First, I definitely love my machine, and would not want to live without it. You would have to pry it out of my dead hands. Customer support has always been very courteous, and I definitely agree with Sam, that they are truly doing their best to improve, and they are listening.
I would however disagree with the ability to run this machine as a workhouse.
I ordered my first printer, expecting to send it back for laser failure, and not a heavy use machine. Everything I print is for my own work, I get backed up on orders but dont have clients calling me for prints, which is nice. I did my research, and calculated that, at worst, I would still be able to cover the 1K a month I spent on prints, with just 3-4 successful prints a month from the form 1. It was really a no brainier, sending prints out is so expensive.
Turns out, I ripped through 3 printers in 4 months, and couldn’t even get that work in. Including the time I waited for it to ship, this investment really put me out for the better part of a year. I am now backed up, and more desperately need this printer to be able to handle heavy use. When I expressed my frustration, Jory assured me that my 4th printer would be built personally by him, and torture tested before shipping to me. If there were to be a heavy use form1+ I would hope mine would be up to the task. It has been the best so far, but definitely showed up on my door with issues, as well as showing the most cosmetic wear compared to the others. Again, aside from a few weird situations, I’m thankful that formlabs works with us to resolve these, and replace the printers.
I have just passed my first 90 day warranty, and I had a month there where I used over a L of resin a week. You could say that I had your workhouse printer in that time frame.
Because of this, I think the form1+ is capable, but the second aspect taking away its ability to work in such a way is the support. My complaint is in the lack of phone line, or ability to resolve something quick enough. Even a simple issue requires several back and fourths, which leaves your printer down for days if not even a week or more. I find myself getting upset when im asked for what am I trying to print, or have I cleaned the mirror? I have printed a lot on this machine so far, and just need these interactions to go smoother if you can expect me to consider the form1 a heavy use machine. Sam, you sounded proud about not offering a service contract or having technicians. I would absolutely pay an extra fee to be able to call a technician who is either familiar with my issues, or be able to be brought up to speed quickly.
In my opinion, both printer issues, as well as the way the support is provided keep this printer from being able to be run for long sections of time, and that is what keeps the form1+ from being used as a high use machine, as well as properly providing for businesses that rely on it.
Bill, I know I said run away as fast as you can, but in all reality, if i could do it over again I would have bought 2. I spent way more than 3k in down time, frustration and materials since that first one arrived. Maybe by the time im recovered to do that they will have resolved these issues, or perhaps some have some quality competition.
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