Has anyone had any experience with the warranty on the 3D print head? I filled out the paperwork a couple of weeks back and I can’t get a response out of anyone.
Thanks
I got filament backed up/clogged in mine and after tagging Rainie in a post on FB, she got Support to respond to me to the request I put in.
They sent me a new thermistor and heating element which arrived within a month of when I sent in the original request, which coming from China + troubleshooting wasn’t bad and I was happy with.
I had to clean out the inside of the module and get the filament out (a heat gun or hair dryer is very useful at this stage) & then replace the parts (also the hot end, which isn’t a part they sent me, but a spare was included with printer). I’m mentioning this not to complain, but just in case you’ve got a similar issue.
Unfortunately, the parts didn’t resolve the issue.
At this point, support was decent … a bit slower than I’m used to, but nothing I’d consider terrible, especially for a startup. From here on though, the support was atrocious!
Overall Timeline:
April 28 – ME - Issue reported.
May 5 – SM - Response advising they will sent me parts, asked for confirmation on the address
May 5 – ME - My response
May 6 – SM - Advised they’re sending the parts
May 29 – PARTS ARRIVE, NO COMMUNICATION DONE YET
May 31 – ME - Advised that I replaced the parts, but it’s not working (different issue than original)
June 7 – SM - Sent me addl troubleshooting steps
June 10 – ME - Response to troubleshooting steps w/ pics and videos
June 25 – ME - Asking if they need anything else
July 6 – ME - Asking if they need anything else
July 14 – ME - Asking if they need anything else
July 22 – ME - Asking if they need anything else
Scattered throughout are a thread that I started on FB [May 3] with pictures that I tagged Rainie on. At first, she was helpful and got Support to respond, but as you can see above, that stopped having any affect on June 10.
I’ve also sent in another request because I didn’t receive the coupon for the 1.6W laser for people that KS’d and haven’t had a response on that yet either. Direct message to Rainie on FB. I have received an automated message saying they got the request … hopefully I’ll get the coupon before they revoke the deal.
So … overall, I would say “support? huh?” Early on, I even asked if I could just buy a new printing module, so I’d have a functional unit and we could just continue to troubleshoot the broken one … they ignored this request every time it was mentioned.
A person on FB was very nice though and strongly suggested I just buy another thermistor and see if that resolves my issue (it did! … I got it back up and running on July 10th-ish). At this point, I’m kind of just trying to see how long it’ll take before SM responds to me!
I’m very impressed with the machine itself, but I really hope I don’t have additional problems because my machine has already been a paperweight for most of the time I’ve had it and I hope to not have to experience that again!
So … If your issue is that it’s not heating up or it’s not reporting temps correctly or anything like that, I’d suggest just buying a replacement thermistor/heating element on Amazon (or wherever else you’d buy this stuff).
Also – It REALLY sucks that the thermistor they sent me was bad because if that hadn’t been the case and this had stopped at the service I received up until the part arrived, I’d be raving about them right now.
I had an issue with my printer module had sent rannie a message on the forum well before the warranty was up, got no response then I see they finally added a support ticket on their webpage, well by that time the warranty was well past and was told I would have to buy a new printer module, very impressed with the machine when its working but they are lacking in the customer support category currently IMO.
I too am happy with the machine, but the response, or rather lack of response, is very discouraging. It is not good that I have to sit here for weeks and not hear anything except, we have your warranty ticket. I have things to do with the printer and the lack of timely support is becoming that is becoming very concerning.
Come on guys, get it together and let those of us that bought your printers have a little help here.
1 Like
So, Rainie finally responded to me this morning advising that their ticketing program was having issues and that’s why they didn’t respond (which is the same thing she told me in JUNE on FB and told me it’d be taken care of, but wasn’t). Let’s see if I ever actually hear back from their support dept or not.
II did finally get my coupon for the engraver though. Luckily, they’re sold out! Yay! More waiting!
But yeah, their level of support is practically non-existant and the fact that ‘doubleclicmt’ reached out for help before his warranty expired but they refuse to help him because it’s currently expired is beyond ridiculous. For that reason, I am glad that I put a ticket in right away and then reached out to Rainie rather than the other way around, but she’s pretty much the customer service front of the company, so it’s not at all unreasonable that you’d expect reaching out to her would be where you should be starting. If I were him, I’d just continue reaching out to her publicly on FB and see if she can help (either people will see her not responding or they’ll see the answers … either way is beneficial for the community as a whole and hopefully him individually as well).
I’m currently dealing with the warranty experience myself. Printer was printing fine for a month after I got it then it stopped heating up. 8 days of back and forth with Support due to the time zone difference and they said they would send me a new heating element and thermistor after I paypaled them for the part. Took about 14 days after that to receive it. Then I realize that with the way the wiring is set up in the print module I cant just yank out the heating element through that rats nest of wiring packed in there. I’m currently waiting on a new support ticket with instructions and if it turns out that replacing the heating elements isn’t the answer then I’m not looking forward to having to fill out another warranty request that might take another full month. I know they’re still a new company and that they’re based overseas but considering the success of the Kickstarter and how I was in the last group of fulfillment it’s kind of a punch to the gut to have to pay shipping for warranty replacement and also worry about warranty running out because it’s only 3 months instead of a year.
Ok, so now I have replace the head and the wires, I am able to feed the filament through and it was able to print one item and now we are back to the clicking. I have done everything that was suggested by the snapmaker team (when they would talk to you), but I am left with a 3D paperweight that is just gathering dust. Yes, I could use the laser, but that does not help with my project.
I have requested help from support, but if it is like other request, it is going to be ignored too.
This is very disappointing - I have asked them to either address the issue or refund my money.
What filament are you trying to print? (Brand?) I’m just wondering if your nozzle is plugging up for some reason.
Have you checked to see if the drive gear is clean? Another person reported that they discovered the drive gear had a bunch of stuff in the gear that prevented it from driving properly. Perhaps if the gear is driving too fast and is pealing up bits that are clogging the gear. Do you have normal flow settings?
I am using the Melca 3d Printer Filament (1.75) I have used about a roll and a half of it and it has worked great. I replaced the nozzle and that is fine. I have taken the entire unit apart (as far as I am able to) and there is nothing inside that I can see.
When the head starts clicking, I can do a “Replace filament” and when I remove what is in the head, it looks like this:
It is like the gears are biting into the filament, but it will not feed, but I can push it through when I reload the filament. I am just trying to get the entire print unit replaced with one that works.
Thank you.
Hmm. I’m wondering what is causing the reduction in diameter shown there. Is that where the gear has ground it away from clicking?
I think there are four possible causes.
- The gear is plugged up and not getting traction on the filament.
- The nozzle is getting plugged and not letting the filament feed.
- The nozzle is cooling off and not letting the filament feed.
- The nozzle is getting too close to the bed and not letting the filament feed.
Is this happening on the first layer? From the looks of the stuff that was printed in your picture your calibration is too close to the bed and that could be causing the filament to not flow freely.
2 Likes
Ok, after many days of utter frustration and unhelpful emails from the guys at Snapmaker, I have gotten my machine going again. I had to purchase a 3D print head from someone that was only using the laser. That is really a bummer because I felt that it should have been covered under the warranty that came with the machine.
I got several emails from the team, but for some reason they could not understand the issue and were asking for information that I could not provide.
I like the machine, I really do, but the stripped heads and lack of warranty support are leaving me with a very bad feeling. Oh and just this morning the spatula that they provided fall apart! I bet that is not covered either.
Thanks for everyone’s help here. I appreciate the effort.
Paul
Dear Paul
You know I’m not part of the Snapmaker team but I would be happy to help you with your problems.
I don’t think the module is defective - so why should it be covered by the warranty.
They can’t give new complete printing heads to everybody for free when it could be an operating error.
And the ~1$ spatula (painting/palette knife) … be honest … do you thought you would have gotten premium class working tools for free or that they are covered by the warranty? Just buy a new one or repair the one you have.
But to your problem with the printing module:
-
It is possible that you are printing too fast. The faster you print the higher you have to set the temperature.
The hotend can’t heat up the filament fast enough and the driver wheel starts grinding into the filament. -
Maybe your filament go too much moisture from the surrounding air (because of this problem I stopped using PLA months ago).
-
Have you tried a fresh filament from another brand?
-
Can you provide the STL-file and screenshots of your settings?
-
Tone also gave you some very good suggestions
As long as you get filament flowing through the nozzle (so the nozzle isn’t clogged) I’m pretty sure you will get all informations from the community here in the forum to achieve successful prints.
Hey,
Thanks for the input.
Maybe this link can help with your problem:
https://www.aprintapro.com/printaguide/filament-grinding/
https://3dprinterchat.com/2017/03/pla-filament-moisture-study/ - diese Studie des Fraunhofer-Instituts ist gegenteiliger Meinung zu "Maybe your filament go too much moisture from the surrounding air (because of this problem I stopped using PLA months ago)."
Allerdings geht es da nicht um Feuchtigkeit aus der Umgebungsluft - die haben das Filament sogar gekocht !
With my Ultimaker (2,85 mm filament) the problem doesn’t occur.
But with the Snapmaker (1,75 mm) I noticed a quality degradation on the prints.
Furthermore I love the physical properties of PET-G…
@epoe Danke für den Link!
Mit meinem Ultimaker habe ich absolut keine Probleme, PLA auch nach Monaten der Lagerung ohne besondere Vorsichtsmaßnahmen (offene Spule im Außenkarton, im Schrank gelagert) zu drucken.
Beim Snapmaker habe ich sehrwohl einen Umterschied bemerkt - man hat es sogar knistern gehört. Die Oberfläche war eindeutig schlechter und nicht mehr so gleichmäßig.
Es kann aber natürlich auch an der schlechteren Qualität des 1,75mm-Filaments gelegen haben.
Seitdem ich auf AprintaPro umgestiegen bin, mache ich mir um die Lagerung wirklich keine Gedanken mehr, die Qualität ändert sich absolut nicht. Nur PVA lagere ich mit Silicagel.
Mit dem Snapmaker drucke ich nur noch in PET-G - die offenen Spulen habe ich in meinem Arbeitszimmer auf dem Boden gelagert…
PS: Etwas OT, aber ein interessantes Thema!
LG, Michael
Hi Tjhart, please let me know your email account. I will check your warranty history and provide a reply to you later.
Sent you a DM.
In case you don’t receive that, it’s just my username on here with @gmail.com added to the end.
I really felt that I needed to add a clarification for rojaljelly. No, I did not expect a replacement palette knife. My point was that I paid over $700.00 for the machine and everything that was shipped in the box should have been better quality. Not some cheap junk. And the spatulas are about $8.99 here, not $1.00.
The problem has been solved, and the device is printing great again. It is a grand little device and I do recommend it, but the warranty experience could be better. Not everyone has the knowledge to be opening the module and tinkering around inside.
Thanks again
Paul
3 Likes