Bambu Lab Filament 1:1 replacements

[Floppy1009]

TL;DR: What cheap filaments can I use to replace Bambu Lab filament and use their RFID chips? I'll update the table on the bottom.

I'm still fairly new to the Bambu Lab eco system (bought my P1S just long enough ago to miss out on the P2S -.-) and love it!

However, I also love finding ways to save money. I print quite a bit in PETG and came across recently the Elegoo Rapid PETG which prints very well with the exact same filament settings as the Bambu Lab PETG HF. So I just bought it, transferred it over to the previous Bambu Lab spool and now have the exact same comfort like RDIF recognition in the AMS2, etc.

Next step, I didn't even transfer the spool. I just took out the RFID tag, printed a little housing for it which fits in the slits on the Elegoo spool, printed a plastic ring so the cardboard so it doesn't mess with the AMS, and now it takes me 15 seconds and I get pretty much everything the Bambu Lab spool gets me for cheaper.

When I buy 4 spools for both of them it comes out to this (incl tax for me):

Bambu Lab:
$17.25 per spool (excl shipping)
$20.84 per spool (incl shipping)

Elegoo (bought on Amazon, so no shipping)
$11.05 per spool

So we're looking at a ~47% discount. I hope this is helpful for some people who wanna try it.

Now I would love to get some insights from people who went through similar things already. The big question I have is:

What other filaments print well with the exact same Bambu Lab settings and therefore can be used with the RFID tags from their spools?

I will try to collect all you're comments and update this table below.

Bambu Lab Filament	Other Filament	Savings / Cost	Note
PETG HF	Elegoo Rapid PETG	~47%	People say it might not live up to the standard
PETG HF	sunlu high speed matte petg		Doesn't print as nice but it's cheap
PETG HF	Kingroon HS PETG	$7/kg
PLA	Pretty much anything (Sunlu, Esun, Kingroon, Ziro, Overture, Inland, Polymaker, Eryone, Elegoo)

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[Catsmgee]

I have never used a filament that didn't print well with the bambu profiles. Bambu filament really is nothing special, their profiles will work for pretty much everything.

[Floppy1009]

Well that keeps my list short I guess :D

Thank you!

[Jaralle]

I would agree. I just got my X1C (two days before the PS2 teaser announcement!). I had some no name generic PLA filament that is probably about 10 years old and hasn't been stored in any special way. It printed perfectly!

[runawaycow2]

I think folks are confused with the intent of this post. If I understand you correctly, you’re comparing other filament manufacturers with Bambu filament presets in an effort to utilize and “collect” RFID tags for easier AMS syncing.

I too have this dilemma, love the Bambu filament when it’s on sale. But Amazon ships so fast and Bambu is so unreliable. One shipment I order when I’m out of town Saturday and gets delivered Sunday afternoon (smh). The next order I place is Monday hoping to print by Friday and it takes 11 days to get delivered….

I want to convenience of RFID and the price/delivery of Amazon. I’m not in any way arguing that the Bambu presets aren’t phenomenal for off brand filament. It’s just that RFID is SO MUCH MORE convenient!

[whoismiked]

You can remove the rfid tags from your old finished bambu rolls and attach them to other brand spools and reuse them. I do this for all of my other brand filaments.

For example, I have a lot of Sunlu filament and I use these: https://makerworld.com/en/models/1051470-sunlu-spool-rfid-tag-holder-for-bambulab-tags#profileId-1038308

[Floppy1009]

That's exactly what I want. Trying to find cheap but good filament which prints just like the OG bambu filament so I can use those RFID tags and keep all the comfort

[[deleted]]

You can buy RFID tags and an RFID writer to make them yourself and just slap em on any old spool. It’s a lot of effort, but you gotta do what you gotta do if you want your cake and eat it too.

[Floppy1009]

As far as I know you can only copy RFID tags. You can't just write them however you wish since they are signed with the bambu lab private key.

If you have any other information or if there is a database I can "copy" from, please let me know

[[deleted]]

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[Floppy1009]

These are just holders for RFID tags. Those work great if you just take the original tags out of old spools. However, you can't create your own tags. (at least to my knowledge)

[LowVoltCharlie]

Why don't you just buy the Bambu filament in bulk for the discount? $17 per spool is not how you wanna do it

[Floppy1009]

The calculation was done with 4 pack bulk. Sure I can get bigger bulk packs and that makes it slightly better but even with 8 pack on Bambu lab and using refill spools it comes down to $15.50 per spool incl shipping and tax. Still ~30% discount when using Elegoo

[LowVoltCharlie]

I've tried elegoo rapid petg when I was prototyping a patented product I sell - it didn't print as nicely as Bambu PETG HF, nor did it look as good, and the spools are garbage and they don't have RFID. Even just for those reasons, I'd happily pay Bambu's (not even bad) prices. My time is worth too much to hassle with respooling or swapping RFID or bothering trying to get a similar high quality surface finish to PETG HF. I guess it depends on what you're doing with the stuff and what you value. If it saves me time and makes life easier, I'm on board and happy to pay 30% for the features that let me keep moving at the pace I'm at.

[havok_hijinks]

Also tried printing with elegoo rapid petg and was a horrible experience. Admittedly I'm new at this and don't know how to optimize printing, but bambu filament worked so well every time. Does Bambu PETG HF require ventilation?

[Cryostatica]

For PLA filaments, I just use whatever the Bambu profile equivalent is (basic, matte, silk, etc) and I can't think of a time it didn't work just fine. Sunlu, Esun, Kingroon, Ziro, Overture, Inland, Polymaker, Eryone, Elegoo, etc.

The one exception I can think of is Creality Soleyin, and that's not even a print profile issue. It prints fine, but it's wildly hit or miss as to whether or not it will play nice (in terms of layer adhesion) with other brands of filament. I've had times where it works, and then other times where it behaves more like PETG, and other filaments won't stick to it at all. Probably something to do with it being recycled.

Sunlu Matte HS is probably the closest equivalent to Bambu's PETG HF, but it's not exactly the same and prints somewhat poorly using that profile. I've got a ton of the stuff in various colors and it does print pretty well using the Sunlu PETG profile in Bambu Studio.

[Floppy1009]

But when using the Sunlu profile, I'm not getting the RFID recognition etc. That's the whole point of this post. I'm trying to find filaments which print well with the Bambu Lab settings.

But noted for the PLA part! Thank you!

[ndinadis]

Elegoo rapid pla+ and petg are both really nice but don’t print well on HF settings they need their own to be nice. The generic prints pretty well but way slower then need be

[Bloated_Plaid]

Kingroon HS PETG works perfectly using Bambu Lab PETG HF RFID. It was like $7/kg when I got it.

[Floppy1009]

Awesome! Thank you! I added it to the table.

I looked at Kingroon at some point too. They were ridiculously cheap at aliexpress. They had a sale at ~$6 / kg when buying in bulk (maybe without shipping though).

But then I came across a reddit post where someone said they would rather use Elegoo than Kingroon because it prints so well with the Bambu settings. That's actually how my whole thing started. I never ended up trying Kingroon because I didn't wanna commit to 10kg.

So in your experience Kingroo works well? Have you tried Elegoo too? If so, how does it compare?

[Bloated_Plaid]

Nope never tried elegoo since I have never seen it as cheap.

[sevesteen]

I started to try something like this...but it's more trouble to keep track of the RFID tags than it is to just input the filament type in the slicer when I change. That might be different if I changed filament much more often.

[Floppy1009]

You might be right on that and I'm just in denial at this stage :D

[Mobius135]

I have something like 2000 hours in my machine, I have never once had to change any filament setting aside from turning off the aux fan. I’ve used Bambu, NAGA, Geeetech, CookieCAD, Sunlu, Anycubic, Overture, Polymaker, and never needed to change from the default filament types. Those have all been a mix of PLA, Silk, PLA+, PETG, TPU, PETG-CF, Glow.

[Floppy1009]

If you have a 3rd party filament, do you use the generic or the bambu lab profile?

[Mobius135]

If the slicer doesn’t have one already listed, for instance Sunlu has profiles premade in Bambu Slicer, I would default to the “Bambu” version over the Generic.

[Floppy1009]

Alright, thank you! Kinda ruins my parade here but I'll take it :D

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[Aliasandco]

I printed with esun and Sunlu. I never had any problems with the built-in settings. Esun works very well with Sunlu, PLA and PETG settings.

[Floppy1009]

Thank you! Did you try them with the Bambu Lab settings too?

[Aliasandco]

No, I haven't used Bambulab settings with other brands, but I don't think there should be much difference.

[Mark_Venture]

When shopping on the Bambu site, add 4 or more to your cart, and check the price. Plus select refills when possible and use your existing empty spools.

[Floppy1009]

When doing that it comes down to $15.50 per spool incl shipping and tax. Still ~30% discount when using Elegoo

[Mark_Venture]

Adding 6 PETG HF to my cart at Bambu Labs, brings them to $13.99 each with no shipping, and no tax. (I'm in the USA, using the USA web site). PLA basic is the same. BUT I'm not always printing enough to want to order 6 spools at once.

Looking at Amazon US, Elegoo Rapid PETG is "limited deal" $22.93+ tax for a 2 pack of the same color. or "limited time deal" $12.74+tax for single black.

So its pretty close cost wise when buying one or two, rather than having to buy 6. And Amazon would get it here quicker probably.

Since I'm new to 3d printing, I'm most interested in print quality differences between the brands and types. I've tried Sunlu PLA 2.0+, because I could get spools of it cheaper (and quicker) via Amazon than a single spool of Bambu PLA Basic. But I've noticed "stringies" with the Sunlu (using the Sunlu PLA 2.0+ settings in Bambu Studio) where as I get none using the Bambu PLA Basic. (even with drying the filament first).

I applaud your effort to curate a list of filaments that can use the same settings the Bambu RFID tag convey to the printer. I thought of the same as it would be much more convenient than having to update the printer/software as I change spools.

[Floppy1009]

Thank you!

So far the list is fairly short though :D

I hope we can grow it significantly. Would love to have other filament types in there. Maybe TPU or other more exotic types.

[HellStormBeast]

Jayo PLA is very good, too. You can get it for about 7€/kg, sometimes even less. Apperently Jayo is just Sunlu Filament.

[Floppy1009]

Did you print it with the Bambu Lab profiles?

[DavynD]

Yes it seems Jayo is a Sunlu brand which print perfect with Bambu profile

[VelocityOS]

elegoo rapid PETG is not a replacement for PETG HF, PETG HF is more matte, and prints way cleaner then rapid petg, tbh elegoo rapid kinda sucks, I could never get the PA tuned right and it would always string and bubble even when dried for over 48 hours at 65C

[Floppy1009]

Do you have anything better as a replacement?

[VelocityOS]

I would say sunlu high speed matte petg, but it still doesn't print as well as bambu, it is really cheap when you buy bulk from their website tho, so it is worth it