R O B O X update

You know, I am not the world's foremost authority. That is the purview of Professor Irwin Corey.
http://www.irwincorey.org/

However, when it comes to 3D printers I figure I know as little as anyone else.

About a year ago I bought a R OBOX as a salesman's demo from an authorized distributor. Paid a grand for a $1400 machine. At first it was a dream. No setup, worked right out of the box, excellent quality, self-levelling, etc. etc. When I noticed some problems and contacted the distributor I bought it from, they amazingly and promptly refunded my $1000 and told me to just keep the printer. Wow.

Since then, whenever I had problems that needed a new print head etc, they told me I woul dhave to pay for them since they did not consider that I had a warranty because of the refund, despite my getting assurances from the regional Robox rep that I would. But, I figured, fair enough, I would use the money to fix up the printer and call it a good deal.

I have replaced the extruder  to the new Flex style to allow it to feed flex filaments. It has never fed a flex filament, it runs into my closet and hides if I bring a roll of NinjaFlex in the room.

Then I had printhead problems. The RO BOX uses proprietary - yikes - nozzles with a needle valve inside that shuts off the flow, rather than reversing the filament. It also uses a .4mm and a .8mm nozzle, one for Fill one for Fine, to speed up the print. It's a great idea when it works however, they have an unfortunate habit of literally popping their seals if the hot filament cools too fast instead of an orderly automatic cool down, like in the event of a power failure whilst you are away. So, my printhead popped and I bought a new print head.

Then I began having more problems, had the machine apart a few times under the guidance of Support, which, to be fair has been very responsive if not effective. Finally, I agreed on a price to send the unit back to the mother ship for a complete and thorough looking after. Several hundred dollars and a few weeks later, it returns.

Little or none of the reliability problems appeared to have been fixed. I exchanged another few dozen emails with support to little avail.

Now, when I asked for a replacement print head (the fourth one) they have enlightened me to a little phrase on Page 16 of the user manual about the warranty statement:

"Replacement parts independently carry a 90-day warranty from date of shipment from CEL or designated representative location.
Consumable parts are not covered by this Limited Warranty (these include the printing head, PEI bed sheet, filament,
and extruder)."

So, the print head with those proprietary nozzles and the extruder, whether or not is is represented to be for flexible filaments, are considered "consumables" and not covered by any kind of warranty. They will sell me ANOTHER print head but I get to pay for it and, it too, will not be warrantied. Brand new factory fresh parts, no warranty.

I guess the printer cabinet, the power cord and some PC boards ARE covered by warranty but those never break. The parts that make it a 3D printer (extruder, heater, Bowden, print head, nozzles) are not warranted.

The support tech also just threatened to tell me to go "jump in the lake" and blamed my CAD models for the strewn and blobbed prints you see attached.

Knowing what I know now, I must retract my recommendation for Rob ox products.