this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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Looking to get another printer that shall be printfarm compatible. What do I mean?

  • reliable
  • easy to service
  • excellent replacement part availability
  • affordable
  • affordable replacement parts
  • AMS (switching spools once it runs out & multi-color within a flat layer [not vertical/between layers])

Normally I would just buy another A1 mini (180€ without AMS) or P1S (650€ with AMS) but with recent issues with the printer & support quality & them banking hard on proprietary with Support staff who don't know what their error messages mean make me question if those are still the best option or if some other company meanwhile took the crown.

other spec:

  • approx. 256x256mm
  • exclusively used with PETG-filament
  • enclosed (keeping dust out)
  • network connected. ideally with a web service to use it remotely
  • in stock (this sadly disqualifies the Elegoo Centauri Carbon which seems to be the goto at the moment).
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I gave in an bought another P1S combo.

Layer 1 isn’t absolutely perfect across the entire bed

This is exactly why. All of the alternatives were a yes followed by some but. I hope that Anycubic, Creality, Sovol and the like start focusing on one printer instead of releasing every few months a new model.

For example the Sovol Zero is based on the Voron zero. Perfect. All they need to do is push the good work of the Voron project into the just works category. Right? Wrong. The Sovol zero is a half-backed printer like so many out there.

Another pain point: Most companies try to compete with the X1C meaning their product cost just as much or more as the P1S. If you compare against the X1C it might be worth it but once you set the comparison relative to the P1S they are overpriced.

For example, Elegoo with the Centauri carbon explicitly asked reviewer to compare it against the X1C. Meanwhile, the P1S would have been a much better comparison as the P1S is 450€ and the Centauri Carbon 329€. A much better comparison than the 1000€ X1C.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is exactly why.

To be fair, the internet is full of complaints that the P1S has problems with layer 1 too.

Before the current P1S sale it was $600 for a Anycubic with ams vs $1000 for a P1S with AMS. But what got me to get the Anycubic was they haven't locked users out of Orca slicer and forced cloud like Bambu. Anycubic has cloud features if you want it but you aren't forced.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's more about the general thing that they are not finished products. At least not to the extent the Bambu are.

Looking at the Anycubic S1 (once again): Fauxhammer review mentions firmware bugs and the nozzle situation 3 months after the review: Anycubic still only sells 0.4mm brass nozzles.

Imagine Anycubic releases firmware updates fixing such issues, later following up with stainless or hardened steel 0.2-0.8mm nozzle and so on. It would be a diffrent product.

They all are close but don't go the last step to be a competitor instead it feels like they assume that $50-100 cheaper is good enough to compete. This might hold true for consumers but business use is diffrent.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's more about the general thing that they are not finished products. At least not to the extent the Bambu are.

That's like saying a Toyota isn't a finished product compared to a BMW. The Anycubic works and isn't locked down to their cloud service. You can even install open source firmware. The S1 AMS does filament drying that the p1S doesn't do without the pro AMS.

I agree that Anycubic should sell nozzles but 3rd party nozzles are available.

Like I said there's a temporary sale that makes the P1S a great value. The S1 is not $50-$100 cheaper. It was $1000 vs $650. Now it's $700 vs $450.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That’s like saying a Toyota isn’t a finished product compared to a BMW.

Bad comparison: It is like a car delivered with a without a tachometer scale but the manufacturer includes a pen and guide on how to open the dashboard. You have to draw your own scale to get it going.

Just look at the slicer: With Bambu there is a working profile for different presets, different nozzle sizes and different filaments. Everything is already done for you.

The S1 is not $50-$100 cheaper. It was $1000 vs $650. Now it’s $700 vs $450.

Bought the P1S combo (AMS 1) for 636€. Anycubic S1 combo is 549€ (Germany).

Regular pricing on the P1 combo is 800€ which is noticeably more than the 549€ for the S1.

The S1 AMS does filament drying that the p1S doesn’t do without the pro AMS.

I couldn't care less. Drying is done in an oven. From there on it is stored in a dry environment. No need to dry it on the printer. I also didn't buy the AMS 2. While all the improvements are nice they aren't 150€ price premium worth of nice on top of the already 200€ AMS 1 price.

If you want to go after Bambu:

  1. Parts/Products subject to a 3-month Limited warranty —— not covered under this Service Please note that the following parts/products are not covered by the extended warranty service:
  • AMS / AMS 2 PRO / AMS lite.
  • (Dual) Extruder Unit(excluding the Extruder Gear Assembly, Dual Extruder Gear Assembly, and the Extruder Filament Sensor)
  • Shell components: printer front door, left / right / rear Panel, upper and lower covers.
  • Air Assist Tube Coupler
  • Micro SD Card (32 GB)
  • Maker's Supply (including Hardware Kits, Maker's Supply Models, MakerLab Accessories, Maker Combo Kits, Hardware Parts, Electronics, Tools&Others)

3-month warranty for the entire AMS or microSD card. That's crazy considering that the AMS 2 has an asking price of 350€.

Another example Bambu could improve: Bambu charges shipping for the printer AND separately for the accessories. Meanwhile, their official distributor offers free shipping on both paired with 2% discount. No idea what their business plan/reasoning is but the result is that there is now the middleman distributor taking their cut instead of all the money going to Bambu. To make this even sweeter there is better consumer rights since those distributors are established German companies likely honing European consumer rights meaning the SD-card has more than 3 months of warranty (spoiler: Just buying a new SD-card is cheaper than digging up the invoice, writing the message, following up and so on due to labor cost but you hopefully get the point).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

The Anycubic has presets for .4 and .6 in brass or hardened steel. It's only missing .2.

I couldn't care less. Drying is done in an oven.

You can't claim the S1 is incomplete for not having a .2 nozzle presets and then turn around and say that a built in filament dryer doesn't matter when Bambu made it a pro feature. Especially when .4 is what you get out of the box from Bambu and .2 requires modifying your printer by swapping the hot end.

Bought the P1S combo (AMS 1) for 636

Where? I see 800€ everywhere.

And where I "go after" Bambu is what you didn't mention: locked down firmware and no alternative slicer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Whiere? I see 800€ everywhere.

https://www.3dmensionals.de/bambu-lab-p1s-3d-drucker-combo-3d-drucker-inkl-ams-3092?search=p1s+combo&order=website_sequence+asc

locked down firmware and no alternative slicer. There are two types of printers: project printers and workhorses. I was looking for the latter.

A typical project printer would be a RatRig, Voron: Open source, you tinker with it, modify it, try new stuff on it and so on.

A workhorse is: take my money and shut up. They work out of the box and you don't have to touch anything, making the proprietary firmware an none issue.

For the slicer? Again. It works. Also, you can use Orcaslicer or PrusaSlicer on BambuLab machines if you like. Business and hobbies are pretty different.

If Bambu goes downhill 2 years from now, who cares? Sucks but by than the printer will already have paid for themself and assuming you run them at 70% utalization they will likley be close to reaching the end of their lifespan (12'000 hours after 2 years). Printfarm/production ticks differently.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Wow! That's a fantastic price!

A workhorse is: take my money and shut up

It doesn't have to be one or the other! It can and does work out of the box without being a proprietary ecosystem. It's not just Anycubic. You can use a Prusa, Flashforge, Qidi, etc as a workhorse without a proprietary ecosystem.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

as a workhorse without a proprietary ecosystem.

It just doesn't matter at all for this use case. While personal preference does play a role, at the end of the day it's numbers that dictate feasibility:

For cost, just run with these numbers for your spreadsheet and see for yourself the difference it makes on production cost/parts cost:

Let's take a look at the P1S combo: 650€, approx. 15-minute setup time.

Prusa Core One + AMS + camera: 1780€. Time? Don't know, maybe 3 hours or so and who knows how much for additional material to get the MMU into a functional package like the AMS. With labour cost and everything else, I would estimate 2000€ for the Core one "combo".

Qidi?

previous gen: exposed mains voltage on the chamber heater => can't deploy that (also QIDI not recognizing this as a safety hazard, refusing to fix it)

current gen: SSR catches fire => can't deploy that either

Potential next gen? Bad track record. Wait and see.

Prusa? launching half backed product at a premium that might be fixed after release. Once fixed, they are still too expensive to be the most economical solution.

XL => pathetic. Countless design fails and that's after significant delays

MK4 => swiftly fixed with the MK4s

AMS => DIY solution at a crazy price. Like no nice box, not entirely sure if they have a first-party filament buffer or that is also another DIY part. Has been like this for years.

Flashforge?

Flashforge 5M pro and the AD5X was on my short list. In the end the 5m pro has no AMS and the AD5X is missing the enclosure.