Can this $8 ptfe adapter be used in place of the optional hub on a x1c, to connect multiple AMS units to my x1c?
Yes! If you have the normal buffer, you can just add the 4in1.
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While it is technically possible (it has holes that direct PTFE tubes with filament in, prolonged use is liable to damage the printer.
Newer printers have the hub element built inside and are designed to work with the 4-in-1 adapter. The original range do not have this and require a buffer for a single AMS (usually provided with a combo printer) or a hub when more than one ANS is used.
Thin is a mechanical device designed to handle the tension between the input and the printer. Without this, the constant use can damage the printer requiring replacement parts which are more expensive than the hub.
- Which Printers Use the Electronic AMS Hub?
The electronic Bambu Lab AMS Hub is used exclusively to link multiple AMS units (up to 4) on standard, first-generation enclosed printers.
- X1 Series: X1-Carbon (X1C)
- P1 Series: P1S
Note: Newer model generations (such as the H2 Series or P2S have built-in internal filament buffering electronics. If you want to connect multiple AMS 2 Pro or AMS HT boxes to those machines, you do not buy an external AMS Hub they use the 4-in-1 adapter instead.
- Which Printers Use the 4-in-1 PTFE Adapter?
Virtually all Bambu Lab printers can or must use a version of the 4-in-1 PTFE Adapter. However, its exact role depends on the printer’s age:
A. Used as a Multi-AMS Splitter (For New Gen Printers)
On newer machines with internal buffers, the 4-in-1 adapter acts as the literal connection hub to hook up 2 to 4 automated AMS units.
- H2 Series: H2S, H2D (Requires the specialized H2 Series version with a built-in cleaning pad for the induction hotend).
- Other New Models: P2S, X2D (Uses the standard version)
Are you sure? I remember that Bambu Lab themselves advertised the 4in1 as official alternative to the AMS hub. I could be wrong of course.
Historically, after release of the X1C, they first released the AMS Hub. The 4in1 was available some time later but before the A1 and the H2 series. I think it made the AMS hub kind of obsolete.
Why do you think, it could damage something?
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It was designed to provide additional inlets through into the external inlet. One would be the buffer or hub, the others for dry boxes and other direct fed external spools.
Unfortunately, in this instance you are.
The AMS Hub, was available at the same time as the X1C. If you only needed one AMS, you only required the buffer, if you needed two or more, you needed the hub.
It didn’t, still doesn’t.
While some people used in the 4-in1 adapter in place of the hub or buffer, they risk damaging the printer.
The Bambu Lab AMS Filament Buffer and AMS Hub regulate and manage the physical feeding and retraction of filament. Both devices sync the Automatic Material System with your printer’s toolhead to control tension, prevent tangles, and facilitate multi-spool setups
Using the purely mechanical Bambu Lab 4-in-1 PTFE Adapter instead of a data-linked component (like the AMS Hub) to directly connect multiple standard AMS units will not permanently fry your printer’s electronics, but it will cause immediate mechanical failures, filament jams, and severe component wear.
The 4-in-1 adapter is a passive plastic splitter designed to connect one AMS and up to three manual external spools. It has zero electronic sensors, no internal buffer spring, and no communication data lines to pace the heavy pull of multiple AMS motors.
If you attempt to bypass the proper hub setup using only this adapter, several specific types of damage and failure will arise:
- Internal AMS Filament Snapping and Grinding.
Without the internal spring-loaded slider found in a Buffer or Hub, there is nothing to measure physical line tension. When an AMS unit tries to pull or rapidly retract filament, the motor will pull blindly. This lack of tension management causes the gears to aggressively grind down the filament into dust or snap it entirely inside the internal AMS feeder.
- Gouged and Ruined PTFE Tubing
Without a Hub pacing the feeding speed, filament is often forced down the lines with too much friction. The abrasive nature of 3D printing filaments—especially matte, glowing, or carbon-fiber variants—will rapidly cut deep grooves into the inner walls of your PTFE tubes. Eventually, the filament will poke right through the side of the plastic tube and bunch up, destroying the line.
- Damaged Internal AMS Feeder Hubs
When multiple AMS units try to operate through a passive adapter, filament will frequently get stuck or fail to pull back. If the printer misinterprets the data and forces a feed into a blocked path, the physical pressure can crack the plastic housings of the internal AMS feeder components, requiring full disassembly and replacement parts.
4. Severe Extruder and Toolhead Clogs
Because the 4-in-1 adapter has zero communication with the printer’s motherboard, it cannot safely regulate multi-material swaps. If two spools are pushed forward simultaneously, or if a retraction fails without the printer realizing it, filament will collide, jam, and weld together inside the toolhead. This leads to severe hot end clogs that usually require a total teardown of the extruder assembly to resolve.
One person’s experience, the OP has another, the thread and forum show more.
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Ahh, maybe there is a misunderstanding: I didn’t mean to use the 4in1 alone but in front of the simple buffer with only 1 input. When you already have a buffer, which was included with the AMS 1, that means a significant saving compared to the hub.
Functionality would be almost the same. the hub basically integrates a buffer and a 4in1. The only difference is that it has 4 individual filament sensors, one at each input, while you have only one filament sensor at the input of the simple buffer.
To my knowledge, the firmware never made any use of the 4 sensors. It had the potential to retract only past the hub when the next filament comes from a different AMS, but at least my X1C with hub always fully retracted filament anyway.
So in my understanding you are free to choose
1.) AMS hub or
2.) 4in1 + AMS buffer
to connect more than one AMS to a gen 1 printer.
I couldn’t see anywhere you wrote this.
Yes, theoretically that would work.
If you add it to the inlet of the buffer (left side when viewed from the back) rather than the external inlet which connects to the printer itself and the right side of the buffer when viewed from the back).
This uses the buffer as the tension control.
Details are important when explaining things or they lead to confusion by those not reading the whole context.
Especially, as there are so many printers with different technologies to connect the various AMS units.
The information I provided relates to the P1 & X1 series. The A1 series is different and requires a buffer to use the multiple slot AMS units other than the AMS Lite. The A2L doesn’t require a buffer or hub. The latest printers, H2 series, P2 & X2 series only require a 4-in-1L as they tension mechanism is internal now.
That was intended to say “add the 4in1 in front of an normal buffer”. I see how I probably used a too compact and thus unclear wording here. Sorry for the confusion!
By the way, only the H2 printers have an internal buffer. P2S and X2D still have the separate external buffers, but they are delivered and premounted with the printers now.