Bambu Lab H2D AMS 2 Pro 3D printer in test – Two nozzles in long-term perspective

1 - Introduction and technical data 2 - Assembly 3 - Comissioning 4 - Elektronics and features 5 - Test prints 6 - Summary and conclusion

Summary and conclusion

As you already know, here are a few thoughts and comments that have not yet been mentioned:

• The version without laser and AMS weighs 31 kilograms, the grip options at the bottom of the printer and its size make carrying it alone very awkward
• No filament is included, which was the case with the last Bambu Lab printers in the AMS combo so far
• The progress bar under the print bed was the first mainstream printer to be released shortly before the Prusa Core One
• If you press a roll on the touchscreen in the AMS overview while idle, it is also made to wobble briefly in the AMS
• A short melody is played when switching on, but this can be deactivated
• Firmware updates take quite a long time
• The H2D takes around 22 seconds from switching on to fully booting up
• Spaghetti detection and other AI functions should ideally be set to “Low”, as otherwise false positives often occur
• If a print is in progress, a roll of filament added to the AMS cannot be processed on the touchscreen
• The touchscreen has a fairly high resolution of 1280×720 pixels
• The glass door can be opened very wide, almost 180°
• The rubber feet that can be purchased with older printers are installed here ex works, in combination with the very heavy print head, the printer wobbles a lot during operation
• The 8GB internal memory in eMMC form can be expanded using a USB stick
• An NPU with 2 TOPS is installed
• The segment display of the AMS-HT lights up permanently, even when the printer is in standby mode

Apart from that, I can come back to the point that Bambu Lab feels very much like an Apple 3D printer. At the latest with this new generation of devices, there are severe restrictions on how they can be accessed. Of course, there is still a LAN-only mode without the cloud and theoretically some possibilities are not completely blocked with the new developer mode, but the direction is clear.

But you can’t deny the quality and progress that is being offered here in terms of software, features and hardware. I don’t print much in color, but I do like to use an accent color or different materials in an object, even if it’s just for the support structure. The amount of filament and time that can be saved with the H2D is amazing.

It’s not a flawless performance, but it’s close. In addition to the aforementioned problems with stringing, I was also somewhat surprised by this message straight out of the box:

Not even printed yet and already supposed to be re-oiled? I don’t think so. I was also annoyed by the overly sensitive error detection, a print job that was actually planned overnight was stuck at the beginning because a non-existent print was detected in the air. Spaghetti was also recognized several times where there was none.

The printer also tends to shoot filament residue around the interior when cleaning the nozzle.

For printing with PLA (220/65°C), the H2D requires around 220 watts, 37.8 watts in standby mode with the motors switched on and finally 16.3 watts. At its peak, I measured 1732 watts when heating up the nozzle and print bed at the same time. Incidentally, the nozzle reaches the target temperature of 200°C after 47 seconds, while the print bed only needs 1 minute and 3 seconds to reach 60°C and 2 minutes 34 seconds to reach 120°C thanks to the 230 V heating. The printer has a noise level of 49.1 dB(A) in operation and 34.1 dB(A) at idle. Although it is quiet, the fan from the power supply unit is constantly audible. The integrated heater takes 15 minutes and 36 seconds to heat up from 25°C to 60°C and requires around 580 watts.

• Manufacturer store (Germany)
• Manufacturer Shop (International)

Even when you look at it soberly, what Bambu Lab delivers with the H2D is really impressive. And I couldn’t even go into everything, I’ve left out things like the new AMS with dry function so that it doesn’t go beyond the scope of this review. Nevertheless, as I mentioned at the beginning, I took my time with my test report, and various updates and minor fixes after the launch have confirmed my decision. There is now even a toolchanger available on the same platform, the H2C, but I would perhaps give the machine a little more time after seeing the first user reports. The H2D can still be improved here and there, hopefully Bambu Lab will not fall into the release craze like many other manufacturers. After all, the recently released P2S also got a new hardware revision, so a little more development time would probably have done it good too. I think that with H2D you are buying into an expensive, but now well-matured platform. If you are not afraid of the closed ecosystem and have many use cases for the dual-nozzle system, this 3D printer is definitely one of the best recommendations.

The test sample was provided by Bambu Lab without obligation. There was and is no influence on the tests and results. There was also no compensation for expenses and no obligation to publish.