Printer Lifespan

Bambu Lab H2 Series
1

Alright, this may be controversial.

I would like to know peoples opinions on the expected life of their h2 printers in hours. Because models and use case vary i will break it into three categories:

  1. Light use
    -no chamber heating
    -primarily pla and petg
    -some multi color
    -no abrasives

  2. Medium use
    -chamber heating primarily 60c or less, occasionally 65c
    -mainly filament use of abs or other materials causing the need for chamber heating
    -common multi color usage
    -some abrasive usage

  3. Hard use:
    -you run it almost exclusively with abrasives
    -chamber almost always running 60c or higher

Lifespan is the usable life of the printer before such breakdowns occur that it doesn’t make sense to repair the machine.

2

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9 Likes
3

I can’t see why it wouldn’t go for many years with any of those. You mention beyond repair and almost all parts seem to be available at reasonable prices from Bambu.

4

The lifespan of the hotend cooling fan on my H2D, Category 3, was less than five months before it surrendered and needed replacing. Up until then, not too many issues—but now I can hear more fans in the printer screaming for mercy. I get the feeling mine is slowly turning into a fan graveyard.

5

All machines have a useable lifespan. For example: I have seen chatter about p1s units having strange print issues crop up around 8,000 hours. For a hard to diagnose concern on a printer with that many hours it would be end of life, as trying to fix it with labor could cost as much as the unit itself.

6

You mention to usable lifespan and it not being worth repairing. I think possibly by the time they’re breaking beyond repair it’ll be a few years so they’ll be worth say half what they are now new, second hand units would therefore be a few hundred off eBay as the tech moves on. I guess at that point changing the head for a new one may not really be worth it but then you could probably buy a second hand for parts machine and Frankenstein them to make one working one.

The H2D hasn’t been around long enough for us to really know what fails long-term but I guess we’ll be finding out in a year or three, hopefully nothing serious!

7

I feel the H2D should be expected to surpass 25,000 hours without any major replacement parts. From a mechanical perspective at least.

3 Likes
8

I think the real question is how long BB will guarantee replacements… apart from that I believe the only thing that would make throw it away is a bent frame (dropping it)

10

Not the same, but I just found out that my embroidery machine should begin to fail after a certain number of stitches. Taking into account that even basic designs take a few thousand stitches, I am now wondering if my A1 or my Brother embroidery fail first.