Has anyone else noticed a serious drop in Bambu Lab filament quality lately? I’ve had spools that came split straight out of the vacuum pack, spools wound so loosely they were unusable, TPU with diameter swings from under 1 mm to well over 2 mm (had to cut away a third of the roll), ASA spools with broken sections that made the AMS think the filament was finished, and even PLA Tough+ so tightly pinched on the spool that AMS HT/AMS2 Pro couldn’t feed it until I manually rewound it. On top of that, recent TPU batches required more than 200% adjustment to flow and PA, which clearly points to something being off. Support simply replied that “our experts see no problem with your spool” based on a photo.
No issues at all – everything works fine
Minor issues (occasional loose winding, small defects)
I did get a refill that was too tightly wound that it caused AMS errors until about a third into the spool. I also got a spool of “clear” that is milky with only one .3 layer. On the flip side I got many different brands from Amazon with no complaints.
I’ve been getting refills for a while now and it does seem like I am seeing a degradation in quality, loose windings, failed vacuum sealed bags.
Also having an issue with many refills getting pinched while printing, causing the print to stop. The refill filament gets caught between the roll and the spool holder and the feeder can’t pull it out. You have to manually pull the filament out of the pinched spool and resume. Seems to happen more lately.
And I think the price just went up for refills of PLA? I thought I was seeing $12.99 previously and my last order was @ $13.99. That had me looking at sunlu or something similar on amazon…
I have EVERY Bambu filament in PLA and some PETG HF in stock for my farm with many backups of each. Over the last 2 years I have gone through a few dozen bad rolls of Bambu filament. Usually its due to shipping damage as Bambu doesn’t use and packing material in their box’s what so ever. Otherwise its dues to diameter inconsistency.
I wonder if I should file a support ticket and ask for a few hundred in credit lol While there at it my H2D is eating heater cores on the left nozzle like candy.
I have seen the sticking feed myself on a few refills. None had moisture issues though so there is that. I did get a roll of SunLu PETG refill that the bag had lost vacuum and the roll got wet. 6 hours in the Dehydrator at 149* cured that. I have two AMS filled with Bambu PLA Lithophane and PLA Silk gold and silver and have a heck of a time keeping them dry below 20%. Even loaded with Desiccant. I have to set drying at least 3 times a week. I have no idea why. I even moved them all to another machine and saw the same thing. It’s like they are generating their own humidity.
I’m also having various problems, but only with cobalt blue. Suddenly I’m getting streaks even though the filament comes from the same spool. This doesn’t happen with other colors. Has anyone else experienced this?
I see rather quality issues in prints. Opened a gray BL PETG HF spool and even after drying a full day it leaves smal visual lines, lighter spots in the layers and surfaces. The same gridfinity bin printed in gray PETG from SUN or TINMORY looks way smoother and more perfect on the same Bambu profile.
I bought my printer and filament last fall, I bought about 20-30 rolls of matte black PLA filament along with other colors and types. I haven’t had issues with other rolls but the matte black I have only 5-6 rolls remaining (Done a lot of printing! like 780hrs since last fall). The issue is I had to send 3 rolls back (waiting on replacements) because they gummed up the nozzle and kept giving me flow errors. I would purge the head and then it would work fine again. I am unsure if it is moisture or something else, the AMS reads the same moisture level it normally does. They were fresh out of the vacuum seal which seemed good, but it would use about 100g of filament and then went downhill quickly after that. If I printed any of my other filaments in the same AMS slot it was fine. If I put the questionable filament in a different AMS slot, same problem. I just ran 2-3 more spools fine and now I am back to it jamming and giving me flow problems on some other rolls.
Overall, I am pleased with Bambu filament, but why these rolls keep giving me issues, I couldn’t tell you. I was thinking about buying Bambu filament for my home printer as this one is for work, but this has me second guessing that decision. I just want to know what is wrong with it.
Idk if it is wound too tight, or if it is moisture or something else but it should be perfectly fine fresh out of the vacuum seal!
Bambu service asked very few questions. They just wanted the rolls shipped back and they shipped me new ones. Seems like I will be going down this road again. More waisted prints too, which is irritating especially 10hrs into a 23hr print.
Never assume a freshly opened spool is dry. During manufacturing, freshly extruded filament passes through a water bath to cool; factory drying may not be complete. Moisture can also pass through the plastic bag during shipping and storage before you open the bag. PLA is usually dry, and is the only material I risk printing without an initial drying session, but if it gives me problems, drying is my first troubleshooting step.
