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Hi, I am new to 3D printing and last November got a Balco printer in the Aldi special deals. Today my prints started to go wrong and I noticed the fan at the front (facing me) wasn't on. Does this come on all the time or only if the software tells it too? I am using Cura 3.
The fan at the side is working.
Thanks for any suggestions, I'm not that technically minded though so I'm also wondering if it has warranty or do I need to get a repair person out?

Not sure of your printer type, however if it's like the Creality CR-10 then that front fan is vital, otherwise the heat block behind thru which filament flows overheats, and that can cause flow blockage.

That fan works 100% of the time and doesn't need to be switched on/off. If it isn't spinning then something is wrong.

Your print looks like a classic Prusa i3 build.
The print fan on the extruder does not need to be on all the time. If you have it set to Auto (I can't remember the fan controls for Cura).

so unless it is set to be on 100% of time it won't necessarily come on depending on the model.
Check you fan settings in Cura, set it to be on all the time to see if it comes on. If it doesn't then there is probably an issue.

Next thing would be to check the fan connections.

Thank you for your replies. I think I saw somewhere that it is a rebadged Wanhao I3 v2.1 but I'm not sure.
I will have a look in the Cura settings and see what happens

The wanhao i3 is a Prusa i3 design. There are a lot of printers using this design. They differ in the quality of the components used to build them but they are essentially the same sort of 3D printer.

If you want a brief run down of it we have a guide on how to build a prusa i3 yourself.

Fan not working could be due to any possible reason and if you do not understand the technical aspects of your 3D printer, I would suggest you to look for the matter inside the manual you got with the equipment. And while the equipment is still under warranty, you can call the technical experts to resolve the trouble.

https://www.3dprintersbay.com/

I saw a bargain printer and grabbed it before they sold out. I was on a steep learning curve and it didn't come with a manual.
I have no friends with printers to ask so I think I did quite well even getting things to print out reasonably Thanks to someone on this forum they gave me the right advice. I printed a file that worked previously and saw that indeed the first layer didn't have the fan and then afterwards it did. It was my own silly fault but I did try to learn on my own first.