Update 1/10/24I have taken it upon myself to redesign the failure prone parts to be much more durable, and this printer is singing along now, printing better than ever.I redesigned the carrier for the extruder, which cracked and wobbled. This carrier also upgrades the bearings to drylin lm8uu bushings for higher quality prints and really low noise. It is now exceptionally strong and should last the life of the printer.I also redesigned the Y axis bearing mounts to use drylin bushings and reduce vibrations. I redesigned the y axis rod seats as well. All these upgrades make this printer amazing.I posted all my designs free on printables. Search for smittyforge and print these out if you want to be ahead of parts breakages.Update 9/21/23Sovol support has been good and very kind. They even sent me a roll of filament because of the issues I have been facing even though I told them nothing is necessary.I got a "made on a Friday" printer or it is just a terrible design...probably the latter. Most likely the latter. I added another pic where I circled the latest failure. I had first layer issues for several prints and multiple leveling procedures didn't fix it. Custom firmware with X twist compensation didn't fix it...So, again, I bought new bearings. Igus Drylin this time...and during disassembly I found a cracked Y axis linear rod mount. That was my problem. ughI print a lot, and as stated below, I am looking to build a fleet of printers. This simply won't do. I print in an enclosure for the most part, so it is hotter than open air, but this machine should be able to handle that. Sovol themselves suggests an enclosure included in the paperwork with the printer.Look at the picture where I circled the failure in red... then look to the left. You will see how weak the injection molded part that was supposed to contain the constant back and forth motion is. It just is not robust enough to keep up with any marginally demanding environment. I also feel it would just snap on the blue and then you are left holding the bag after they discontinue the model and stop making it and it's parts.Looks like I have to redesign the Y axis block, as again you cannot buy parts. Now I need to spend a few hours more to get it functional again after spending hours on the mystery of the horrible prints.They need more than a junior engineering department...they need to focus on durability and name recognition from that durability.Update 9/4/23:I have had several exchanges with Sovol from the beginning and up until this point. I do believe they will stand by thier printers and actually care about how they are made and how they are perceived. I got my machine working again, partially because parts are open source and partially through redesign.The amount of concern I received from Sovol, and the separation of Amazon and Sovol is what made my initial review 1 star. I am over 30 hours into perfect printing with my replacement part I made. My first layer problems were from the part that broke. I was causing poor layers because it was breaking apart. This part is not visible for inspection, and made X travel sloppy.Nothing was promised to me for updating this review, but there have been offers of assistance from Sovol, which aren't necessary at this point.Update 9/1/23:I stumbled across a video that detailed yet another problem these printers are having, and one that I also had. The extruder gears are held on the shaft by set screws. The problem is the set screws backing themselves out of the gears and grinding and destroying the extruder from the inside. Thankfully I watched this video, because mine were loose. This had to be cleaned thoroughly and blue loctite added to hopefully prevent that hidden surprise. There were several loose screws in the hotend/extruder assembly that I am glad I caught.Original Review:Where should I start? I looked heavily into this printer and found that the YouTube influencers gloss over the finer details that would have kept me from buying this to begin with.I did find that many people were having problems with the linear rail bearings being cheap, so I planned on taking them out when I got the printer and greasing them. I also found other problems that make sense now that I have the machine. It is those kind of things you only realize after you have experience with the product.Day 1 is when it began...the massive headache this machine is turning into. I'm probably destroying my kidneys with all the ibuprofen lol.I took it out of the box and checked the movement of the bearings and they were really loud but appeared to be greased. I decided to give it a shot and remove them to pack them with grease. I used a high end lithium grease...and no improvement.So I used my own money to buy a better made bearing (fushi bearing LM8UU 4 pack for 10 bucks on Amazon). There are 10 of these bearings, I needed 6 for sure, and had to buy 8. I could have got 10 for half the price, but it was not worth it if they were just as bad as the ones Sovol included.Waited a few days to get the better bearings and started assembly again. I greased the new bearings and set it up. Problem solved.Until it turned into more problems. I could not get good first layers with any ABS and it looked like bad under extrusion usually looks. I carefully calibrated esteps and still had gaps in the first layer. I realized Auto Z alignment was not functioning properly so I manually set the lead screws and got that perfect.I was still getting gappy first layers. I set the Z offset closer to get more squish...I also tried different slicers and nothing helped. I know there is wobble in both Z lead screws, which I am sure is not helping with this problem and probably making it worse.I pushed through that and kept printing and I was getting much worse results than my ender 3 v2 neo and my neptune 3 pro. but hey, I was printing right...and I did buy a printer so that's a win I guess.Until my X axis tensioner decided to snap. I included that picture so you can see the poor injection molding ridges and cheap press fit inserts on a part that should be made out of aluminum (or at least a better mold for an injection molded part and stronger plastic). Injection molding should not have rough seams nor press fit inserts on those seams.I already knew I will have to wait a month to get new bearings from Sovol because I asked them for some after I already had to purchased my own. I told them I did not think I should have to buy new bearings for a new machine, and that I would like them to send me replacements. That way I would have extra on hand anyway since my plan was long term for this machine. I also didn't want to wait until outside of the return window for what should have never passed QC.To their credit, the shipped some out.So I knew Sovol would not be able to ship a part from China to me within my return window.I contacted Amazon today because I am not waiting 1 month for the possibility of another defective part. They have a request assistance/replacement parts button and that brought me to chat. A specialist told me they would send a replacement out within 24 hours and I would return the 1st one after I got the new one. Fine. I am running on a 2 week return window which is not ideal, but I can make that work.Then I get an email from Amazon saying they can't ship one, but they will give me a refund after they receive this one. Not gonna work. That will shave a week at least off the return window.So I hop back on Amazon chat and ask what was going on. After being lied to by the specialist who just decided to promise something he couldn't deliver, I was told it was Sovol who was not allowing them to ship one.Sovol has a spotty track record. I am finding out more and more with this printer than any YouTube influencers can convince me otherwise. I have heard bad things about all the printer manufacturers, but to date I have only had a problem with Sovol.Sovol, get your act together...it doesn't matter that you would make me wait to get another printer. The reason it doesn't matter is because it speaks to how you do business. You could get a jump on your problems by sending replacements to Amazon for sale when you offer a printer for sale.The most important customer service you could offer is to make a product that doesn't require it. It is why we buy Toyota...not for the warranty, but the fact that we are very unlikely to need that warranty.I designed a better X axis belt tensioner block. I put it on printables. Search SV06 tensioner block. the walls are thicker, it uses nuts instead of brass press fit threaded inserts (which is why this broke), and the area to the front of the pulley is longer to try and offset the tension on a printed part.Thank God my ender 3 v2 neo saved me and printed the part I made. I may just get this thing running again.I am done with buying Sovol anything at this point. I will try to keep this Frankenstein running as long as I can, and then I will chuck it. Amazon...have your specialists be certain about what they are offering before they offer it. Sovol, design products better so you don't have to fight against your customers or hide from them.