So I was curious why people decided to go with a Bambu Labs printer. No judgement here just very interested in peoples journey to bambu labs. For me it was 3 months of a horrible experience with the Creality Ender3 s1 pro. It was so bad that i did not feel right selling it to some unsuspecting new person , but I could not bring myself to throw it away. I ended up just giving it to a coworker disclosing all the issues that it has. On my search for a better printer i looked at Bambu, Prusa, and Voron. First look was at Prusa. I did not want open frame, nor a bed slinger. It was overpriced in my opinion and i saw an interview with the owner and thought he was kind of an ass, so hard pass on the Prusa.Next I looked at the Voron stuff. Again I wanted an enclosed non bed slinger and did not see anything they had that fit the bill. I wanted to just print stuff not spend all my time tinkering and tweeking trying to set up the printer for perfect prints, while some people love it, it is not my jam.( i have too many hobbies that I already do that with) I had almost given up hope and was going to just chalk it up to a bad experience and give up on 3D printing when a friend suggested taking a look at Bambu Labs. The more i looked into it the more i liked what i saw, the proprietary stuff did not bother me one bit. I ended up with the X1C with 3 ams units ( 1 for PLA, 1 for PETG, 1 for ABS). I do not really print multi color jobs, maybe black and another color at most, the AMS units keep my filament dry and i can monitor the humidity in the units with a hydrometer in each one. while not perfect I am over 700 hours of printing in and have not had any major issues.
I initially came to this printer after suffering constant failures from a Creality Ender3 V2 (I think that was the name anyway) I read a lot of information on Bambu and it seemed that they really hit a homerun with their design. I have been using my X1C for about 6 months. I recently started having some issues that I havenāt been able to resolve on my own. I was shopping for some parts and filament on the site and saw the membership for filament purchase. Well I bought mine at a brick and mortar store, not online from Bambu. I didnāt think that was a big deal. The free 6 month offer appeared to be possible to attain anyway. So I opened a ticket about the membership, and also listed out the issues I was experiencing with multiple photos takes by the camera on the print head. I saw it said high volumes (as every company on earth says this I though little of it, most reply in 24 hours anyway) This was submitted last week. Yesterday, I decided to go by an A1 Mini to take to my office to increase my production. It is still in the box in the back of my vehicle. And then came the response. What a joke. Their response tells me that I cannot get the free 6 month membership because they canāt verify my purchase since I bought it from a brick and mortal store. (Uh, the receipt?) Ok whatever, I could justify the required purchase direct from them for the free 6 months. I also asked about purchasing the membership to which I was told the membership is nor for sale. Not only is it not for sale, but in the event you get the free 6 month trial you cannot renew it. What kind of stupid, ignorant game are they playing? You canāt buy the membership, you dontā get it unless you buy it from them, and you canāt keep it after 6 months even if you want to pay for it?!? Then they give me a link to the membership so I can get more informationā¦WTF? Why do I need any, much less more information on something I canāt buy because you wonāt sell it to me?
At that point, you know, whatever Iāll just pass on your worthless membership. On to the next issue of problems in print quality I was basically told my word wasnāt sufficient, nor where the photos from the print head I submitted and I would have to prove my purchase from the store where I purchased it before they would even discuss my issues. At that point I did al little net search on Bambu Labs customer service. I should have done this 6 months ago. The customer service is atrocious. It is worse than the worst cable company on the planet. Youāve got a company here that has real geniuses creating the machines and their technology, of that I have no doubt. But then they hired what seems like the cable companies rejects to handle customer service. Like the ones who got fired due to endless complaints about their ignorance and inability to simply talk to people. It was such a poor response I think I am going to return the A1 Mini I purchased as I havenāt even opened the box. If customer service is this bad just on a first interaction with simple questions, then I doubt they can actually manage to fix anything. Itās a very sad end to the story, and it needs to be known by the higher up in management that this is a huge problem. The type of problem that could sink the companyā¦ And everyone needs to know about it and understand that going forward before they decide to buy one. If you do, well, godspeed to you if you suffer a problem and need help.
Full disclaimer, I did not buy an X1C, it was a gift. However, it was on the short-list as the āpremiumā option alongside a couple Sovol machines. The reason I chose it was because of the āit just worksā promise. My first (and only other) 3D printer was a Monoprice Maker Ultimate III which was just a rebranded Wanhao D6. I cut my teeth on that machine and upgraded so much on it trying to make it keep up with tech advancements. Eventually it got to the point that I just didnāt want to 3D print anymore because it was more of a job than a hobby. For my second machine, I wanted to know that I could plug and play, no excessive fiddling, no manual bed leveling, no effort. While I donāt know how the Sovol series would have turned out, I have zero complaints with my carbon, it is amazing and I have fallen back in love with printing and 3D design because of it!
I have been trying to sell off my olā Wanhao, but havent had any bites. Now that Iām deep in the FDM world again and have a functional machine Iām starting to get an itch to casually try and tune the veteran back up to working order
I had an Anet A8 at the time. It worked but I wanted better. I was headed down the Prusa path but the Bambu popped up. I probably liked the speed aspect but it was the promised print quality that I really wanted. That was December of '22. Ordered it January 5th '23 and now have 979 hours of mostly uneventful print time and am very happy with it.
I bought a Creality CR6-SE several years ago as part of the Kickstarter campaignā¦a year later it arrivedā¦damaged
At least in the year of waiting I had become proficient in designing in Fusion 360 so was ready to print from day one.
Unfortunately the printer was very much a hobbyist piece of kit and it took many months of modding/repairing to get anything near being reliable.
After many years of slow and unreliable printing I recently had had enough of waiting hours for the smallest of prints and wondered if things had changed in the 3D printer market. It had, Youtube was awash with reviews of the Creality K1 and itās blistering speed, I was sold. However as I dug deeper I was not so sure it was all it seemed that many mentioned the advert laden application, some of the reviews mentioned the Bambu P1 printers. Once I saw the AMS I realised that the occasions when I spent hours changing filament for the odd multicoloured print would be easier.
So a P1 series printer with AMS it was to beā¦not so fast, that screen was a throwback. Enter the X1c with itās LCD screen, Lidar and various other goodies but at a cost (especially compared to the Creality offerings).
I spent a weekend agonising which one to buy, if any, and no matter how much I tried to persuade myself I could āmanageā on a different (and cheaper) model I would always be looking at the X1C. So I ordered the X1C Combo with PEI and immediately wondered if i could justify the expense.
Two days later my new toy arrived and after an afternoon setting up and tinkering I discovered just how much more enjoyable 3D printing could be. My first big print was a 7 hour poop bin, this would have taken a day on my old device and would have ended in failure, it worked perfectly. That is not to say that it has been completely trouble free, I have had to adjust the tensioner idle wheels to fix a squeak that started after 15 hours of printer and due to old brittle filament I had to open up the AMS several times (filament now in the bin).
I am now a week into Bambu ownership and so far it has been a breath of fresh air.
I eventualy pulled the triger on X1C, and I donĀ“t regret on bit.
I owned and still have a Creality CR10s Pro, Voxol Aquila x2, Sovol SV04.
With those I have had so much filament wasted due to failed prints, that the poop that either Bambu printer generates, is nothing.
People on their reviews say that they are loud. no, they are not.
Creality, Voxol and Sovol, those are loud.
Bambu just has come up with amazing tech, pricie but amazing.
Iāve been 3d printing for about 10ish years now. Iāve built a lot of kits, bought a few pre-builts, and designed and built one of my own. I do enjoy the whole tinkering with the printer partā¦ to some extent. The printer I built was a coreXY style that jammed all the fanciest tech into it that was out at the time. Never owned an Ender or Creality anything! I eventually settled into a lineup of a Prusa Mk2, two Anycubic Vypers, and a Kobra Max! They all worked pretty well. I lost nearly everything in early 2023 though, but managed to hold onto a hand full of items, which included one of my Vypers. Didnāt know where life was gonna head, but knew something like 3d printing would help me focus on the good that the future can provide. (having something productive you can put your energy into!)
Fast forward to thanksgiving and black Friday. Managed to finally scrape enough life together that it wasnāt going too bad, and to my surprise, I actually had a little extra money. I didnāt plan on getting a Bambu printer at all. Something made me go explore the idea though. Just that itch in the back of my head. I had ignored anything Bambu up until that point because life sucked, and I didnāt want to depress myself by looking at things I couldnāt afford. I went into it semi-blind. I knew it was a CoreXY, it had the multi-color system, but I didnāt really stop to think about the slicer, or makerworld, or anything like that. That was all a pleasant surprise after I got the printer. It was a huge impulse buy and I considered a lot if it was a bad move. I could never afford an Ultimaker, so mostly I just wanted a CoreXY that I didnāt have to build myself.
That helped rekindle my love of 3d printing and ignited a fire in me to keep designing. Itās been a crazy few months since then!
About three years ago I got into 3D printing as a means to construct custom items for my main hobby which is geocaching. I bought myself an Ender 3 Pro and had been using it with really good results. Two years later I felt the urge to buy myself another printer.
When designing completely new ideas from scratch, I often have to print various iterations of samplesā¦especially at this point, speed becomes a factor even if this still is just a hobby for me.
Instead of replacing one bed slinger with another one, I got myself a P1P (for which I immediately printed the Arc enclosure as its first project) ā and did not at all regret my decision. Side note: no AMS here, and I do not really miss it.
In the 13 1/2 months since I got the device, I think I printed some 20 kg of filament (PLA/PETG/ABS) for various stuff. Spare parts needed during this time: 2 nozzles, 1 wiper. Minor issue directly after arrival which had been solved by the manufacturer in a very professional manner.
While still viewing a lot of reviews of different printers on Youtube, at this time there are no plans at all to invest in āsomething else or betterā. On the contrary, when watching presentations of other printers, I see a lot of strange things which I find Bambulab just got right from the start.
speed, reliable, ease of use (ājust worksā), enclosed, ability to print high temperature filaments, built-in camera, built-in networking, phone app, cloud printing, carbon filtration, a multi-material that actually works, all in the stock configuration without needing to upgrade.
Pretty much everything my Prusa MK3S+ didnāt have (yes, Iād even say my X1C is more reliable too).
I bought it because of the positive reviews at the given purchase price and especially the AMS was a unique selling point to me.
In detail:
I am as interested in the machines themselves as I am interested in designing & printing. I had/have access to a lot of different printers over the years and designed my own ones as well.
The last printing platform for FFF I designed & built myself in 2019 is still going strong but absolutely massive and massively expensive. Also the desire for a filament changing system arose (more for colors rather than support material). I was pondering about building an ERCF or designing something similar myself when Bambu Lab came around with their Kickstarter campaign I decided to simply wait a bit longer.
A few month and reviews later I pulled the trigger on a X1CC because it cost half as much as what I would build as DIY printer and already had a filament changing system with the AMS. Competitors that ticked all my relevant points at a reasonable price point were simply non-existent.
So far I am satisfied with my purchase.
Not overly impressed because
- my DIY system with Klipper has no trouble challenging the X1 in speed, print quality and ease of use (just the lack of an AMSā¦)
- some questionable design choices
- way too much potential lies untapped, seemingly because of 80/20 rule in firmware & G-code
but also not underwhelmed.
No more praise has to be expected from a German customerā¦
After years of having several Creality printers, I was fed up with a printer that just worked without having to fine-tune/calibrate all the time. The Bambu Lab just does it out of the box and you can print within 15 minutes. Rarely seen this good printer right out of the box.
After looking at different 3D printers my final lineup was the Bambu X1C, Prusa MK4, Prusa XL and Voron.
I did a lot of reading of articles, reviews, forum posts and Bambu seemed to be the best fit for my needs. I wasnāt going to get the AMS, but then the black Friday deal was good enough that I decided to go for it, mostly for support interface and auto switch from empty to new spools. But I must say I am enjoying the multi-color, I try to be conservative when I use it because it can be very wasteful if it changes on too many layers.
I am very happy with my purchase, it has reawakened my inventiveness.
I wanted to spend time printing and not excessive fiddling / rebuilding printers. Did my time on that.
Being honest though, my first printer was a Frankenstein based on an ender 3 that I had to compile the Marlin for myself. Great way to learn printers and how 3D printers work but can get a bit tired.
Came from a Raise3d E2. Was actually a decent machine but expensive and slow by todayās standards. Got the X1C because it got great reviews and I wanted to print multicolor.
Funny enough, although the Bambu is supposed to be print and forget, Iāve actually been having more problems with it than the Raise3d (which Iām trying to post in this forum but donāt have enough experience yet to start a new post apparently!).
But when it works, it works great.
I bought one because people stated it ājust worksā and is a āworkhorseā. I guess that was a mistake to believe, since mine died after 3 prints, and Bambu doesnāt provide any customer support.
So it doesnāt work well.
Why say when it works it works great if it often doesnāt work?
Why do that?
Automated color changes, enclosed, and larger build volume. I came from a Makerbot Mini+ which was a workhorse for years but it was tiny, took manual filament changes to get color, and I needed a still room to get good results, but it was a trooper. The X1-C has been an eye-opener. No regrets. 
My dad has been after me to get a 3D printer for yeeeears, but had obsolete win7 PCs, finally bought a new gaming PC and saw a couple videos on YT and thought I can do that. My dads friend sold me a upgraded voxelab aquilaS2 and I only used that for 2 days before I dropped big coin on the BL X1C w AMS and a bunch of PLA filaments. I thought the color change was neat BUT Iām a newb spending hours in the slicer trying to cut down the waste. The voxelab benchy was going to take 3.5 hours to print, less than 30 mins on the X1C, that was my first print. SOLD!!
Essentially a form of āit just worksā convinced me. Over about a year, I saw enough non-influencer YouTube videos that show businesses switching over from Creality and Prusa to Bambu. That convinced me more than product review videos (which might be sponsored or just want to hype). What pushed me over was one video comparing (over a 6 month period) the uptime and success print rate of a 3D print farm. Prusa was around 88% and Bambu was 93% or so which for me puts to rest the āPrusaās are just more reliableā mantra.
Prior to this I owned a Prusa Mini and MK3 and an AnyCubic Max and I definitely prefer the X1C which though not perfect has not yet caused me any real headaches and keeps me designing and imagining rather than doing printer maintenance. The print quality is consistent enough that I no longer dread tedious sanding/finishing. Itās good enough often to leave as-is. Alternatively, a light sanding is enough for me to proceed to electroplating.
I was an early adopter having bought my Prusa from TheRepRapKitStore (no defunct) in 2012. Modified the printer a lot over the years adding a second, independent, print head to the X axis. Went a way form printing for a while and really struggled to get Marlin to work properly after I came back. Just wanted a printer that just printed. Got exactly what I wanted in the Bambu Labs Carbon X1 with AMS,