Discontinuations: An open letter to Bambu Lab

Bambu Lab X Series General discussions
1

Dear Bambu Lab:

I finally noticed that the X1C is no longer visible on your website. I do not go there every week, so it took some time for me to notice. I assume this means that the X1C has been discontinued.

If this is truly the case, why have you not given a formal announcement? I have not been disappointed much by Bambu, but this has me wanting to run away from Bambu and towards companies that support their older printers for years to come.

I am not saying that I expected notice before it was discontinued, although that would have been nice for those considering what printer to purchase on the Bambu lineup, but at least contemporaneously with the removal from the website seems the most responsible and customer-respectful thing to do.

I love your products and was planning to sell my X1C and all the spare parts I have to finance a new Bambu printer, but I am wondering what sort of resale value the X1Cs have now. Had I known about the discontinuation, I could have planned better as to when to sell my X1C and when to purchase the new Bambu.

You guys do fantastic engineering, but your communication skills are terrible–I am not certain if this is the result of cultural differences, but seriously, I am certain you know that good communication skills are good business skills. So, if you are going to break up with me, at least have enough respect to tell me you are doing so, rather than (like my first girlfriend) just not show up anymore.

Please take some time to answer a few questions:

  1. Are you going to officially announce the discontinuation of the X1C?
  2. Are you going to keep your word with the support of the printer with bugfix/feature updates for the X1C until May 31, 2027, and security patches until May 31, 2029?
  3. For how long will replacement parts be available for the X1C?
  4. Are replacement parts going to disappear without telling us beforehand?
  5. Will this forum for the X1C disappear without notification?
  6. Will you block the printer from your cloud services at some point without advanced notice?
  7. Will support for the X1C disappear from Bambu Studio without notice?

I thank you for your time.

Kindly,

Devoted User, Now With Doubts

3 Likes
2

Is this a common thing in consumer electronics? Sometimes they do provide discontinuation notices on filament which is nice of them.

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It is not but most consumer electronics are not designed to have customer replaceable parts, many are not even designed to be able to be disassembled. We really need some clarity from Bambu especially the availability of spare parts. Luckily the X1C uses more standard parts than any other Bambu printer so as long as the electronics do not fail they could be used for a long time to come.

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There is an unreplaceable pulley in the back, they were rumored to sell a replacement gantry to fix it but I’ve never seen one.

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you can get it from support.

6

The steps to replace it are a little involved but there have been people that have done it.

7

I’m stunned.

I have been waiting for some money to come in for about 18 months now with an eye to buying an X1C. I thought it would be cheaper now the newer models are out.

I guess they’re going to end up with less of my money as I have no intention of getting either of the 2 newer models.

8

Purchase a P1S. In many ways it’s a better value than the X1C.

4 Likes
9

I seems to me that bambu is shifting to another standard like H2D en P2S as it comes to spares. On the other hand I expect them to run to spares for older printers for quite some time. Some clearity form their side would be nice. Ofcourse they did not announce this on forehand; nobody would buy a printer that will be discountinued.

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I considered that, but I wanted the more robust setup that meant I could print stronger materials. Can I upgrade the p1s to do that?

1 Like
11

The P1S with an addition of hardened nozzle and extruder gear (for carbon and glass filled filament) can print all but the highest end engineering materials which require a heated chamber. With the heat from the bed the chamber really only sits about 5-10c lower than H series with an actively heated chamber.

1 Like