What’s the community consensus on leaving an A1 printer (with 2 attached AMS 2 Pro’s) on all the time?
My A1 is located in a spare room upstairs and my computer and most of my other activities are on the ground floor. When I’m finished with a print and don’t immediately have another, I usually turn the printer off, but then an idea hits me. The filaments I commonly use loaded into the AMS 2 Pro’s (probably the best reason to upgrade from the AMS Lite). I have to go upstairs and turn the printer. While I can use the exercise, I’m inherently lazy.
The negatives I see are with the printer on, it may be more susceptible to power surges although I do have it plugged into a surge suppressor (but not a UPS). Leaving the printer on may leave it more susceptible to online attacks. Leaving the printer on does use a small amount of electricity.
On the other hand, I worry about wear and tear on the power switch and possible wear and tear on the electronics from being cycled on and off.
The AMS 2 Pro’s don’t have power switches. Their power supplies are always on,
FWIW, My computer is a Mac mini and I leave it on all the time. It is connected to a UPS. It automatically goes into sleep mode after a time out.
I never turn my printers off unless I am moving them or doing maintenence. They stay on all the time ready for a print to be sent to them. Sleep mode on these is very efficient.
I only measure about 8 watts with 2 P2Ss, 3 AMS2, and 2 AMS HT when they are all at idle (on the same circuit). Thats not nothing, but thats half as much as my computer.
I leave mine on all the time too, but that isn’t quite what he asked.
Note he’s running an A1. Maybe I should have asked him if he is in 220V, that would have made what the “community consensus” is a little more clear cut. The cycle lifetime of that thermistor is, what, I can’t remember, low thousands? He’s never going to hit that in normal use, mostly the hazard is going to be from keeping it running.
I live in California and electricity is expensive. I tend to leave stuff off when not in use. My H2D and Core One are connected to smart plugs. I can turn them on/off from anywhere.
I only use the P2 as an example because that is what I can immediately pull data from. I believe that they are on 120V based on their time zone (EST) and every country in that time zone uses 120V.
The thermistor is a good point, but wear is going to happen while it is being used and significant power is being pulled. The issue with the thermistor is heat and it will not heat up significantly at idle.
Now to get more specific…
Sure, this will depend on where you are. I find power surges to be very rare, but when they do happen a high quality surge protector does the job.
Maybe, but if this is a worry, I wouldn’t blame the printer for it. Smart TVs, Stupid refrigerator that’s connected to wifi, thermostats, etc… There are so many devices that we constantly keep on that always have an internet connection.
That’s actually the danger (not heating up at idle). If that is what is happening (the thermistor is oversized) that is a catastrophic design error. On thermistors the “wear” isn’t time spent in normal (hot) operating condition, it’s the off-on count. Since the lifetime of the cheap ones (and I have no doubt Bambu Lab used the cheapest ones possible) could be as low as a thousand cycles, if it is cycling every time the bed heats and cools you could go through that 1000 quickly.
Your “ok to leave on” premise was based on the thermistor being in the “cold” state when idle. I was pointing out that if in fact that was happening there are bigger problems in the design than people accounted for, as now the thermistor has a “per print” lifetime instead of a “power cycle” lifetime which is infinitely worse.
If I had the time/motivation I’d instrument an A1 thermistor to verify the behavior, but in my laziness what I did instead was buy up all of the US stock of the replacement AC boards (and then never installed them). So sorry to people who wanted one, that was me. I have a lot of A1’s.
Yes, your understanding my premise. I am just not sure what these “bigger problems in the design” that you are referring to are and how you are getting the “per print" vs "power cycle” lifetimes, because in my view, those should be virtually the same.
I appreciate all the comments and the technical knowledge here on the forum.
My A1 is running on 120v (US).
What is the issue with the thermistor? Where is the thermistor in the circuit. Reading between the lines, I’m assuming somewhere close to the power input so it sees most or all of the power going to the printer.
krellboy, Why is it good news that you have to replace the AC boards? Why do you want to replace the AC boards? How many hours are on your printers. I have less than 1,000 on mine.
Well there’s been no formal recall , and only bambu really has the incidence rate , but some people’s AC boards have failed in the same way w/ a molten thermistor. Gets so hot the case plastic deforms, kills itself as thermistors are want to do. The replacement PCB is differently designed than what was in it.
, and only bambu really has the incidence rate