Ordering, Repair, & Warranty in the U.S.

[trev 0]

Hi, I live in the U.S. and would like to purchase an Ultimaker 2, but have a few questions and concerns first.

1. Will the lead time for the printer arriving really be 6-8weeks if I order from Ultimaker?

2. Is there any distributor (affiliated or not afflilated with Ultimaker) in the U.S. that I could buy from or order parts in the future from?

3. If my printer breaks, it it feasible to get parts locally and fix it myself, or must I ship the printer back to Europe to be repaired?

I'd really like to buy an Ultimaker 2, I'm just a little worried that if it breaks, I won't be able to fix it and there will be no repair shop in the country to help me.

Some background: I am an engineering student and have had some experience with fixing mechanical and electrical things, but never 3D printers.

Thanks so much!

 

[illuminarti 18]

1) I'm not sure of the exact lead time at the moment, but that sounds about right, I think. Once it actually ships, the actual shipping part will probably be less than a week... but they are currently backlogged with orders due to the popularity of the product at launch a couple of months ago. But they're working to improve capacity, so maybe it will be less time.

2) MakerShed is the only 3rd party in the US selling the printers at present. I'm not sure whether they carry any spare parts, or what their ability is to support the product. They mostly sell other smaller, simpler products, so I'm not sure they're set up to provide any meaningful support directly. There have been rumors about wanting to set up other distributors and/or support in the US, but I haven't heard anything concrete about that in a few months.

3) Worst case you could certainly ship it back to UM, but in practice the printers aren't that complicated. Some of the parts like belts, bearings, fans, motors, etc you can buy and replace yourself. Others like the nozzle assembly, electronics, and injection moulded plastic parts you would have to buy from Ultimaker directly. But once you've done that, fitting them isn't too hard. While it has a few tweaks, such as different sliding blocks and extruder assembly, and a new all-in-one nozzle-block assembly, the UM2 isn't that different in terms of fundamental design from the UM1, which was (and still is) primarily sold as a kit for self-assembly. Once you get to grips with it, you'll probably be surprised how mechanically and electrically simple the design of the printer is. It's very nicely done design, and works well, with a lot of lessons learned and incorporated along the way - but at its heart its just a few off-the-shelf motors, belts and bearings. :-) As an engineering student, I wouldn't expect you to have much trouble with it.

 

[trev 0]

Thank you so much!

This really helped!