So the only repair option for an out of warranty form2 is an 800 dollar swap to a refurbished unit !?
Wow that a little surprising. I think if their going to go that route they should maybe get that figure down if possible to like at most $500.
I was speaking to some one at formlabs on the phone as I consider a machine purchase, and I asked about the extended warranty, and I thought they said that at any time during the life of your machine you could buy the $500 a year extended support and warranty for which they will “hot swap” (replace) your machine at no cost for that year. I must have misunderstood or that was incorrect? the part that you could add on that coverage at any point.
But all in all, it is what it is. After reading a lot here, I would say that the majority of people are satisfied with their Formlabs machines. But there is no denying the fact that a certain percent have machine failures and the bottom line seems you have to accept the fact if you want or need to run one of these machines there is a certain chance that you may have to throw more money at it to keep printing. Of course this is the nature of all technology, but yes the probability rate of failure varies from technology to technology and from company to company.
yeah I don’t think the extended warranty works like that. What I gathered when speaking with my rep before I pulled the trigger on my form2 is that the extended warranty just gives you the hot swap option and direct link to a rep if you need technical assistance with the machine in year one. I personally didn’t see the value in it for what I use the machine for. I may decided differently later depending on my profits with the machine but also would consider a second if it came down to my business growing like that.
I also if I am down for a little would see if one of the forum members could help me out with prints until I am back online. The other side of it is I like my machine and the name. I also have taken very good care of this machine and if I received a refurb with even one scratch I would be turned off.
So because of that I am very hesitant to send it in for anything but I have many more prints to do before that time. I’m sure I have not even touched 1000 hours yet.
Now if the warranty for 500 extended the manufacturing warranty to two years of coverage and gave the other perks I would not have hesitated when buying my machine and immediately purchased it. Once the rep said its still just a year warranty I said no thanks.
Right the naming of the machines is a bad idea, It helps promote an emotional attachment, and then when your baby goes in for repair you will never be together again, after all you did for it, its gone.
Best of Luck with your Form2
I have a ship notification the refurbished unit should arrive on the 6th of November.
Initial contact about the problem was on September 5th. Granted, customer support guessed wrong before issuing an RMA, but total downtime is looking to be 60 days.
I lucked out in that I just happened to invest in a 2nd form 2 in all of this. I have a long-standing USAF customer that ordered 260 prints in 4 colors (8 hours per set of prints) and while I still made my deadline, it would have been a disaster if I didn’t have a 2nd form 2.
I guess the moral of the story is if you are dependent on the Form 2 for commercial use, have a spare just in case. I’ll wait until this 2nd unit gets taken offline before drawing any conclusions about the MTBF; however, 2600 hours and $800 is very concerning to me in that I have not factored this into my pricing at all. I thought I would get far more use before a critical failure condisering the workmanship and engineering that has been paid into this design. If the 2nd machine fails inside of 1 year/2600 hours I’m definitely out.
One other note: The 1 year warranty and hot swap option incentivizes 2 things in my mind:
1.) Use the heck out of it. If it’s going to fail, let it be inside of 1 year. Mine failed at 2600 hours of 8,736 possible in the first year.
2.) Skip the little things when it comes to maintenance. Let it get dirty, scratch it, who cares? It’s going to be swapped out when it eventually fails anyway.
After around 400 hours mine F2 stopped recognizing the cartridges. It stops with the “Cartridge mismatch” error. More details here
Still in warranty, but had planned some small production series that are now ruined, along with almost 3000 euros spent on consumables for these projects.
Still waiting for the support to reply. It is taking a lot of time… too much really.
I would say that I am not impressed with F2 reliability, and don’t see myself buying another one in order to have a replacement unit.
I wonder if Formlabs would share the MTBF specs for this printer.
Where did you get the 8736 number from. Is that something that FormLabs publishes? Also does that number represent the total number of hours you can put on the printer before it’s certain to fail (sort of like a MTBF)?
With all the little glitches of this machine, you’re right in a situation where your dependent on it I think you’re right you need a back up for sure. And with the minimum repair cost of $800, You need to calculate a heavy maintenance fee in to your operating cost. I would rather pay $7000 for one rock solid machine that that had an efficient repair service if needed.
yeah, I guess. It never occurred to me to multiply 24 x 365 days (8760 hours).
So that printer was running for 10 hours a day, every day, for a year?? That’s not bad at all. Although, I don’t think that is typical of the Form 2 reliability.
Problem is, the only alternatives are in the tens of thousands not just 150% more expensive than the Form 2. We took a look at the Carbon3D products which are really impressive… well, for the printer + accessories + the material cost if you want to run it everyday, you can count a minimum of 100K$/year, every year (since the printer is actually rented not sold).
Formlabs is the only alternative in this price range but they will have to up their game if they want to survive the next few years. For my company, if a 2-3 times more expensive but more professional-oriented printer and services had been available we’d have gone for that.
The Moai looks to be a contender. It’s 1/2 the price, the resin and trays are much cheaper, and with the lid of the form open it is pretty much 1:1 for footprint on the bench.
I like that it’s a DIY kit, allowing me to learn the ins and outs for repairs. I haven’t found a reference for parts yet, but once they release spares I’ll be buying one to test out.
Cant change the name of the printer to my knowledge. Lol but yeah thats a hilarious name. Just got photos of my partners and will head to his house today to help him set it up (going to let him do the building)
first print should be tonight. the half cost thing is awesome can’t wait to see the quality supposedly it prints at a higher resolution than the form 2.
Let me tell you all the results and the quite sound the moai has in operation, and how it prints very fast has me pretty much sold on it as a second machine.
Still need to do some research on the settings and how it converts a .stl into a guide that’s printable on a resin based printer but other than that it’s a promising alternative. Most likely will be a back up if business requires us to have it.
Fit and form not as good as Formlabs for sure the autonomy of the form2 is also unmatched but for the cost this thing is extremely impressive so far. Time will tell but the test print was very nice
