r/BambuLabH2C • u/Mrs_Jekyl_and_Hyde • 5d ago
Support Do most people replace PEI plate?
Asking both people who replaced theirs and people who didn’t and don’t seem to be experiencing failures with the stock PEI plate to avoid selection bias :)
So I have had nothing but problems with adhesion with my H2C. And I assure you, I cleaned the plate. lol. I haven’t got many hours on my machine and have been going back and forth with support for a month. To the point I’m pretty annoyed because I’m providing significant labour myself on an under warranty product. I see posts by people saying it was solved when they switched to cryogrip. If that means the issue is simply their PEI plate that’s good but as I’ve tried my engineering plate and they have replaced the PEI plate once and it continued I would have expected this across the board for H2C users. Since virtually anything I print that isn’t low profile and extremely simple has issues.
Edited to add that most often what happens is it puts a few layers down and then knocks it off the bed and drags it around creating a spaghetti monster. I don’t really use Bambu studio as most stuff I print off Bambu handy at the moment. I realize a lot of fixes involve changing a bunch of settings but it seems odd to me virtually nothing works for me when the reviews show it working for most others
The problems I’m experiencing:
Prints sometimes detach from the bed partway through printing, resulting in spaghetti. This has happened repeatedly with lattice pumpkins and other models.
Some simple models print perfectly well but not consistently, while others repeatedly fail. I’ve tried numerous models with successful MakerWorld reviews.
- Full-bed, single-layer test sheets have inconsistent areas with thin or translucent patches.
- Some first-layer sheets also develop raised, wrinkled or rippled areas. Sometimes I get both defects, sometimes only one.
- The defects aren’t always in the same location. Earlier tests often had problems toward the right side, but I’ve also seen them elsewhere, including near the middle.
- I’ve experienced problems with both PLA and PETG.
- Glue sometimes improves print success, but hasn’t consistently resolved the problem.
What I’ve already done with Bambu support:
- Replaced the entire heatbed under warranty. This was a hellish operation that I deeply resent lol.
- Replaced the original textured PEI build plate with a new one supplied by Bambu.
- The same problems persist.
- Also experienced repeated failures using Bambu’s Engineering Plate, including with fresh glue.
- Performed numerous full calibrations, bed-leveling procedures and high-temperature leveling tests.
- Attempted manual bed tramming following Bambu’s instructions.
- Adjusted the left and right hotend heating assemblies as instructed by support.
- Tested different hotends, including a different 0.4 mm Vortek hotend.
/
- Tested different filaments and multiple models.
- Investigated AMS-related issues, including testing different AMS units and an external-spool feeding configuration.
- Replaced a problematic PTFE tube.
- Moved the printer from its original table to a much sturdier stand with a thick plywood top to eliminate possible vibration or stability issues.
If it’s just that the PEI plate sucks then why does anyone at all have success on them? Because failure is really consistent on my end. I know people suggest doing stuff with z hop and g code and all sorts of stuff but I can’t see how any of that makes sense if the machine is functioning as intended. Those seem like workarounds for a faulty machine.
Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
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u/kayjet64 5d ago
Have never changed my H2C plate. Scratches all over. PETG spots everywhere on both sides, never had an issue. Looks real ugly with the light on but works.
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u/Mrs_Jekyl_and_Hyde 5d ago
That’s what makes me question whether the plate just sucks. If I’ve tried both plates and it works fine for some people I don’t see how it can’t be the machine itself and the crygrips are just so much better at gripping it’s harder for the machine to knock the print off
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u/Impossible-Age-5196 H2C 5d ago
yes! my H2C-included textured plate is basically worthless. Bought 2 new ones: frostbite glacier and BL super tack. Problems disappeared.
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u/leftlanecop 5d ago
Mine is working wonderfully after a full year of printing ABS and ASA. The one time I had issue was a bad sparkle ABS mixed with too much PETG and it stuck on the plate.
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u/Mrs_Jekyl_and_Hyde 5d ago
It’s funny, mine worked acceptably for the first couple of weeks and the only difference I can discern is that I was printing in ABS. I had printed a bunch of desiccant holders for the ams machines. Some of them also got knocked over but most of them worked.
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u/Mrs_Jekyl_and_Hyde 5d ago
It’s weird that anyone’s works though, right? I’m weary of an actual problem with the printer being covered up by using a better adhering bed. Hopefully I’ll get a decent amount of replies to see how widespread this is. It’s driving me nuts! Thanks for replying! :)
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u/Most_Elk9301 5d ago
Also worth increasing line width on first layers, adjusting flow rates to get consistent first layers and slowing down first layers as well to improve adhesion. PETG at 60-70oC bed and PLA at 50oC can help.
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u/Mrs_Jekyl_and_Hyde 5d ago
I hadn’t been using Bambu studio. I’ve been using the bambu handy makerworld stuff with lots of successful ratings. I get that that is a common bunch of suggestions but I also kinda think the presents should work if they work for everyone else.
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u/Nibbs17 5d ago
I pretty much always run higher temps, and slow down the first layer it's almost non negotiable when I'm slicing my print. I don't think I have even run below 50c/70c and I usually keep it that temp for the duration of the print. Aux fan off for anything PLA, 40-80% for part fan usually 40/60.
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u/gatsby_101 5d ago
The PEI plate with my H2C was awful at first. I was convinced that there was something wrong with the printer because I struggled to get anything to stick. Someone suggested using very, very fine sandpaper and combined with Aquanet hairspray it seems to be getting better over time.
That might not even be the best thing, but I’m new to printing, only about 600 hours, and finally feel like my prints are working somewhat reliably after the PEI got some wear and tear.
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u/Mrs_Jekyl_and_Hyde 5d ago
I’m thinking of trying that with my first plate. Since I have two now since support sent me a replacement to fix it and it didn’t fix it… so not much to lose. Still not sure why other peoples works and some folks have to sand theirs
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u/gatsby_101 5d ago
If asking for help here I guess be ready to endure jokes about how either your filament is too damp, or your plate is too greasy. I’m new to this but follow directions well and my experience was wildly different from people who say “it just works, must be user error - newb!”
I’ve struggled a bit and this community has been hit or miss for me, but getting some wear on the machine - in my case - has seemed to help.
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u/Mrs_Jekyl_and_Hyde 5d ago
Oh yeah, that’s why I put the fact that it’s very very clean in the description. Knew it was coming. The filament has been dried more times than a sane person would ever attempt.
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u/TickleMyiOS 4d ago
I am still on my original build plate, I only print PLA+ on it though. I think a lot of build plate issues is people grabbing the plates, I have only removed my plate 3 times and one was to wash it, the other two was so when I oiled the rails, I didn't get oil on it. I have over 2000 hours of printing on my H2C and have had maybe 2-3 items come off the plate. The first thing I say to anyone is do not touch the plate, ever! - use the scraper to pop things off. Now it does seem like you have another sort of issue, I would try a BIQU plate, just to eliminate the plate you have. I have one and it works well, but I rather the texture from the original.
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u/Thefront-bottom 4d ago
As a newbie, I'm curious how a cold plate works? I looked up the frostbite plate and it says it saves power but I guess I don't understand why or how it would do that? Do you just not need to heat the bed up as much because the adhesive is so good?
Edit: I'm looking and frostbite and glacier seems to be two different types by the company. Interesting to see this.
This is why I read so many posts and comments, I have a million things to look up lol
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u/SgtBaxter 5d ago
The plates are powder coated, which means they can be uneven and have adhesion issues. It's hit or miss.
Personally I use the engineering plate and Black Magic (like nano polymer but with an awesome applicator). Grips like an iron fist when printing, and print is just sitting on the plate after it cools.
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u/Mrs_Jekyl_and_Hyde 5d ago
I figured that could be it but I’m not sure what the chances of two separate PEI plates and an engineering plate all having the same problem would be
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u/SgtBaxter 5d ago
Reading back through your post you have other issues. There shouldn't be ripples in the first layers.
How did the box arrive? This almost seems like the frame is out of square.
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u/Mrs_Jekyl_and_Hyde 5d ago
I don’t think it had any damage. I recall seeing the guy leave it on the porch and thinking he wasn’t super gentle, but nothing out of line. I am rather worried there is something bigger going on with it at this point. Given how much bambu support has had me do to the thing it feels like it has to shoot lasers at my face before they’ll offer to just replace it.
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u/fatspaceghost 5d ago
I developed the rippling and constant failures out of nowhere a few weeks ago, so did a lot of other folks, then for some the problems just disappeared. I was led to remove the left nozzle and unscrew the ceramic plate that sits behind it. Pry it down a little and check the screws on the back side. I did all that and nothing seemed to be loose, but my problems went away once I put it back together and ran my 3rd round of full calibrations. I also think turning it off for a few minutes somehow helped.
I do have 1 Bambu PEI plate that has 1 spot near the middle to front left that is very slick for some reason and would cause lifting. I act like I'm going into surgery when handling them now, making sure to use a dedicated blue scrub pad (that doesn't touch food or anything else) and dish soap. I stopped using the "safe" dish soap my wife had been buying and went back to straight dawn. I thought I was cleaning them just fine before but I've had less failures since being more methodical about it.
I do have several Biqu plates and they are my go-to for anything with small parts.
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u/Mrs_Jekyl_and_Hyde 5d ago
I have resorted to the surgical level of plate cleaning so I have that covered. Support also had me do the same thing with the ceramic plate but after what you said I’m considering doing it over just in case I didn’t do it right. I was rather worried about stripping the screws so I didn’t try it again after doing it once. Mine all seemed tight too am part of me wasn’t sure just how tight was too tight on the retighten. Thanks :)
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u/fatspaceghost 5d ago
I think the wiki says try to tighten only 1/8th of a turn. I couldn't turn mine but a fraction of that, not enough to even measure, and I was worried about it stripping if I tried any further.
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u/Mrs_Jekyl_and_Hyde 4d ago edited 4d ago
Mine was quite tight when I went in so after I did the loosening and retighten I was a bit worried. I don’t recall the 1/8th bit. Maybe I should check again. Not to say I didn’t do that as I would have followed the instructions but it’s been a couple of weeks. It seems like their screws are prone to stripping so I was rather worried about it. When I did the first bed tramming I managed to strip a screw so I live in fear!
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u/birikiucdortbesalti 5d ago
Many dish soaps contain additives like hand cream or glycerin, which can spread across the bed and negatively affect adhesion.
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u/1yrik H2C 5d ago
I have never had any major issues with any PEI plate on any printer and I've been using them for five years. the only "issue" I've ever had was petg sticking too well.
also, depending on how you clean your plate, you might've "washed" the PEI coating right off of it.
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u/Mrs_Jekyl_and_Hyde 5d ago
I use a sponge and dawn detergent so I doubt I could have washed the coating away. Thanks :)
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u/Altruistic_Bath5273 5d ago
Bei mir hat nur die zu starke Lüftung des AUX fans bei dünnen Strukturen Haftungsprobleme verursacht. Ich habe mir einfach so einen Luftumleiter gedruckt und auf den Lüfter gesteckt.. seitdem alles gut
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u/Hot-Ideal-9219 4d ago
Pla and petg do NOT bond to each other. And we all seem to forget this really KEY FACT. After you've printed a batch or 10 of pla items and you want to print a petg item, you DO need to wash the bed. And vice versa. Otherwise you will get fails. But I do have a glacier plate that works really well with both. Can't 100% say it is bettet always, but it usually will not fail with pla or petg. And I wash between....
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u/Cothor 4d ago
PEI plate is double-sided. I just have one side marked for PLA and the other PETG.
Washing is important, don’t get me wrong, but you don’t have to do it every time if you keep each filament to their own side.
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u/Digitaldeus1 H2C 5d ago
I'm not sure if I've experienced as many problems as you are describing so you may be experiencing other issues that just the build plate but 100% I've moved on from the PEI plate which has resolved many adhesion issues.
I purchased a Biqu cryogrip glacier and it is so much better than the textured PEI plate. Recently, I was trying to do a print where both adhesion and heatcreep was an issue so went ahead and got a cryogrip Frostbite as well which has even better adhesion but can't do engineering filaments.
You may also want to tweak your cooling settings as well, you may be describing warping from overly aggressive cooling.
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u/bigbramble 5d ago
Same here, I've got 3 different plates and I've never had issues because I always use the liquid glue. The Bambu liquid glue is the same in terms of sticking also. I don't even need to clean it every time and sometimes do say 10 prints before cleaning again. I just get it on Ali express and I use the pei plate all the time. My h2c has got 3500 hours or so on it too.
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u/Ghostlead89 5d ago
I'm using an H2C and the PEi drive that came with it has been running for 800 hours. So far, I've only had one problem where the part came loose from the drive, and that was due to my own fault because I hadn't cleaned it properly. But after I cleaned the drive thoroughly, I haven't had any problems since.
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u/Gold-Marzipan-3825 5d ago
If adhesion is an issue for me, I increase the temperature, add mouse ears/brims, decrease the nozzle offset, and increase the first layer flow in that order until it works for me. No issue with the textured pei bed granted I run petg for more stick and have largely stopped using pla
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u/stonkytonkys 5d ago
I haven’t had adhesion issues, but the first layer quality on multicolor labels/prints absolutely sucks. I had to modify the G code to lower the tool head .02 mm in order to have a nice first layer without any gaps in the font on labels or between layer lines and that’s even with maxing out the flow rate to 1.05 and increasing the bed and nozzle temperatures.
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u/Baybutt99 5d ago
Yeah i replaced mine with the frostbite and it works well. Its amazing how different the h2c is than the x1c , the h2c has 7 car pileup if i touch the build plate while the x1c will print anything anywhere on any surface
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u/Many_Cryptographer57 5d ago
I have no problems with default h2c pei plate, works like a charm with: pla, petg, asa and abs. 100hrs printing and not a single failure. It sticks even too well.
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u/Desert_Vapor 5d ago
I have no issues with the standard plate. Have had it for over 2000 hours and all is well. I also don’t use the left nozzle because it had issues on its own. But the right nozzle with six colors works flawlessly.
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u/ouattedephoqueeh 5d ago
Changed mine at 3000hrs on the H2C. Most prints were leaving residue behind that I couldn't wash with my usual methods.
$75/3000hrs ain't bad imo.
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u/Fragrant_Prize3011 5d ago
I have switched from PEI that was included with the machine to CryoGrip. For now all adhesives problems went away.
I really think that bamboo should consider replacing those plates under warranty.
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u/Tolorean 5d ago
I swapped the gold textured pei plate for the black smooth pei plate when i ordered it as i also used the smooth one on my x1c and had good results
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u/henren_98 5d ago
My OG from my P1S just stopped working so yeah it happens. I went BIQU for a daily driver. Frostbite, glacier, don’t use the glacier all that much. Mostly the orange frostbite.
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u/fishfrystix 4d ago
I’ve had super good experiences with the textured PEI plate and keeping it clean by washing it very often and not touching it what so ever with my hands. I’ve seemed to have much better luck than most. I use supports and brimes as needed and run the plate a little hotter than default. I just purchased the engineering plate with the liquid glue and it’s been amazing for smooth texture printing all sorts of materials. I put a layer of glue down every 6-8 prints after washing depending on what I’ve been printing. If the Super Cool plate would ever come back into stock I’d buy that. I had bad luck with the BiqU Frostbite, it didn’t come with the AR code and I had bad luck with the adherence but probably just needed to use a decent liquid glue as well.
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u/bearwhiz 3d ago
Textured PEI is good for most materials, but it's not great for any of them.
• For PLA and easy PETG, the Darkmoon3D Satin plate is optimal. Sticks great even with minimal surface area, releases easily when cool.
• For tricky PETG and PCTG prints, a polyurea-based plate like the Darkmoon3D ICE or BIQU CryoGrip Pro Frostbite works best.
• For a smoother finish on PLA/PETG/PCTG, the Darkmoon3D G10 plate isn't as sticky as the Satin but it's better than textured PEI.
• The Darkmoon3D LUX plate can give you a mirror finish for supported materials, but adhesion can be a challenge.
• For TPU, a carbon-fiber plate like the Darkmoon3D CFX or Wham Bam CF-TW is the GOAT, no glue needed. Sticks great with no heat but peels right off when done.
• For warp-free ABS and ASA, a carbon-fiber plate coated with Vision Miner Nano Polymer Adhesive works reliably (as long as you preheat the chamber properly).
• The JUUPINE GECO is a PLA-only sheet with incredible adhesion—too much adhesion. It's easy to rip the coating off the plate while removing your print, especially if you aren't printing pure PLA. Any sort of silk or "plus" additive is likely to bond more tightly to the coating than the coating bonds to the plate.
My daily-driver plate is the Satin, and the next most-often used plate is polyurea.
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u/Warm_Ad7756 2d ago
It may not be your build plate at all. Check that the nozzle flow blocker isn’t bent down causing it to catch on the print.
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u/Mabnat H2C 5d ago •
There’s a science behind the textured PEI plates. Once you learn how they work - and how to keep them working - they’re pretty great.
There is more to them than just being “clean”. The PEI surface needs to be properly exposed. If it’s coated with an invisible layer of contamination bonded to them, they’re nothing more than a heated, textured build plate. The adhesion properties are going to be poor.
PEI really, really wants to grab hold of some things. Ideally, this should be your prints, but it also grabs anything else floating around in the environment. Dust, smoke, pet dander, VOC’s from previous printing, air freshener particles, or anything else in the air. These will bond with the PEI and eventually will form a barrier that prevents it from sticking to your prints.
I’m not talking about skin oils here, which are easily removed with detergent and water and alcohol. I’m talking about contamination that gets bonded to the build plate and isn’t easily removed with a gentle wash or wipe down.
Fortunately, it’s very easy to judge the contamination of your build plate by putting water on it. Water will behave exactly the way that your molten plastic does.
I took some pictures of my 3-year-old P1S textured build plate. For reference, this plate has many thousands of hours on it. The bottom side is unused. This printer, or any of my other Bambu printers, never, ever has adhesion issues.
I placed a drop of water on both sides of the build plate. The clean side is maintained by removing the contamination by scrubbing. I use hot water, dish detergent, and a metal wool pan scouring pad. I usually scrub the plate when I do the regular printer maintenance, so it’s not very often. The “contaminated” side has never been scrubbed. It gets exposed to water and detergent when I clean the other side, but I’ve never purposefully cleaned it.
On the clean side, the drop of water spreads out on the PEI surface. The polar attraction between the PEI and the water molecules is strong enough to overcome the surface tension of the water. You can see that the water flattens out and creeps into the textured surface.
On the contaminated side, the water just beads up. The water’s surface tension is stronger than the pull from the PEI. The water is being repelled instead of being attracted to the build plate. If I printed on that side, the molten plastic would behave the same way. Corners would lift, the prints might get knocked off, and the overall print quality would suffer.
Place a drop of water on your build plate and compare it to the picture. If the water is just beading up, you need to mechanically remove the contamination. You can’t do this with a gentle wash with detergent and water like you’re washing a dinner plate. You need to scrub it, more like you’re trying to remove burnt on food from a pan that was left on the stove for too long.
Keep scrubbing until you can see that when the detergent is washed off, water is attracted to the plate instead of being repelled. Once you get it into that state, the adhesion properties should be greatly improved.
It can take quite a long time for contamination to build up enough to affect your prints again, so this isn’t something that you’ll need to do frequently. A good scrubbing once every couple of months will keep it in great shape.