6 ms·

Anker is no longer selling 3D Printers

50 points by geerlingguy 1y ago

Ginger-Pickles 1y ago
https://archive.ph/J1ti7 https://archive.ph/J1ti7
- parasense 1y ago
  Thank you!
syntaxing 1y ago
They unfortunately released at an unfortunate time. Bambulab became widely successful at the same time and just ate up the market. Anker printers would have been a hot sell otherwise.
donatj 1y ago
TIL Anker was selling 3D printers...
- sigzero 1y ago
  Yeah, I had no idea...and maybe that was the problem too.
- paxys 1y ago
  It was selling white labeled junk, same as Monoprice and lots of other brands who want to be in the space without putting in any actual effort.
OutOfHere 1y ago
Anker should focus on its core business which is batteries. Recently they had multiple safety recalls for batteries. If they can't get batteries right anymore, which is their core business, they can't conceivably get anything else right.
- brk 1y ago
  I think their gambit has more been "power", being battery packs, chargers, cables, etc. They are technically not a battery tech company, they assemble 3rd party batteries into consumer products.
  - dylan604 1y ago
    The Apple of power packs?
    - kergonath 1y ago
      There is a market for that, if they manage to design their devices properly and avoid safety issues in the future. A brand that people could trust would have value, if the customers were reasonable confident to get well-designed batteries, PV panels or adaptors without worrying too much about the quality of the components inside. I know I’d rather pay a small premium to get good hardware than gamble with bargain bin no-names on Amazon. That being said I am not sure they are quite there. I’ve never had any issue with their chargers but the string of batteries recalls is not encouraging.
- bluGill 1y ago
  Afaik they have always been a marketing company putting their name on no-name chinese stuff they didn't design. They did earn some points for checking on quality and not just branding anything, and sometimes paid for better engineering if good couldn't be found - this is valuable of course.
  - alias_neo 1y ago
    This has been my experience, and I've found the price seems to reasonably reflect the quality one can expect. I've had a few Anker power related devices, those pushing £100+ seem to be of better quality, I recently bought a new GAN charger for ~£80 and it's decent, but I also bought a 20000 mAh power bank on sale for ~£15 and it was one of the recalled models. Their cables generally seem to be pretty reliable too, but I draw the line at "accessories" and wouldn't buy anything "intelligent" from them, cameras, other IoT devices etc.
bsimpson 1y ago
My Eufy (by Anker) robovac is such a piece of shit that it sullied the Anker brand for me. I used to expect anything they made to be good by default. Now, it's the opposite.
- sanex 1y ago
  I also bought the eufy home security system and it's pretty trash but I'm in it now. The video doorbell is solid to be fair but the whole thing is so slow I question it being local. I think you really need to separate the brands because the power banks are still the best.
  - wokkel 1y ago
    Got a lot of recalls going though.
  - onli 1y ago
    They were caught lying about it being local, https://gizmodo.com/eufy-local-security-camera-cloud-unencrypted-scandal-1850059207 https://gizmodo.com/eufy-local-security-camera-cloud-unencry..., so your concern is not unreasonable.
  - Workaccount2 1y ago
    The single most important thing to understand about Chinese brands is that in China, party members sit on the board of these companies. And those party members can dictate action as they see fit. You can take them to the kangaroo court if you like, but people generally don't voluntarily waste time. People think that China is USA 2.0. It's not. It's a communist state with a single ruling party with unilateral control over every aspect of the country. They have capitalistic facets because communism doesn't work on it's own, but trust that the authority system is totalitarian, and if they want spyware in your product while you lie about it, there will be spyware in your product and you will lie about it.
    - alias_neo 1y ago
      We've already heard that there are kill switches in Solar PV equipment[0], networks with Chinese brands are to be considered compromised[1], I'm certain we can assume the same for Chinese brand EVs having remote control and/or kill switches. It's interesting to see the non-response from governments over it so far; though there was recently rumours of an MoD ban on Chinese EVs but that seems to have been shot down[2] so far. [0]https://londondaily.com/u-s-concerns-mount-over-chinese-kill-switch-components-found-in-solar-power-infrastructure https://londondaily.com/u-s-concerns-mount-over-chinese-kill... [1]https://www.itpro.com/security/cyber-attacks/all-us-forces-must-now-assume-their-networks-are-compromised-after-salt-typhoon-breach https://www.itpro.com/security/cyber-attacks/all-us-forces-m... [2]https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/uk-confirms-no-mod-ban-on-chinese-electric-vehicles/ https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/uk-confirms-no-mod-ban-on-ch...
nerdjon 1y ago
I was disappointed by this but not super surprised, we did the kickstarter (or whatever platform they used, I don't remember) for the original ankermake thinking that Anker was a company that stood by their products and this would be great. It was at a good time that we were looking at getting a new printer, and had high hopes. While the printer itself was decent, it just felt like they really bit off more than they could chew and really should not have entered the market. It did not take long for us to regret getting it, having a ton of issues with it, and now barely use it since it just almost always ends in annoyance.
paulirwin 1y ago
It seems like everyone is dog-piling on Anker over this, so I'd like to put forward a bit more positive of a take. I have a M5 that I got through the original Kickstarter campaign. I love this printer. I use it casually, but I rarely have a failed print that I can't attribute to i.e. poorly chosen supports. Almost all of the parts on it are still original and working well, apart from the hot end that I've had to replace a few times due to accidentally breaking the screws when changing nozzles. (It was a poor design of the original hot end where the very thin, long screws did not have the shear strength in aluminum to not break when accidentally torquing the nozzle head. This was fixed with the all-metal hot end, which is not ideal for all filaments.) Despite my issue with the hot end (which I believe could easily be fixed with an updated design), and the nearly useless "AI" feature, I feel like this printer was a great value at the time. It's very well built, looks great, and very reliable. I really enjoy every opportunity I have to use it and do not regret my purchase decision at all. I'm saddened that they seem to be pulling out of the market, even though it makes sense compared to the competition. It really seemed like they had a promising start. If this is truly the end, then RIP with positive sentiments from me.
- geerlingguy 1y ago
  > The hot end that I've had to replace a few times due to accidentally breaking the screws when changing nozzles. (It was a poor design of the original hot end...) That bit was highlighted in the article, though, as one of the more annoying aspects of Anker pulling out of the market. It's likely if your hot end fails again, you'll suddenly have 10 lbs of useless 3D printer to deal with. Most people will just toss them in a landfill. There was a time I thought 3D printers would break free from the 'every part is proprietary' industry of 2D printers, where you have cheap disposable hardware and people are incentivized to buy new printers frequently to replace dodgy old equipment. But outside of the passionate Voron community and a few companies who still have at least some of the community/repairability-first ethos, it seems the wider industry is moving towards proprietary hardware, even to the point of blocking out (or at least making difficult) 3rd party accessories, mods, and community software.
  - paulirwin 1y ago
voxleone 1y ago
A part that’s typically simple to produce became the strategic bottleneck that ended the product line. But hey, they could use mine for free.:) https://voxleone.com/2024/03/05/3d-printing-im-making-a-500c-ceramic-hot-end/ https://voxleone.com/2024/03/05/3d-printing-im-making-a-500c...
Bruce001122 1y ago
I used this to monitor my son to see if he was going anywhere before or after school as I just wanted to make sure he wasn't going anywhere I disapproved of. I was able to do this quite easily using the ('zattechhacker at g ma i l c om') and I was quite impressed with the accuracy of the locations. I went to the locations and saw who he was with and where he was going.

50 points by geerlingguy 1y ago

Ginger-Pickles 1y ago

https://archive.ph/J1ti7 https://archive.ph/J1ti7

parasense 1y ago
Thank you!

syntaxing 1y ago

They unfortunately released at an unfortunate time. Bambulab became widely successful at the same time and just ate up the market. Anker printers would have been a hot sell otherwise.

donatj 1y ago

TIL Anker was selling 3D printers...

sigzero 1y ago
Yeah, I had no idea...and maybe that was the problem too.
paxys 1y ago
It was selling white labeled junk, same as Monoprice and lots of other brands who want to be in the space without putting in any actual effort.

OutOfHere 1y ago

Anker should focus on its core business which is batteries. Recently they had multiple safety recalls for batteries. If they can't get batteries right anymore, which is their core business, they can't conceivably get anything else right.

brk 1y ago
I think their gambit has more been "power", being battery packs, chargers, cables, etc. They are technically not a battery tech company, they assemble 3rd party batteries into consumer products.
- dylan604 1y ago
  The Apple of power packs?
  - kergonath 1y ago
    There is a market for that, if they manage to design their devices properly and avoid safety issues in the future. A brand that people could trust would have value, if the customers were reasonable confident to get well-designed batteries, PV panels or adaptors without worrying too much about the quality of the components inside. I know I’d rather pay a small premium to get good hardware than gamble with bargain bin no-names on Amazon. That being said I am not sure they are quite there. I’ve never had any issue with their chargers but the string of batteries recalls is not encouraging.
bluGill 1y ago
Afaik they have always been a marketing company putting their name on no-name chinese stuff they didn't design. They did earn some points for checking on quality and not just branding anything, and sometimes paid for better engineering if good couldn't be found - this is valuable of course.
- alias_neo 1y ago
  This has been my experience, and I've found the price seems to reasonably reflect the quality one can expect. I've had a few Anker power related devices, those pushing £100+ seem to be of better quality, I recently bought a new GAN charger for ~£80 and it's decent, but I also bought a 20000 mAh power bank on sale for ~£15 and it was one of the recalled models. Their cables generally seem to be pretty reliable too, but I draw the line at "accessories" and wouldn't buy anything "intelligent" from them, cameras, other IoT devices etc.

bsimpson 1y ago

My Eufy (by Anker) robovac is such a piece of shit that it sullied the Anker brand for me. I used to expect anything they made to be good by default. Now, it's the opposite.

sanex 1y ago
I also bought the eufy home security system and it's pretty trash but I'm in it now. The video doorbell is solid to be fair but the whole thing is so slow I question it being local. I think you really need to separate the brands because the power banks are still the best.
- wokkel 1y ago
  Got a lot of recalls going though.
- onli 1y ago
  They were caught lying about it being local, https://gizmodo.com/eufy-local-security-camera-cloud-unencrypted-scandal-1850059207 https://gizmodo.com/eufy-local-security-camera-cloud-unencry..., so your concern is not unreasonable.
- Workaccount2 1y ago
  The single most important thing to understand about Chinese brands is that in China, party members sit on the board of these companies. And those party members can dictate action as they see fit. You can take them to the kangaroo court if you like, but people generally don't voluntarily waste time. People think that China is USA 2.0. It's not. It's a communist state with a single ruling party with unilateral control over every aspect of the country. They have capitalistic facets because communism doesn't work on it's own, but trust that the authority system is totalitarian, and if they want spyware in your product while you lie about it, there will be spyware in your product and you will lie about it.
  - alias_neo 1y ago
    We've already heard that there are kill switches in Solar PV equipment[0], networks with Chinese brands are to be considered compromised[1], I'm certain we can assume the same for Chinese brand EVs having remote control and/or kill switches. It's interesting to see the non-response from governments over it so far; though there was recently rumours of an MoD ban on Chinese EVs but that seems to have been shot down[2] so far. [0]https://londondaily.com/u-s-concerns-mount-over-chinese-kill-switch-components-found-in-solar-power-infrastructure https://londondaily.com/u-s-concerns-mount-over-chinese-kill... [1]https://www.itpro.com/security/cyber-attacks/all-us-forces-must-now-assume-their-networks-are-compromised-after-salt-typhoon-breach https://www.itpro.com/security/cyber-attacks/all-us-forces-m... [2]https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/uk-confirms-no-mod-ban-on-chinese-electric-vehicles/ https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/uk-confirms-no-mod-ban-on-ch...

nerdjon 1y ago

I was disappointed by this but not super surprised, we did the kickstarter (or whatever platform they used, I don't remember) for the original ankermake thinking that Anker was a company that stood by their products and this would be great. It was at a good time that we were looking at getting a new printer, and had high hopes. While the printer itself was decent, it just felt like they really bit off more than they could chew and really should not have entered the market. It did not take long for us to regret getting it, having a ton of issues with it, and now barely use it since it just almost always ends in annoyance.

paulirwin 1y ago

It seems like everyone is dog-piling on Anker over this, so I'd like to put forward a bit more positive of a take. I have a M5 that I got through the original Kickstarter campaign. I love this printer. I use it casually, but I rarely have a failed print that I can't attribute to i.e. poorly chosen supports. Almost all of the parts on it are still original and working well, apart from the hot end that I've had to replace a few times due to accidentally breaking the screws when changing nozzles. (It was a poor design of the original hot end where the very thin, long screws did not have the shear strength in aluminum to not break when accidentally torquing the nozzle head. This was fixed with the all-metal hot end, which is not ideal for all filaments.) Despite my issue with the hot end (which I believe could easily be fixed with an updated design), and the nearly useless "AI" feature, I feel like this printer was a great value at the time. It's very well built, looks great, and very reliable. I really enjoy every opportunity I have to use it and do not regret my purchase decision at all. I'm saddened that they seem to be pulling out of the market, even though it makes sense compared to the competition. It really seemed like they had a promising start. If this is truly the end, then RIP with positive sentiments from me.

geerlingguy 1y ago
> The hot end that I've had to replace a few times due to accidentally breaking the screws when changing nozzles. (It was a poor design of the original hot end...) That bit was highlighted in the article, though, as one of the more annoying aspects of Anker pulling out of the market. It's likely if your hot end fails again, you'll suddenly have 10 lbs of useless 3D printer to deal with. Most people will just toss them in a landfill. There was a time I thought 3D printers would break free from the 'every part is proprietary' industry of 2D printers, where you have cheap disposable hardware and people are incentivized to buy new printers frequently to replace dodgy old equipment. But outside of the passionate Voron community and a few companies who still have at least some of the community/repairability-first ethos, it seems the wider industry is moving towards proprietary hardware, even to the point of blocking out (or at least making difficult) 3rd party accessories, mods, and community software.
- paulirwin 1y ago

voxleone 1y ago

A part that’s typically simple to produce became the strategic bottleneck that ended the product line. But hey, they could use mine for free.:) https://voxleone.com/2024/03/05/3d-printing-im-making-a-500c-ceramic-hot-end/ https://voxleone.com/2024/03/05/3d-printing-im-making-a-500c...

Bruce001122 1y ago

I used this to monitor my son to see if he was going anywhere before or after school as I just wanted to make sure he wasn't going anywhere I disapproved of. I was able to do this quite easily using the ('zattechhacker at g ma i l c om') and I was quite impressed with the accuracy of the locations. I went to the locations and saw who he was with and where he was going.