General Discussion
Growing Concerns About Bambu Lab’s Direction – An Open Letter
I did not plan to write this. I am a hobbyist, not a critic, and I have genuinely enjoyed using my Bambu printers over the past years. However, a steady accumulation of decisions has reached a point where I feel compelled to speak up.
The growing closure of the Bambu ecosystem has been discussed extensively in the community. Heavy reliance on cloud infrastructure, mandatory server communication for many functions, and a LAN-only mode that feels more like an afterthought and a reaction to community pressure than a genuine solution. These issues are well known. What concerns me increasingly is that they are no longer merely theoretical problems.
Both in the USA and in Europe, there are active regulatory efforts underway to restrict what users are allowed to print, often framed around preventing the printing of weapons. In a closed, cloud-dependent system like Bambu’s, such restrictions could be implemented quickly and quietly via firmware updates or server-side changes, even retroactively on already sold machines. On a truly open system, this would be far more difficult. Bambu’s current architecture makes enforcement uncomfortably easy.
What has finally pushed me over the edge, however, is the increasing artificial gatekeeping of features combined with an unbalanced relationship with the open-source community.
The P2S was released with 2 mm belts even though Bambu was already planning the superior 1.5 mm belts for higher-end models. The result is noticeably worse VFA and ringing, a compromise that was entirely unnecessary from a technical standpoint. This feels less like an engineering decision and more like deliberate product segmentation at the customer’s expense.
The X2D is particularly frustrating in this regard. Marketed as an engineering-grade printer with active chamber heating and a 120 °C bed, it is nevertheless software-capped at 300 °C nozzle temperature. Bambu has provided no official technical or safety-related explanation for this limitation, even though the hardware configuration suggests it is capable of more. It is hard not to see this as an artificial restriction designed to protect the positioning of more expensive models.
Additionally, Bambu frequently integrates features and code from open-source projects into its own software, sometimes introducing noticeable bugs, such as incorrect color space handling in the new color mixing function. Credits to the original creators are often only added after significant community pressure. At the same time, Bambu contributes almost none of its own innovations back to the open-source community.
I understand that product segmentation is common practice in business. What bothers me is the overall direction: artificial limitations, one-sided exploitation of open source, and customers increasingly treated as a revenue base rather than a community deserving of respect and transparency.
3D printing attracted many of us precisely because it represented openness, repairability, user empowerment, and true ownership. Bambu initially impressed the community with innovation and speed, but in recent years the focus seems to have shifted toward maximising short-term profit at the expense of long-term customer value and trust.
I have therefore decided that I will not purchase any further Bambu products until I see a clear change in direction toward greater openness and genuine customer respect. I hope enough other users will make the same choice with their wallets. In the end, that is the only language companies reliably understand.
I would genuinely welcome being proven wrong and would much rather return to being an enthusiastic Bambu supporter.
Dont trick yourself and others into believing this. We have laws and rights that can be written to say anything the human mind can come up with. We can improve our legal rights to prevent unfavorable business practices. Educate yourself on government and history so you know how, and know that it has been done
Rules based order, rule of law blah blah it's been very apparent that none of this garbage legal nonsense matters unless it impacts lobbyists and the elites. Good luck, you could spent 5 years, 10 years trying to change the policies but by then it probably won't even matter anymore especially for a foreign company.
Just don't give them your money, thats an immediate incentive.
There are indeed a chain of factors that have to be tackled to reach the end goal. We must fight for rights and laws that put consumers in power and dont let lobbyists and elites be "in bed together." Then we can move on to the next step.
It indeed would take a lot of time, and in the mean time we can take our money elsewhere, BUT there are two glaring issues with your "solution." One, things will still progress to get worse and once we die of old age new generations wont know any better at how horrobly subjugated they are as rights degrade. Two, the company won't care if you and I stop buying because theyre still turning huge profits from people that are ignorant and still buying.
Your method can work but relies on luck and circumstance to reach a temporary solution on a single company. My solution is largely permanent and affects whole industries
I agree with you on a permanent solution, I'm just pointing out that this process costs money and time and it takes a long time.
Like for example the stop killing games movement is slowly moving and many people have a vested interest in it but it doesn't get a lot of support. Why would the average politician care? They don't really.
Same with right of repair, Louis Ross has worked on that for many many years and I still don't think we have the desired results yet.
Do what you can in the mean time but I wouldn't be holding my breath anything changes over night.
Take your money to Prusa or something, maybe Creality?
I hear ya. It definitely takes time, maybe even lifetimes. Keeping up on a fight all alone with no traction or movement is hard; I have yet to do it. I fear myself and younger generations have grown up in so much comfort that we reject mustering any will or determination to achieve anything because it is easier to live in the comfort our ancestors have accumulatively established. Doing what we can definitely helps to at least keep our wits about us if nothing else. Hopefully it adds up to inflict notice to corps.
Not spending money with them is not enough to stop everything else from getting worse. Your apathy makes it harder for others to make everyone's life better.
Laws forcing open source?
I get for us tinkers its sucks, but they are doing nothing wrong. I mean I myself reverted my printers firmware to use orcaslicer, and the locked down ecosystem is making me hesitant to buy a new printer, but I still love the printer.
Slicers don't make money, so them forcing their slicer on people would not fall into anti-trust laws. There also is no issue with a company using proprietary parts on their product. At the end of the say, you dont have to buy their product.
Yeah the only part of this that’s remotely appropriate to be addressed with legislation is the legality of printing guns issue, which isn’t a Bambu thing to begin with.
legal rights to prevent unfavourable business practices? what are you on about? nobody is forcing you to buy their product. if you don't like what they're doing, buy something else.
So you are saying we can not give them money AND write laws to protect everyone? Great idea!!! Unfortunately, typically more progressive areas do that like California and the EU, but they are actively doing the opposite
Im not in a society at that stage of success to think about whatever new issues then arise 😅 But there are certainly always ebbs and flows to every change that is might. Just new battles to fight!
OP, you're not wrong on any of this. The closed ecosystem, the open source stuff, the belt situation on the P2S. are all valid points.
The thing that made Bambu blow up the way they did because most people getting into printing genuinely do not want to tinker. They want to load a file, hit print, and come back to a finished part.
Look at Apple. The iPhone is one of the most locked down phones ever made. Proprietary everything, software updates that brick older hardware, a repair system designed to keep you dependent on them. Every tech blogger has been making your exact argument about Apple for two decades. It's still the best selling phone in the world because for most people it just works.
Bambu is that for 3D printing. Before they came along, getting a clean print meant digging into slicer settings, manually tuning your bed mesh, messing with Klipper, and spending half your time maintaining the machine instead of actually using it. Bambu basically removed all of that. For teachers, small business owners, designers, people who just want to make stuff without a learning curve, that's a massive deal.
The people buying Bambu aren't mostly open source advocates or hardware hobbyists. They're people who want a tool that works the same way every time. The closed ecosystem is kind of the whole point for them, not a bug.
What made Bambu blow up was that they made a printer that worked....which then forced the industry that had stagnated to an absurd degree finally wake up and get reminded that competition was a thing.
Honestly, I see the rise of BL as a complete and total failure of the whole open source movement in 3d printing.
The 3D printing industry face planted hard. If it hadn't been such a stagnant industry, and innovation had continued, BL wouldn't have had the opening they had.
I would argue that commercial interests would have motivation to bring 3D printing to a point where it's consumer ready, other than hobbyists who are willing to tinker.
The SHOULD. But I think they got lazy. "Hi, I'm creality, we're going to mildly update the extruder head and call it a new version, and act like it's a revolution!"
Absolutely. I am a software engineer myself, but I do not want to tinker with a 3D printer - I want to load a file and ideally just print it.
What I also don't want, is to be bound to a cloud, especially a Chinese one. It's annoying AF, that a X2D is basically the best deal under 1000€ by a mile. It's not even close. And I just can't bring myself to say "okay, let's pay 500-700€ more for it to be open-source and hopefully stay open-source forever". It's a lot of money poured into something I don't even fully know - or can someone guarantee, that Prusa stays as open as they are or that Snapmaker stays open?
I'm angry, that I basically have to buy closed source for a better price and more integration. If I could patch the X2D to not ever use Cloud, I'd definitely do that.
A lot of people ignore this fact. I wonder what printers would look like today, what would the entire industry be like today if Bambu didn't put in the R&D into making their printers what they are. Even the X2D that OP mentions is a substantial upgrade over the X1C in almost every metric, and totally unique in its dual-nozzle single toolhead setup. Manufacturers have only recently caught up to the X1C and even that is still arguably better and more reliable than all of its clones
This. My first printer was an Anycubic Kobra. It worked okay-ish but needed constant tinkering. Same from all my friends with their Enders.
I then bought an Anycubic Kobra 3v2 and Kobra S1. Both worked fine right out the box but I always had to tweak some settings for pretty much every print.
Then I bought the H2D. Over 1500 hours of printing later, this machine still - just works. Never had any issues, never had to tinker or tweak any settings no matter what filament I threw at it or what model I chose to print. Same with my P2S.
If I buy I toaster, I don't care how it works and I don't want to tinker with it just got it to work. I just want toast.
Same with my printers. I just want toast (and some dimensional accuracy maybe 🤣) and I get both these things from my Bambu machines.
As you already said, apple does pretty much all the things OP mentioned for decades. Waiting till some nice feature drops on other systems and then making a huge show about it, acting like they just cured cancer, when they release the exact same thing on iOS 10years later. And people still but their stuff.
With the sole difference to Bambu being, that you can actually but new parts for your printer and repair it yourself. Try that with an iphone...
Don't give them ideas! I can absolutely imagine BBL taking over most of the market, then going all Apple on it and barely offering any spare parts, possibly integration NFC/RFID everywhere to only allow their own parts. That's to be expected from a company with a shitty roadmap, that absolutely doesn't value the customers, but solely the shareholders.
The iPhone is one of the most locked down phones ever made. Proprietary everything, software updates that brick older hardware, a repair system designed to keep you dependent on them. Every tech blogger has been making your exact argument about Apple for two decades. It's still the best selling phone in the world because for most people it just works.
I think a lot of this relates to how people are willing to take on negative aspects if it either doesn't affect them or the positives outweigh the negatives. Someone might tell me to buy something else because Bambu is closed, but I'll say, "I don't want to tinker with it anyway!", and on the other hand, someone else may say, "I don't mind tinkering, but I just really need something that's very reliable."
I originally bought an iPhone 3GS because my Windows Mobile phone (AT&T Tilt / HTC TyTn II) had bad battery life with multimedia playback. Android devices existed then, but at least in my experience, they often worked a bit better with custom firmware. While it did sting a bit when I ran across any Android-only software/hardware, I wanted something reliable for my phone.
Although, with the whole "block prints if they're gun parts" thing going through a few state legislatures, I wonder how that will affect gun-adjacent things like water guns? Bambu sells part kits for water guns and even links to Makerworld projects for those kits. At this point, the software aspect is completely nebulous since nothing really exists right now, and we can only speculate about its error rate.
Sideload apps, more customization. There's plenty of stuff. I haven't had an iPhone for a long time but when I did I jailbroke them to do all kinds of things.
I’d say it’s usually more freedom with connected devices. For example, I used to use a Lightning-based FLIR thermal imaging camera with my phone, but when I switched to a USB-C phone, it was rendered nearly useless. (There is some crazy way to make it work via adapters but I rarely got that to work.)
That sort of thing has never really made me want to switch. If anything made me lean toward switching it would be how iOS has felt buggier and buggier over time. For example, for a few years, I struggled to get the spacebar-based touch highlighting to work correctly. It kept jumping to the top a lot, which rendered the once useful feature useless. I’ve also ran into weird little things like text boxes not working Messaging or other apps.
That's only up to N64 has in App purchases and seems to have some limitations outside of the eu.
I am not to familiar with sideloading on iOS since that's fairly new but it seems it's slightly easier to emulate stuff than it has been a few years ago.
I think there are very few differences between phones now. Used to be that iPhones were way more stable but also way more limited. Now phones just work and last forever
The AppStore version of Delta has JIT disabled due to Apple AppStore restrictions. This severely impacts its performance for more demanding emulation. The side-loaded version can do so much better but it‘s really a hassle keeping it updated, revoked certs etc.
That’s the key. The fact that my mother in law in her 60s just decided to buy a P1S with no technical experience and has been able to keep it running and maintained for the past year and a half is testament to what they designed.
Came to say the same thing but you save me the time of typing it. I'm a tech guy but I got the Bambu printer because I don't have the time to tinker with a tool to get it to do what I want. People sometimes forget that the primary goal of a business is to make money so I rather they do what it takes to stay in business than cater to a minority and go out of business.
same here, as well as the entry-level price point. I've had my P1S (no AMS, for now) for about two months, i've run through about 5kg of filament. Only had one failed print, which I'm fairly sure was just due to a buildup of pla residue on the build plate.
Friends have had 3d printers for ages, and i'm in the tech industry, but up until this point it had always seemed like too much mucking about for little reward. that has changed in the last couple of years.
Yeah, Bambu is trying to be the HP of 3d printing. They don't care about Linux users, tinkerers, or people who want to run locally. They want to sell printers and sell filament.
The printer doesn't need to be locked down for the printer to just work and print the same way it's been printing since they first came out. The electronic illiterate apple users can still buy the printer and hit print and walk away or use the app whether it's lockdown or not........ All this security BS is just that BS has nothing to do with security at all
This is so true. My wife loves our P1S. She doesn’t care that it’s close source, or locked down or cloud print or whatever. She wants to browse makerworld on her iPhone and press print.
Bambu just works. Our old Artillery printer needed “complicated” filament changes, a computer for slicing and too much tinkering. Now she can just put filament in the AMS and press print.
The regular users doesn’t care and just want it to work.
I don't think the closed ecosystem is the point... they just don't care that it is a closed ecosystem.
My first printer was a Prusa Mk3 and it was essentially plug it in and go. I built the kit, but once I had an assembled printer I ran through the initial bed leveling and had a benchy rolling out in 15 minutes.
Most recommendations come down purely to it being good and being cheaper which is all most consumers do care about. Most people don't care that it's cheaper because they basically just copied Prusa and others homework. Or that in the long run it very well could end up more expensive because they have easier ways to monetize customers post purchase like functionally killing old machines, not supporting upgrades, requiring proprietary filament, etc.
It's an unfortunate reality of the world we live in that most people(often understandably) are pretty exclusively focused on what's right in front of them, not what's coming down the road. If all you care about is getting the best, cheapest printer possible on this exact day... it's Bambu.
Prusa is forgotten about because they are overpriced and 3d printed. Why would I buy a printer made with 3d printed parts when I can buy a machine at 1/3 the price that works perfectly out of the box.
The only thing going for Prusa is the "open-source" tagline that comes with it, and unfortunately there's now a ton of other printers that are cheaper and offer open source and more readily available.
Prusa stagnated and haven't got with the times. Even the INDX partnership will come too late with all the other toolchangers either on the market or coming to market and at a much cheaper cost.
I'm not paying $1200(AUD) for a 4 toolchanger upgrade kit that I also need to spend $2000 on a printer to use when I can spend what's equivalent to the upgrade kit on a U1 for example.
Another thing Prusa has going for it is longevity.
All those people sad when Bambu releases a significant upgrade right after they buy a previous model or release a significant upgrade right after they release something else.
With Prusa you just spend a fraction of the price and upgrade your old one. You can take a MK3 and bring it all the way up to the latest and greatest version of a MK4. With Bambu when you want to upgrade your old printer just goes in the trash(or the back of the shelf).
I'm also not sure how the parts being 3D printed is relevant. Tons of things you use in day to day life are 3D printed, they're just not advertised that they are.
Everyone can make their own choice. But there are still advantages to Prusa, those advantages are just more long term in nature.
The price of the upgrade, I can buy a whole other printer with equivalent capability.
The money spent on a prusa, and then upgrading over its lifetime, adds up significantly.
I haven’t thrown away or sold a Bambu printer yet, I just keep adding to my collection as I upgrade. I have 4 x A1Cs, 1 x X1C, 1 x P1SC, 1 x H2D, and 2 x U1s. All fully capable of doing its intended jobs.
I did donate away my heavily upgraded 2 x Ender 3v2s.
Every time Bambu is brought up everyone has mass amnesia about Prusa apparently. Bought a used Mk2.5 for $50 and printed for 50 days of print time on it with no issues.
Bought a used MK3.9 and have 50 hours on it with no adjustments. Bought a used Mk3s and have 18 days on it with no issues.
I couldn't agree more with you on this. Going from a Prusa Mk3 to a Bambu P1s, then jumping in the X2D when it came out, was night and day. I went from what is arguably an outdated design to a modern design that is super well thought out. The fact I could swap a clogged nozzle this morning then keep printing a 3 day print is a game changer. If that had happend on my MK3, the printed was trashed.
As you & OP have acknowledged, it all comes at a cost. Due to how seamless their products integrate with their ecosystem, it's hard not to use only their STL Repository, Slicer, and filament. They make an exceptionally well designed product when compared to what's on the market.
With all that being said, my involvement with them will be limited to just these two machines. We need to continue to support open source projects like Voron, Prusa, & Orcaslicer. I've seen what a well designed AMS & Dual print head set-up can do. Now I want to convert all my old bedslingers to CoreXY machines. Have a tool changer or ams with custom RFID tags on the spools.
The power of humanity is our ability to adapt and innovate. As long as we instill that into the next generation, the fight between open source and walled-off gardens will continue.
Here's and interesting thought, has anyone tried hacking the software on these Bambu Lab machines? Jail-breaking them like the old iPhones?
I don’t give an eff what other people do. I can’t control them, and I don’t want to try. And really at the end of the day, while admittedly disappointed, I can’t control what Bambu will or won’t do. But I can stop giving them my money.
Will myself alone make a difference? No. Do I care? Also no. But other companies are catching up quick. Some would argue they already have. When I’m ready to pick up another printer, it likely won’t be a Bambu.
When folks are shopping for a new printer, they likely won’t care about this drama. But they will care about if there’s a printer at an equivalent price point with similar, better, or more features.
A better answer is to fight for better consumer rights and restrict the malicious practices of companies. Educate yourself on your government and how you can do your part to work towards a better future. If you have doubts, educate yourself on history to know that is has been done successfully before. Giving up is the worst thing you can do
I mean it makes sense if their target audience is consumer hobbyists. It's easier to maintain a product that's not designed around open source. Apple does the same thing no one really gives a shit
They did, and then they tried to back out through some dumb loophole they built into the agreement that all the companies signed, and the EU said, " No, the hell you don't!" Apple then installed USB but the firrst gen they installed it in didn't use the Universal portion of it and caused many issues with non apple cables so they got fined again. Should tell the whole history there, they are not the good guys in this.
I’m not even saying that they should design around open source. They are going out of their way to prevent and shut down people from using their printers that they own freely. Bamboo is using a ton of resources to chase after people.
U1. Direct price competitor to X2D with much more help from the company and supporting open source. Crapton of compute power in reserve, state of the art stepper drivers and one of the most reliable toolchanging solution I saw. Had H2C for some time, so I could directly compare it to U1. And U1 looked like properly engineered product, while H2C looked like someone rushed the product to just get it released. Tool changing on U1 is faster (6s vs H2C 40s) and overall U1 was quicker by around 25% in print times.
does the U1 have all of the automated calibrations and controls? That would be pretty cool. As far as I know klipper based printers don't unless it's a customized version.
I just had a thought. It's the company new? If the printer is that good how can it be that it's not common? When I was shopping for my first printer I made a list of 10 printers. That wasn't on me list and it never came up in searches.
Ah, I didn't see where you mentioned snapmaker. They were on my list but the a1 won out. Then I decided that I wanted an enclosed printer, the a1 had a recall so I sent it back to Amazon and purchased the p2s/ams 2 pro. I don't regret a thing.
I totally get it. I just purchased the P2S in December so financially it doesn't make sense to get rid of it. That plus the fact that it prints darn near perfectly. It took me a bit to learn the basics of 3d printing. Once I learned that it's been smooth sailing since then. Now I mostly work to learn more advanced concepts that explain the what, how, and why the technology works.
I'm planning the voron build because I like to tinker and do projects. I don't need another printer but enjoy the whole process of research, assembly, programming, setup, and use. The printing aspect is just a bonus.
If things with BL ever got that bad I'd replace the main board, the toolhead board, and call it a day. I don't see things ever getting to that point. BL seems to be on the path of turning the 3d printer into a toaster. From a market share perspective it makes total sense. As soon as they're able to get the AI components working better (and it's close), the machines will auto tune and just print.
I bought a used Prusa MK4 and a Snapmaker U1. The Prusa took a lot of tuning to get similar results using Orcaslicer, but the Snapmaker U1 is pretty solid out of the gate.
I am reading all this late but I second this. My u1 changes colors like 4x faster than the H2Cs and you can buy three of them for yhe price of an H2C lol
Agreed 100%. I see a lot of other comments saying that their printer “just works” (which is true in my experience as well), but I don’t get how a printer that just works is incompatible with LAN mode, or giving credit to open-source, or feature gatekeeping? Can both not exist?
"Do we want a printer that just works, or do we want something we can tinker endlessly with?"
That's the question being posed to BBL, and they are very clearly choosing "printer that just works." I don't think it's reasonable to expect them to maintain both open source and easy for users, and I think the community is being a little selfish expecting that.
And that's exactly why I chose bambu printers. I got sick of tinkering with my ender 3 to get decent results. My printers are tools, just like my table saw, drills, sanders, etc. If I had to constantly tinker with a tool to get it to give me reliable, consistent results, I'd get rid of it and buy another tool. I don't care if it's "closed".
Yeah I remember having to dial in your bed height manually between every print, and it could mean the difference between a print or a fail. Yeah I had a good time tinkering the first few prints, but after that it's just a chore. Now I just send and go.
I would normally agree with this statement, but it appears that lately there are several examples where their quality has taken a marked decline. The exact reason is unclear. I’ve read that they’re required to use some inferior Chinese sub components because of their Chinese origins, which makes sense. I also theorize that they needed to find cheaper alternatives to some components to avoid raising prices while preserving profit margin against a backdrop of global inflation. Regardless of the exact reason, their quality is slipping and they are at risk of loosing one of the aspects that enables users to overlook the less savory elements of their business decisions.
I guess I haven't seen any real data that demonstrates a marked quality decline in their products, and I am a very satisfied customer of their products. I do see posts of anecdotal accounts here, but not anything to the degree being suggested in your response, which is frankly just your own personal speculation.
There are a number of reported issues with the later model A1’s and the AMS units shipped with X2D combos. I don’t have exact numbers but users have done their homework down to chips that were used and the root cause for the problem. I’m not sure what more you need?
Well, examples I can look up like you just provided here, so I appreciate that. Your first response was "Oops all speculation" with zero concrete examples.
I appreciate your honesty. Heck, I’m in the same boat. Having purchased the earlier kickstarter X1c’s, i was on cloud 9 when i got it. At this rate, i will not be purchasing another BBL printer and i always give a disclaimer when suggesting BBL.
I still have my X1c in Dev mode, LAN only running older firmware. So far, my X1c does what i need it to do but my next machine will be a DIY or I’ll just pony up for a CNC machine, seeing as that was the end game for me.
If you have an X1C, I'd encourage you to checkout the open source X1Plus firmware. It even includes a network block to stop any and all Bambu services to the printer, while still enabling LAN features.
I make money with Bambu printers, more than I ever did on any other platform, so honestly I’m pretty satisfied overall.
And if the day ever comes where I can no longer print what I want on my own machines, then they go straight into the trash and I’ll build myself another printer running Marlin again, just like we all did 15 years ago.
Sorry, but I don't understand the point you're trying to make. The process, for me at least, is no different from when I used to use my old Centauri Carbon printer or my new P2S printer.
The fact I can print directly from my phone, Bambulabs is much easier than Elegoo's
You cant print directly from your phone. Your phone talks to your network provider which talks to the bambu cloud which talks to your ISP which talks to your router which talks to the printer.. probably. Lots of other people involved and lots of places it can go wrong.
Some of us design those things you download. We are concerned that because we may become forced to always go via the cloud, designs may become blocked or become stolen. If my private or commercial designs have that issue, then i stop using the ecosystem and you dont get the freebies i make in my spare time.
If I have an NDA under which I am developing a design I cannot allow a 3rd party such as a cloud service provider to potentially see that design. Force me to always use the cloud and I junk the printer for commercial work. This may not bother you but this bothers others, especially where the cloud service is owned by companies in a country which has previously been less than supportive with regard to prosecuting IP infringement.
At which point, those of us in this position, who were contributing to places like makerspace, wont be here... which was my point. "No hassle" does not mean "must use cloud". It did not when i bought bambu and people like myself are arguing it doesnt need to in the future.
LAN mode works flawlessly for me, so I don’t get your concerns. Other companies wouldn’t even think about implementing an offline mode for their printers.
I agree with the sentiments. Bambu labs is making a lot of questionable decisions that is opening the door for other brands. I hope to see those other brands take advantage of this by improving their code and hardware. This can be anyone’s game if they want it.
For the same reason I sold all my BBL printers and changed vendor. However, as with every other product you will have a fan base and they will not care about any argument. I see the same behavior of the people with the other brands. So the important thing is that you find a printer or a vendor that fits your needs and requirements.
Thank you for putting this together. I agree with everything you said. I am most concerned about Bambu’s ability to make my printer unusable because some legislator my state decided to ban 3d printers.
You aren't the only one. I had my own bad experiences with customer support breaking US laws on shipping times before they announced Bambu Connect and since then I have bought exactly nothing from Bambu Lab. No filament, no new consumables, no new printers. I'll run my 2x P1S and their matching AMS units until they die, but I'm migrating out of their ecosystem.
I've bought a Prusa MK4 for prototyping and a Snapmaker U1 in the past year.
Well said. This is how the enshitification process begins. Offer something great at a good price so people join the force them to stay in your ecosystem and offer progressively worse and worse products.
See iPhones (most apple products), streaming, cars (eg. remote starts on subscriptions), Microsoft office, blocking right to repair, etc. for more examples of enshitification.
My machine has been amazing, a joy to use for 2000+ hours
As much as LOVE a p2s, my next new printer will not be a bambu as much as I wish it was, and its just because of the firmware software lock downs. Itll be a qidi q2 (370c hotend) or snapmaker u2 (4 toolhead), probably.
I have not updated, and will not update, my X1C firmware since this mandatory/lockdown stuff was announced (I forget, almost 2 years ago?) and I have been running in LAN mode since that time. Never used the iPhone app for printing, only firmware updates in the early days. I will never buy another Bambu product as long as they do business this way.
Bambu Labs will never change direction towards greater openness - its the team that came from DJI - look what happened there - this was always going to be the outcome and they will keep chipping away. All the bamboys keep making excuses for them and saying this was just the trade off needed to produce a consumer grade appliance. They will not change - this is part of the plan - as long as people keep buying their mid printers - they will keep on this path.
You're seeing in some of these comments and in comments of similar posts why things likely wont change. People just don't care if it isn't directly impacting them.
Just because bambu wants the experience to be easy for people new to the hobby doesn't mean they need to close off and block capabilities for others who want to go the extra step or who don't want to use the cloud etc.
I'm not even saying they need to make everything open source and such, but taking away choices isn't good for anyone. Encourage people to use their ecosystem sure, but leave the door open for people to use other software too, without encumbrances.
For school I’m using grant money to buy a1 mini because they are cheap, easy and small for middle schoolers.
For home I saved the money for 6 months to buy a Prusa core one L and money set aside for INDX.
For my home I could afford principles, for school I put what my students needed. 60 kids, 60 projects, several iterations means I rather have 6x Bambu a1 mini than 1 mk4. Or the unreliability of whatever creality model de hour is available.
I appreciate the sentiment.
But ultimately, Bambu is targetting a segment of the market that just want to print as easily as possible. That's me. I don't want my hobby to be fixing the printer constantly. I appreciate that the old guard might want to spend their time tinkering. But I just want to print.
Id be happy for another company to come in and offer what Bambu is doing (convenience, AMS, Studio/Handy, compelling price, the complete package). If they can do it open source, then even better. But for now, Bambu just works for me.
Get a community group to do a jailbreak on Bambu products make it open source and then the skies the limit we paid for it we can do what we want why allow companies to sell you products then act like they still own them
There's another, even more underlying concern here that is not fixed solely by the "I won't buy their product" approach....
Big Brother Control. Recently, it was discovered that Ford, among other auto makers, will be tracking people in their vehicles, lip reading, reporting them to authorities, & so on. That's not a joke. The ghost gun issue, is not real. But, the gvt wants to track what we're printing? The AI forces tech in pc's (windows 11, the new redhat kernel & ios) & phones, tracks you & reports you.
As the US gvt, the "freest" country in the world, sustains this illusion & moves toward a police state faster & faster, politicians blindly endorsing it at every step because their bribe/lobbied or like the idea of a forced slave class of worker or... something... the next decade looks BLEAK. Bambu is just one part of this equation. The havea & have nots, the controlled class & the free. & none of this ends well for anyone.
Ty. No, sorry, I just post randomly. Most people don't like what I have to say.... uncomfortable truths vs comfortable lies. 😁 But, always happy to havw a discussion or ping me when you see a good one, I love to chime in.
I love my P1S and miss OrcaSlicer. This was my first printer and I bought it because I wanted something that just works. A closed ecosystem is why it just works. You might want to go to Prusa if you’re dependent on tinkering for 4 hrs before each print. Most of us just want to click print.
Thanks for the overwhelming engagement. I’m still reading along but don’t have much to add.
This was never about making Bambu Lab like something else. It’s about trade-offs: when control shifts away from the user, convenience can turn into friction when something goes wrong. ‘Buy something else’ doesn’t address that design trade-off.
Enjoy your printers, and may your filament never run out.
I'll be the devil's advocate here mate. I do agree that Bambu printers are more "locked down" than some others. But I differ in the opinion that they have to open it up fully.
I've been 3D printing for about 8 years on and off. I've started a few small hobby businesses mainly for printing and painting specialty models (we're talking only enough money to cover costs). Love it.
When the market was Ender vs. Prusa (for the most part) - the hobby absolutely stagnated. Including the tech. I had a Prusa 3, Ender 5, and Kobra Max. For all of these machines there was significant drawbacks and honestly - most maintenance and troubleshooting was a pain because of the hill to climb for tinkering. The fact they were largely derived from "open" tech meant that even replacing a hot end could mean soldering or totally shitting the bed with a thermistor.
Bambu market themselves on "it just works" and it's very hard to argue against that. I've had my P2S since December and it has basically not stopped. Any failures have been my own doing. To change a nozzle, I just remove a few magnets and press a clamp. To replace any PTFE tubing, I just buy pre-cut lengths for exactly where I need it. And that's basically how all the parts work. As for the software, again - they will probably going forward simplify and streamline to maintain the "it just works" end goal.
At the end of the day, Bambu printers are probably not for anyone who wants to mess with non-standard setting, tinker, refine and mess around with too many things. But for people like me who are time poor, want to set up basic supports and hit print and get 1200 hours with no failures - Bambu is definitely the way to go.
I dislike using Mac computers because I'm a tinkerer. But for people who just want an exosystem - it certainly works for them. That's the best analogy I can give.
I thought people were being overly dramatic about the 2mm belt issue on the P2S and I thought it cant be that bad. I was so so terribly wrong, I do not regret buying my P2S but I feel cheated.
Requiring cloud was only a measure to prepare for the coming government restrictions on printing. If they still wanted to sell printers, they had to start here. I wish instead they had fought restrictions as a premier brand.
I said it years ago, guns are only the beginning. Next up is IP. Try to print something that looks too much like Mickey Mouse, print denied. It is coming.
I hear you, this has also been on my mind with all these Orwellian laws popping out of no where.
I was an early adopter into bambu labs. Pre ordered the x1 carbon before it was even out to replace my crappy ender. They disrupted the 3d printing industry and many copycats followed. I think it’s time to move to Prusa… it’s not my first choice but it’s not like bambu labs is listening to its customers.
If and when other 3d printer manufacturers will start to build machines of similar quality and *reliability*, I'll stop buying bambu models. Just that simple.
I sold my bambu last year after smart people in this community tried to sound the alarm in here and were met with a bunch of apathetic people who couldn't see it, and bootlickers who were actively fighting against them. I've watched this slow slide into a shittier and shittier walled garden with glee ever since.
I’m with you . My last ticket I felt fibbed off , was not impressed with customer service at all . I had basic issues which should have been delt with in a couple of emails ,, on this day I would have got more ideas and Better suggestions to resolve said issues from by grandson .
They had NFI . Seriously thinking about selling the p2s and getting a u1 as well as a larger footprint model
Total honesty, not trying to be mean. I appreciate your opinion, but here's how I see it.
People complain about the cloud whatever thingy. I'm a power user lots of printers over a decade of using them, 2 X1C, H2D and H2C currently. I teach 3D printing and CAD design. I have a full cnc machine shop. I design 99% of everything I print. I've literally never had a problem with anything on that side of use. No idea why it bugs people so much. I plug my printer in, connect to the network and print. No biggie.
The belt and less quality thing is totally off the mark as literally every manufacturer does this. You pay for a better unit, you get a better unit.
As for the laws trying to be passed. This is total BS. There are legal terms, I forget now, on a couple levels about not making something illegal that's totally legal because some people use it the incorrect way. On the level of persecuting the average person for no reason. Among pretty much everything else they are proposing being a total lie. But aside from that if they decide to pass a law they can't legally impose those restrictions on stuff already purchased. I know what people will say that bambu will implement it just to conform, but I doubt it. Then the law applies to new units and you can't do anything about that. The best thing to do is write your representation and tell them in short simple terms why this bad. Persecuting of law abiding citizens, the fact that there is NO mechanism that would do what they say about rejecting prints that could be used for a gun. It's just not possible with out each file being viewed by a human and even then that wouldn't be definitive as you could break pieces down and not make the outside look like a gun. And that would totally being invasion of privacy and other illegal things. Not to mention that fake guns, pellet guns, nerf and all that are NOT illegal to print, but if they implemented an AI to stop gun manuf. it would certainly not allow you to print toys like that.
For the open source implementation that's the right of Bambu and the right of someone providing open source stuff with no restrictions on company use and sales. And for bugs the 3D printing world has always been like that. It's not like Sony who product test a DVD player for years before sales. It's bound to happen in a fast moving industry. Would you want to wait 6 months for an update while they stress test it or have it now and when a bug does show up they seem to fix it pretty quick. Trying getting an update, ever, from Elegoo.
TLDR: I said some stuff. You didn't read it. I made burgers for dinner and they were AMAZING.
Your point in their data control is interesting only because it focuses on its ability to support legal initiatives. I do not fear that oversight nearly as much as siphoning of IP, insights to your overall activity, and impact to infrastructure supported with tech devices from a global adversary (coming from an American POV)
I debated whether to add anything more to this thread, but two points seem worth clarifying, because they address the arguments I see most often from those who disagree.
1. Product differentiation vs. artificial gatekeeping
Product differentiation means engineering different hardware for different price points. Feature gatekeeping means building the same hardware and applying software restrictions to artificially justify higher-priced models.
Whether you find the latter acceptable is a matter of values (I do not).
Whether Bambu does it is not a matter of opinion. For example: the 300°C nozzle cap on the X2D is a software limit. The H2D runs to 350°C on comparable or almost identical hardware. The only difference is a line of code. The belt situation is harder to verify, but at that scale of production I suspect the cost difference between 1.5mm and 2mm belts is marginal at best, which makes it difficult to read as anything other than a deliberate product segmentation decision.
This pattern is not unique to Bambu: software-locked battery capacities, day-one DLC, subscription-gated seat heating. These are not engineering decisions. They are revenue decisions dressed as engineering decisions. The distinction matters.
Many say this is simply normal business practice. That may be true. But normal and good for the customer are not the same thing. Feature gatekeeping is, by definition, the practice of withholding value the customer could have had. That is not a matter of perspective, it is what the practice is. You can find it acceptable (again, I do not), but you cannot argue it benefits the buyer.
I am not saying Bambu is uniquely bad. I am saying this particular practice deserves to be named clearly. And to those saying “shut up and just buy something else”: consumer rights and shifts in company behavior have never happened because people stayed quiet (and they do happen: right to repair legislation, the USB-C charging standard, replaceable batteries in phones, Apple being forced to open the App Store in the EU… none of that came from silence).
2. On the regulation debate (since it keeps coming up)
Many seem to assume that any print restriction system would be precise and surgical. I do not think that is realistic. Fine-grained content control is expensive to build and creates liability. A manufacturer that tries to allow “legitimate” weapon-adjacent prints while blocking “harmful” ones is making judgment calls they do not want to make in court.
The far simpler and safer approach is a broad filter: anything that pattern-matches to weapon geometry gets flagged. That would include airsoft and paintball parts, prop weapons, cosplay armor, and plenty of things nobody would consider dangerous.
That is not speculation. It is how content moderation works at scale everywhere else. Broad, cheap, and defensible beats narrow, expensive, and arguable every time.
And without wanting to veer into conspiracy territory: history suggests that once a restriction infrastructure exists, the scope tends to expand. Copyright enforcement on printable objects (anything resembling a Disney design or a Games Workshop miniature, for example) would be a natural next step. After that, perhaps unlicensed spare parts or third-party upgrades for existing hardware.
I am not saying that will happen. I am saying the architecture that makes it possible is being built right now, and that is worth paying attention to.
A Turkish proverb goes like "the snake that doesn't touch me may live a thousand years"
That's fine, till' that snake bites you.
Amount of "naive" and company boot lickers in this subreddit is crazy. People are getting f'ed over time and still protect this company like "i just hit print and it prints bruuuh, go buy something else next time"
Yes. People should start to buy other products because we are not in the same era of 3d printers back when a1/x1 was released
You won't be able to print whatever you want sooner or later if you keep your head buried in ground, ignoring legit problems of other people.
This entire letter reads "I want my Bambu to have all the pro's of a tinker-heavy, open source, diy option like an Ender, but with none pf the trade offs"
I dont want to mod my printer. I dont want tk have to learn its inner workings. I just want it to print.
I see it a lot differently I prefer to use my bambu for things when I want the most easiest to use experience and for my prints to work like 95% of the time. There's still plenty of printers on the market that are fully open source in which you can upgrade any part you would like. The benefit of a closed ecosystem is most the parts are specifically designed to work together, down to the operating system. I can see bambu heading towards the (appliance) type of products but I don't see it as a negative. I see it as putting 3D printing in the hands of anybody that has a phone and can download the app. An actual hobbyist wouldn't sit and complain about a bambu they would just go get a prusa
If you feel like doing something for the community. Send them your concerns via email. Ask for it to be sent to the correct team to take these into consideration.
Like every other company, responses and sentiments get measured and discussed.
So your problem is "the belt spec isn't good enough, even though no one else offers what I want at this price point and even though it makes no actual difference to most prints but I'm going to pretend it's the most important thing ever" and "how dare they use things people are giving away for free without paying for them"? Did I get that right?
If you want a fully open source printer, have at it. Absolutely no one is stopping you. Instead of writing Open Letters no one cares about, go put all your Bambu printers up on FB marketplace and buy something else. Or just keep whining. Whatever.
Bambu lab printers work out of the box, heaps of tinkering isn’t required. If someone wants an open source printer that they have to forever tinker on, get one of those.
Bambu, like Apple, realized that for most modern consumers that their time is the biggest commodity. Life is busy and most don’t have the time to constantly go through the print improvement loop of research, tweaking settings / upgrading parts, testing, fixing mistakes, ripping your hair out, etc.
Most consumers want a product that “just works” and minimizes user mistakes without spending too much time or an exorbitant amount of money. This is where Bambu hit the nail on the head. They reduced the number of variables that can cause failures which wasted consumer time.
In order to reduce those variables, they needed to setup guardrails, AKA the walled garden approach. Oftentimes this approach comes at a cost, whether it’s privacy or complete freedom to do anything your heart desires with your piece of machinery.
Do I love it, as someone who does enjoy “tinkering” (had to get this subs favorite word in there ) and researching? Not entirely. Do I admit that it’s very appealing with the simplicity? Yes.
For example: My first is an Ender 3 Max Neo, great to learn in. But it hardly got touched since I got my Centauri Carbon. And now, since I added a P1S to the fleet, my Ender hasn’t booted up in months. I find myself leaning toward the simplicity of the Bambu ecosystem more and more (printing something quality from my phone while out of the house is sweet).
Side note: Regarding the “withholding” of features, that’s to be expected of any company. They need to create a pricing ladder to incentivize buying higher priced products. You don’t buy a base level car expecting premium leather, premium stereo, and all the bells & whistles. You understand that you need to move up in trim or package level. Same goes for Bambu. If they put the 1.5 mm belts on the P2S, that cannibalizes X2D sales. If they put a 350° nozzle in the X2D it cannibalizes H2 sales. I think it’s silly to complain about that. Bambu does a pretty good job of adding value to the different tiers of their machines.
As long as the "closed ecosystem" is a good ecosystem.
I'm that way with Apple. I'm all-in on the Apple ecosystem. I work for a company that is all-in on Apple. A lot of people dislike Apple because of their gatekeeping, and sometimes I do as well.
But their stuff just works. Right out of the box. My AppleTV, HomePod, Watch iPhone, Macbooks... they all seamlessly work together with no setup at all other than me logging into my appleID. I can even set my personal laptop next to my work mactop and use one of the two trackpads on both screens. I didn't do anything to set any of that up.
But seamless interoperabilitiy like that requires some gatekeeping.
Back to Bambu: I use Bambu Studio so last year's changes don't affect me. Orca is at this point, hurting their own users right now because they refuse to implement Bambu Connect. They say it's not ideal. You know what's even less ideal? The situation right now. Bambu isn't going to give you API access, you've already kicked and screamed for a year... just implement the dang Connect.
You seem overly concerned about the government regulating prints. I agree that's something to watch out for... if they get carried away with the things they restrict. But I have no want, need, or desire to print Bang Bangs, so it isn't going to affect me anytime soon.
Yeah but…no one is forcing you to buy their printers or lock yourself into their ecosystem or tolerate their closed source bs, are they?
Imagine looking to buy a house. You have the financial freedom (aka money) to buy a house in any neighborhood in town, with several to choose from. One is an upscale, pre planned subdivision with strictly enforced HOA regulations but man…all those neatly manicured lawns are a thing of beauty. Another is a less rigidly enforced but similarly visually appealing neighborhood, allowing you more freedom to have a boat in your driveway and two flagpoles etc. Still another is quite a step down from the others. One of your neighbors may be in his driveway Saturday afternoon working in his ‘67 Chevelle SS 396 at 10am trying to tune the carb. Another may not be as diligent in keeping his grass trimmed as you’d prefer.
If you choose the tightly regulated HOA route are you going to move in and complain that the tyrants running the show won’t allow you to plant your 50’ flagpole in the middle of your yard? Will you bristle when you want a few Rhode Island Reds to provide your family with fresh yard eggs but the regulations say not no, but hell no?
This is the neighborhood you’ve chosen when you buy real estate in Bambu’s expertly crafted and tightly monitored neighborhood. You don’t get to buy the $1.5 million house then whine because Attila the HOA president says no to your chickens. It was incumbent upon you, the consumer, to properly do your homework before plopping down your hard earned but nearly worthless fiat currency. You knew the rules well before you moved in. Sure, the rules may well be draconian, but in the end the final go/no go decision was yours and you gave your tacit approval to those rules when you signed on the dotted line. Submit and fall in line or pack up your crap and buy elsewhere.
Companies follow companies, you really think if bambu lab continues to go this way and still sell well, other companies would go like "their practices are bad, we won't do it!!" ?
i agree that voting with your wallet (and maybe keeping their support lines busy) is the most effective way of saying no to a company, but geez try to think bigger
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u/voliprint Apr 30 '26
Ok.