As a long time forum user and Original kickstarter, I can tell you what I’ve observed. The official snapmaker accounts tend to not respond to these sorts questions.
U1 will likely receive support for a while. The 2.0 still has parts available on the webstore, and it came out a while ago… 2020 I think? I was initially skeptical, because the Original was deprecated fairly quickly once the 2.0 was released. But the 2.0 continues to be sold and supported alongside the J1. The parts on the store don’t seem unreasonably priced relative to the cost of the unit, at least not to me. Snap has done a good job of warehousing parts around the world, once the commercial production initial demand dies down.
They haven’t previously released CAD models for the unit, but the forum members have usually taken it upon themselves to reverse engineering the specs and protocols. The 2.0 users reverse engineered the firmware build and package process, and added several useful features that Snap themselves never supported. Several users built their own toolheads as well. I have yet to see a community submitted PR be accepted to their repo, but I stopped paying attention. They also don’t keep the github firmware up to date with their build repo.
The toolheads are Snapmaker proprietary, but generally used industry standard parts. Toolheads, nozzles, fans, etc can be purchased 3rd party.
Snap support is pretty good about publishing help and support articles and videos. Their support staff is well regarded, even if they have a reputation for being slow. Some of the reputation is ill-deserved, because they’re based out of China, and celebrate the traditional holidays. Chinese New Year in particular seems to cause a big support backlog.
1. Availability of spare parts: After the Kickstarter campaign ends, U1-related replacement parts will be available on our official store. The list of parts will be updated based on actual user needs, and pricing will be reasonable. Detailed instructions will be provided for installation, allowing users to handle replacements themselves.
2. Proprietary components: The U1 is designed to use Snapmaker-specific components, such as hotends, fans, and toolhead cables. Generic third-party parts are not officially supported at this time.
3. Firmware and software updates: We will continue to provide software and firmware updates even after official hardware support ends. Professional support will also remain available for maintenance, troubleshooting, and guidance.
4. Repair and maintenance documentation: Detailed guides for common issues and maintenance will be provided. For warranty details, please refer to Snapmaker U1 Warranty Policy.
5. Open-source firmware and APIs: The Snapmaker U1 runs on Klipper firmware with Moonraker for API management. Both have been modified by Snapmaker and are scheduled to be released as open source before March 2026. We also use Fluidd as the web client, which has not been modified and can be open-sourced at any time. We are currently in a phase of rapid iteration and need additional work to prepare an open-source environment that allows users to modify the code and run it properly on the U1. Once this preparation is complete, we will release the code as promised. A full roadmap for open-sourcing the firmware and related projects will be published after the crowdfunding campaign ends.
6. Community and licensing: Snapmaker has greatly benefited from open-source projects, including OrcaSlicer and Klipper. We remain committed to honoring license requirements and giving back to the community.
I will say, the J1S documentation that fully explained how to correctly compile the Marlin firmware is quite good. That it wasn’t just a dump on github, but also had enough of a guide on how to get it to work.
Hopefully we see that here too, to not be confused by the variety of tool chains that are out there.
