- Don’t sell crap in a box
- Be aware of your competition
- Documentation
- Quality Assurance
- Treat support questions seriously
- Test your designs
- Don’t put demanding requirements (esp time) on the review
- Do not attempt to stop a bad review
- Don’t offer to pay off a reviewer
- Don’t invite reviewers to review your printers
Making the glitch effects at the start of this video was… educational. It turned the first part of this video into a bombardment for the senses, but I’m really happy I learned the skills and stepped up my editing game. What? You didn’t realize that first minute was entirely staged? Well, it wasn’t all staged. When you see my on my phone trying to explain the problem, those are the videos I recorded for Anet support. But, yes, the static wasn’t real and was all editing magic.
I generally try to avoid doing a negative review. But my experience with this printer was so bad that about the only thing it could be was a cautionary tale for others. Fortunately, while I was still struggling with this machine and their support, everything I could have said specific about the machine had already been said by Bryan Vines and Tom Sanlander. So instead of running Anets head up on a pike, I decided to step back and make a list of all the ways they failed, remove the specific branding from the printer for the video, and try to make something positive out of this.
Of course, I will be a little more direct here. What follows is the review I would have given them, had I been inclined to roast Anet on Video:
Anet ET4 Pro review
The Anet ET4 is by far the worst 3D printer that I have had the misfortune to have to use in the recent past.
It was so bad, that after wasting 2 weeks on this machine I had zero prints to show for it. (That failed print I picked up off the build plate at the start of the video? That was staged. I didn’t even get that far with this printer.) For me, the Z-Axis motor was broken right out of the box, and that should have never left their factory, let alone in a review unit. And they were so slow and inept at answering my support questions, way more than could be explained away with communicating with someone overseas, that it made me think of pulling teeth, but at 32 thousand miles with a pair of pliers that, out of curtesy, you need to wait 24 hours before you find out if you got purchase with that last attempt.
This printer was supposed to be Anet’s second chance. After a string of 3d printers bust into flames a few years back, people realized it was pretty much only one type of printer that this was happening with, and Anet quickly became the scapegoat to save the hobby. Was that fair? Yes and no. The fix that would prevent these machines from burning up was known and not complicated, and this was a kit printer, but that said, the default configuration for this machine, if you just followed the directions and never sought out any community interactions, was to eventually combust.
Fast forward to the ET4 Pro, and Anet has fixed that pesky little problem with bursting into flames… uh… mostly. But the fix was inelegant. In fact, “inelegant” would be the way I would describe just about everything Anet did with the ET4 Pro. Right out of the box, I noticed that the assembly needed tools that weren’t in the box. You really need a pair of pliers to put the belt on and to get the connectors in their place, and the hex wrenches to open the case weren’t among those they shipped with them. They added an auto bed leveling sensor, but it was so poorly configured that they were telling me before I received the machine not to use it. The micro SD cards they put in the boxes were known to fail. The Y-Axis wire path frequently got caught on the Y-Axis limit switch because of how it was routed. And, yes, I got one with a bad stepper motor on the Z-Axis. And when I tried to get support from them to fix this, well, I already mentioned what that was like. 2 weeks of recording videos to help explain the problem and they refused to accept that there was anything wrong. Oh, and this was after my having to cut a sticker that said “Warranty void if removed” to answer their support questions. That sticker should never be on a 3D printer of a company that doesn’t have a support infrastructure to back it up.
I can’t say everything they did was a fail, though. The upgraded UI was good. The frame is generally competent and the wire paths, excepting that Y-Axis, was competent. If I replace the Z-Axis steeper motor and change their bed leveling sensor to a Z-Axis limit switch, this might actually be a competent printer. But competent isn’t excellent, and there is nothing excellent about this printer. Just a competent 3d printer marred by several points of inelegance.
Now, like I said in the video, Anet should get points for at least sending their printers out for review. There are companies that don’t even do that. I think they deserve as many chances as their willing to put themselves out there. This machine was a fail. But, fix a few things, improve your QA, and either up your support structure or remove the support sticker, rebrand it the ET5, or the ET4b, or something and try again, and there might be something salvageable here. I’m willing to give Anet another chance after this, if they’re willing to keep working with reviewers. Because I love Creality, and I love Flashforge, but I am not beholden to anyone, so drumming up a little competition is a good thing, and if Anet can be built up and guided to be on par with the big boys, that’s a win for everyone.
Don’t give up, Anet. You can do this.
