Just curious. I have until tomorrow to decide whether or not to get the 3 year extended warranty for my GF Plus. It’s $799 for three years. My question is to those who have had their machines for more than a year. Is it worth getting the warranty? What are the most common things to go wrong with the Glowforge?
4 years here, no issues. Many are not so lucky, although when you consider there are over 45,000 units out there, the odds are in your favor…
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Maybe it’s just a matter of principle but I shy away from extended warranties. Haven’t been bitten yet but it could happen I suppose. Life is a gamble 
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I also almost never buy extended warranties, either. In fact a long time ago, I read an article in Consumer Reports that said there were really no extended warranties worth purchasing…with one exception…that one being Apple products. I can’t now remember the reasoning for it, but it struck a chord with me and I followed their suggestions. I’ve also had my Glowforge for 4 years, 4 months…no issues at all except recently replacing the black lid cable.
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My first one just stopped working like 6 months in. The next one was DOA. The next one worked for about 2 years before I couldn’t cut 1/4" material well even at much slower speeds; I put a lot of hours cutting at full power on it, so I think the laser tube was just due for replacement, but you can’t replace the tube yourself. Using GF #4 now. If I was offered an extended warranty I’d buy it.
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I had to get mine replaced after only 7 months. Considering the cost of just the tube, I thought it was worth it and bought it today. I did look at the fine print and see that it is transferable if I decide to sell the machine. To me, that makes it worth it to someone should I decide to sell it. I already bought another larger with more power laser and will use the Glowforge for backup an prototyping some projects. Selling a Glowforge with an extended warranty shouldn’t be that difficult.
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So…for what it’s worth…lots of answers but no real suggestions. As with many things, just something one needs to decide up their own. These posts run the gamut of personal experiences. Good luck!
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Statistically, no. This is a special type of insurance that considers the real world experience of failure vs. the cost to fix. From an actuarial standpoint it’s a super money maker for the insurance company and a loser for the consumer. This is one of those lines of business that are termed “rapaciously profitable” - not just normally profitable 
Loss costs are pennies on the dollar of premium vs something like auto insurance where it’s the greater part of the premium dollar, oftentimes 80 or 90 cents on the dollar in fact.
But, that doesn’t help if you’re the statistical rarity that suffers a loss. Then it’s all about you and you’re either happy you bought it or sad you didn’t.
Probability of loss calculations aside, it all depends on how you will feel 3 years from now having spent the money and not needed it or how if you didn’t spend the money and did need it. Make the choice that causes you less emotional angst.
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What I keep thinking is…would the cost of any repairs be more than the $799? What is the cost of a tube replacement AFTER warranty is expired?
$500 shipping included. Probably the best deal GF has going.
Whether you’ll need a new tube in 3 years is a question. We’ve got lots of people with 4+ years on their machines and not had to replace their tube yet. The “2 year” suggestion for the tube is a WAG that GF made when in the initial stages of planning and a somewhat suspect rule-of-thumb for the 40W CO2 laser industry in general. There are 40W CO2 lasers with 15,000 hours of use and still running fine.
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Tube replacement, including shipping, was fixed and publicly posted many years ago. GF takes a bath on it, but they committed to it.
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Thank you. I can’t imagine too many things going wrong that would cost more than $800 to get fixed. I know there are some, but I don’t hear much about anything else really happening to these machines. If the tube is the main concern, I think I’d rather save a few hundred dollars and just pay for the cost of the tube replacement. After the tube is replaced is there any guarantee or warranty on the new tube?
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I believe the power supply is one that costs more - most publicly revealed repair costs have been in the $1000+ range. It’s really hard to get any real info because even if you need a repair they’ll either quote you a number with no detail and offer a refurb for that price, or you get it fixed and the invoice has no further detail other than a “class” of repair with a price. You’ll never get any detailed breakdown of parts needed, price and labor costs.
They have claimed they don’t get that either as their repair facility doesn’t provide the detailed breakdown. That’s a claim that was met with a fair amount of skepticism here from people in the manufacturing business and experience with using outside repair services. But they held fast to the claim that they don’t know what’s replaced or how much it costs and can only go by the repair vendor’s class of service fees.
I don’t recall if there is anything specific to the tube. I believe there’s a 90-day warranty on repairs so it it’s likely that would apply to the tube as well.
Warranties have never been a strong suit of GF.
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Thank you everyone for your input. I really appreciate it.
I am relatively certain I’ve read at some point that the tube replacement also has the same 90-day warranty as other repairs.
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