machines that work in parallel. Big printer and batch habits, buy the ELEGOO. Everything else, buy the Anycubic and enjoy the spare counter space.