The whole marketing machine is just that, marketing. The printers are mediocre at best and I’ll never buy another.
Done ::
Let the vote begin!
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I recently received printer #13, 9 of them being A1 series printers, all running PLA or PETG prints. Not a single hardware failure or major print issue, just the common issues that you would expect from time to time.
Farm management is practically not existing, but also nothing that was ever promised. I hope they will add that at some point. Really don’t wanna pay some cloud provider 20$/printer/month only for it to stop working because of some private API change that was never intended for public use.
Despite that missing, everything else is really good, especially judging by my past experience with other printers.
Most of them have limited time to test and barely going through all the tests. Here is a benchy, here is calibration cube or a toy, review done… at least with most of them. Someone did mention he had a defective machine and got it replace it, but usually you see working machines in the review.
The point is, this printer works just fine out of the box. However, I started seeing some problems (dragging over the infill) when printing multiple objects on the same plate. If I kept printing one object of the time, I’d have never seen this. I’m not the only one seeing this, and it’s not really hardware specific with the A1, this is mostly a software (Bambu studio) error and can be corrected. Other that that, the printer is solid.
Clogging nozzle I’ve seen with people using weird materials, like those with glitter or something similar, and people not using the correct temperature. This is a fillament problem, even more if the brand is unknown. Also A1 comes with a textured plate, which is one of the best when it comes to adhesion. If they are having trouble with this one… I don’t know what to say. In fact there was someone posting these days about problems and in his shots he/she had a PEY plate, that doesn’t come default with this printer. So be aware of the reports, as they don’t tell the full story.
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I just got my A1 combo yesterday and It started off great with printing a benchy but then afterword I kept getting toolhead issues. The issue is clearly the usb-c cable but after re-plugging it in it only works for the first few minutes of a print and then stops working. I created a support ticket yesterday but I haven’t been able to print a whole successful print since my first benchy 
Have you tried using another usb-c cable? I don’t have an A1, so not sure how the fit would be, but I’d give that a go and see if it might help, if you’ve got an extra around. Seems worth a shot. Hopefully support gets back to ya. I think they’re pretty slammed after all the Christmas sales, unfortunately.
(sorry, accidentally double posted there)
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I was able to fit another cable in just now to try it and I am getting the same “The toolhead is malfunctioning” issue I might need a specific type of usb-c cable.
Just got my second BBL printer, an A1 mini. I wanted something small and fast to just spit out parts while I played on my other printers. I also have running a P1S, a heavily modded Ender 3 V2, and a couple of old Dremel 3D20s.
Both of the BBL printers were extremely easy to set up and get good & fast prints off of. I am not amused at how hard they made the P1S to set up and use without creating a cloud account. The A1 mini did not have that problem and was just super easy.
With all of that, I still think the Klipper Fluidd interface on my Ender is light years ahead of working with either of the BBL machines. Guess there will never be a perfect combination.
So far been smooth sailing; compared to prior printers this has been refreshing.
For me:
- Love love love how reliably it prints; failures happen but are truly an exception
- Love love love the print qualities; so stupidly good for such minimal effort
- Love love love how fast it prints; especially if you learn what the model can print at - even as simple as experimenting with the speeds while it is printing gives me huge time savings. (Sport mode is so good; ludicrous is even better when the model/file can take it!)
- Love love love the multi color support; has worked flawlessly for me so far
- And all at this price point? Are you kidding me - I’ve always classified printers with these qualities has thousands of dollar.
There are definitely pain points though:
- Working with non-BambuLab filament can be tricky; most of my failures so far happen when I am trying to figure out what settings I need to make ‘3rd party’ filament work. Whereas BambuLab filament has worked flawlessly almost every time.
- Washing the bed is critical; I wish this were explained with more emphasis. Early on I was super discouraged by bed adhesion issues; but after reading here & the wiki, a good wash with dish soap fixed all my problems.
- Firmware out of the box only worked with the files on the sd card; it would not work with new files as the nozzle would not preheat to correct temp. Only after updating firmware did it start working.
- Wish some of the features were offline available; such as firmware update, remote printing via ethernet, etc.
I recommend the A1 with almost no reservations. Unless you need 5 or more colors or want ABS (and other materials that need an enclosure), the A1 is such a boon.
I do think the marketing exaggerates a little bit on how easy it is; it is easy but it’s still a 3d printer that needs love & care and will annoy you at times - and you def still get lemons (as we’ve seen on this forum; so ideally buy from a local retailer for easy returns if you do get a lemon) but I’m still so blown away by how comparatively easy this has been against my past printers.
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btw for an update I ordered and installed the replacement usb-c cable from bambu lab and my printer has been working since.
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I am new to 3D printing but quite tech savvy in general. I got the A1 2 months ago and have printed only in BambuLab white PLA so far on the textured PEI plate.
So far printing was almost 99% spot on.
There was one instance when the GCode produced buy BambuLab Studio was incompatible with the firmware version I had on my A1 but upgrading the firmware solved this.
Hoping that long term they keep spare parts in stock and that maintenance will be straight forward.
So far it prints fine. It just reminds me of a better version of my old Ender 3 (gotta love auto-bed levelling).
My only real irk with the machine is it doesn’t appear to have any sensor for spaghetti failures, if the print gets knocked off the plate, or if the filament runs out. It just continues printing, even if it’s not extruding anything or onto anything.
Aside from this, it seems like a decent enough machine and an upgrade from the Ender 3 I use to have.
it certainly has filament sensors, both in the head and the ams. especially since the ams has auto swap features. so why it’d keep running when its out i dont quite get, unless youre running without the ams and the remaining filament in the head after clearing the feed gears is enough to still trigger the sensor.
theres also an example of the switch getting stuck on one of the beta samples.
honestly, I don’t know what’s wrong with the sensor then. I don’t use the AMS Lite, and my manual spool feeding into all four of the ams splots has been consistently the same; if the spool runs out, it doesn’t stop. I might just have a faulty sensor.
Reminds me of this one:
Might be worth checking.
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exactly the one i meant with the beta samples. 
begin with looking if your little green filament indicator (inside the extruder icon) is always on in the control menu on the printer.
Watching that vid i was also wondering if it’d be enough to lube the pin with some thin lubricant like wd40 rather than trying to disassemble and reassemble the tongue.
Just push out the pin ever so slightly (not all the way, just so you have a divet to put oil in), add a drop of lube and wiggle the tongue… then repeat on the other side.
My A1mini works flawlessly, i have printing a lot and yesterday I printed ABS with kevlar no problem only for testing 
I am a newbie at 3D printing.
I choose the A1 Mini because it is supposed to be a newbie machine.
And it is. And a great one ! My friends are flabbergasted by the chain maille I printed.
I am a retired Industrial Designer with CAD skills and also a figurine painter.
Now the A1 mini is part of the loop : idea, design and print.
Now my friends come to me and ask : I broke this. can you print a new one ?
Of course I had the problems every newbie has : Parts not sticking to the bed, etc… All resolved with advices picked up on the web.
But the stringing is still killing me. I have not harnessed that one yet.
And despite the web, a lot of people have not either…
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Well the new issues they have with those cables is extremely bad. This should never happen but it is and it’s very dangerous.
I have some news. I’d like to thank everyone who participated in this post. I’ve since ordered an A1 and picked it up yesterday. The first thing I did was to check the power cable. Fortunately it’s intact, so I installed the printed guard immediately before assembly.
I printed a test model from the sd card and it came out flawless. It’s early to judge but I’m hopeful that the bumps will be minor.
I’m getting the IKEA Skadis today to mount the AMS on it, and I’ll start experimenting with sliced multi-color models. Fingers crossed.
Coming from the Ender 3 V2 Neo, my first impression: I’m happy.
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