Get up off the floor, you are a grown a$$ man.
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I have had similar problems. One refill unwound in the AMS and rubbed against the feeder, damaging the light. The feeder still works, but the light is dead.
I have had 2 spools of PLA Matte Ivory White and both have had issues. Other colours have been fine.
I purchased 20 refills during the sale this October and every single one has been a tangled nightmare. Never had issues before.
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I have been using (testing) different master spool brands over the years and only one brand worked flawlessly every time: das filament.
What did the job? Very tightly wound, but also very square. I haven’t had issues with bambu refill yet but I expected as much since they do not wind their filament neatly (but for me just neatly enough).
Here is a comparison photo:
Top left:
Bambu spool (no refill), loosely wound but kinda flat/square
Bottom right:
Bambu refill, loosely wound, kinda round profile. Seems to work for now but too sloppy for my liking
Top right:
Prusament spool (no refill), tightly wound, neatly side by side windings, square profile. How you should wind filament if you care in my opinion
Bottom left:
Das Filament refill. I have been using these for years and I don’t know how they do it, but you get them delivered with a square profile, even without cardboard core, and when you mount them they stay square and tightly wound. If bambu could crack this code it would be a huge quality improvement!
So yes, it could be a quality control issue, but I think it’s a production issue. Das Filament (small company) proves it’s possible to neatly wind filament and ship it without issues, I think a company like bambu should be able to figure it out as well if they wanted to. Let’s hope they do, because I really prefer refill systems!
And don’t forget to take photos of how you get the spools before, during and after mounting. At least you get free filament but ideally it becomes such a hassle that it goes up the priority list.
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I ordered the same exact filament, and it would clog every 5-15 minutes. I have an AMS on a P1S, and I had to rewind the top 1/3 every time. When I took off of the side of the reusable spool, I saw that the end of the spool was tucked on the bottom. Can’t use it anymore, a complete waste of money. They seriously need to work on QC.
Yes the “support” guys sound like cheap AIs, they cannot understand even short sentences. Paypal is the only support we can get here…
I am having issues with voth the fit and the retention of the spool holder coming apart when in use.
Any suggestuon on which respooler to use?
Thank you
Yeah I’m done with refills, possibly with bambu filament in general. It’s too annoying to deal with.
Having exactly the same issues. I already throw away a matte white one, and probably will throw away the second one today. I haven’t got time to deal with it over and over again and I haven’t got time to build a rewind machine and do a rewind to a empty spool. And it only happens at my whites (bought from European store).
Just had this happen for the first time on a roll of Bambu black PLA Basic refill.
The problem is the refill is narrower than the Spool and it is as hard as cement so you can’t force the sides into the gap by pushing on it as per their instructions. So in no time at all, the filament goes into the gap and pulls almost at a right angle and jambs .
1 - I tried removing the spool from AMS and dropping it on the gapped side on the floor to try and unstick the filament on the roll, wouldn’t budge still a 2mm or so gap down the side.
2 - I removed the spool from the AMS and unspooled the filament an ran it into the lounge room sat the spool where I could see the filament starting to get tight (fish on the line 
) and I’d unspool some more filament , and babysit the print this way, not ideal as AMS is open.
3 - I eventually got tired of the babysitting in method 2, so used a scraper handle without the blade and drove it with a twisting action down into the filament near the gapped edge to try and fill the gap, its like it was over dried or something and stuck almost melted together, eventually I got it to budge and kept doing this to fill the gap on the edge of the spool.
4 - I think the ultimate solution is to print some spacers to put in this gap on dodgy spools in the future.
Bambu I hope you’re reading this, this problem is real.
Refill Spool → Nothing but problems… Installed it correctly but the filament was completely tangled on the cardboard… Started a print because I first did not know that it was tangled… After two hours the spool layed in half in the AMS, I tried to put the other half on the spool but that did not work… I have to rewire the whole spool now…
I am never going to buy Refill Filament again, this does not work…
3 Likes
Wow, that is a mess. I have not seen that with a refill before, I have only seen it on a new spool of the TPU for AMS. The spool came apart and made a mess in my AMS…
Yeah that is quite a mess… I am going to try to rewire the spool by hand after work. Hopefully that works and I can use this filament. I started with that yesterday evening but as I said the filament is quite tangled so that is going to be hard for sure…
All I can say is refill spools work great for me. I use refills almost exclusively (whenever possible).
I always make sure I get the solid click when mating spool halves and am certain to press filament into the side grooves even if it’s hard to do or even if I have to unwind some to get past the filament stuck to itself then press into the side grooves.
Any filament too much of a solid block should be returned to Bambu. They apparently need pain to fix their filament issues.
2 Likes
Besides any potential filament spooling issues from the factory.
Ive said a 1000 times, ill say it 1000 and 1 times .
Bambu refills are expensive compared to competetiors .
Are less recyclable, or at a minimum require extra steps to recycle.
Require 2x as much sqaure footage to store when not in use .
Are unnessarily prone to failure and user error due to needless moving parts.
Whenever user error or failure happens, bambu labs profits. …
Imo
Bambus got the best ecosphere for consumer grade printers, i recomend them all the time, but i recomend getting your filament elsewhere if you can .
To play devils advocate on my own post, i will say the quality of the acutual filament is always above par, and consistent
4 Likes
I’ve had refill spools jam a bit, but only at the beginning. The last couple ones I did, I unspooled a couple feet, then wound it back. Haven’t had an issue since, but I’m still new. Mostly I’ve found that if I watch it for the first little bit, I can spot any issue and never have one later.
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Are the bambu refills expensive? I always buy four or more for the discount, and prices don’t seem bad compared to amazon choices. But I have not shopped carefully.
I’ve never had a problem with the refills. I have had some poorly wound PETG-HF on factory spools.
I have actually seen one of the poorly-wound refills. Wraps were very loose and any tension on the tail would pull a wrap down into the others. I’ve also had refills that are maybe a little narrow where the filament can dive down between the filament wraps and the spool sides inside surfaces.
The wraps slipping between the spool and filament is easy to fix with a good massage to spread the wraps to take up the full width of the spool. There are also tube prints and bits that keep the filament tail riding above the wraps. Once you’ve seen this issue it’s easy to spot and fix.
The loose winding is a bit harder and messier to fix. On the one spool I’ve had like that I jus unspooled the filament until I got down to proper wraps and then spooled it back on with some tension so the wraps are a little tighter and better behaved.
I always get refills if possible. Saves money and resources. Once you’ve seen the possible issues and know how to recognize and fix them, refills can save money.