Smart Extruder Plus with Improved Components, Enhanced Sensor System for PLA Filament, Replicator Plus, and Mini Desktop 3D Printers

The only reason I didn't rate the print quality 4/5 is because I've grown accustomed to my Prusa i3 Mk3 quality. The quality of the Makerbot, albeit an older printer, is still good, but not up to the standards of my other printer. However, I give it 5/5 due to for it being an older printer it's great quality. Old extruder died after a VERY long time (I forget the stats, I wish I recorded them!). Popped a new one in and ready to go out of the box. Packaging was also pretty nice.

Well I can finally print again without the fear of it false jamming and really jamming on every print job. But it's going to take awhile before I can forgive Makerbot for the treatment of the early Makerbot customers who bought 3 or more of the extruders during the early years. We stuck by them but never gave up, yet forced to buy yet another extruder at full price until the problem was solved. But writing this to let others know that the fear of buying another new extruder seems to be fixed. And feel free to take the plunge and get the Makerbot printer out of mothballs and start printing again. And it's not just the jams as the new extruder is doing stuff the first extruder couldn't do even when it didn't jam.

These are absolutely awful. I truly cannot say enough awful things about them, but here goes anyway. I am on extruder number 5. Every extruder, from my original smart extruder through these 5 replacement smart extruder +'s have clogged or had total sensor failure. I run my makerbot with the slip detection (or whatever they call it) on so that I don't void the warranty on the extruders. With the setting on they still jam, pull prints off bed and fill themselves with gobs and gobs of PLA. The filament sensor doesn't detect the failure and it literally pumps the play up INTO the rest of the extruder. I have one extruder that is permanently shot because the control board and optoelectronics are covered in solidified PLA. I have another one apart on my desk right now trying to get the PLA off of the extruder nozzle, heater block, and the aluminum plate that goes between the block and the heatsink, this will take hours if my experience is any indication. One of the extruders works half the time after I removed clogged PLA previously. Another one stops mid-print every time and yet somehow keeps 'running' anyway. I've been in touch with Makerbot support so many times that I'm ready to give up. They keep sending replacement extruders and they keep dying, or rather suiciding. I"m at a loss here, Makerbot suckered me into paying the warranty extension after my printer failed outside of basic coverage. As far as I see it, I'm a lot of money into a product that the company must know is faulty. The fact that Makerbot never asks for the old extruders back suggests they know what the problem is and don't need or want to fix it. I work in an industry where broken bits are shipped back for inspection and processes are refined and parts redesigned to prevent further issues. If someone at Makerbot reads these and wants to make this right, you can find me via my last support ticket from 3/31/2018, that extruder self destructed yesterday leading to this review. CASE NUMBER: 00639248

Great prints from this beast - but more importantly, the thing is easy to clean and maintain. Two big points: 1. Don't use crappy filament with it. It'll get gummed up and your prints will fail. Cleaning the gunk isn't hard but it's time-consuming and do you really want to ruin your ... 2. Expensive extruder. Seriously - this thing costs nearly the same as a new 3D printer. Unless you're truly beholden to the Makerbot brand, you might consider putting your $ towards something else.

i purchased the new extruder because no one sell the thermal block to repair the one i have. It did work well right out of the box. I hope it keeps functioning. My other new one only lasted through about 10 printings and kept getting clogged.

I'm one of those customers Makerbot is desperately trying to push down the memory hole: first-time buyer of a Fifth Generation, the overpriced piece of alphaware that they foisted onto an unsuspecting public. So, after jamming far too many jammable Smart Extruders in my 5th (and getting blindsided like everyone else by their "ha, we fixed it, no more replacements" policy which turned out to be so much more lies), I eventually bought a Smart Extruder+ as the last extruder: once it died, so would my 5th Generation and Makerbot would not get another cent. Eight hours of printing later, the unjammable Smart Extruder+ jammed. Ha. It comes apart with four hex-head screws, so that's a fair improvement on the previous Smart Extruder's plastic clamshell. Mechanically, it's laid out better and there are fewer gaps where jams can form--specifically, they removed the gap between the heat sink and the heating element, which would inevitably form plugs as hot PLA got squished into the void between them when they clicked together. They also added a filament guide before the heat sink, meaning that filament /should/ break before then and it can be extracted with some needle-nose pliers. No such luck in my case; the blockage formed in the solid metal channel that is the heat sink/heating element/nozzle assembly. I managed to get the nozzle off, cleaned it up, put the nozzle back on, and then melted the jam out. If they were looking to make it more maintainable, they succeeded, but their "never jam" sales line is still bupkis.

Perfect replacement for the one that wore out. Great price too, free shipping and super fast delivery!

Awesome, it worked perfectly

El productoes el adecuado y función bien

I was sent one that was used, then was replaced by Amazon which was very good of them. The replacement lasted 1/14th of the oem unit it replaced. 94 hours as opposed to 1400. I received 0 care and of course by the time I had any time on the unit I was past warranty. Bad deal.

Not exactly sure how many hours I've put on it yet (maybe like 50) but I haven't had a single filament slip (fingers crossed). Made my $2600 paperweight into a working 3D printer again. I'll update if and when it starts to go downhill.

Über den extra selbst gibt es noch viel zu sagen - der makerbot ist lange genug auf dem Markt und die starken und Schwächen sind bekannt. Bei meiner Bestellung lief es eher nicht gut, ich habe einen alten Extruder bekommen, auf Anfrage kam keine Antwort. Da mein Extruder defekt war, habe ich das dann akzeptiert. Eigentlich geht das gar nicht

Excelente servicio y atención.