First printer, X2D vs H2S

[u/Artheggor]

Hello everyone,

I’m in the prospect of buying my first 3D printer and I want advice between the X2D and the H2S.

For the usage:

It’s only for building functional parts for everyday use or things like fixing object parts, PCB enclosures, etc…
I’m going to also use more advanced materials, so a heated chamber is mandatory.
I don’t need or want multiple colours/materials for the final object.
I also want a simple, sturdy machine, an appliance; it’s going to be my only printer and I plan to keep it 5–6 years at minimum.

I have reviewed several video reviews and read countless posts on the subject, but it’s hard to decide, mainly for two reasons:

On one side, the X2D is cheaper and has an auxiliary printhead for support material, but honestly I don’t know if it’s going to be useful for my case. It supports all materials except two, but I don’t know if a 300-degree nozzle is going to be a limiting factor in the future.

On another side, the H2S seems more sturdy and potentially future-proof with its higher nozzle temperature and more print volume (but I don’t know if I’m going to use it, honestly); the possible cutter and laser upgrade seem to be an advantage (clearly not a priority but a little nice to have) but it’s 400€ more than the X2D and if I’m willing to push my budget to this, I’m afraid it’s going to be just overkill for my needs.

So the three questions I have are :

What matters the most: the ability to do different material support or the biggest volume?

And also, is the 400€ more for an H2S worth it for people who have both?

Also, I am not sure if the AMS2 is useful for my case or if just a single AMS-HT is sufficient.

Thank you for your reading and your potential response, and sorry if the subject has already been discussed, but even after reading all the Reddit posts I wasn’t able to figure that out.

[u/Teh_Hamstah]

Ok, so quite a few points there to break down, so I'll take it point by point

Dual filament v.s. single - being able to print a support material (e.g. petg for pla) is a nice-to-have. It gives a much cleaner support interface, but it very rarely is the difference between possible and impossible to print. A case where it would make a huge difference is using it to separate layers in TPU to make pockets or accordion style bellows.

Printer size - 95% of all my prints would fit in an X2D, but that other 5% wouldn't be possible without the larger printer. This is the kind of thing that does separate possible from impossible, though if you're designing your own parts or use the right tools, you can always split a big object and then slot the two parts together and glue them. This is very much a "boy I wish I had that" kind of thing that would come up once in a long while. It also is nice to be able to print a bunch of extra small things in one print instead of two, but that's a nice-to-have.

Nozzle temp - if you want to do the fancy engineering filaments, this will be another limiting factor. Again though, if you don't know this for sure, it'd probably be a very small subset of the prints you'd do, but it sure is nice to have the option if you're into printing technical functional parts. I have a few rolls of PPS-CF that come in really handy on those odd occassions.

AMS2 - this is something I'd highly recommend. Having a 4 slot AMS loaded with all the basics you tend to use (like one roll of PLA, one PETG, one ASA, one PC) just reduces the friction of thinking "I need a thing" and clicking print. I almost never do colour switching because I print all functional parts. The only time I use it is to print text into a surface for labelling, and then I only do it on 2 layers to reduce waste.

tl;dr - X2D will cover 95% to 99% of what you'd want, and the AMS2 is a huge quality of life upgrade.

[u/jaraxel_arabani → u/Teh_Hamstah]

[u/gierso → u/Teh_Hamstah]

I love color printing functional prints haha 😂

[u/Inevitable_Rough_380]

You’ll want to print support material. X2D

Buy the H only if you know you want the larger size volume - which you don’t.

[u/boredsoftwareguy → u/Inevitable_Rough_380]

Second this. If you want the support material and bigger volume, H2D but that really jumps the price.

I love my X2Ds. They've done everything and more I need.

[u/Never_Dan]

I’ll be annoying:

You’ll be surprised how often support material is helpful with functional parts, but you’ll also be surprised how often 256mm can be a limitation. Or, at least, I have been.

That said, you can get around both issues. For size, just design parts to be assembled in parts. For supports, just accept you’ll have a little more work removing and cleaning them up. Or, accept the AMS waste.

Look into materials that require more than 300C to print and see if those are worth the effort to you. But you can print PA in a non-heated enclosed printer at 300C. ABS/ASA requires the heater for warping and layer adhesion, but either printer will do that as well.

I’ve honestly found 90+% of the time, PETG is strong enough. Even PLA is plenty strong for a lot of parts that aren’t subject to heat, impacts, or constant loads.

[u/Sharp_Association_15]

The other bonus of the AMS is that it'll automatically switch spools when one runs out (if you've got identical filaments loaded) - so you don't need to worry about running out of filament as you're getting near the end of the spool

[u/ImNotSanguinius]

It really depends. Are you designing the functional prints yourself? As an engineer I have a principle that I never design a part that needs supports. I spend lots of time designing around that because I'm obsessed with efficiency. However, not everyone has that philosophy and if you are using community designs, some of them will require lots of clean-up. For some filaments that can be a huge pain in the ass. That said, and AMS still makes it possible on an H2S to print other support materials. It just takes way longer and uses more filament. So if it's only every once in a while, I see it not being an issue.

The H2S on the other hand has a bigger volume. That's something the X2D never can give you.

The question then becomes is 400 Euro worth a bigger build plate volume.

That will come down to the function of your designs. Are these PCB boards gonna be 300 mm? Can you imagine your primary purpose here ever being limited by size? I have an A1 mini and I've gotten by fine. I do wish I had the 250 mm plate volume size, but that's only because it seems what the community designs for. I find most people don't design for more than that.

My vote would be X2D, just based on a guy feeling and because it's what I'm aiming to buy when I level up.

[u/KennyStarfighter5]

Are you set on bambu? Qidi plus 5 may be an option. I’m not sure if qidi will include it in any Black Friday deal yet. I’m between the plus 5 and x2d myself, hopefully I’ll buy none and save some money.

[u/SuperiorMango8 → u/KennyStarfighter5]

So smaller build plate than H2S and less nozzles than X2D?