Bambu Lab is officially recalling all A1 3D printers (not counting the A1 Mini). The company is “strongly urging” owners to stop using it for safety reasons after it was alerted to “unstable temperature readings,” which it first attributed to a faulty heatbed cable last week, Tom’s Hardware reported. After further investigation, Bambu claims that “less than 0.1% of all A1 printers sold” are affected by the problem, but cannot say with 100% certainty what the cause is and is therefore offering one to every A1 owner full refund to want it.
The company is not recalling any other printers in its product lineup. So if you own an
Here’s a TL;DR of what’s going on:
The company wrote last week that it did not properly design the heatbed cable’s strain relief – the thicker part of the cable designed to prevent kinking at the connection point – making it too easy to damage and potentially short-circuit. But Bambu now believes another, as yet unknown, issue may be at play for some printers, leading to the decision to recall the A1.
Bambu Lab states that any refund will take up to 15 business days to process. However, if you would like to apply the refund to one of its other printers instead, you will receive an $80 voucher to use on that purchase or on a redesigned model A1 printer once they are available “approximately.” May” are available.
Alternatively, when new heated beds are ready around the end of March, you can repair the A1 yourself and receive a $120 voucher to use on anything in Bambu’s online store (assuming self-repair is legal in your country) . Bambu uploaded a video of the replacement process and detailed it in a written tutorial to help you decide whether you want to go the DIY route.
Finally, Bambu asks A1 printer owners to let the company know which option they are selecting on this registration page so that it can order the correct number of parts for preparation. Opting for self-repair actually extends the A1’s warranty by six months. Bambu says its official resellers “should” offer the same terms to those who have purchased through one of them.
Bambu published some pictures on his blog last week. This is what a damaged cable looks like:
A damaged headbed cable. Picture; Bambu Laboratory
And here is a healthy cable:
An undamaged cable. Image: Bambu Lab
Update as of February 5, 2024, 12:24 a.m. ET: Added some more details.