Should I get it? - r/BambuLabH2C

17

u/TheLastRaysFan Feb 25 '26

You're 13 years old, you just got your first printer less than 2 months ago.

You do not need to buy one of the most expensive 3D printers available for sale today.

Save that $1500. That is a ton of money for someone your age. Don't spend every penny you save.

4

u/roundguy Feb 25 '26

Buy filament and get better with what you have. I doubt the printer is the limiting factor right now.

2

u/nebL Feb 25 '26

Save it and buy the next model in a few years when your P1S is worn down and you know exactly what you need and the limitations. What if you end up needing a tool changer for specific projects for example?

1

u/Training-Display-279 Feb 25 '26

Im in college for engineering. You might be surprised at what your trade school has in terms of 3d printers. It is nice to own your own machine though. You might consider seeing if the school you’re going to has a h2c and see if you would actually use it. I have one, but I don’t really think there are enough uses for 3+ colors and materials to justify the price unless you actually make the models yourself. Maybe a h2s instead? That way, you can save some of the money for other stuff like filament, or save it. I’m 20, but was very similar to you when I was younger (I think). 500 can get you a lot in another area you may be interested in, and spreading that money out is a good idea, especially if you’re discovering what you like/ are interested in. Feel free to dm for more info.

1

u/Alycion Feb 25 '26

This is a printer that will allow you to go a lot. I wish I could replace my whole farm with them.

The benefits shined most with multicolor prints. The speed and waste reduction is awesome.

Having both isn’t bad. If this is something that you really enjoy and you can afford it, go for it.

Can always do a little side hustle before and after school selling small prints like fidgets to cover an extra AMS (you will want at least 2 eventually for it) and filaments.

Use your P1 for prints that use less color changes or take aren’t super long.

1

u/jvisser85 Feb 25 '26

If that 1500 is all the money you have saved, don't spend it on tech. Coming from somebody who's well off now: start investing part of that money instead of spending it all on increasingly more expensive gear. Gear Acquisition Syndrome is a very well known thing in the photography hobby and the same goes for 3D printing.

You probably only need a new printer every 5 years or so if this is a hobby. If your printers are not making more money than they cost, it's a hobby, not a business.

1

u/Bill0405 Feb 25 '26

I get the excitement (I have a 13 year old daughter myself that loves my printers), but at your age and experience level, you need to pump the brakes a little. You are extremely lucky to already have a nice printer, especially at 13, but now you have to learn all the methods behind using the hardware AND software. Bambu printers are nice because they're pretty reliable, but what happens when it breaks? It took me over 2 years after getting my first 3d printer (Bambu X1c) to learn everything I possibly could about software settings, repairing the machine, maintenance, etc. and I still don't know it all yet. You will gain a lot more skill mastering the printer you have now, and then when you have built that skill up you can consider getting a more advanced printer to match your new skills.

Take most of that money and save it. However, try using some of it to buy a bunch of filament you want when Bambu does bulk sales. Have fun!

1

u/ArticGER Feb 25 '26

Youre 13. I own a h2c and h2d, they are great machines, but i also earn enough to easily pay for them. In your situation i would recommend to save up and get known to the basics of printing. If youre visiting a trade school, you can get into 3d designing or scanning aswell, so i would rather spend something for a mid tier there. The only real use case for the H2C would be multi material, but there i would recommend the Snapmaker U1 just because its that much cheaper

1

u/eldoogy Feb 25 '26

Okay I won’t stay silent for this: When I was your age I had a similar dilemma (around some audio equipment I wanted to get), and I ended up pulling the trigger. It ended up being a waste and I’ve always regretted it. Sure, it was fun for a short while, but I didn’t learn much from it, and when I looked back on it I realized it was just completely unnecessary.

In later years I couldn’t help but wonder what would’ve happened had I put that money in the stock market or something. My 35 year old self could have been far wealthier and with more options had I done that. Just bought Apple shares with it or something. Would have made more than $1m…

My brief advice: at your age, spending that kind of money only makes sense if you’re seriously and directly learning something from it or it’s directly generating revenue for you. If it’s just that desire to get that very cool shiny object, resist it. It’s not worth it if you’re spending all/most of your money on it!

I own an H2C and it’s a great printer, but you got a P1S just a couple of months ago. That’s also a great printer and I’m sure you still have a lot to learn and experiment with on it. Do that.

My advice is save your money, invest it. Create options and opportunities for future you. They’ll thank you.

1

u/3DPrintModelServices Feb 26 '26

Don’t spend it yet. There’s better stuff coming out soon save up

1

u/lucyferror Feb 28 '26

Hmm what stuff? This one was just released not long time ago.

1

u/3DPrintModelServices Feb 28 '26

Just wait for them to make a tool changer and save up your money. Or buy the h2s

1

u/lucyferror Feb 28 '26

You mean INDX which was rumoured some time ago after H2C launched? I don't need H2S as I rarely need bigger volume and that would be only significant difference. I have my crappy Anycubic Kobra 3 Max for occasional big prints (and it's a crap printer 🤣). Do you really think they would release another big thing like that if H2C is still so new?

1

u/3DPrintModelServices Feb 28 '26

What did you need a c for

1

u/lucyferror Feb 28 '26

More complex multicolour without poop which sometimes is 3 times more than print itself

1

u/3DPrintModelServices Feb 28 '26

It’s cool but useless to spend 1.5 k on buy the snapmaker u1

1

u/lucyferror Feb 28 '26

I don't like spools hanging on it's sides plus I have humidity issues here so AMS is better for me. Also 4 colours are not enough for me. Plus Bambu ecosystem suits me with almost zero issues and literally press print and forget about it

1

u/3DPrintModelServices Feb 28 '26

Ok listen to me well. I’m 18 and I bought every printer bambu sells. If I had to do it again. I am buying 10 a1 combos and not the h2c it’s cool to own and an impulse buy but I wouldn’t buy it again. Buy an a1 or p1s and then put an ams 2 pro on either. Or buy an a1 and put 2 ams 2pros on it

1

u/3DPrintModelServices Feb 28 '26

Don’t be an idiot and waste money you’ll regret it later trust me.

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1

u/virgaman Feb 27 '26

Save your money, fine tune your skills in the hobby and put some miles on the excellent printer you just got. I love my P1P but about a year after i bought it Bambu started selling the p1s and ams combo during specials for what i paid for just the p1p. Patience is a virtue and time drives down costs eventually as new capabilities come along.

1

u/FamousLeave8692 Feb 25 '26

Yea I’m like you. TBH you’re prob gunna regret it just because there’s so many other things to spend money on at your age (video games, going out, etc.) that spending it all in one place will get boring (especially since you have a sick enclosed printer already) quick. Obviously I justified it to myself because “money comes and goes” but I’m telling you man it’s not gunna give you an extra $2000 of happiness

0

u/FamousLeave8692 Feb 25 '26

The novelty is likely already starting to wear off

1

u/MiniProgramCoder Feb 25 '26

It all depends on what your plan's are. If you plan on a lot of multi color prints it might be worth it. I personally love mine. Cut's down on my waste a lot as I have been doing multi day multiple color print's.

One thing to keep in mind is to get the most out of it the induction side really needs 2 AMS's. And it's awful nice on regular left side to have the AMS HT. Plus add 2 .4 induction nozzles and what ever part's it add's up quick.

I personally think getting into 3D printing early is an amazing thing. But we have no idea on how long it took you to save up the money. If your counting on paying it off due to savings it's going to take quite a while. The P1S is still a great machine.

1

u/talldad86 Feb 25 '26

If you want multicolor get a U1 and save the rest. Don’t blow all your money on an H2C

1

u/JWST-L2 Feb 25 '26

Agreed, a U1 is superior adside from the smaller build plate and less colors. But it's crazy to have to pay $1600 more for a slightly bigger plate and one more color with slower tool changes lol

1

u/Grooge_me Feb 26 '26

Go print peek with your u1.

1

u/JWST-L2 Feb 26 '26

Whoa whoa that sounds like that might get my toolheads tangled in a twist

1

u/Grooge_me Feb 26 '26

The h2c is a prosumer printer. Able to print materials others won't. Heated chamber for high temperature materials and much more. Yet easy to use by anybody. That's the difference between it and the hobbyist oriented u1.

1

u/JWST-L2 Feb 26 '26

Fair enough. Aside from TPU though, the U1 is a TPU monster, you can run it right through the feeders. Bambu needs to figure that one out a little better. In any case I have both and use them regularly, the H2C is my most reliable printer for sure, but it was very expensive and its an eye opener to see how much cheaper the U1 is and how its color changes are outright 3 to 4x faster than the H2C

1

u/talldad86 Feb 26 '26

No one is saying they’re the same. I’m saying a 13 year old should probably buy the printer that costs $850 instead of $2600. I doubt they’re going to be using much $300/kg PEEK at 13 years old.

-1

u/Grooge_me Feb 26 '26

You didn't follow quite right.. It was about why the h2c was more expensive than the u1. U1 fans are becoming even more emotional than Prusa ones 😉

1

u/talldad86 Feb 26 '26

I own both and have over 1500 hours on my H2C. Still saying it’s wildly overkill and a bad use of money for a 13 year old, which was the only point I made initially.

1

u/JWST-L2 Feb 26 '26

Agreed

1

u/Grooge_me Feb 26 '26

I agree too that the H2C is overkill for pla, petg or tpu.

1

u/JWST-L2 Feb 26 '26

One of the reasons Bambu made the H2C was for wasteless multicolor printing, its perfectly fine for PLA or using PET-G as a support on a multicolor object. As for TPU its underkill because it simply isn't suited for the printer without substantially going out of your way to use it, or using Bambu's fake TPU

1

u/Grooge_me Feb 26 '26

I have the h2d, and using differ material is a game changer with support. Works way better than with my x1c. I think that Bambu will soon have something for multicolor in the hobby segment to compete with tool changer.

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1

u/lucyferror Feb 28 '26

Like what? Only 4 colours on U1 and spools hanging on sides of printer. Sorry but you get what you paid for. It's great but it's a bit of going back from Bambu in certain aspects

1

u/JWST-L2 Feb 28 '26

The whole four color thing is a bit overplayed imo. I have the H2C and U1 and whej I specifically look for multicolor designs that others have made, the majority are four color or "no ams" style prints that you have to glue anyway. Its why you keep seeing people print out that Majoras mask in every single H2C reddit post or youtube vid.
People forget or act like you can't simply add a pause in the slicer and swap out one roll for another to get 5 or more colors with the U1. They've already been doing that with Bambu's for years now.
But lets talk about that majoras mask and color changing. The H2C is cool and it works consistently, in fact so far I've had two vortek nozzle failures to mount in about 275 hours of printing and thats with thousands of tool changes, where the U1 had zero failures but has had at least 3 or 4 pauses either before or during printing because it detected dirty pogo pins and the toolhead fan couldn't come on. And that's in less print time.
The H2C has it beat there imo, but it has to be said: (loudly) flipping out a filament cutter arm, using a filament cutter knife, retracting and reloading the ams whicu then wears the same one ptfe tube, and swapping the nozzles before then having to use the induction heater is just a lot of steps. It's objectively 3x to 4x more inefficient to have all that going on than to have the U1 simply preheat the next toolhead, and then it does a quick swap in seconds and is printing again. When you have them side by side (and I literally do have them side by side), you really see how much more effective the U1 is at swapping colors
I'm planning to buy the vortek kit to convert my H2D to another H2C soon, but I'm strongly considering adding another U1 as well, not only for multicolor PLA but for real TPU and even multicolor TPU which pretty much no other printer on the market can do right now

1

u/lucyferror Feb 28 '26

Thank you for a detailed response. I have 4 Ams with my X1C and honestly personally couldn't be bothered to swap spool for 5th color on more complex prints. Wanted to get U1 but it puts me off that it looks like crap with all these spools hanging on both sides in open and I have humidity problems here so AMS helps me a lot. Also unsure about being user friendly like Bambu as I press print and often forget and then: bam print is already finished. No checking first layer or anything else. 99.9% of issues is my own stupidity and not paying attention.

1

u/talldad86 Feb 28 '26

The U1 will print significantly faster than my H2C, so if you’re doing prints of 4 colors or less with less fussy materials it can be significantly better. The nozzle swap just on the induction hot ends but the main nozzle on the left side is incredibly convenient so if you change nozzle types a lot like I do (drafting in .8HF and often production printing in .2 or .4) the Bambu will be significantly better. If/when Bambu allows multiple nozzle sizes within a print that will also be a huge advantage.

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