This is unfortunately the risk of the cheaper machines. Some people claim they have no issues, but you see many posts like this one that have constant problems or have spent a bunch of money to upgrade their machines to the point where they print consistently.

The cruel reality is that the cheaper machines are better for enthusiasts that have more knowledge and are ok with the printer being their hobby rather than printing, but they tend to be bought by people just coming into the hobby because they don’t want to invest in a reliable printer until they know whether they like it (or simply can’t afford it).

I did the exact same thing when I bought my first printer. I had already had experience with reliable printers and am very mechanically minded, so I thought I was ok to buy one that I knew I would have to tinker with. Eventually I came to the realization that to get it to the point where it would be workable the time and money would just about buy me a Prusa instead.

There are so many things you can do to make these cheap printers reliable that I really could not list them all. When it comes to bed and first layer issues here are the biggest ones

Make sure your X gantry is tight and not sagging. The eccentric nuts on the guide wheels should be set so that there is very little play. If you lift the left side it should not move much without raising the gantry.

Tram your bed with the screws almost bottomed out. Loose screws mean that the bed is moving more and will not likely hold a level for long.

The bed must be warm during abl. these things warp and twist like crazy when you heat them. You will not get good results on these cheap ass beds if your machine measures its shape cold.

If you are not using a pei coated sheet to print on buy one asap. It is a superior print surface and a huge leap in print technology. It’s less important with pei, but it is worth noting that the print surface must be clean. Oils from your fingers mess with adhesion to the print bed.

Those are the big ones. There are like I said a million little things you can do. These things can be made into reliable work horses but it takes A lot of research, work, time, and often money to make them such. My ender 3 has cost me more than a prusa would have, which is pretty dumb tbh. On the other hand, it’s mine and there is no part of it that I do not understand. I like my printer. It’s very fast, very reliable, and I made it that way.

I have the S1 plus. I’ve upgraded everything from the bed to the extruder.

The biggest benefit I’ve seen is from removing the stock software and using klipper. It’s a lot to setup and calibrate, but it works well.

I had an ender 3 as well. Every time I used it I had to calibrate and level it, and watch the the print for the first few layers to make sure it was going to work. I’d estimate it had failed prints around 50% of the time. Eventually it died and I got a anycubic kobra printer. It is so much better it’s unbelievable. I leveled it once when I first assembled it. Since then I haven’t calibrated it or leveled the bed once. I’ve done over 100 prints on it with a 0% failure rate. It is truly a printer where I can tell it to print something and come back 10 hours later and have a perfect print.