Serious Question..... Are MP Selects really bad?

i know this is probably not the place to ask this given its a collection of people who actually like their printers but im hoping the collective experience is enough for a serious answer.

Are these printers really bad? Do they commonly have a high rate of failure? I ask because i have bought not one but FOUR of these printers from amazon, 2 of them have been dead on arrival (both would not heat up the hotend), one the extruder would not move and the last (my first) ran for two days and then would not heat up with a sensor failed message. I feel i'm restricted to this printer because its the only reasonably priced one that comes ready built. I cant build a kit myself (even part built) because of a disability and i don't earn much so im not able to buy a more expensive one.

Should i just stop trying to run one of these printers?

in MPSelectMiniOwnersby RIKI_MINAJ

67%

5.7y

estragon0

5.7y

Are you buying them from third parties on Amazon? I feel like a lot of "like new" electronics fell off the back of a truck in China and have gone through too many apathetic hands to make them worth it.

thekakester

5.7y

I have 15 MP Selects. Definitely the best bang for your buck, but not the “best” printer out there. I have a refurbish process that fixes pretty much all QA issues that may have arisen during assembly

Edit: proof https://imgur.com/a/idfVwE2

TRiXWoN

5.7y

I think they were best bang for the buck but not anymore. Creality Ender 3 is way better and cheaper. They both have drawbacks and need some printed fixes but Monoprice has fallen behind.

thekakester

5.7y

That’s very true. I like my ender 3 better than my MP selects

Hellmark

5.4y

Depends on what you go for. Their open box ones are dirt cheap. My MSMv2 was $100 from Monoprice. Ender 3 aint that cheap.

TRiXWoN

5.4y

No but it prints twice as big and has much easier modding.

Hellmark

5.4y

but you have to assemble it as well, and for some, that is a worry point, making sure they get it assembled and calibrated.

IAMA_Plumber-AMA

V1 (modified)

5.7y

Aay, MP Maker Select Plus owner here... What should I be lookin' out for with mine? Any real issues with 'em?

thekakester

5.7y

Here’s the most common issues I found. Not all are severe, but my prints all came out much nicer after fixing these:

1) y-axis belt grinding [4/15 printers had this]. Theres a wheel on the inside of the box for the y axis belt. If it’s not straight, it grinds away at the belt. If this is the case, you’ll notice black powder inside your box if you take the bottom off. To fix this, you need to remove the belt, then straighten the wheel, then put the belt back on.

Pics: https://imgur.com/a/XHEbywZ

2) incorrect dimensions [all printers]. I noticed that if I printed a 150x150 line, it came out to be slightly too large (152x152). You can fix this by modifying the “steps per mm” setting on the printer. I don’t remember what my settings are off the top of my head, but I’m about to run to my lab, so I can tell you soon. If you’re interested in doing this test yourself, I can upload the stl I printed (150x150 L shape). After printing this, you just adjust your steps per mm to be the correct percentage difference. For example, 150/152=98.6%. Adjusting my steps per mm to 98.6% of the original value fixed my problem

3) temperature fluctuations [all printers]. This problem was actually pretty severe. I was finding that my printers were all fluctuating +/- 7°C during prints, which would sometimes cause jams or slipping on long prints. There’s a factory setting called PID which calculates a math equation for maintaining a stable temperature. For my printers, the values of 20,1,93 work best, but it can vary from printer to printer. Use a program called repetier host to run an auto calibration for the temperature PID settings.

Pics: https://imgur.com/a/X85NrnE

4) loose connections [2/15 printers]. This could have been bad if I didn’t catch it. Some of the internal power cables were loose and falling out inside the printer. I have no idea what badness awaited me, but I’m glad I caught this early. Check your connectors!!

Pics: https://imgur.com/a/lmCbib3

IAMA_Plumber-AMA

V1 (modified)

5.7y

I very much appreciate this list of things to look out for with this printer. Info seems sparse on it (besides being a prusa clone).

I'mma give you a shiny for that.

thekakester

5.7y

Oh wow! Thank you! I have a refurb process that I do to all my printers on a regular basis to keep them running like new, and I’ve been on the fence about writing instructions to go along with the step-by-step pictures I took. I think this was the little push I needed to make that post. I hope you and many others find it useful.

derydoca

5.7y

I picked up one from the warehouse while they had a parking lot sale as I lived close. Everything in the warehouse sale is sold "as is". When I tried setting mine up, only the z axis would move via the motors. I contacted their support via an online chat and they were adament that the printer must have been working fine because it was marked as "tested ok" and they refused to help any further. I suspected the problem was just the power supply as it was making strange noises and I figured their testing didn't include the power supply as they most likely had one already set up and plugged in the printer. I later walked into the warehouse store where I was able to get an employee to allow me to test it with a different power supply. The printer started working just fine and the employee let me know that the power supply I was given was an older model they no longer used because of a high defect ratio. He gave me the model number of the power supply which I later bought and haven't had any issues. It sounds like one of your printers may have had this problem. Speaking from personal experience I love the printer but just wish it has a larger print bed and their customer service is a mixed bag. If you don't live close to the warehouse then you likely are getting a bad experience which unfortunately would be the large majority of their customer base.

TL;DR - Printer good, support probably horrible

vdub6127

5.7y

I bought an open box one directly from Monoprice and I've been using it for 8 months with no issues whatsoever.

kodiak931156

5.7y

Look at an assembly video for a JGaurora a3 or a5 its literally just a few screws and its a fairly inexpensive unit. You could have a friend to it in 5 mins if needed

I have noth a select mini and a A5. Both are good machines but in my opinion your rolling a dice on the mini. If there are no manufacturing problems it'll be great but there seems to be a high failure rate straight out of the factory

ladive

5.7y

I've had mine for 2 months and have been printing almost daily since. Just this weekend though, the bed and extruder both suddenly stopped heating, still troubleshooting, no clue why(any advice welcome btw!)

To be fair I modded it, but also to be fair I HAD to mod it...

DoYouEverStopTalking

5.7y

If you can't rewire the bed, then definitely don't buy one. It's a severe design fault that's guaranteed to fail, possibly dangerously. Any 3D printer at this price point is going to require extensive tinkering, the MP Mini is no exception. Right now, the only real plug n' play options start at around double the price.

MrMario2011

5.7y

My first one might as well have been DoA, it moved and worked for 5 minutes then stopped.

remedypc

5.7y

After owning this printer for a year I would say its handy to know how to build your own 3d printer. My first was a Printrbot jr, so I spent more time tinkering with that one than actually printing. I'd say with the MSMv2 I spend 95% printing and 5% tinkering. And I wouldn't expect any 3d printer out there to be 100% turnkey unless you are spending between $500-1K.

[deleted]

5.7y

I have one and I haven't had any issues.

Kithin7

5.7y

Same! I did the hot bed rewire (drill-less) within a week or 2 of when I bought it and it's been running like a champ. I have had a weird extruder jam once, but it was very easy to fix and clean.

WordBoxLLC

5.7y

At the end of the day there are very good reasons for there still being printers that cost multiples that of a Monoprice/etc. If you can accept those reasons, the printer is great. If not, you best save up.

chevyfried

5.7y

They are excellent but like most printers, out of the box they are mediocre. If you are handy with a soldering iron and upgrade the cooling and hotend, it's a solid printer.

[deleted]

5.7y

I have been super impressed with it. Granted, I did have to rewrire the heating bed. I had a you build it type prior and it SUCKED! this one has great resolution IMO.

[deleted]

5.7y

Id never buy one again... Z banding is something you can't get rid of without changing the stepper motor. I except more from a completely built machine.

Gilmore27

5.7y

The hot end stoped working after 4 months on mine. It turned out to be the controller board. I contacted monoprice support (email). They had me ship it back to them with an RMA. The one they replaced it with was a newer version. After about 7 months, I had to reroute/resoldier the heat bed wires. Other than that it’s been good. For the price, im still happy with it.

GarbledReverie

5.7y

They are good for the price. Very very good.... for the price. Nobody claims they are top of the line in quality, though.

With most 3D printers out now you either need a lot of expertise to make them work, or you need to spend a lot of money to get something that works right away.

For me, the MP Select Mini is the sweetspot between. It's pretty easy to get started, there's a large community to turn to for advice if I face problems, and if I can't get it to work or find 3D printing isn't for me.... I'm only out about $200.

But yeah, the first one I got had it's motherboard fry right before the warranty ran out.

BatteredClam

5.7y

I had to RMA my first Mini Pro but so far my replacement is much much better. Unfortunately none of the Pro specific parts are available separately.

As much as I like my mini if I had to do it over again I would have went with something else in the $200-300 range.

User deleted comment

5.7y

RIKI_MINAJ

5.7y

I wish. Sadly this has been a chain of refunds, as opposed to just buying four printers