Bambu Lab is formally recalling all A1 3D printers (not counting the A1 Mini). The corporate “strongly” urges house owners to cease utilizing it for security causes after it was alerted to “unstable temperature readings” that it first traced to a defective heatbed cable final week, as reported by Tom’s {Hardware}. After additional investigation, Bambu says “lower than 0.1% of all of the A1 printers offered” are affected by the issue, however it may’t say with 100% certainty what the trigger is, so it’s providing a full refund to any A1 proprietor who desires it.
The corporate isn’t recalling some other printers in its lineup, so in case you personal an X1 sequence, P1 sequence, or the A1 Mini that our personal Sean Hollister referred to as “virtually the straightforward button” of printers.
Right here’s a TL;DR of what’s happening:
The corporate wrote final week that it hadn’t correctly designed the heatbed cable’s pressure aid — the fatter a part of the cable meant to stop kinking the place it connects — making it too straightforward to wreck and probably brief circuit. However Bambu now believes one other, but unknown challenge might be at play for some printers, main it to its resolution to recall the A1.
Bambu Lab says that it’s going to take as much as 15 enterprise days to course of every refund, however if you wish to apply the refund to one in every of its different printers as an alternative, it will provide you with an $80 voucher to make use of in direction of that buy — or in direction of a redesigned A1 printer once they’re out there “round Might.”
Alternatively, you may select to restore the A1 your self when new heatbeds are prepared across the finish of March and obtain a $120 voucher to make use of for something in Bambu’s on-line retailer (supplied self-repair is authorized in your nation). Bambu uploaded a video of the alternative course of and detailed it in a written tutorial that will help you determine in case you’re snug going the DIY route.
Lastly, Bambu asks that A1 printer house owners let the corporate know which choice they choose on this registration web page so it may order the appropriate variety of components to organize. Choosing the self-repair course of will really prolong the A1’s guarantee by six months. Bambu says its official resellers “ought to” supply the identical phrases to those that bought by way of one in every of them.
In its weblog final week, Bambu included some photos. Right here’s what it says a broken cable will seem like:
And right here’s a wholesome cable:
Replace February fifth, 2024, 12:24AM ET: Added some extra element.