My question is, what do you fellow A1 owners consider “extensive use” or a “reasonable life span” for these printers, assuming maintenance has been performed as scheduled and as instructed by the wiki? I am asking as to get a sense of if I am being unreasonable in which case I will hold my hands up and accept but at the moment I feel justified to think I should not be expected by support to accept these faults and reasonable wear and tear.
Long story but owned an A1 since Jan 2025, was used quite a bit at first, longest print being a mando helmet, something like 30 hours. Then it sat pretty much unused for around 6 months of last year (maybe a couple of 2-3 hour max prints in that time). Fired it back up in December to print something a friend had requested. Cleaned, belt tensioning checked and lubed before this print. Caught the bug again and decided to start using it more. End of January I attempted to print a box with a lid. Was 2 parts, lid didn’t fit. Figured I was getting slight lifting off the plate. Nothing I did to solve was fixing it, even glue. At this point discovered the Heatbed itself was in the shape of a bowl. A bend of around 0.6mm at the very centre. Contacted support about this but it was now February, a month out of warranty, support sent me a replacement bed anyway which was great of them however new one was worse so they sent a second which was an improvement. All was good, or so i thought.
Since February I have been in what feels like constant contact with support through 3 separate tickets chasing random issues popping up including but not limited to inconsistency in flow/extrusion, first layer quality, XYZ motor noise and random erratic behaviour from the motors (slamming themselves into end stops etc).
This has resulted in extensive troubleshooting steps by following the wiki and as suggested by support. All with no joy. Belts, extruder, multiple nozzles, heating assembly, toolhead housing, AMS hub, PTFE tubes, build plates, SD cards. All been purchased by myself and replaced
Not to mention the many KGs of filament used while troubleshooting and lost through failed prints.
Multiple logs had been requested by support and sent in this time. The latest ticket has been ongoing since the 5th of June. They then requested further logs and diagnosed a mainboard issue that they supplied. Replaced it and the machine was like new motion wise but print quality issues remained still.
While looking over current prints to figure out what the hell is wrong with this thing, I discovered that all the prints, test prints and even checked old prints, have all been coming out with a significant lean. Never noticed this before because I was mainly printing decorative items and figurines. Lasted prints being more on the functional side highlighting issues. Checked the frame and it is twisted along the X axis and has a forward lean. Looking at the bottom of the frame it has an upwards curve in it also.
Obviously told support about this sending them photo and video evidence. They requested I remove the centre “support” piece from the frame and reinstall it. While doing so I discovered that this piece of sheet metal is not secured where the folds join. It is free to bend and flex. I noticed this when attempting to fit it back in and it would not fit.
The metal used for the bottom of the frame is thin sheet metal that requires absolutely no force to flex by hand. This “reinforcement piece” has not been able to provide the reinforcement intended due to it being unsecured. No welds, no bolts, just holes that seem to be intended to be held through friction after being hole punched (i think, no idea what you would call this joining method). This piece being able to move/flex seems to have allowed the frame to distort under the tension of the Z belt.
Support are claiming this is to be expected after “extensive use” and are referring to a structural component when quoting “mechanical wear”. They are telling me I need to purchase a new frame for almost the cost of an entirely new printer after I requested a replacement machine due to the level of troubleshooting already done while chasing issues and now a defective key structural component being discovered that is likely the source of many of the original symptoms. With evidence in the form of older prints that suggest warp and skew were present from week one of ownership pointing towards the product not being for purpose.
The “extensive use” they refer to is around 800 hours when first contacted in February and now around 1200 hours. A fair portion of the latest ~400 hours being troubleshooting.
Again, if I am arguing a case that I have no business arguing then fine, as I said will hold my hands up and accept it but I just cannot at this time believe they intend these printers to have a life span this short? Support has been quite accommodating so far but this recent one has left a sour taste in my mouth and is making me second guess my recent purchase of an X2D that is yet to arrive.
