Quality of UTM magnets

I can’t be the only one whose magnets snapped so easily. While dislodging three magnets for assembling the watering tool, I placed them one by one on the table, ready to take them to the UTM for checking their orientation.

Upon placing them slightly too close to each other, they attracted and snapped together and broke in half.

I lost three magnets so far, and I’m baffled how easily they broke. Where do I get some replacements?


Magnets are fragile in general. I didn’t have any break because I knew that, but I do understand how it might happen.

I left all my magnets in a single stack, knowing that they would be all oriented the same (cause they are in a stack) and then took them off one by one and put them on the UTM and various tools.

Along the same lines, there are several things you need to “thread into” the plastic tool parts. Great care should be exercised in doing this as it will strip easily if you tighten to much.

The farmbot comes with absolutely no warranty and a very, very one sided term sheet. According to the agreement that we all signed by giving them our shipping address, they were supposed to post a “real” warranty before the products shipped and we were to have the right to cancel orders if we didn’t agree to said warranty, but they never posted the warranty, so the terms of the term sheet apply. Here’s a quote from that:

“EXCEPT AS MAY BE EXPRESSLY PROVIDED BY FarmBot Inc IN THE WARRANTY APPLICABLE TO A PRODUCT AT THE TIME THE ORDER FOR THE PRODUCT IS SHIPPED, AND TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, PRODUCTS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”, WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT GUARANTEED WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, AND FarmBot Inc HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL OTHER WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE PRODUCT, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO: (A) THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, QUIET ENJOYMENT, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS; AND (B) ANY WARRANTY ARISING OUT OF COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE, OR TRADE. FarmBot Inc DOES NOT WARRANT THAT USE OF ANY PRODUCT WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR FREE OF ERRORS OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS, AND DOES NOT WARRANT THAT ANY OF THOSE ISSUES WILL BE CORRECTED. FarmBot Inc DOES NOT WARRANT THAT ANY PRODUCT COMPLIES WITH ALL APPLICABLE LAWS OR REGULATIONS IN ANY PARTICULAR JURISDICTION. TO THE EXTENT NOT PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAW, YOU ASSUME ALL RISK FOR ANY DAMAGE THAT MAY RESULT FROM YOUR USE OF THE PRODUCT.”

Based on those terms, they could literally ship you an empty box. Bottom line, you will need to purchase more magnets from somewhere. Farmbot has indicated that they will open a store in July for spare parts and such. I usually buy neodymium magnets on eBay.

While July might seem a ways out, consider that several of the “tools” are not usable yet, so you could simply postpone building those till farmbot’s store opens. For example, the weeder and the soil moisture sensor are not usable yet (no camera based weeding and no way to use the moisture value to do anything) so you could save 6 magnets from not building those tools yet and have enough to build everything else for now.

Sorry you broke some magnets @mdingena, I’ll get some replacements sent your way (free of charge) when I get into the warehouse on Monday :slight_smile:

I have also updated the documentation to warn others about the general fragility of magnets and to handle them as @bgmoon has suggested. One other person has reported accidentally breaking magnets too, and we shipped them some replacements as well.

Regarding our warranty: while we don’t yet have a formally written policy in place, we’re committed to working with everyone to reasonably resolve any issues. So far we have sent out about 6 replacement parts because they were accidentally missing from people’s kits, were damaged upon arrival, or because they accidentally broke them. Things like this are bound to happen and we’ll always do our best to make it right. Anyone who has an issue should get in touch with us at support@farmbot.io. In general, we’ll cover the cost under these circumstances:

  • Item is damaged or missing upon arrival
  • Item fails due to manufacturing defect
  • Item fails because our documentation wasn’t sufficient to prevent failure

Some general things we would not cover at our expense:

  • A tree branch fell on the FarmBot and broke/damaged 15 pieces
  • User unreasonably did not follow assembly instructions
  • Product did not meet user expectations/was too technically challenging to assemble
  • User followed advice/documentation that did not originate from our company that resulted in damage. Note: This forum is considered a community space, not FarmBot Inc’s support forum. Anything written here that is not by a FarmBot Inc employee counts as “advice/documentation that did not originate from our company”.
  • User did not take care of their FarmBot and it became damaged. For example: leaving the electronics box open during a storm
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That’s great Rory :slight_smile:

It’s my first DIY project and I didn’t know magnets are so fragile, considering their own strength (these magnets are pretty strong!)

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