Battle of the Bedslingers: Bambu A1 vs Prusa MK4
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- 🥊I put the Bambu Lab A1 up against a Prusa MK4 to see who's faster, cheaper and better. Who wins this match up in the Battle of the Bedslingers?
Thanks to Jim @TheEdgeofTech for showing us how to remove a Bambu X1 Nozzle!
• How To Change A Bambu ...
Some of the following are affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
⭐Bambu Lab A1 Printers
tinyurl.com/Ba...
⭐Prusa Printers
stldenise3d.co...
atomicfilament...
😎More Awesome Filament:
ProtoPasta! tinyurl.com/De...
MicroCenter/Inland Filament: amzn.to/3QpQ2Zb
PolyMaker: tinyurl.com/st...
www.printables...
www.makersmuse...
REVIEW
Tom's Hardware:
www.tomshardwa...
www.tomshardwa...
Let's Be Social 📲 Twitter: / stldenise3d
Instagram: / stldenise3d
Find me on Threads as @stlDenise3D
Blog: StlDenise3D.com
I bought an A1 to replace my Prusa Mini. Compared to the MK4, my mini just can't copy the quality so I figure this might be at time to try out this legendary Bambu product line. If I think about it, the A1 competes on almost all levels with the MK4 for 1/3 the price. At least, it should. We'll see how it goes. I've been needing a second larger bed printer anyway for some projects so might as well see what the hype is about.
i have the mini aswell,but the quality almost same the bambu is just slightly better but faster and bigger
@@pakssmsjsjsks8596 Something that most don't mention is the phone app for Bambu. Personaly I think its a big plus especially if you have multiple printers from Bambu. Being able to control and check on your prints from your phone is amazing and has came in very handy for me. The app is called Bambu Handy lol. Also, being able to select prints from Maker World straight from your phone or even on your PC is a huge plus for me. I've been out and about and thought of something I would need to print, and if I can find it on Maker World (And I have the filament I want on the printer or AMS's) I'm able to just start the print right from my phone. By the time I'm home, the print is finished and ready.
@@pakssmsjsjsks8596 The PRUSA mini or the BAMBU mini? I have a Prusa mini - and that has been an underwhelming experience. I've been thinking about getting an A1 to up the print speed and quality.
@@thomasd9827the prusa, i have the Prusa Mini, and the A1 the quality is not much diferent, i printed now around 180hours with the A1 and 500with the prusa ,i like prusa firmware better you get more options than the A1, the A1 is like for lazy people who dont like tinkering that much😅 but it looks modern and cool and the AMS is working good, i dont know about the price thought is it worth it? maybe idk, i didnt have problems with the two
@@pakssmsjsjsks8596 the price point comparison seems favorably skewed towards the A1 full size vs the Prusa Mini from my point of view. for what I paid for the Prusa Mini, shipping, and import fees - I can get a full size A1 with AMS and some change to spare for extra A1 nozzle kit and some filament rolls. I'm going to get an A1 since the MK4 isn't cost competitive.
The MK4 is in the same price range as the X1C. That is the comparison I see every time. People always bring up “prusa’s track record” however the Prusa mini still isn’t feature complete, the MMU2 was trash & felt like they forgot about it.
It does seem like the MMU 2 or 3 for Prusa is underpromoted. We don't see much on the review front for sure. Track record and support is a thing. You don't have to search too hard for stories about under supported printer or products in general. We've had amazing support from Bambu Labs but not everyone has every time........
maybe but they were also doing it years before bambu and bambu wouldn't be able to do it now without the investment prusa put into prusaslicer and its multi colour multi material slicing.
@@thegarageluthier there are countless industries, investments, individuals, & innovations that all contribute to every new technology. How do we choose who to credit & how far back? We’re constantly building on previous knowledge & accomplishments.
@@KanielD In the home 3d printing space it is quite easy it only goes back 16 years to the start of the reprap movement, all software and hardware designs we use today stem from that. Also the slicer itself is easy to trace its heritage.
@@thegarageluthier why is that the stopping point? Without DuPont & many others we’d likely be in a different place with 3d printing too. We can trace everything back to things that wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for something that came before them. Before the discovery of fire & the invention of the wheel, there was something else that brought about the advancement we see today.
Thank you for making this video. For such a long time the bamboo seemed like it had zero problems, but as with everything they do have. Our next printer is definitely going to be a prusa!
I've never seen your channell before this video. Bambu seems to be shedding it's light in all kinds of little corners. Great video! Subscribed.
I really wanted to get rid of my Ender 3 Pro that I bought in 2019. It was becoming a hassle to print normal things. I was so close to biting the bullet on a MK4 but right before I completed the order I looked to see some competitors and saw that the A1 had literally just come out. I instantly bought one instead of the MK4 and its been amazing! It got to my house in 2 days (right before christmas!). So much more reliable than the ender and so far its been "print and forget". Not going to shill Bambu Lab or any other brand but this printer has been great in my experience, the value is crazy good in my opinion.
And Ender 3 Pro was my 2nd printer (right after a cr10s) -- the difference is night & day. Happy Printing!
I have a X1 one too. But being to unable to mod and mess with it is a huge downer after some time.
Shoot, you can mod all the Ender 3's you want now. They are pretty much free/dirty cheap since the bambus hit. You can have a modding printer, and a reliable OEM bambu. best of both worlds!
@@haschkatze8372
I bought an Ender 5 Pro two years ago, liked it for some time, started to be really annoyed by it. The bed has a spot where nothing ever sticks despite being equipped with a BLtouch, now the filament does not go through the hot end anymore. I exchanged the hotend but no difference. The extruder keeps pushing and it thickens up in the tube before the hotend. So annoying.
I am done with tinkering with my printer. I am not interested in working on the printer, I want to print with the printer. Right now I am considering: Bambu bedslinger A1 or CoreXY P1 OR go to Prusa with their phantastic support and community. After my experience with the Ender I think about the service oriented Prusa despite the higher price
While tinkering with printer is nice, I am too like just to print. That's why I am no longer tinkering my Ender 3 and just printing. Good to know that I am not alone.
great video, I hope to get an A1 once they start selling them again
how does it compare to creality cr 10 se , there is quite good offer on it however 100$ more for a1
I've been using 3d printer over a decade. My choice is always the Prusa, because after many years, cheaper printers (chinese) will eventually give you bitter problems and go to waste. I just never had any issues with my Mk2 and Mk3 ever. Also the huge differences are direct (prusa) vs bowden(china) extruder - too big of a loop holes for problems over the time on bowden, and customer support with firmware updates. Those two just make it so simple for me to always go for prusa. or you can run china printers with prusa slicer becase, you know, one day CCP will halt hongkong and shenzen support to western enemies.
I have a question on Bambu printers alone. Across the platform, is it where does the value for money peak?
"Hey Rick, check this out!"
I exclusively print in the fastest whatever the printer can do mode.
if you print structual parts, this is not always the best approach - but for prototyping, fast is very nice :)
If you're rather have one MK4 than two A1's with AMS, then you have a very specific need you're trying to address. Price is not the only thing that matters, but in this case, the difference is too great to make the two comparable.
The Bambu will print great for a few months then, because it's as cheaply made as all low dollar 3d printers you may as well throw it away. People buy Kias for the same reason.
shows you dont know what you're talking about.
@@do7185 Which one, Bambu or Kia and how many articles do you want cited?
@@chethammer so from personal experience you bought a Bambu printer and ended up throwing it away after a few months?
@@do7185 Not taking a chance on a printer that's 1200 with virtually no track record to speak of. There are a lot of good printers and a whole lot more crappy ones. I've been watching people give glowing remarks on Enders for years and they have an absolutely awful track record. In a couple years, if Bambu proves itself, then I might consider one. Especially if they can get the multicolor working right and cheaply. That is one thing I hate about Prusa's. Have to throw 4K at them to get multicolor built in.
Do me a favor and stop spreading false assumptions. Bambu makes great printers. I have an A1, P1P, X1 and X1Cs all with AMS units and they work well for what I make. Was one of the first to buy a P1P and replace all my prusas. Didn’t regret the move one bit. Most of the naysayers are Prusa fanboys who can’t accept the fact that another company released a better printer with a working multicolor unit cheaper than an obsolete overpriced mk3+.
Guys just get the bambu.. theres no choice to be made here.
I own a MK3S+, mini and from bambuside I have the X1C and the A1 mini. Ive very rarely touched the MK3S+ since I have the X1C and never touched the prusa mini again... That thing just caused problems with the hotend every single time...
For being in the rep rap Industry for soooo long they never figured out how to lower the cost smh 🤦 🤔🫢🛩💀
Cost is not everything. You can alway buy cheaper materials, find a cheaper manufatory location, Design for cheaper production, etc. The question is if you really want that, everything comes with a downside.
One is manufacturing in EU and tries to use suppliers from EU and USA whenever possible, the other sits in China.. here I think lies decent part of the price gap.
I don't think its very objective to completely disregard the cost differences (which is 3x where I live) by saying its an expensive hobby if cost is your main concern get an ender. Are you forgetting the 7+ hrs of assembly. Also, I'm guessing when Prusa's multi print hardware is released that will be inflated aswell.
Quoting Prusa all the time... Is this a sponsored video?
Fanboism is fine, just dont try and disguise it as an impartial comparison when there are so many caveats and omissions.
In my humble opinion at this point Prusa should drastically cut prices on… wait for it… MK3
For sure I’ll give them some time to recoup R&D from MK4 but asking more for MK3 than A1 is just ridiculous at this point.
I think it depends on users' priorities. Some people are developing products or printing parts that are covered under nondisclosure agreements, and that is not possible given Bambu Lab's licensing agreement that states that you're sharing your files with them.
I bought the a1 with the AMS for $620 to the door. For another $300, you get the privilege of owning the Prusia for no better performance and no AMS. No thanks.
I'm not inclined to buy a bed slinger from a company whose founding slogan was, "No more bed slingers." Reading the Bambu Lab "All Your Designs Are Belong To Us" licensing agreement makes the entire company a complete non-starter for me. I hate how the default is to send a file from my computer to their cloud server then back to the 3D printer that's two feet from my computer. Invading my privacy and violating my security are the only reasons I can imagine to do that. Don't care about privacy or security? Last August, the Bambu Lab cloud server crashed, and when it was restored in the middle of the night in the US, it processed the jobs that had been submitted and printed them on top of the parts that were printed locally after jumping through all of the punishments that Bambu inflicts on users who don't print through their cloud server. Those printers crashed hard in the middle of the night, with destroyed hot ends, etc.
This. Absolutely.
@@dkorzhevin- Don't forget the heated bed cables on the Bambu A1 that are sparking and smoking.
I'd love to see your chart of cost per volume for all the new machines you calculated it for! 😊
2:42. This is one of the dumbest comments ever. As though either price is the sole consideration, or not a consideration at all. It's a matter of value. What is the dollar buying? The A1 is coming in at half the price of the MK4, so the MK4 better be twice the printer, or deliver a unique killer feature, which justifies the added expense. Of course the seriously damning situation is that the A1 is probably the better printer period, for half the price.
and even if price is a consideration: if you buy something for you hobby, you don't want to be frustrated all the time - if you want to print for example model building or tabletop minis (0.2 mm nozzle rocks) you spend 10 bucks per citadel pot of paint, have dozens of paints and then tell me you want to "save" 100 bucks and spend hours and hours of extra time getting your printer to "work properly"?
yes, i'm aware that tinkering with a 3d printer is a fun hobby, but if you reference an A1 or a prebuilt MK4+ those machines specifically target people that want to print - and it is just not worth the trouble
so it boils down to the question: if both machines are similar in their featureset and user expierience: why on earth should anyone buy a Prusa machine? and don't come by with "open source" - that ship has sailed a long time, since josef prusa with his god complex decided to write his post about the state of open source
How are you comparing two printers in completely different piece points, even the bamboo p1p is cheaper than Prussia. What a joke.
Price isn’t everything.
@@gregoryamer agreed, you can get a very capable cheap printer. But when the $1.2k printer is noticable worse than the $400 printer...it's pretty relevant
2:56 You should never recommend an Ender, neither a Monoprice.
I agree on the Monoprice, but the newest Enders have been great for beginners. The Ender 3 sv3 SE is really good.
@@stldenise Enderes are a complete clusterf*** - expecially for beginners - if you just want to print and not tinker with a printer and you are on a tight budget, get an A1 Mini for 300 bucks - in no world the Ender 3 for roughly 200 bucks can compete her
100 bucks extra for - and i quote you here - an expensive hobby is nothing, for the pain and misery you spare yourself
The Prusa MK4 lacks accelerometer sensors, and their idea of input shaping is locked to static values. That on itself is a huge issue in terms of keeping constant quality of output as the IS values are derived not from the specific machine, but a "generic value". The funny part is Prusa themselves fully admit "accelerometers are essential for correct input shaping", yet they do NOT include these sensors on the MK4 (it does have an input port for 1 sensor, which is not enough for a bedslinger, but even that port is not attached to anything), and DO include them on the Prusa XL in each toolhead but are NOT capable of using them atm. For printers at these price tags, that's a major let down, especially since Bambu doesn't just use these sensors for input shaping, but they actually also use them to monitor the machine's "health" in terms of belt tension and possible unexpected levels of resistance in the movement system.
not a huge issue at all, i use the same IS values for all my tridents and have no issues. Its not as big a deal as people think. They are essential for initial values but not required at all times.
@@thegarageluthier What a ridiculous statement. People have their printers on all sorts of surfaces which definitely affects the values.
If you have 3 of the same printers on the same surface then yea, of course itll be fine. Completely misapplied logic.
@@BeefIngot Is that the same misapplied logic that led you to believe that they are all on the same surface? Experience and understanding that this is just 3d printing and not rocket science, people love to get sold on the new shiny without ever really understanding if its needed or not.
@@thegarageluthier If they arent, you are getting lucky and do not understand how input shaping works.
@@BeefIngot Im sorry you must be right I have only been an electronics engineer and programmer for 30 years so probably don't understand shit.
An A1 *WITH* AMS is only 1/2 the price of an MK4.. this is a major point, not a minor cost increase. Bambu's AMS system has already proven more reliable, overall, than the MMU family from Prusa. Prusa's communication hardware on their Mini/MK4/XL is *so* bad that they had to develop "binary GCode" to reduce the data sent to the printer in order to effectively get faster data transfers rates; and many TCP features on Prusa's system are custom written and can be more difficult to use and some utilities/features are missing. While Prusa still uses a central shipping point for most of its filament and printers, Bambu has set up many distribution points in other countries which make access to filament much more cost effective. For instance, in Canada Prusament will cost $50-62 a roll where Bambu will cost $22 for refills. The A1 has an accelerometer on-board for input compensation while the MK4 uses a generic model developed by Prusa. Now both may work fine on a specific MK4, but I'd prefer to have a local accelerometer in case the resonances in my particular printer are slightly unique. Now I have an MK3S and it is excellent (but slow), but the engineering quality of Bambulabs in such a short time (Prusa has been developing the MK4 for 5 years and its release still had so many bugs), has to be admired.
Bambu Studio slicer is a fork of Prusaslicer.
Closed chamber 3D printers are avsilable now because 2 / 3 years ago expired some patents, most of which Stratasys ones.
Corexy 3D printers are nothing new.
They were abke to put all together. Short time, who say You when they started development.
To shorten time there is another way, ha a lot of budget, the Bambu Lab had.
Maybe not so advertised, but Bambu's AMS and printed were modigied since introduction. AMS has a new control board for example.
How much products have already discontinued or will discontinue soon?
I love how she said "If budget is your concern go get a creality." LMAO! I ended up getting an Ender 3 V3 KE as my first printer because it's better for the money than the SE.
The KE uses Klipper and I would expect it to perform better than the Marlin versions, but most Ender 3's need a lot of modifications to get to the class of the Bambu A1, and that makes the Ender 3 end up costing more than the Ender 3 by the time you pay for all the mods.
@@EsotericArctos He owns a V3 version not a V2 or Pro lol. No need for upgrades.
I got the SE because I already had a raspberry pi and had only $250 aud and the SE was on special.
Interesting review, but the big thing that you seemed to gloss over was whilst the Prusa is slightl;y better it is over 3 times the cost in the UK anyway, for a MK4 it would cost me £1054.80 compared to the £369 for the Bambu and only $509 with the colour AMS. The MK4 will add and extra £292 to add colour so the total is very neary £1400. So whilst they are very similar they are not like for like.
Actually the MK4 is not slightly better, it's at most close the A1 but the A1 is still the better choice. Price wise and features to feature. I'll say it once again, the only thing Prusa has on Bambu Lab is long term support and customer service
But the bambu support is pretty good, and time will tell if they are good long term but the indicators are that they will be.
@@MrSeanroberts1969 I agree but that's just our opinion. Prusa needs to step up their game, they won't have experience and "trusted by time" on their side for too long. Bambu Lab is aiming for the top and they are almost there
The same can be said vs. X1C.... lidar gives pratically nothing more.
An enclosure can be built.
The limitstions of one could be in the firmware... since being closed source we don't know.
@@donkeymarco The x1c has more advantages: Being a coreXY increases the print speed significantly. This also increases Stability when printing tall objects. Additionally it has automatic spaghetti detection using its camera.
Ho trasferito tutto il lavoro da Prusa a Bambu. In termini economici ho guadagnato un buon valore nella vendita delle stampanti usate Prusa andate tutte in una settimana. Eco sistema Bambu ti consente ottenere una velocità e una qualità di vendita dei prodotti molto superiore, semplicemente si volta pagina. Essendo io europeo sono sconsolato dal recente scivolone di Josef ma quando si lavora si tiene conto dei propri interessi, io ho sposato solo mia moglie ... felice stampa a tutti 🌈
Definitely feel a bias for the prusa lol. Casual mention of the much higher price, playing up of prusas history in the 3d market. Mostly fair but still, far to many people give prusa a pass on a lot because of their history and reputation instead of strickly on the cost and performance of their printers.
The Mk4 is simply outdated. Why buy more expensive and a printer with printed parts? Without a camera and the possibility of color printing in the base?
Yes that list would be great to hear
Bambu is the perfect printer for plug and play 😂😂 listen to me trust me
Bambu wins this full hands down. The Prusa is WAY overpriced for what you get.
The video kind of comes access as a Prusa fan trying really hard not to say the A1 utterly shits on the I4
I agree with you
Yes, this sounded biased to me.
I'm more a Prusa guy, but those BambuLab printers are quite good and much cheaper. The quality of all the components is better in the MK4, but the Bambu is good enough. For hobbyists who just want to print every now and than. The Bambu A1 is the one to go. The same choice if you want to be able to print in multi colour.
The Bambu multi colour unit however is rather flimsy and probably not good for heavy duty usage.
If you plan to be a heavy duty user, the Prusa MK4 is probably a better choice. But for multy colour a MK4 plus MMU is very expensive. I would consider buying a Bambu P1 with AMC, or a A1 and replace the AMC one time.
If you want to use other slicers, as the Bambu or Prusa slicer, you don't have any choice. The Prusa machines work with all slicers, the Bambu machines are designed to work with Bambu slicer only. You can use other slicers, but not with all the possibilities to communicate with the printer.
I'm just curious, but which components are better? I'm a proud owner of and MK3S, and a P1S, so i've tried both platforms. If anything i feel like the 3d printed components on my prusa are of lesser quality than the non printed(or really any) parts on the bambu.
The only thing i can think of, is maybe the CF rods, which will wear faster than the steel ones on the prusa. but the CF rods also a speed benefit, so its a tradeoff.
I own 3 prusa mk3s, also curious, all components are better in Prusa? How do you have this conclusion?
If you think the quality of farm printed petg is even close to injection molding.. have you ever seen a Bambu printer.. compared screens, linear RAILS v rods, camera vs your cell phone next to it.. Working ams vs project mmu. I'll take two of what you're smoking
Bambu's slicer is open source, as it is a fork of prusa slicer, and I use OrcaSlicer which is a fork of it. You are locked into using their proprietary network plugin though, unless you want to use an SD card
@@JakJakku Bambu-slicer is a fork of Prusa Slicer, but not for the full 100% open source. The parts Bambu added are closed.
The MK4 is almost as good as the A1, but at least it's only 2.5x the price.
The question is: will prusa improve their innovation speed in terms of printer firmware for all of their models? The major factor in the long term is the quality of the combo of slicer and firmware. Currently Prusa is fighting too many fronts in my opinion with all their differnt printers (delta, resin, mk, xl, etc.) regarding their engineering capacity.
Eh. Disagree. They recently unified all their FDM printers under a single firmware (the Buddy Firmware). So Mini, MK3.9, MK4, and XL are now mostly the same code base. They have a few differences, but they likely made that move for this exact reason. They need to speed up development so that they can focus on the next big release.
Funny you should say that. Bambu is based off of prusaslicer.....so I bet Bambu is hoping Prusa innovates some more on that front.
@@chethammer And Prusaslicer is based of Slic3r, the only two common FDM slicers that cant trace it back to slic3r is Cura and Simplify3D. Prusa did the same thing bambu is doing now, making a fork of existing software. Heck, even creality slicer is fork of Cura.
@@Steel_shooter prusaslicer is far beyond slic3r . Don't even know if it's still used.
@@chethammer that's not the point. The point is that innovation and improvements on existing software keeps on going when the base is open source. Heck, there are even forks of Bambu slicer that's better than it for the Bambu machines, like Orca Slicer.
So if you don't want to mention slic3r, I see no point in dragging in prusa slicer when it comes to acknowledging what came before.
Or do you feel similarly about super slicer?
While the MMU3 for the mk4 isn't available yet, you still could compare the A1+AMS light and the mk3s+ & MMU2/3 - basicly a 6 year old printer (with some upgrades). While I still work on my Prusa setup (have it from the beginning, but never used it due to the early problems), simply slice the same model both in bambulab Studio and Prusa slicer. You get printing time and waste pretty correct.
I used a test with 4 different coloured dices 1m³ bithout tuning settings.
The difference is astonishing:
Bambus A1 (mini, as I have it) with AMS light produces 4 times the waste and needs 25% more time than a 6 yo setup from Prusa!
However, this is a quite smal print, so the time overall is mostly caused by filament changing. Unload with ramping on a standard flow nozzle is much faster than cut&poo.
One reason the MMU2 never was realy successful is the reliability. Prusas setup has two downsides: The special modified e3d heatbreak needs ramping to be tuned to printing temperature and material to get a good filament tip. And the filament should be quite dry.
6 years ago this was a problem. But with the Revo hotend, the filament tip got much better on unload without fine tuning, making the setup much more easy. And filament dryers have become quite popular nowerdays. So if you upgraded the mk3s+ with a Revo Six (or maybe a Trianglelabs Unified nozzle), it works much more flowless (this is the reason I started building it now).
The other downside of Prusa is the spoolholder/filamentbuffer system. You have to make sure to have as low fraction as possible - so best not to use the filament buffer, but placing the filament on good spoolholders on a shelf above the printer. The AMS and AMS light have a filament-synchronicer (on the AMS integrated in the part known as "filament-buffer", on the A1 (mini) on the top of the printhead). Actually using a spring, a slider, a magnet and a hall sensor detects if filament is needed and the AMS-feeder is pushing the filament to the printhead. This reduced the force needed from the printheas extruder and making everything more easy.
Both downsides are solvable - but not very beginner friendly. But if you want to print multicolour often, you definitly are better off with Prusa. I am eager to see the MMU3 for mk4, as the nextruder nozzle leaves a even better filament tip than the Revo or TUN.
Also, while wipe2infill or whipe2object can reduce filament waste a lot on the prusa (or on the ERCF on Klipper printers), this reduces only size for the wipe tower (a lot). You can not reduce the poo on the Bambu-printers this way, as the remaining old filament in heatbreak and nozzle is been cut off and can not be retracted anymore. So neither wipe2infill nor wipe2object would give reasonable print results.
However, this only applys to full-colour prints. If you use multicolour only on the bottom or top layers, for horizontal support interface layers or to change to next spool after one is empty, the number of filament changes is quite smal and the filament changing time and waste do not matter much. So for many cases the Bambu AMS is actually a very good solution. Also only needing a few multicolour print a year (for Xmas gifts) the time and waste is acceptable.
So while I am experienced, I still bought the A1 mini as a nice quick2go solution. But at the same time, I build my MMU3 setup, just for fun. Practicaly I barely do any full multicolour, just sometimes in the first 3 layers for display cases (manualy filament change...). But my father got some multicolour prints this Xmas, printed on the A1 mini (the battery boxes in style of a beer box - I made a modifier with the logo of his favorate beer brand to use a second colour for it (Krombacher, I am german))
That is a heck of a post. One point, we never got a chance to review the an MK3 or any variety of Prusa MMU.
The Bambu Lab default purge settings are very high - and unnecessarily wasteful. You can set those much lower and still get a correct purge. Dial them in with some testing of the colours/materials you want to use for the best economy. My last big print with four colours I got most head purges down to 110 or 120 mm^3. (With literally thousands of filament changes, it adds up.)
Separate heads is the best solution for minimising waste. I have a Sovol SV04 that I have almost got working correctly without a purge block, thus waste is very small - just a little material loss when the idling head is reactivated. (Only two colours, as it is IDEX, but the Prusa XL can be configured with up to five heads. Expensive, though.)
@@boggisthecat I compared both with standard settings. You can tune both to lower waste. Howerver, cut&poo alvas need more filament. And while you can tune waste on an mmu2/3 to nerly zero if you print multcolour (not multimaterial) if you have an object where colour does not matter ab wipe into this object, you can not use this with cut&poo, as cutted filament can not been retracted anymore.
Idex or toolchanger is mostly interesting for multimaterial. While of course you can also use it for multicolour, as long as you have objects where colour does not matter and could be used for wipe2object, this does not reduce waste a lot.
Multtool/Idex mostly reduces time for changing to another colour. However, imho an Idex combined with two filament changers might be the best for pure multicolor - change the filament in the non-active printhead while the other is printing...
@@oleurgast730
I have thought about an IDEX plus colour setup. The issue would be changing from e.g. H1 black, H2 white, H1 red, H2 black - where black is required at both heads.
Another option would be a rack of hot-ends that can be picked up either head of the IDEX and pre-heated for the next colour/material change. Thus you could lose very little material - possibly near zero if you parked the hot-ends on a silicone block or similar to prevent oozing. (Some people reverse the silicone block locations on the Sovol SV04 so that when the head is parked the nozzle is on the silicone block.)
For this you would require precise mechanics, though, or a way to calibrate the nozzle position at each exchange. So it becomes technically complex.
In the end, economics is on the side of wasting material.
Oh, and you can alter the start g-code in the Bambu Labs machines to do a long retract at material change, thus leaving less filament to purge. It is a bit twitchy, though, and you run a higher risk of a blockage, so I looked at this but decided against implementing it (for now).
Not much of a battle. A1 bundle is similar cost to prusa bare. Then prusa wants more for AMS. Bambu has out engineered prusa too, IMO.
I have had the Prusa Mini since 2020 and trying to decide between the Prusa Mk4 and Bambu Labs A1. The Major concern I have is that the Bambu uses THEIR Cloud. It's free for 6 months, but then it's $11 a month. That's $132 a year. I don't know how safe my data is on their cloud. With my Mini and the Mk4 you use a USB flash drive to move files. I can be totally off the network and still use MY machine. I don't know how secure my computer is when connected to a foreign country?
There's no charge to use a Bambu.
"safe data" is not about Bambulab, forget it. Bambulab privacy policy: "In certain situations, Bambu Lab is unable to delete your personal data in responding to your requests, including:
when such personal data is still necessary to be processed to achieve the purpose we collected it for;
Bambu Lab’s interest in using the data overrides your interest in having it deleted (e.g., when we need to process the personal data to protect our services from fraud); [notice this is only an example:
So basically you are at Bambu Labs whims when it comes to your data. And, since Bambu shares data outside US to its parent company in China, there is no chance of forcing compliance."
The more I try to learn about this hobby/passion/obsession of 3D printing AND painting, the more I appreciate the complete painted figures I purchase from professionals.
At this point, I think it will be easier to learn to actually sculpt. LOL
Thank you for your video.
Get a resin printer.
Excellent comparison!
It is probably the most un-biased I have ever watched to date.
I can’t imagine spending more than a couple hundred on a bed slinger in TYOOL 2023.
So what? You cant, I can. And with joy, because not supporting chinese brand.
Just got my Bambu A1 up and running (doing benchmarks atm) and it's so fast, clean, accurate it's scaring me. I'm a Prusa fanboy and they need to up their game a bit. Whatever Bambu did with their software algo's is killing it. Not liking the lack of control though mid print.
Both are trash
Mk3s Is the real rep rap 3d printer
40K views!? You're blowing up! Nice video.
I have a question about the quality of print if you slow down the A1 can you get good quality prints like the Mark 4 I have a ender 3 V3 SE and I hate it will the A1 make better quality and accurate Prince than the ender 3 V3 SE
The A1 will make prints close to flawless each and every time, without too much fiddling.
Creality is total trash.
Get a bambu and never worry again.
Why did that layer shift occur and how can one fix it?
I ended up going with the mk4 just because DJI, the company that most of Bambu Lab's top people came from, is blacklisted by US intelligence.
Not saying anything about the politics, but there's a good chance that Bambu gets embargoed and you suddenly can't buy official parts anymore.
The price difference 2x is too significant to include these in a direct comparison because they are simply not in the same price point.
Better would be to compare the P1P or even the P1S with the Prusa Mk 4 even though they are still a fair bit cheaper, in fact if you have committed to the Prusa Mk 4 budget then you might be prepared to stretch it a little and get the X1.
The crux to the argument is how much is that legendary Prusa support worth?
The other thing I’d look for if I were spending that much money is how often will they bring out new models, one thing I dislike with Chinese manufacturers like Elegoo, Creality and AnyCubic is the rate at which they bring out new models. It’s like “buy the Mars 4, it’s fantastic, it’s the best ever”, so you get suckered in, and then just 9 months later it’s “the Mars 4 is old hat, buy the Mars 5 it’s so much better”.
Just picked up an A1 mini three weeks ago, kids been running it 24/7 ever since with zero issue. Gonna grab the A1 next. Makes zero sense to buy the Prusa for 3x the price nowadays.
Bambulabs A1 currently displays a recall - do not use - message on the LCD and has a confusing mix of solutions. I bought the unit from the Burnaby Canada office for family from another country. "Industry (manufacturers, importers, sellers) must report health or safety incidents involving a consumer product. This requirement is outlined in Section 14 of the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act." Bambulabs have no info in the government product safety data base so they are either ignorant of the law or complicit. They must alert the purchaser and recipient immediately and effect a replacement or immediate refund.
Be advised that the Bambu Lab printers are region locked. If you want to take your Mini abroad, not possible to get it to work in some countries. Also, a lot of issues getting Bambu mini to feed TPU. I know nothing about Prusa. No doubt they are fantastic machines ( Bambu ). Most people say they are the best.
As a hobbiest that’s tried about 4 printers myself, this is one of the best reviews I’ve seen on 3d printers so far. Thanks for posting!!
I echo this!
not going to use the acceleration like it's not moving lol
After buying an Ender knowing it was to learn on the hard way (I'm an experienced technician from jet fighter avionics on down and have built PCs for many years) the garbage build quality is an insult even at the price, for example loosely tapped self-unscrewing bed adjustment wheels. I will never suggest an Ender to anyone but for 190 bucks on sale I bought an S1 Plus knowing it wouldn't be for long. Most buyers are not techies or experienced with machinery. They would more wisely save their money because "cheap" is often much more expensive in the long run.
Hmm a bit confused on the toaster comparison, as when you show the toaster after finishing printing the a1 lookes perfect, then when comparing the top suddenly looks awful , also black always looks better than a coloured print .
P1P is a different league. P1P is a CoreXY printer and not a bed slinger. P1P will give superior print performance compared to the to the A1
There is a lot more to the P1P. A1 definitely great for a budget cartesian style printer. It's better than the Ender series. If you want a printer you want to tinker with and mod to get it right, go an Ender 3 series. You end up spending MORE on an Ender 3 series to get it to give good prints, than you will on a Bambu A1. The Bambu A1 will have a higher initial cost, but will not need anything else to get excellent prints.
Prusa have become complacent in the market place and have lost their edge. The Mk4 is really dated compared to the functionality of the Bambu A1. The Prusa MK4 is meant to be the latest. You are not paying for European engineering. You are paying for the Prusa name because Prusa think they are better than all the rest. Sorry. Bambu customer service was higher quality than Prusa in my experience. Bambu have better features and a more solidly made printer and Bambu LISTEN to feedback and actively act on it where Prusa basically say :F you, this is our printer, you get what it is.
At 5:40, why wouldn't you use the same filament for each print? Seems like that's the first thing you would want to do to keep a print comparison even.
No way, change as many variables as you can! 😂
I have an Ender, been sitting in the basement for the last 3 years unused.
I want to print, not tinker.
I got a A1 Mini this week, and I am very happy with it (paid $333.00 with shipping and taxes).
F**k that Ender.
Prusa is overpriced outdated tech. Bambu owns this industry right now.
Calling the prusa outdated means the A1 is outdated too lol. But I know a bot comment when I see one.
Both are bed slingers
Both have input shaping
Both have wifi capability
Both have multi color systems
Both have touch screens
Both have cloud capabilities
Both run equal speeds
etc etc
@@LilApe state of the art are CoreXY printers like the P1 or X1 Series, the Voron Project or similar systems - yes, bedslingers are outdated, the A1 is also outdated in a way
if you follow the gossip: the A1 mini and A1 were just made, to diss prusa and show them you can make an equal machine for way less money (that you can make a more shitty machine for way less money has been proven bei dozens of companies like creality or anycubic since years)
I think its neat that printers can print fast with quality but I still dont see the need to print so incredibly fast at least for my needs. Prusa problem is they are to expensive for that you get the mk4 came out and it was already behind.
Don't blame the filament for the printer not being fast. Hell is prusa thinking. True speed is not everything. Speeds is only 98% of everything.
Nope. If your line is short then your speed is limited by the acceleration. Speed is not acceleration. Don't fall for the marketing gimmick
They say, haste is waste. And with AMS it is just waste, without haste = )
So yeah, speed is not everything (and Bambu AMS concept proves this too).
I am quite OK with my 70--90mm/s PETG speed. Never printed PLA, it is expensive and fragile, does not keep well outdoors.
So I watch all those videos with large portion of skepticism. Like "1000m/s on some sort of very expensive and very very special PLA? Yeah whatever".
This may be good for prototyping though. For some expensive prototyping I should say = )
IMO people should start differentiating between the 3d printer and 3d printing as a hobby, if I just want to design and print things without having to fiddle with my printer for two days an Ender is a terrible terrible recommendation, people like that are better served with something a little more pricy but that doesn’t require as much setup and ongoing maintenance
The blob on the A1 was so obviously staged, the filament colour of the blob was different to what was in the nozzle when she pulled it out!
good review however i feel you where biased toward prusa the a1 is clearly the top dog in this ring. also it comes with the ams at that price so it should be counted.
Ikr. $400 vs $800($1100assembled) or $560 with AMS
You could get 2 printers with ams for the cost of the assembled mk4
Larger build area, potentially faster, affordable parts, camera, remote monitoring and a host of QOL features
But if you want to compare them you would have to gimp the A1 drastically to make a video.
@@No0o0o0o0o0 "In certain situations, Bambu Lab is unable to delete your personal data in responding to your requests, including:
when such personal data is still necessary to be processed to achieve the purpose we collected it for;
Bambu Lab’s interest in using the data overrides your interest in having it deleted (e.g., when we need to process the personal data to protect our services from fraud); [notice this is only an example:
So basically you are at Bambu Labs whims when it comes to your data. And, since Bambu shares data outside US to its parent company in China, there is no chance of forcing compliance."
I just ordered my very first 3d printer tonight, just about 5 minutes ago. So excited!
Ordered the Bambu A1 AMS Lite combo, and got a good selectin of colors of the PLA Basic and PLA Matte filament rolls (8 rolls total)
I was careful to select at least 4 rolls in the reusable spool and the other 4 rolls were as refill, to conserve on cost.
I'm so excited. I need to get my wooden shop desk out of storage, else i won't have a place to set this on 😂.
I've been wanting a 3d printer since about 2012 and now I'm finally getting one 🥲🤧☺️
Congrats! You’ll love it!
You're gonna LOVE IT, gl!
Woot woot!
Well, I am getting really tired of the argument for Prusa being this great company. Yes - the MK3 and MK4 are amazing, but as the name suggests - they are third and fourth iteration (if you just count i3 model). That's why they are so reliable. But look at Mini (which I own) and XL - they are the first iterations of not-i3 printers, and they are not that great, nor reliable - yet the price is through the roof. Yet from what I can see - whatever product BambuLabs throw out into the world - is much better and cheaper than Prusa. It looks like the A1 series is just made to make fun of Prusa. The only argument FOR overpaying ang getting Prusa that I see now is supporting their open-source approach.
Totally agree..I have 2 Prusa printer and I was kind of a fanboy when they very actually the best. But their time is over. The XL took them so long to make and even got delayed and its so incredibly expensive. I have a X1C and A1 mini now and I rarely touch the MK3S+ and NEVER touched the prusa mini because its hoten is so freaking bad it just gives me problems all the time
The end for Prusia is near. I have the P1P and now A1 and they are killing it.
@@pomanprod I hope NOT. Because they are doing a lot of good work. They need to step up their game. I have no problem paying more to support them - but I need at least the same quality. When I have to pay MORE and get LESS - it's not really a good deal.
would of been great if you sjown a bit more quality comparisons of quality, seems bambuu quality is worse than prusa.
It's like 3 times the price. Prusa it's too expensive imo.
@@Viseo3dp ok I believe you. I just ordered I bambu p1s recently, and still cheaper than an mk4. Also they are based in the USA aswell...But will see how it goes. Best wishes.
Manufactured in Europe vs China. China workers have zero rights and even slave labor is used. I'm Czech Republic workers have rights and slave labor is not legal.
Is Mercedes too expensive? Rolls? Cadillac? For me......a a VW guy.....yes. The MK4 is a great printer with a terrific out of the box experience with great service. "Too expensive" is in the eve of the beholder......
@@richardbertacchi5016 I still think it's overpriced. And you can't compare it with an x1c or a p1s imo. And the p1s is still 600 € cheaper. Prusa even ask if you want to build it yourself for cheaper price, that's very daring if I may say
@@Humbledandelion Built a Prusa Mini from the kit and while "daring" would be an exaggeration it was not easy. X1C and P1P aren't really the same ballpark being core xy as opposed to bed slingers. What I think everyone would like to see is the consumer-non-printfarm version of the core xy Prusa
maybe you should have put an MMU on the Prusa, that would be an interesting comparison. And yes, seeing a price per cubic inch would be interesting.
I’m waiting for it to be compatible! Right now it doesn’t work with the mk4 tool head. 😔
I own a Prusa MK2, Mk3 with a mmu2 and a x1c (with AMS). My dad owns ender3's and now owns a p1s (with AMS). You can do a generic cost per cubic inch how ever that does not do it full justice. While I have no clue how the MMU3 does, the MMU2 only successfully print around 70%-80% (vs AMS's success rate of 99.9%) of the time. I love my Prusa printers. I hate Prusa's MMU. After printing with the AMS for a few months I would not go back if doing a lot of multi color printing. The MMU2 now sits collecting dust and the mk3 is used for single color functional prints mainly CF and very soft TPU (such a 85A NinjaFlex). The MK2 is put away and is now a backup.
That's a hard ask, it would be hard to find a working MMU in the first place haha. On mk3s+ it was nothing but hot garbage for most people.
@@brianjensen5200 weird, I just started using an MMU2S on a MK3S ... the MMU2S kit sat unused for 4 years, I finally assembled and installed it recently, doing multicolour topographic prints for engineering projects, hundreds of tool changes in each print. I do get pauses for filament tip problems, and the odd other error but so far I'm running at 90% success, counting a failure that was my fault.
MMU3 should be compatible with mk4@@stldenise
I have owned both. A1 hands down just works!
Very interesting. Did you ever find out why the A1 had a layer shift? Was it repeatable on that model?
heck ya, why didn't the A1 detect the problem and re-home itsself, the way the Prusa does?
@@KenLord cause, apparently, Prusa is an overpriced POS that makes the printer your hobby instead of peinting being your hobby... or whatever
Nice comparison! Would love to see your list of price per cubic inch too. Happy Holidays!
You got it! Might make a good year end wrap up.
Both have small print volumes and one is proprietary closed source and the other is way too expensive... I'd rather buy an Ender 3 and mod it and learn something instead of using a black box with a button on it to click "Print" and wait for tech support if something goes wrong or end up being forced to buy a new printer because they don't make parts for my now "old" proprietary printer anymore.
As someone who tried to make an ender a prusa. Don't. I'm not sure why you think you'd have to call tech support. It's still a printer after all, and much easier to work on then an ender or prusa. And aftermarket parts just keep rolling in, that's what happens when you sell the most printers.
Casually saying "yeah its more expensive" as if its not nearly 4x 😂
A1 is $400. MK4 kit is $800, MK4 Assembled $1,100. So 2x and 2.75x.
@@aaronchamberlain4698 and with all the shit add ons and upgrades you need to match the Bambu it's 3-4x
@@MrSirclint WTF you talking about? Lol. She literally showed in the video that it prints at the same speed as the A1 and performed better.
I have a MK4 and did $0 of mods to it. I’ve bought some different size nozzles and made an enclosure for $80 using two IKEA tables. Tada. Still $300 cheaper than the X1C.
@@aaronchamberlain4698 cool. Compare it to the A1 then. Because the mk4 is not even comparable to the x1. The x1 is a totally different class. Quit trying to justify spending 3-4x for a worse product lol
@@aaronchamberlain4698 not to mention you're talking about the kit. So 10+ hours of assembly that may or may not go well vs out of the box functionality. Compare your prices to the assembled version. It's not a better deal or better printer in any world
This may hurt some feelings, but I've always thought that the 3D printed parts used in the Prusa were just a gimmick. It's time to put the "hacker" to bed and start making real products. Buy the Prusa if you want to play, but the Bambu if you are serious about 3D printing.
Eh, I disagree. I have seen MK3S+ with over 20,000 hours of uptime with no actual maintenance (In a car, for example, this would be equivalent to about 750,000-1,250,000 on the odo)., and the MK4/MK4S are just beefier versions.. Chances are, unless the prusa is in a print far it will still be working in 20 years with no required part replacements.have a FULL set of spare parts for everything other than the standardized stuff... I also have a FULL set of spare parts for everything other than the standardized stuff for like.. 20$ in filament.
Most of my spares i 3D printed. Good fukin luck doing that if/when your bambu breaks
I don't think It was ever intended to be a selling point, just a way for them to remain as independant as possible for their manufacturing.
To address your swcond point, I don't think that non user serviceable machines with no ability to run networked without a cloud connection, and not great support is what I'd want in a machine if I was "serious" about printing.
Bambu A1 has been RECALLED!!!
I started off with prusa. Over priced rubbish. The is much better.
Excluding the open source vs closed source argument since the vast majority of buyers aren’t interested. Prusa is seriously in trouble. While bambu makes a sleek and fast printer it is often inferior in quality to the prusa but how exactly do you communicate this? I’ve had my mk4 for almost a 8 months now and it has about 100 hours of print time with a grand total of 5 failures out of 500 prints. I bought my prusa because I heard it was reliable and sure enough it is. But prusa is behind in terms of user experience. For some models on the bambu lab model repository all you need is a smartphone app no computer needed and for many people a smartphone is all they have. Everyone wants a touchscreen. It doesn’t matter if it makes the user experience any better. The printer also looks good. The a1 looks like an appliance whereas the mk4 looks rough by comparison. These things don’t necessarily make a printer better or that “just works” it makes it marketable and yes I agree that bambu has a better user experience where it’s a lot easier to pick up a use with no further thought. Prusa makes a 3d printer that is more reliable than the regular printer that I own and sure it may look rough and be expensive but it’ll work for years and you don’t need to worry about a thing.
8 months and 100 hours is nothing, go into the 1000 hours and you we'll talk again
i used multiple MK3S+ (starting from the MK2.5 upwards) for a long time, aswell als multiple other printers - i never had really some issues - bambu lab is on the same level, i'd even say it is a small notch better - but this is irrelevant when you decide to buy an MK4 kit or alternatively you can buy almost 3 A1 or 2 A1 + AMS
we are not talking about Ender or Anycubic "half the price but shit", we are talking "less then half the price but en par or sometimes even better"
I have an MK3S+. I would like to try a Bambu. I rarely print anything that is larger than the A1 mini, so maybe I will start there. As far as print quality, do you think the A1 and the A1 mini are comparable?
Yes, they are equally good.
at 3:24 i hear what sounds like a dog collar jingle :P
P1p is more upgradeble and can have much better cooling than a1?
for the P1P you have a direct upgrade path to the P1S (or you can build an enclosure yourself - i have one on printables for example) - this printer is then fundamentally better than the A1 or the MK4
Very good comparison video! Not too much, just very clear info.
Just got me a MK4 ... big jump from my Ender 2 v3 ... works out of the box, and doing some great stuff with it quickly. The input shaping is fast. The Baboo stuff is definitely better for the money -- at least for the short term. I still think the MK4 is better as a printer. But time will tell. Use what you can afford and what works BEST for you -- don't worry about the brand.
I own the MK4 and A1 - despite the recall, my long term opinion is that the A1 is the better value overall. Much more features, much better price, MUCH less tinkering, and easier to maintain. I recently had clogs occur (in the same day) on my A1 and my MK4, and dissembling and cleaning the extruder and nozzle on the A1 was MUCH easier and quicker than on my MK4. I ended up cancelling my MMU3 preorder for the MK4, and got another A1 for not much more $$. My A1's are awaiting the headbed cable recall fix, which I am not mad about, because I will get some sweet gift cards, and in the meantime, I will just print on my X1 Carbon.
Why they now went bed slinger is beyond me. Anyway I only run VORONs as I like open source and I like building machines which I can then, easily, trouble shoot and fix. But why Bambu moved to a bed slinger is a bit strange.
Not bad at all for this review but I believe the A1 is the clear superior printer. Better and more polished design. The MK4 is just a beefier MK3S+ with a not so polished input shaping and still running Marlin. Long term because BL printer haven't being time tested and customer service are Prusa's only advantages. If I was buying a printer today I'd definitely take my chances wiht the A1
There is nothing wrong with Marlin. Klipper is hot right now but not superior to Marlin.
@@MrKornnuggetAnd to be honest, the Prusa firmware no longer has much to do with Marlin.
Input Shaper was ported from Klipper, for example.
@@herr_rossi69 Open source projects. So it is possible to merge whatever You want.
Impossible for the ones with closed source firmware.
@@donkeymarco I meant that in a positive way. For me, something like Bambulab is not an option.
I ended up purchasing the bambu labs x1c w/ams. The MK4 was the one I was going with but the youtubers made me lean towards the bambu labs. I should also mention that this is my FIRST 3d ever and my pc since 2001. So to say I'm a newbi is an under statement. This is why I chose to get the x1c over the mk4. I still mite have a mk4 one day but not yet. My toaster test I did didn't look as bad as yours did mine was totally beautiful printed and got .2 on the inside looseness. I was very impressed.
The real question is two a1 combos v mk4
The A1 can use it's entire bed for multi colour prints - you dont lose space for a waste tower, which will be the case on a prusa. Oddly the X1C also loses some printable space too, not for a waste tower but for calibration. Who cares its not much space right? Well i care. I often do multi-tile topographic models for engineering projects that need to cover the whole bed. And they want multi colour.
Bambu gets a lot slower the moment could goes down.
I don't see a real reason to by the MK4 over the A1
20min is not a few min slower it a huge diference
Great video. The A1 with ams lite $560 vs the mk4 with mmu3 $1400. I’m sorry but Prusa has to do better. I love Prusa’s and still have my mk3s+ but times have changed and Prusa has to roll with the punches. One of the best parts of Bambulab is their distribution strategy. Microcentre move is so smart. Bambulab even treat Canadians with quick shipping, the printer ships in within 5 days, no duties, no paperwork.
You can’t possibly expect Prusa to lower their prices to match Bambu Lab since the Prusa printers are built in the EU.
@@pixlpionierthen they need to either actually innovate or find a better way to do whatever it is they do now since they are losing the speed, quality, and price game.
@@pixlpionierand price is going to end the company because you can't provide a worse machine at 4x the cost and expect to ride on fangirl loyalists
@@pixlpionier Part of their problem is scaling up, which is such a hard problem for growing companies that it's often referred to as "crossing the chasm". If you build your business in a garage and your product does well, you shouldn't build a bigger garage with your earnings; you attract new capital and build an actual factory. Prusa seems to want to grow organically, which rarely works.
The plastic parts of the Prusa printers still come from a print farm rather than being injection molded. While it's nice that we can print our own replacements straight from the manufacturer's files, from a cost perspective that is utterly nuts. Prusa charges €40 to print the MMU3 parts for you instead of just sending you the required filament with the kit, and there aren't even that many parts to print. That is how expensive it is. They still follow the RepRap model: design as a kit and sell to hobbyists. Bambu designs with manufacture and assembly in mind, and that's a big factor in driving down costs (besides producing in China). Prusa ships from Czechia, Bambu has an actual distribution network.
As for these printers... I only have experience with the Prusa MK4 (and it's an awesome printer), not with the Bambu A1. But from reviews like these, I'd say that these two printers are evenly matched in terms of quality, ease of use, ecosystems: each has some advantages and drawbacks. But with the A1 costing less than half of the MK4, it's not even a competition.
The real turning point comes after this matchup. Bambu has been able to ride the coattails of the open source printer community for a very long way, but they are capable of innovating, and I suspect they will pull far ahead of the competition with their next models, not just on price but on features. Prusa need to change gears and drive down costs. Today I might still choose the MK4 over the A1, given Prusa's excellent customer service, and for ideological reasons. But if the company carries on as before, I suspect that in a couple of years it'll be the end.
@@kaasmeester5903Bambulabs were simply designed for the mass market.
The tools are the most expensive. But the parts are all the cheaper. The disadvantage is flexibility. That is why the x1 is not yet available in a larger size.
Chinese manufacturers like to use the cheapest possible material.
Durability and repairability are not the top priority.
Anyone who has ever assembled a Prusa kit will notice the high quality of the parts. This starts with the screws.
Even things like safety requirements are much stricter with a European company.
All this has its price.
Whether you want to pay it is up to you to decide.
Bambulab best 3D printers ever!!!!
By the time prusa releases there mmu bs we'll have a whole new line of bambu printers making prusa obsolete 😂
Rumor has it prusa will be releasing their gold mmu sometime on a friday, of any year.
Some rumblings over a possible Bambu resin printer for mid 2024
I enjoyed this video, but you kind of feel like a Prusa fan who is trying to give the i4 way more praise than it deserves.
The prusa toaster was FAR from perfect.
European quality. what is that exactly? The mechanics are straight out of China.
A brand in it from the beginning. So is Ford. We all know about that quality and reliability
Theres no issue with top mounting the ams lite on top of the A1. Print the stabilising feet too. It works fine
& Mk4 doesnt have a camera, so it loses that small point. "Smart phone app on old phone" lmao
I had to use prusa support twice, once was good & helped me quickly, other time was hopeless, taking days to get back to me each time.
I have used bambu support once, they were fast to get back to me & gave a good solution for my issue.
So in my experience, prusa isnt exactly a clear winner there either.
Another category to look at would be the launch of each product. Did the mk4 ship with all its promised features? Input shaping? No it didnt, took months to get it released. Did bambu have a hassle free launch with the A1? I would say yes. I was able to order my A1 in ireland & got it like 5 days later. Had all of its advertised features out of the box
Sold all 15 of my mks3+ machines as soon as x1c came out. Now have five x1cs and 3 p1ps and now 2 a1s.
These orint on average 3 times faster than the mks3+ did and same or better quality prints. Equivalent of 30 mks3 pri ting power.
My x1s clock in over 3500 hours each and just needed usual oiling of z rods and wipe down of gantry rod. Still original nozzle
Best move i ever made
The A1 is a no brainer, it is worth 10x more than the MK4 by used materials. Look at those sturdy linear guides and nice build quality, the production costs of the MK4 are probably a tenth of the A1. the MK4 is all name, its worth around 200 euro's tops.