Overview:

The reality that we live in is that all ASIC miner manufacturers have large failure rates. Some are better than others, and some models withstand the test of time to gain the status of bullet proof. When you purchase a brand new model that has not been around for very long in order to get field tested, you are playing the lottery on whether you get good machines or not. The S17 is a great example of this.

That is why it is so important to understand the warranty and repair landscape where you are deploying. Planning ahead will save you a ton of headaches.

Not all manufactures have warranty repair centers in every country. They tend to only have warranty centers in countries with very developed mining markets. The United States has warranty repair centers for Bitmain, Micro BT, and Canaan. Canada only has Micro BT, unless Bitmain has setup shop there over the last 6 months and I haven't heard of it.

Before you buy a miner made by a specific manufacturer, check whether they have warranty centers in your country you can ship to. Many countries have to send their miners back to China in order to take advantage of the manufacturer warranty. Bitmain asks that if you are a Canadian customer, they want you to ship back to China because of the tariffs going across the border and back between the US and Canada. Micro BT on the other hand has warranty centers in Canada so you can avoid this problem when running their equipment.

If you determine the country you are mining in is not economical to use the manufacturer warranty, then it is important to try and stock spare parts as well as learn to do board level repair on your machines. Without these two things, expensive machines become bricks.

Avoid Voiding Warranty:

It is really important to read the Warranty ToS in order to ensure you do not void it. Some ways to void your warranty are: putting your machines in immersion, running aftermarket firmware, swapping hashboards between miners (each hashboard is serialized and the manufacturers check), if there's significant burning on the hashboards (even if is a manufacturer defect), and many more. You do not want to send machines to a warranty center just to find out they have been voided.

Warranty approval process:

Make sure you get information off the correct sites of manufacturers. There are many sites pretending to be the manufacturers.

The official sites are: bitmain.com whatsminer.com canaan.io

Each manufacturer has a unique warranty process that I will try to explain briefly here.

Bitmain has the easiest warranty process allowing you to accomplish it all on their website. You can pick which repair center to choose, allowing you to potentially save on shipping costs. Once you get to a certain scale, Bitmain will send repair technicians to your facility to process warranty repairs. My personal favorite Bitmain repair center in the US is Great Voyage in New Hampshire. They do require that you add a tracking number before you can submit the form. You can put an arbitrary number in there to save the form until you get a tracking number, but it's important to go back and add it because the repair center will need the tracking number to help keep track of your warranty ticket. It helps if you are able to identify the problem needing fixed on your warranty form.

Micro BT requires that you get approval before shipping for warranty. There are multiple channels to contact support staff in order to accomplish this, including telegram or their official website. You have to get approval before shipping your miner to a repair center, which requires you to send the logs to the support staff. They typically will suggest a couple trouble shooting methods before approving the warranty. Communication on their side can be slow, as they respond when they are awake in China. If you are willing to stay up late, it can save some time. My suggested warranty repair center for Whatsminers is Great Voyage in North Carolina. Micro BT usually will reject something as out of warranty before you send it whereas Bitmain will reject the warranty after it gets to their repair facility, if they reject it for some reason.

Canaan suggests that you email the serial number and logs to a support email which you can find on their website. I personally have not been through the process, but have been told it can be slow to process a warranty claim with them.

What happens if machine is still broken after warranty?

It is possible that the machine comes back and still has issues. You can either choose to trouble shoot it yourself, throw it in the trash or attempt another warranty process. The process can be expensive as it takes time and money to ship it. A miner must make calculated decisions in regards to repairs, which equipment they deploy, and the potential warranty process before venturing out and mining.

What about the new miner made by the new manufacturer?

You can take a risk and go out on a limb in order to buy the new shiny thing. The problem with that is that you are taking a huge risk. Other manufacturers have taken years to streamline their process and it still can be clunky. There is also the issue of how easy is it to get replacement parts. Machines that are not running create headaches and expenses.

When you buy miners through Kaboomracks, you can always count on us to help assist in the process which can make it a bit easier.