EZ3D Phoenix 3D Printer Review

[Gryffin]

On January 31st, I paid $100 deposit for a Phoenix 3D printer from EZ3D, based in Colorado. I was cautioned that there was a wait time of 8-10 weeks. I appreciated, however, that instead of demanding full payment at ordering – as many “Kickstarted” 3D printer companies do – they only required a deposit, with the balance due when they ship. Their website also mentioned a one-year warranty on parts, which spoke well for their company and how they intended to do business. I was also intrigued by the software, which was advertised as having the ability to “rewind” failed prints to continue from where it left off. All of these factors left me feeling pretty confident with my purchase, especially given the very reasonable price, compared to other printers out there.

The printer didn’t actually ship until May 14th and it arrived May 19th, approximately 15 weeks after it was ordered. For a new company with a high demand and the normal production start-up issues, this wasn’t that bad. Unfortunately, the problems began as soon as I opened the box. The printer came assembled, but it shipped with no printed directions, no software, and no guidance for how to get started. There was no link to the software on the website, nor was there any kind of support site or forums. After much searching, I managed to find a link to the software buried in a blog post about a software update. There were also no instructions on how to set up the spool holder (I figured it out by finding one of the few videos that showed the top of the printer), or how to get started setting everything up. I submitted a “comment ticket” through the website – the only place I could find to contact the company – asking for guidance. I never got a specific response, but as I had figured out most of my issues on my own, I wasn’t too concerned. I should have been, however, as this was a harbinger of much more serious problems to come.

In trying to level the hot end by following a video posted in their blog, I eventually deduced that there was no way that the hot end could ever be brought within about 3mm of the print surface – the belts, I discovered, were too short. I submitted another ticket, and after several days received a response asking for more photos. Several days after that, EZ3D confirmed that the belts I had been sent were cut too short. They would send replacements in the mail. The replacements arrived with no instructions. If you’ve ever seen this printer, you know that the belts are wound in a very intricate way through many pulleys, gears, and bearings. I managed to reverse engineer how to install the belts by taking many photos as I carefully partially disassembled my pre-assembled printer (NB: There is now a video showing how to do this).

Finally ready to try out the printer, I quickly discovered the software – one of the main incentives for buying this particular printer – is simply not ready for prime time. It is extremely buggy, at best a beta release. The program would not exit cleanly if you shut it down, throwing an unhandled exception that would refuse to let the program quit. You were forced to kill the process with Windows Task Manager. They later updated the software to “fix” this problem, however, the fix was to simply stop handling the exception and let the program quit. Unfortunately, the program did not remove itself from running, so still had to be killed in Task Manager or you would be unable to restart the program. This problem persisted until they released a new client-server version, which still has the server part running all the time. The downside of this arrangement is that the printer often loses connection to the computer, causing the print to simply stop in the middle. The “recover a failed print” option does not work if you manually stop the printer and try to restart (which was necessary because of the frozen client), so was never a useful feature – even though this is the only feature that sets this printer apart from others.

While on the subject of the software, not only is it buggy, but it takes away all ability of the operator to set custom slic3r parameters. There are a wealth of choices in a drop-down box, but as we all know, we often need to “tune” the print to the particular object, perhaps with a slower first layer, a change in temperature, etc. There is no way to do this with the EZ3D software. Unfortunately, because of the customizations EZ3D has made to the Marlin firmware, the printer will not work with other software such as MatterControl, Repetier-Host, etc. The RAMBo board can be flashed, of course, but then it will no longer work with the EZ3D software – and more importantly, EZ3D will refuse to provide support for the printer (not that they provide much support in any event, but more on that later).

I attempted to print in PLA, but never got anything to work at all. I’m not saying I couldn’t get a “good” print, I’m saying I could not get any print at all. Occasionally I could get some filament to extrude, but then the cold end would clog immediately. I submitted a support ticket and (after many days – typical response time is on the order of 5-15 days) was told that “If you have never printed on a 3D printer before I do NOT recommend starting out with PLA. PLA can be very stubborn to print”. This is, of course, simply untrue, as PLA is generally much easier to print with than ABS, however, the extruder and hot end design of the Phoenix is fundamentally flawed in that it can’t adequately keep the temperature of the cold end steady enough for the filament to flow smoothly, nor does it have a PTFE (Teflon) tube in the cold end to reduce friction. But instead of owning up to this issue, EZ3D simply washes their hands of it and says to avoid printing in PLA.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t handle ABS much better. Not only does the hot end still jam repeatedly (requiring disassembly and a two-day bath in acetone to clear), my heat bed would not heat to more than 92 degrees C, no matter how long I waited. I (again) submitted a support ticket, and after waiting the requisite week or so, was told that “There are many factors that can cause a heat bed to not reach 100C. However, as long as it reaches 80C, your [sic] golden for ABS filament.” Ticket closed, no assistance given. Now, his statement is patently untrue. While I eventually had more luck getting ABS to extrude than PLA (which isn’t saying much, since the PLA didn’t work even once), the ABS still would not stick to the bed. Even with ABS slurry, the edges of even small prints would curl up. This is a sure sign that the heat bed isn’t hot enough, as obviously 90 degrees isn’t.

On June 10 – still without a single print, successful or not – I noticed that the z axis belts were slipping off of the counterweight holders. The usual multi-day back and forth with support ensued, and EZ3D finally acknowledged that they had some “bad pours” with their resin parts that was causing them to fail. They said they would send me a new set of counterweight holders to correct the problem. After waiting a week and a half, nothing arrived. I submitted another ticket asking about the status. They claimed it must have gotten lost in the mail, so sent a new set. This finally arrived 18 days after I requested the parts, putting me to the end of June and still unable to use the printer. Unfortunately, the counterweight brackets I was sent also were apparently the victim of a “bad pour”, as they were about 1/8” too thin. They also sent the wrong size screws, which damaged one of the counterweight holders. I requested those parts the same day (June 28th), but as of this writing (August 11th) the parts still have not arrived.

Fortunately, as a maker, I’m never afraid to try to kludge together a solution. With some epoxy putty and a good deal of crafting, I was able to fabricate a counterweight holder that seemed to work, at least as a temporary fix. Someone who bought this printer as a turnkey solution and was unwilling or unable to reverse engineer how it works would have been out of luck, however. Sadly, this was not the only part with a “bad pour”. On July 6th, one of the filament spool holders broke – it simply cracked in half under the weight of an admittedly heavy spool of ABS filament. I requested a replacement, but again, it still has not arrived as of this date.

At this point, it was becoming obvious that the parts in the Phoenix 3D printer are substandard and the entire design has some very serious flaws. More critically, however, it was becoming equally obvious that EZ3D’s support was ill-equipped to handle the no doubt numerous complaints they were facing. They did finally set up a support site with forums, so users were able to begin swapping ideas, but it also became clear that many people were having many problems and were in general being met with silence from EZ3D. I posted a message to the company directly saying that while in general makers are a very forgiving bunch, we absolutely require communication and status reports. There was no response to my message. I learned later they had also shut down their Facebook page due to the overwhelming number of negative comments. One Kickstarter update from EZ3D implied that they were filling commercial (post-Kickstarter) orders first in order to generate the cash flow needed to hire people to make more printers. After the understandably loud complaints from Kickstarter backers, they later clarified to say that they were shipping one Kickstarter printer for each commercial printer sold. As of this writing, however, a number of buyers still have not received their machines and have gotten no response or updates from EZ3D.



[Continued next post]

[Gryffin]

[continued]


As I realized more and more than the design was flawed, I decided to ask for a refund. I realized that I probably should have gone with a standard RepRap machine (the Phoenix is essentially a modification of a RepRap) with a proven design and reliable support. I was told that no returns were possible after 14 days after the printer arrives. However, if you look to their return policy (which is not directly linked anywhere on the website, but can be found at https://www.phoenix3dprinter.com/return-policy.html), it says that they will not accept a return after 14 days, but they will also not accept a return until “all support options have been exhausted”. As can be seen, even the most simple of support requests takes far more than 14 days, so the conditions of the return policy are mutually exclusive. Given the cash flow problems EZ3D is having, I do wonder if that’s intentional – a way to say you have a return policy without actually having to accept returns. I explained this contradiction to EZ3D, but never got a reply.

Stuck with the printer, I worked even more with other users to try to get the printer working. By manually feeding ABS filament (for hours!), I was finally able to get a very small part to print, a Prusa i3 part, as I was already becoming convinced the Phoenix’s resin construction wasn’t durable enough to last. To date, this is the only object ever to complete with my Phoenix. It’s not pretty, but it’s a part. I tried printing the Cudding Owls from Thingiverse, but never got a successful print. Several times the printer simply lost connection, but on my final attempt, I noticed that the hot end would suddenly and randomly jump in the X axis by as much as 10mm, ruining the print. I posted a support ticket describing the problem on July 26th about the problem, but to date EZ3D has never responded.

At this point, it was becoming obvious that EZ3D as a company is not going to be around much longer. I very much wanted to get the missing parts, however, so on August 6th, I submitted yet another ticket asking for an update on the status of the parts. On August 8th I actually received a reply saying that “USPS is notorious for losing packages” and telling me to give it another week. The ticket was then closed. Now, I am an avid eBay buyer and seller, and I use USPS almost exclusively. I have never – not even once – had USPS lose a package in 15 years of eBaying. And aside from that, if EZ3D would simply send the package Priority Mail, then they would have a tracking number and could find out what was happening. But three times I’ve been told that parts were sent “that day” and they were “lost” in the mail. I find that extremely unlikely. I have gotten parts from them (including two new nozzles that I didn’t actually ask for – apparently the first batch of printers made had faulty nozzles as well), so I know they have the correct address. No other explanation has been given, however.

The last issue I had with the printer was that on August 8th, I noticed that the fan on the power supply had stopped working. I did get a response fairly quickly this time, saying that “The fan is an unnecessary add-on that has been problematic for us. If the fan stops working, the power supply will get hot, but that's it.“ Ticket closed. Now, I have had PC power supplies overheat and fail before. The Phoenix power supply has no off switch. According to EZ3D, the printer is intended to be left on all the time. Eventually – though maybe not within the one-year warranty period – the power supply will fail and I’ll be stuck.
There are other design flaws with the printer:

- There is no way to level the print bed. The only way to approximately level it is to put shims (I used cardboard) under the feet of the printer.
- The resin is not consistently poured, and some structural and load bearing parts have failed and more are likely to fail as time goes on (and the warranty period has ended).
- The z-axis belts regularly get out of alignment due to the software causing the x carriage to slam into the top and bottom of the printer.
- Because of the way the two z belts are calibrated to each other, the z endstop has to be reset essentially every print.
- The print bed is 2” longer than the heat bed. I believe this is the real reason why the print bed doesn’t get above 90C – the heat bed is simply too small for the print bed. It is also uninsulated, nor is there any way to add insulation.
- The spool holder is mounted on top of the printer. The first time you have a tangle in the filament, the massive spool will come crashing down onto your extruder and print bed.
- The overreliance on belts means that as the belts age and stretch, calibration will become increasingly more difficult. There is currently no way to tighten loose belts other than disassembling the printer and physically cutting the belt.
- The software is so unreliable as to be essentially unusable and without flashing the firmware, there is no way to use any other software.
- EZ3D has thus far refused to release current STL’s for the printer’s many parts, so creating backup parts (for when the printer is out of warranty) is impossible. Eventually the printer will simply be an unusable paperweight.
- The extruder design is fundamentally flawed and prone to jamming.

These flaws are serious, but more serious are the lack of support and willingness to correct the issues in a timely manner. I realize that the lack of responsiveness may simply be due to being overwhelmed with users having problems – but that in itself should be enough to warn you away from this printer.

In short, avoid the EZ3D Phoenix 3D printer, and realistically, avoid the company altogether. There are too many reliable, trusted, and proven designs out there for not a lot more money. If you ordered a printer and haven’t received it, cancel your order. If, like me, you have already received your printer, remove the RAMBo board, the motors, the heat bed, a thermistor, and the associated wiring and purchase the Prusa i3v upgrade kit from MakerFarm. This kit, along with a new extruder (you will also need two GT2 gears), J head hot end (and associated mount), and optionally an LCD screen and RAMBo adapter, will give you a fully-functional Prusa i3v RepRap printer. Colin of MakerFarm is a joy to work with, and his videos and advice are clear and easy to follow. Don’t be afraid of putting together a kit – it’s not hard at all, and Colin’s videos make you feel as though he is building one right beside you and showing you every single step of the way. I had the new printer assembled in a weekend, calibrated in an afternoon, and have never had a failed print yet. It really is that easy. Contrast that to three months of work with the Phoenix and never yet getting a decent print (and only one completed print at all).

In the end, I should have spent and extra $75 and got the MakerFarm kit to begin with. I hope that you will learn from my mistake and avoid EZ3D and their Phoenix 3D printer. It’s a shame because I really wanted this printer to work, but I’m now extremely happy with my Prusa i3v and printing a ton of objects for myself, my family, and my friends.


Good luck with your 3D printing endeavors, and please don’t hesitate to ask any questions.

[Roxy]

There seems to be a pattern developing: http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.php?3192-I-need-HELP

[robertwallace]

I had one on order early (deposit in March - I was not a kickstart backer) - it sounded like the perfect printer for me.

In early June, they requested the balance of my payment plus what seemed to be an unusually large amount for shipping - saying my printer was ready to ship. I paid it and waited. After a week with no ship notice, I filled out a support ticket (apparently the only way to communicate with them) asking for an update. I received bot-mail referring me to their blog (seldom updated) for general update info and that they were spending time creating an automated status update system which would be ready in 1 or 2 days. After several weeks with no status update tool and no human reply, I cancelled my order and requested a refund. I did receive a prompt refund and I'm grateful for the speedy response on that. I still check up on the company from time to time to see if they're still in business.

After reading your review and the reviews of several others, I'm very pleased that I cancelled my order. But even if the printer were perfect, I would still avoid a company that cannot communicate with its customers except through trouble tickets. And they can't seem to keep up with those, either.

Thanks for your thorough review. Sorry for your trouble, but perhaps your story will help others make a better-informed decision on whether to purchase this printer.

Robert