I’m not clear on the functionality of the AMS-HT. Besides being able to heat the filament to 85ºC, does it offer any printing capabilities that the AMS 2-PRO doesn’t?
From what I understand, even when using the AMS-HT, there are still filaments—especially technical ones (CF-GF) and flexible materials—that can’t be used with the automatic feeding system. So, it’s basically the same to place them in the AMS-HT as in any regular filament dryer that costs a third of the price. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
if you don’t need the 85°C and if you don’t want the automatic feeding for non-abrasive filament, then yes, a simple filament dryer might be the better choice for you. I guess you are aware that you can still print from the AMS HT without the feeder.
I just recalled two more advantages of AMS 2pro and AMS HT over other dryers:
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The BambuLab drying function rotates the spool while drying to prevent hot spots and cold spots.
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BambuLab seems to be the first manufacturer taking care of air exchange while drying. This is necessary to get rid of the air that has taken up the moisture from the filament and replace it with fresh air.
Surprisingly, the last point has been consequently ignored in most filament dryers. For many dryers you will find a wealth of advices to put an obstacle between lid and body so that moist air can slowly escape. Bambu seem to have addressed that properly.
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One more point, because you asked about AMS HT vs AMS 2 pro:
Typically you don’t want to dry filament more often than necessary. I heard that especially PLA can be overdried. Assume you have one AMS 2pro equipped with 3x PLA and 1x PETG. you will have to remove all the PLA for drying the PETG. Having a separate AMS HT might be more convenient.
But still I guess if you only print PLA and PETG, you are not in the target group for the AMS HT.
In my view" technical filaments" is less about additives (there is even PLA CF) but more about the base material.
E.g. materials like PC, PA, PET, PPS, …
Added CF doesn’t make them more technical, it usually adds stiffness and sometimes temperature resistance at the cost of mechanical strength.
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The BIG fault of the new AMs is their dependence of a printer: they can’t dry if no connected to a powered printer.
They are not independent dryers.
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Yeah … In my Sunlu dryer there are 2 holes in the housing of each coil, which are sealed with rubber plugs. You can insert a PTFE tube directly through them to print straight from the box. Sunlu writes that you should simply remove some of these plugs when drying so that the air can get out. BL now does the whole thing automatically - although the ‘work’ of pulling out 1-2 plugs doesn’t bother me too much 
That’s really one of the big weaknesses. Above all, the fact that you can’t dry at the same time as printing from the box. I hope that at least the second point will be patched in the near future.
My AMS2 was delivered today. The power supply unit (which I won’t be able to use with the X1C until the end of April anyway) and the hub will of course arrive later 
“Added CF doesn’t make them more technical, it usually adds stiffness and sometimes temperature resistance at the cost of mechanical strength.”
I don’t understand this, added CF improves stiffness but not mechanical strength". May be you are telling about impact resistance? or Z layer adhesion that usually is lower, but not is true in 100% times.
It is important to consult real world and independent sources of information. I find the test results from Igor Gaspar particularly valuable. You can see that the vast majority of filaments with the best mechanical strength properties are carbon fiber reinforced.
Now I have a Bambu Lab P1S with a standard AMS and a filament dryer. I usually make parts with CF filaments (mainly nylon or PETG) and need to use the AMS/multi-material system because the parts have letters in different colors.
Sometimes I use the AMS 1, but it wears out quickly. Maybe using the AMS 2 or AMS HT would be a better solution, but I’m not sure whether to sell the AMS and get the AMS 2, or just buy the AMS HT along with the multiplexer
Yes, that is what I wanted to say, especially layer adhesion which is already the weak point of many materials. Sorry for being too general.
I had a wrong impression of what you want from your initial post.
Printing multicolor CF material really is a challenge. I guess there isn’t much field experience around yet. Probably either AMS 2 or HT are an improvement due to the ceramic funnels. I don’t know if the internals of the new AMS are tougher.
There are also modifications on makerworld to reduce wear of the AMS 1 funnel.
Maybe you just have to accept, that the components of your AMS will wear and you have to replace them regularly?
I think for your use case, there still is no satisfactory solution available. Sorry that I can’t help more.
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I got a good demonstration of that last night. I started a drying cycle of PETG and the humidity inside stayed around 20% until it opened the vents and it dropped to 9% It eventually went as low as 4%.
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I didn’t understand one thing yet: does it only open some hole or is it really blowing out the moist air?
There’s a hole on the back that vents out the moist air. On the bottom there’s another hole for air intake.
That’s not good. I would really like to use the AMS HT primarily as a dryer.
I’ve had an AMS 2 Pro for weeks at this point with the power supply but I’m still waiting on the H2DL combo to use it. This means I have a very capable 4-spool dryer sitting in it’s box while I’ve been drying spools one by one at a max of 55C with my old Sunlu dryer. I could have had ALL of my filament dry by now if they allowed them to be standalone dryers when needed
I’m sure some company (BTT?) will come up with a device that connects to the 6-pin connector to do just that.
I hope that at least the second point will be patched in the near future.
I think that it will never be “fixed”, by design. If the spool needs to slowly rotate in the AMS-HT for the high temperature to be even and dry the filament as expected, what would you do of the filament if it’s inserted through the Bowden coupler inside the PTFE tube during that process? Both cannot work at the same time.
Unless of course Bambu eventually adds the ability to dry the filament without rotating the spool. Then, that would be another story
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Apart from the fact that it was actually about the AMS and not the HT:
Can you perhaps explain to me how we did this BEFORE Bambulab? In all the other dryers, AirFryers, dehydrators, ovens …? No one has ever turned the spools there either. It’s a nice feature (maybe? I don’t know yet), but if that’s the reason why you can’t dry AND print at the same time, then they should make it possible to switch it off.
By the way, printing and drying at the same time works very well in my S4 dryer. I don’t know what the problem is … And yes, I know that in the S4 the filaments are not loaded in coupler. But that could also be taken as a prerequisite if it really is such a big problem. To unload the 3 unused spools.
The new beta firmware now has an option to prevent rotation. On the AMS2, PLA needs to be disconnected from the feeder to avoid creeping but other materials can stay inserted (with no rotation) and drying can be started. I think the next step will really be to allow printing when drying on non-PLA filaments, bambu certainly has to run more tests before a new firmware will allow it.
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Hi, if I have a X1C with an AMS and I add the new Bambu Lab AMS HT, it is possible to print with an extra color (total 5) with automatic color changes ?
Yes, that is what I understand. It behaves the same as a second regular AMS with only one slot instead of 4.