I have about 3.4k hours on the P1S since December 2023, and have not had any major issues so far. Noticed the belts today, they are a bit frayed (visually). I think most of this happened after I adjusted the tensioners early on (that is, most of the fraying is not a direct result of the belts riding on the edges of the pulleys).
The printer is working perfectly now, but should I start planning to replace the belts, possibly even preemptively? Would they fail catastrophically?
Has anyone actually had them wear out from normal use (ie, not from incorrect belt tension), and if so, at what time? I do mostly PLA, so I probably don’t cook the belts in the chamber as much as some might.
Something else I just realized may prolong the life of the belts: I actually dial back the acceleration from 10k to 6k or less most of the time. I suppose it has some effect on belt wear as well, though the reason I do it is because of the crashing noises at high accelerations. Nothing wrong, just the sound.
If you can afford the downtime and assume BL will always have stock, you can wait, otherwise, you should have preemptive spares for things that wear often and then build out spares for those things that take longer.
You sound like you do the former.
3.4k hours is a decent number, you would expect some of the longer term maintenance to start kicking in around now.
I bought a set of spare belts for my A1 at the get go, along with a bunch of other spare parts for ones that are always in motion and seem unique to the printer. My theory being it was better to have them when I needed them months or years from now while they are available. And, I hope I will never need to use them.
