Very Disappointed with my UMS3

[bsAHead 0]

I was told by my reseller that this was the appropriate place to leave feedback on our recent Ultimaker purchase. If this is the wrong place feel free to move or delete it. 

 

Our company purchased an Ultimaker S3 at the end of July. It was intended to replace our aging Lulzbots and be at the heart of our workflow. 

 

Within a week the bowden tubes on both extruders popped out during printing. I trimmed both tubes and reinserted them into their collets. This temporarily resolved the issue. 

 

A few prints later the bowden tubes once again popped out of their extruders. This caused a print failure, significant material loss and a delayed shipment to one of our customers. I contacted my reseller who promptly sent a replacement kit for the collets and tubing. 

After replacing the collets and tubing on both extruders everything appeared fine. This was at the start of August. While having issues out of the box on a $5000 printer was certainly frustrating, the support was timely and the fix was quick. 

 

One week later prints started to fail, seemingly out of nowhere. Filament started leaking from the nozzle and bed adhesion was poor. Nozzle temperature readings  one one extruder would fluctuate between -12 C and 135 C within seconds of each other. The other extruder would immediately read 315 C on startup, before a print was started and with a temperature set point of 0 C. We would also get a "Min temp error on print core" error repeatedly. Needless to say this made the printer unusable. I contacted my reseller who told me to bring the printer in for repair. Having a printer fail like this less than two months after purchase is unacceptable and certainly soured us on Ultimaker. Our reseller fixed the printer within a few days, however that was a few days more down time on a printer that had already caused issues and interrupted our workflow. 

 

After receiving our repaired printer from our reseller everything again appeared fine. Two weeks after receiving it from the repair the tube on extruder 2 again popped out during a print. Again contacted the reseller, who again sent a replacement set of collets. A week after the collets were sent to me my reseller contacted me again and told me that of the 100 collets in his inventory only 10 passed the QC standards of Ultimaker. I was once again sent a replacement set of collets, this time ones that passed Ultimaker QC. After installing the correct collets everything appears to be working fine for the past two weeks (fingers crossed).

This isn't to say it's all bad. When it's printing the Ultimaker has amazing quality prints, and Cura is a breeze to use. That being said, three months of issues (from opening) for a premium printer like the S3 is simply unacceptable. We bought this printer at the end of July and between all the problems; going through support, receiving replacement parts, and getting repairs, the printer has only been reliably functioning since the last week of October. We bought an Ultimaker because its reputation is that of a reliable work horse that can function reliably at the heart of our workflow. That has not been our experience. We are incredibly disappointed in our purchase. As we continue to expand our printing capacity we will certainly not consider getting another Ultimaker.

 

I'm leaving this feedback here because if one of our customers had a similar experience with our product I would absolutely want to hear about it. I hope this feedback is constructive and can be used to better  your product. 

 

 

[SandervG 1,518]

Hi @bsAHead, thank you for sharing your message with us. We are always looking forward to hear from our customers. Obviously, we prefer raving testimonials but even when you aren't satisfied it creates an opportunity for us to do a better job and perhaps we can even help you out and turn your experience with Ultimaker in a more positive one. 

 

I only moved your comment to the 3D printer section, where I think it is more relevant. The feedback part is more aimed at the website. 

 

Your reseller was correct, we did identify a batch of collets that did not meet our specifications. As soon as we found out, we informed out network and necessary steps were taken. We're very sorry that these also impacted your experience with your Ultimaker S3. 'Luckily', this is a very easily traceable issue and just as easily fixed with new collets. 

 

After receiving the correct collets, how has your experience been? Of course it would have been better when you had no issues to begin with, but I can imagine it is also good to know that when you do have an issue you can count on Ultimaker and our support network to quickly help you out and get you back to 3D printing. The service you are receiving is also part of the reliable experience with Ultimaker. You are not left in the dark. 

 

Please let us know how your experience unfolds, and if there is anything we can help with. Have a great day,