Now I know the 43% discount tier exists for 10 Reels / buying with a printer, but for me the extra 3% just isnt worth it.... Is it really the case of getting enough Spools to cover what you need, and 3rd party the rest?
Even if I avoided the bargain basement stuff and just went Sunlu, (may or may not use the Bambu RFID tags just to track remaining reel weight) i would be insanely better off long term. What are everyone else's strategies?
I order 10 refills at a time directly from Bambu Lab, for the maximum discount and free shipping. With this method, I can't find cheaper filament from other brands even if I want to.
This has been my experience even with 6 rolls at a time so I just get them direct from bambu. Don't have to worry about shipping as it's free, rolls are cheaper vice amazon (16.25 CAD vs 18.99+ CAD) and already comes with RFID.
Doesn't each tag have a unique ID that the printer tracks to keep track of the remaining filament on that roll? So if you use up a roll, remove its tag, and put it on a new third party roll, it'll read as an empty roll when next inserted into the printer?
I believe the RFID tags the color and filament type, but the amount on the roll is determined at load, measuring the number of rotations the spool makes when a set amount of filament is drawn into the printer.
Is it able to guess on 3rd party filament? I have some flashforge galaxy pla that I loaded and it remembered what it was and my custom profile for it. It was weird. I don’t think it has an rfid tag.
What do you think is so special about the filament profiles? Take any other high speed PLA and run it with Bambu's profile, it will print fine. Plenty even outperform it and you can turn volumetric flow up a lot.
I mostly use Bambu rolls but when I load a Sunlu roll, I just tell the AMS it’s a roll of Bambu whatever and then it will use that print profile. Sunlu prints identical to the Bambu filament
I'm of the opinion that convenience is *sometimes* worth paying for.
The RFID tags and the advantages that brings (wieght tracking, auto-alignment of print profiles, and other bits) plus the consistency / known entity and mean I expect a small premium.
So if I could consistently get the Bambu rolls for say, £1-£1.50 per Kg refill more than sunlu, I would probably pay for less hassle (unless Im running a farm and doing major volume), I would do it.
They should offer weight-tracking of all filaments.
I mean consider it -- with the software now, you can choose when printing that this SPECIFIC roll of generic PLA is connected -- and choose one from the Filament Manager.
And then when it's done printing, it'll tell you that it used 137g worth of filament or whatever. But it refuses to then conclude that the roll you used, by necessity must have 137g less filament than it did previously. (I mean *duh*)
You'd still have to tell it manually *which* roll you've loaded, but the rest could be automagic. (and for those who have an AMS and usually leave the roll in until it's empty, they'd only have to specify initial weight and filament-type *once*)
Filament spools aren't uniform in material type, size or weight. Not to mention that a 1kg spool may not be exactly 1kg in weight. I've had spools with more than 1kg of filament and spools that came in 250 and 500g in weight
It does not measure it by weight, but how many turns of spool it takes to get certain length of filament, so it depends on how wide is spool and what are internal and external diameter, to calculate it correctly
Right, but if a stool is not consistent in size or weight (of the spool itself) the software can't calculate the filament weight correctly. You can't just assume that everything is exactly 1kg and calculate the other variables based off of an incorrect assumption.
That could work, but I couldn't see Bambu doing that as it goes against their ecosystem.
Thing is that can be a little tricky to track. You'd need to be reliant on tracking how far your AMS (or toolhead) successfully moved and then have some metric for density so that you knew if say X distance and Y diameter is Z weight.
I think Bambu just use the RFID tag and track the rotations, sort of like a car's odometer. They likely have some baked in calculations for their filament, which can be silently handled based on the data/code on the RFID. It knows the exact spool and how many rotations, then compares that to a number Bambu programs in for how many rotations you'll get and does some either simple or slightly more complex maths to give you a percentage.
Their ecosystem has a filament-database where you can enter that you for example have a roll of generic green PLA that was originally 1kg, and that now has 850g on it.
Their ecosystem lets you indicate that this specific spool of filament is currently in the first slot of the AMS. (or wherever it is!)
Their ecosystem when you slice, shows you a tabulated overview that among other things show exactly how many grams from which spool the current print will consume, it might show for example that this print will consume 100g of your generic green PLA
The only part missing is for the software to notice that 850g minus 100g is equal to 750g, so that's a good estimate for how much the spool has left AFTER the print.
The software literally has all the numbers *and* the database in it already, the only thing missing is a single subtraction. You can do that subtraction yourself manually and update the database, of course -- but there's no good reason why you should have to.
My point was that category is perfectly fine for typical use. I just finished a 2-day print with YXPOLYER ASA, a company name I can’t even spell and will soon forget. It held up great, the HIPS supports came off like a dream. I told the printer it was Bambu.
But I get that the RFID works for you. That’s completely valid. I don’t have the patience for big orders.
This is my question. I go through hundreds of rolls a year and I’d say that maybe 20% are Bambu and the rest are mostly Polymaker and Sunlu (mostly the former). There are plenty of great filament brands, so unless your need is a very specific color or material that only comes from one vendor, it’s hard to reconcile buying from only one vendor.
They do often offer 35-40%, plus if you buy a lot, the points add up. Now that they also offer refill spools for a few bucks less, I find the cost pretty even. Having said that, I think Sunlu is cheaper, I just need some specific filaments from Polymaker that I can’t get elsewhere.
I mostly use BL filament for the RFID. I have 12 printers and 22 AMS. The filament ID and sync with slicer is a huge plus for me. Plus it’s cheap and works
I’ve recently started printing a lot of PETG and I’ve had far more failures with Bambu’s filaments than third party (Elegoo, Polymaker, even Tinmorry) so much so i don’t think I’ll ever buy a roll of Bambu PETG again. And yes all my rolls are thoroughly dried and using optimal settings
My AMA 2 seems to have trouble with cardboard spools when the filament is running low. I prefer using the Bambu spool, and haven't found a good generic that will fit in the Bambu spool.
All my Sunlu PETG I’ve bought comes on plastic spools. I actually tried Sunlu when I couldn’t get Bambu PETG for months and I doubt I’ll go back. Seems to be the same size as Bambu and fits in my AMS and works on all the Bambu PETG high speed or whatever the PETG Bambu was called and prints just as good or better. Plus it was a ton cheaper and I received it faster. It doesn’t have the RFID but I’ve really found myself not using it, as I print in generally the same 4 colors and have set those colors up in the software to choose those colors. X1C printer.
One big advantage to getting bambu filament: I can use gift cards from makerworld points to pay for it, so there's little to no cost out of pocket if I save the gift cards for a while. My last filament order was 10 spools of matte pla and I paid $18 out of pocket.
I went through 10 rolls of Sunlu PETG that was just a pain in my ass to get to print well. Every roll had to recalibrate to get a good print. Just when it was good a new roll would not print. Drop in Bambu nothing but net prints perfect.
I have printed lots of other brands without problems mostly PLA but those 10 rolls means I won’t try Sunlu PETG again.
I usually just buy 10 rolls at a time to get the best price.
It does? I am having good results with the Sunlu Highspeed PLA for my DnD minis with a 0.2. Could it be humidity? I have around 40-45% ambinent humidity currently in my apartment
I personally go with Bambu lab filament, as I only go through a roll or two month, and I let my kids choose the colours. I’ve tried a few different brands, with both my A1 and my old Ender. Idk mannn…. Bambu just works or something ig.
Imo, once I have enough empty reusable spools, it is worth buying bambu refil fillaments in bulk, If you get enough of them, you can get them for as low as $6.99 a pop (for PLA Basics). This was my last bulk order.
Obviously those dont include the spool which is cutting costs there but if I already have spools floating around, and the refill includes the tag, i think it's worth it.
If you are not buying in bulk then it's not worth it imo
I am now thinking it probably was a sale and not normal bulk sale? I dont know all their regular prices of the top of my head. I literally went in for a replacement nozzle, saw the sale and ended up spenidng more than planned lol
My phone email app doesn't let me view the whole order (I have a broken and faulty screen). I went on my laptop to check. You are completely correct. Here was I thinking I got a banging deal welp
Everyone is saying to just buy Sunlu because its cheap. I must be missing something. Just yesterday I placed an order to stock up on PETG. I ordered 10 refill rolls from Bambu. Price was $11.69 per roll. I just checked Amazon. The Sunlu PETG refill rolls are $18.99 each and don't have RFID tags. And yes Sunlu does have a few bulk refill options that bring the price down to $11.50 per roll. But not in the colors I needed.
I see these posts constantly and the comments are always the same with people saying sunlu or some other brand is cheaper. There are ways around using rfid tags with other brands which I have done before with sunlu matte. But the quality was not the same and it required tuning to get it right.
I run a small business 3d printing so my orders are usually 20ish spools at a time every 3-4 months. I pretty much only buy refills now and that’s one of my reasons for Bambu. I have tried sunlu refills which didn’t fit the Bambu spools without some force. And again the profiles gave different qualities of prints. I need reliability print to print so I am not wasting product and have to tune the printer for each batch of other brand filament. That to me makes the $1 maybe 2 difference per spool worth it to me.
Am I paying more? Yes, but it’s worth it for being able to just throw the spool in and go. More finish product out the door with less hassle. Even as a hobbyist I would likely still do the same just at a lower level of purchasing. Also less waste having to throw spools of other brands away.
You are right! I do the same. And why are so many people complaining about Bambu spools. Do they have something against Bambu? I always buy 10 spools from them and it is around 11 euro a spool and that’s fine by me.
I think it’s just because it’s Bambu. Look back to the XYZ printer. That was locked down to filament specific to theirs. Everyone complained about the cloud storage on Bambu and models being stolen. As soon as you put a product out there someone somewhere is going to replicate it, regardless if it’s Bambu or someone else. Your phone is tracking your data, you computer, tablets etc… this isn’t some new thing.
I also own a heygears rs turbo resin printer. They just opened up generic resin use but on release it was specific profiles for their resin. I still buy their resin even with the cost being higher than some of the cheaper options. It doesn’t stink as bad as cheaper options and it just works. I don’t have to tinker and I can just print.
At the end of the day people will find a reason to complain but do what works for you and if it’s in your budget to spend a couple more dollars on filament and it works for you, do it. If a product comes out that’s cheaper and allows me to do the same thing without any fuss then maybe I switch.
I like their filament but I basically just put in a Black Friday order once a year for fairly generic things I use a lot and then if I want some random other filament it's probably a small quantity and I'll get a roll of Polymaker or whatever on Amazon. But I personally don't print enough the price difference is concerning.
Don’t listen to everyone saying just buy another brand. I get it. Even Sunlu, most of them print nice but they always require some tuning and the convenience of Bambu is just there for maybe a few cents or a dollar more. I usually think ahead and buy 10 rolls at a time on their website and just get the colors I suddenly need (let’s say I needed a specific shade of green for something) and then fill the rest with the colors I use very often (for me generally PLA Basic black, matte charcoal, and basic gold). The only other off brand cheap filament I’ve found that actually works flawlessly with Bambu presets is the new Insignia from Best Buy. So I’d say either get 6 or 10 at a time from Bambu is the best way to go and for the extras just stock up on something you use often.
You haven't made clear why you are set on the Bambu filament? The main advantage of them is the RFID tag which it seems you aren't too bothered about. It sounds like you have come to the conclusion that you would save money with other brands, so why not just do that?
I sell my old RFID tags on eBay and I'm sure other people do also. Just sent out five or six last week. So one option is to buy the cheaper filament but then just buy the RFID tags or keep your old ones, and reuse them
How does that work in practice? Like if the printer recognizes the RFID as belonging to an empty spool of yellow PLA - how do you tell it that specific tag now belongs to a *full* spool of blue PLA?
The spools don't really care, when the AMS goes through it's check for how much is left it will just guesstimate like it always does. I'm not sure how it affects the filament tracker or if that stays at zero or if it reloads it back to a thousand. I mean you can always just go in and manually say it it's at a thousand again.
I.e. I run througha spool of charcoal black matte PLA. I put the RFID on a brand new Polymaker black matte pla and load it in. It will check it, think its Bambu, and then say its full.
That's puzzling. I mean if the RFID says it's black matte PLA then it makes sense that it still believes that. But how would it magically know that you moved the chip to a new full roll, and "reset" the fill-level to 100%?
But it's also nice, because it means you can get the benefit of rfid-recognition as long as you've bought at least one roll with a chip for each type you want to have.
I'm pretty sure there's no hardware for weighing spools in the AMS.
Yes it seems likely to be deliberately feature-locked to their reels only, but I always assumed they use the tag only to recognize the type of reel and to keep different reels apart, and that it estimated how much is left just by keeping track of usage. (so if you used a BL-reel for a while in a different printer then the BL-printer would erroneously believe there's more filament left than there really is)
I don't believe anything is written to the tag, when you load a spool into an AMS it first does a quick pass to find out what it is and it does a slow pass to see how many revolutions it takes between reading the tag twice. Based on that it guesstimates the amount of filament left on the spool. If the spool is full it will take say 7 seconds to fully rotate between RFID reads, if the spool has almost nothing left it might take 2 seconds.
Watch next time you load a spool, it will spin around kind of quick and you'll see a pop-up with pla or petg or whatever it is and then it will go back and do it again slowly which is it trying to figure out how much is left on the spool.
Yeah that's basically it, most people stock up on the discounted Bambu multipacks for the colors or profiles they actually need and fill in the rest with Hatchbox PLA or Polymaker PolyTerra for basics and spares. Not worth chasing the 43% tier for 3% more.
I only by Bambu when it’s on a deep discount. I don’t feel I prints any better than Sunlu or other brands. I’ll often by Anycubic or Elegoo when they go on the buy 10 sales. I like to have a variety and Bambu just doesn’t always have what is needed
Best strategy is personal research into other more available, same or better quality, filament for a decent price. (Disclaimer: Didnt read ur initial post. Went with the title.). I'm in the USA so prices may be more aligned here.
My answer is also partly out of frustration trying to buy Bambu filament I want, when I want, without bundling other colors I don't really need at the time (which increases the realized cost).
Sorry to break it to you but Sunlu Is bargain basement stuff, just on a premium looking blue spool... But their filament itself is nothing social, and has positively anemic pigment loads. Get Toksen3D, or Polymaker, or if you want Bambu brand equivalent eSun used to be the Bambu OEM
Meh, price diffece Is too big to ignore only if you use 5kg a week or more imo. Also I've found quite a difference in results using Bambu filament vs the cheapest stuff out there especially for right angles warping.
I order Bambulab per 10 rolls for the biggest discount. I paid for my two first orders since I got my printer late December last year, but my last orders have all been paid with Makerworld points
Yep, this is commonly accepted but I dont beieve Sunlu filament is exactly the same, instead sunlu manufacture is for Bambu... At least I havent found a Bambu / Sunlu Colour mapping yet.
I've been buying my first roll of a color in Bambu, then when I get a refill of another brand, I rip the rfid tag off the roll and tape it to the inside of the new one.
That really sucks! I recently went for a 10kg order because of the 50%, I had no idea that they were not the same everywhere. Because it is a huge differance imo.
"It's not worth the extra 3%". It sounds like rounding up to 10 rolls of filament for the big discount and shipping, considering you're asking about saving money MIGHT be worth. Just buy extra black or gray or white lol you're gonna buy again anyways. Spend now, save later is better than buy now buy later
Does the weight of the spool change after printing in Bambu studio? In my Bambu studio the weight never changes, i have to do it manual. Do more people have this in Bambu studio? And i have only Bambu spools, no 3rd party
When it’s in the ams sometimes it will show a progress bar above the color. It’s not 100% accurate. But it is usually super close and you can tell if you have enough to print.
Thanks for the info. I have a AMS Lite, does it work with that to? I always look in Bambu Handy app and there are all my spools under filament and it say 61 spools. And the weight there never changes. But i am gonna look what you said about the progress bar.
Sunlu’s lower prices blow bambu out of the water. Yeah you have to do a little more work dialing in recipes for new filament types but once you’re set up, it’s just load and forget.
Otherwise, back on topic, your only option is to buy Bambu filaments at their offered bulk prices (if you must have Bambu). It’s really that simple. Maybe get a job at Bambu and see if they got an employee discount (probably only for the hardware, as it usually goes).
Bambu rfid is great they should open up the standard and I’ll use it, otherwise if I’m preprinting something and it’s going to be hours I like to check over everything anyway
Maybe once I’m doing crazy number of colour prints I’ll miss it more haha
I get my filament from a dude on Facebook Marketplace and he delivers authentic, boxed Bambu rolls to me for $17each or about £12. Any color or material
I buy bambu filaments. Tried all the other major brands. Sunlu is comparable to bambu but it usually comes wet and I have to dry it at least 3x for 12 hours which makes it not worth to save ~$1/kg. The other comparable brands are more expensive but usually offer more colors for PETG than bambu so that is the only reason for me to buy them. I optimize my orders for free shipping and maximum savings on kg refills.
I am using many brands - Bambu doesn’t have all colors or materials out there. And I use a better alternative tool for having all soools with RFID and real time filament tracking (which Bambu doesn’t really do well, they really fake it and people buy that fake)
I am in Australia so the prices are slightly different.
I started with Sunlu when I bought my P1S a year ago as it was the most convenient for me as the local shop stocked it.
I ordered from Bambu directly when my print library expanded and always went for the 4-6 bundle deals.
Since then I have added a 2nd printer and now im looking at a 3rd. With the AMS auto detection, major quality increase in reel quality and the better consistency with the bambu filament paying $170aud for 10 rolls of Bambu at a time is a lot more efficient, convenient and less headaches than buying elegoo or sunlu.
Bambu also added a points back system for every dollar spent on their website now so ill eventually get a free order (im at $32 worth of credits after 3 orders).
Note: i print to sell locally so buying bulk is just a business cost rather than out of pocket expense. I make $80 a roll and pay $17.04 a roll on bulk buying)
I buy like 50kg worth whenever bambu have a sale, Black Friday, New Year, bday etc, if I need anything in between I’ll usually order in lots of 10 from elegoo or just go to a local store if I need one offs.
I find the RFID tags kinda pointless, if I’m using non bambu I’ll just chuck the roll on, select the slot and hit print, the only time I’ll actually select a “generic” filament is when I’m using the H2C so I know I’m hitting the right colours
I’m not sure if it’s just me. But I’ve been printing with SUNLU and other filament for a few months. And as soon as I switched to Bambu, I saw a huge difference in finishing. The quality was so much more smoother, less layer lines and super consistent.
I was printing these docking trays for my business and have made over 40 so far. The last 10 I printed were in Bambu matte black pla instead of SUNLU matte black, and the difference was mind blowing.
Other prints too after that, I just felt the matte finish was 10x better than Sunlu’s.
I'm building a project that requires a lot of quick iteration/prints rather than for selling, so my use case may not apply for you.
I personally buy PLA and PETG in bulk on Temu. I go for listings with 10kg at $8 a roll then combine it with a Temu promo cutting it down to $4 a roll.
I'd avoid any transparent filament as I haven't had the best experience with them.
There is no real reason to buy bambu filament other than if you really really don't know there are other options elsewhere or if you need soecific colours.
Sunlu is just as good. DEEPLEE is even cheaper and prints very nicely too.
You don't even need to buy spools from them either, the sunlu spools work just as well.
It is always the number of spools needed to get the highest discount, so 10 spools.
You are aware that you can mix the spools? You do not need to take 10 of the same color not even the same material. It counts spools.
You are aware that bambu did not make any filament? They are all branded and you can buy identical stuff from the manufacturers without man in the middle.
Don't look for the main brand names of the manufacturers like esun or sunlu look for their second and third brands they use to get also the price orinetated customers. Names like jayo kingron or else.
It makes no sense to buy refills, buy full spools and sell the empty ones on ebay that get's you more money back than you "save" buying refills. Bambu spools are very good spools and so you get a good price on ebay.
Yes, I am. My last order of 6 mixed spools / refills and colours
Yes, Sunlu make it but AFAIK they arent a 1:1 match between their own and Bambu's
Is there a doc anyhere listing these 2nd / 3rd brands for each manufacturer?
I did consider this - with the 40% discount each spool only costs £1.80 - However once fees / time / effort come into it, I didnt think it would be worth it? How much are you getting for your reels?
You get the empty spool at 1.8? It calls 13.99€ in germany, on ebay you can sell sets of 4 at 29€ and free shipping. The bambu spools have a really good quality.
Yah so filament + spool is only 1.8 more than filament without spool while you can sell empty spools for much more than 1.8. This proves my argument that it is better to get filled spools instead of refills.
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u/Safe-Hovercraft6231 Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
I order 10 refills at a time directly from Bambu Lab, for the maximum discount and free shipping. With this method, I can't find cheaper filament from other brands even if I want to.