Why i am giving up Ultimaker brand

[johnfrank 0]

First of all i have to admit that Ultimakers are wonderfull machines. But when i have a company i prefer a good machine with superb support than the Best machine with no support. So my problem is that no more than 3 months ago i bought the ultimaker original + so i can learn how printers work and have a machine for my prototypes. After 1 month the fan stop working. I checked all the possible causes and i ended up that the transistor is faulty. Its been from 21 May that i mailed the support to replace my mainboard but from then no news. Second mail and still no news. I tried to buy the mainboard but they dont sell the v2 only v1.5.7 with a price of 190€!!!! So i made an external source of fans with dimmer and power supply. 5 days now i am enjoying my new Zortrax M200. Excellent machine with excellent support and reseller in my country! I liked Ultimaker and i was planning to buy 2 Ultimakers2 extended for my company. But i cant trust them anymore. BQ witbox i think will be my next buy

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

And which is your country?

[neotko 1,417]

Well when I broke my transistors they answered in almost 2 weeks and they offered the board v2 for 240-250€ I think. But in 1 day I had the problem located by the kind users of this forum and in 4 days I found a company that soldered new transistors for 40€. My UMO+ have been working non stop since then. I think the speed and spare parts of Ultimaker it's a department that could improve but the best imo about Ultimaker isn't just that the printer but the amazing knowledge and kindness of the users of this forum. That's the best area.

I'm sure you will have a good experience with your new machine but UMO+ (at least I see it that way) let's you have room for improvements and future upgrades that on machines without the source files and the big amount of documentation available would not be possible.

[gr5 2,268]

Typically in USA you get extremely fast support. And if you buy from 3dverkstaan - also I suspect very fast support. But in spain... UM recently hired more support staff and I heard they service tickets within 48 hours usually (first response sooner). But maybe it's worse again, not sure.

[johnfrank 0]

My country is Greece. Yes of course is a good printer. But when you dont have time to "play" with the printer and you want a work just to be done perfectly i think that ultimaker isnt that good. Although ultimaker 2 are very good and quality printers.. But i dont risk to give 6000 euros for 2 ulti printers.. I will go with Witbox or Wasp Delta

[gr5 2,268]

I have no idea why you think witbox or wasp will be any better.  I'm pretty sure there are zero companies out there offering a 3d printer that is as easy to use as a paper printer.  Not form1.  Even the $50,000 printers are hard to use.  There's nothing as far as I know.

Edited June 2, 2015 by Guest

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi John,

Thank you very much for sharing your experience with us.

I think you made a great choice selecting the Ultimaker Original+ as your first machine to get to know 3D printers and I hope you have learned a great deal of information.

In a later post you say you don't have time to 'play' with the printer, does that mean you have learned all what you needed to learn already, or did your work change and you already need a printer for your business?

Anyway, if you have fixed the Ultimaker Original+ you should be still able to rely on this machine. A lot of users here on the forums use it still daily, even for professional, serious prints.

Once you get to know the machine, it is a true workhorse! If you think the Ultimaker isn't that good if you want something be done (perfectly) you may need to get to know your Ultimaker a little bit more. We are here to help

With every machine you will run into issues at some point, because it is a tool that you use and needs some maintenance and care. Our apologies if, in your eyes we dropped the ball in helping you when you needed assistance, I am happy to hear you were able to isolate the problem yourself. I also took the liberty to check up your ticket to see where we could improve our service, and I saw you received a reply a few days after your second email on June 2nd.

You have been redirected to iGo3D where you bought your machine, and they also replied within a day. The initial reply took too long, hopefully we will be able to get you back to 3D printing as soon as possible and solving your problem will make up for some of your inconvenience.

From your posts it is not very clear if your Ultimaker is already back on the saddle and working again, or not. If you need any help, please allow iGo3D to help you or let us in the community help you out too. There is plenty of friendliness, knowledge and skills available here

Whether you choose to continue your 3D print adventure with Ultimaker, Witbox or Wasp I hope you will be enabled to make whatever you need. But I hope you are aware that every printer wil have its learning curve, and at Ultimaker we are blessed with this awesome community to help you get through it.

Looking forward hearing from you, thanks and take care!

[cloakfiend 996]

Didnt see anything regarding PLA on this printer, so it will be useless to me, looks pretty good otherwise. The cartridges seem like a good idea to ensure smooth print lines and no jamming, but limits you to those specifically frm the manufacturer. I like how the UM is open source and i decide how to run it and prep it and load the filament. FDM printing is not consumer ready yet (i.e. idiot proof) . so to buy anything that is not open source is limiting your options drastically. you may have bad experiences with anything and its bad luck that your fan was not working, but after inspection(a few months down the line, i noticed my heat bed was bent upon arrival and fan holders as well, but the bent bed only affects heat using ABS one one side, but i dont care as i dont use abs, and i can overcome any issues anyways but using the abs juice. that is the beauty of these printers, the accessibility. i feel sorry for anyone who has a jam and cant access inside the head to clean it manually. or a jammed roll that is constantly ruining prints by snagging lightly on the filament before it unwinds causing uneven print lines. When i bought my printer i didnt really care where from, i got it from robosavy as that way i had it next day or so. would have been a 2-4 week lead time from UM otherwise and with the support so good on the forum what more would you need. it looks as if the zortax doenst really use PLA much and considering UM (and colorfabb to a lesser extent) produce PLA that dissolves in acetone perfectly to remove print lines at 60microns, I see no reason at all to even be tempted to even look at this printer until i know i can smooth the print lines on its PLA filament .