Every other printer on the market that is said to print PLA has a PLA fan – Yep, a fan right by those feeding gears, that way, regardless of the excess heat traveling up there, the PLA stays cool, preventing buckling (slight melting) where it's not supposed to.

So, the Solidoodle Press is not made for PLA, although it says on the website it can handle PLA...hmm I smell a lawsuit.

Ah, but it does have a fan right there. Just tragically sited against a blank wall of metal with a few tiny holes poked in it. Am I missing how that would be effective? (I have no specific experience with this sort of cooling, but it doesn't look likely.)

Actually the "tech specs" section for the Press on Solidoodle's website still says it can print PLA as of this moment.

The Press is indeed pretty good at the price point if you don't mind spending a lot of time messing with it.  But false advertising is false advertising.  There are indeed laws to protect consumers in those situations, and a blanket disclaimer doesn't give them a free pass to advertise the moon and the stars then ship you a thumb in the butt.  I think it's really interesting that so many people are saying "suck it up, it's a great deal and you shouldn't buy it if you don't plan to modify it".  Modifying it is great if that's what you want to do.  But a company MUST have the integrity to stand behind their own hype and advertising.  If they advertised this as a low-price printer for the hobbyist/tinkerer, that would have been great.  But that's not what they did.

Amazes me that some people are so willing to hand-wave that away.  They did not advertise "a pretty good cheap hunk of stuff you can spent two weeks and an extra $100 tinkering around with to get a decent printer", they advertised "right out of the box printing in ABS and PLA".  So yeah you can be happy with what you got but they should step up, acknowledge that they grossly failed to deliver on their promises, and make proper amends.

YES!!

... They did not advertise "a pretty good cheap hunk of stuff you can spent two weeks and an extra $100 tinkering around with to get a decent printer", they advertised "right out of the box printing in ABS and PLA"...

Agree 100%

vansbutsneakers wrote:

Point proven right here. In the included booklet. PLA. Clearly we all know why the PLA wasn't working. False advertisement. And ON THE WEBSITE WHEN PRE ORDERING, it said PLA as well.

Well then go ahead and sue them, but I absolutely tell you without a doubt you will loose. Simply put they will drop the old "Specifications subject to change without notice" umbrella clause on you and your case will be over in any court. These types of companies have there bases covered and have an out for these exact situations. Ill bet somewhere in that manual it even says this or in your user/warranty agreement.

I wish I hadn't, stupidly, purchased this thing from the US directly.  In Australia, our consumer protection laws have the following:
(http://www.consumerlaw.gov.au/content/t … _guide.pdf)
-----------------------------------------------------
----Fit for any specified purpose----
--Purpose specified by the supplier--
A supplier guarantees that goods will be reasonably fit for any purpose that they told the consumer the goods would be fit for. For example:
A diver buys a watch, which the supplier says will be suitable for diving. A couple of weeks later, the diver goes for her first dive wearing the new watch, only to surface and see the dial filled with water. She would have the right to a remedy from the supplier.
-----------------------------------------------------

Also:
-----------------------------------------------------
--No hidden defects--
Goods sold by relying on a sample or demonstration model must not have any hidden defects.
A hidden defect is a problem that would:
> make the goods of unacceptable quality, and
> not be noticeable to someone looking at the goods
-----------------------------------------------------

That is two of the many areas outlined in the Australia consumer law that this product have failed, entitling me to a refund, no matter the length of time they specify.

I am aware that this is kind of a moot point as the laws in US are different, but I think you usually have that covered by sueing the business, rather than pointing the company to the consumer laws and telling them they are in breach and we could report them to ACCC, like we tend to do over here.

And saying that it was 'cheap, so what do you expect' is a poor argument.  There are a lot of things that are cheap these days, that doesn't mean that it is ok if it doesn't do what you're told it will do.

To be honest, I would be surprised if solidoodle don't go out of business.  The product simply doesn't work without basically having to rebuild the thing and make adjustments for design flaws and there is a total lack of support.  It would be one thing if they were ready to remedy the issues (or at least refund customers who aren't either skilled enough to fix the printers themselves - given they are advertised as consumer devices - or have no desire to), but this doesn't seem the case.  This is totally unacceptable for a business.

The Press is indeed pretty good at the price point if you don't mind spending a lot of time messing with it.  But false advertising is false advertising.  There are indeed laws to protect consumers in those situations, and a blanket disclaimer doesn't give them a free pass to advertise the moon and the stars then ship you a thumb in the butt.  I think it's really interesting that so many people are saying "suck it up, it's a great deal and you shouldn't buy it if you don't plan to modify it".  Modifying it is great if that's what you want to do.  But a company MUST have the integrity to stand behind their own hype and advertising.  If they advertised this as a low-price printer for the hobbyist/tinkerer, that would have been great.  But that's not what they did.

Amazes me that some people are so willing to hand-wave that away.  They did not advertise "a pretty good cheap hunk of stuff you can spent two weeks and an extra $100 tinkering around with to get a decent printer", they advertised "right out of the box printing in ABS and PLA".  So yeah you can be happy with what you got but they should step up, acknowledge that they grossly failed to deliver on their promises, and make proper amends.

Point proven right here. In the included booklet. PLA. Clearly we all know why the PLA wasn't working. False advertisement. And ON THE WEBSITE WHEN PRE ORDERING, it said PLA as well.

Well then go ahead and sue them, but I absolutely tell you without a doubt you will loose. Simply put they will drop the old "Specifications subject to change without notice" umbrella clause on you and your case will be over in any court. These types of companies have there bases covered and have an out for these exact situations. Ill bet somewhere in that manual it even says this or in your user/warranty agreement.

Was this printer touted to be the next best thing?  Yes.  Did it deliver?  No. I spent $400 on my machine.  For the price paid I absolutely have gotten my money's worth and that is even printing with the terrible starter spool. Just print in ABS and be done with it for now.  I have 9kg's of PLA that I am salty about, but you can be damn sure I am going to try and see what I can do to make this puppy print in PLA.  Worst comes to worst, I will buy an e3d, for 90 it is a steal for the quality received.

If you're going to offer a 30 day RMA policy, then stand by it. Not totally ignore 7 emails 4 phone calls to support for 3 weeks now.

You have ruined your chance for a law suite simply because you are not using the material they specify for the printer. That voids your warranty and voids any chance of a law suite you would have. If they sold PLA on the reels made for this machine and it did not work, then you would have a case. But they do not sell PLA on reels for this machine.

Also just finished submitting a report to the BBB

I suggest all abandoned and frustrated customers do the same.

While I understand your frustration, what did you expect for the price point?  If you had paid attention it was pointed out even before they went on preorder that the Press, without a fan, would not be able to print PLA.  The e3d addition, which is a sticky now, should resolve your issue for less than $100.  You likely did not pay full price and a bit of an investment will go a hell of a long way for print quality as well.   Does it suck?  Yea.  Is suing them going to get you anywhere?  No.

I suggest all abandoned and frustrated customers do the same.