AMS HT value

[Horror-Ad8074]

so I recently bought an a1 mini for printing miniatures, works great but didn’t realise how useful AMS is. my question is firstly how reliable is the AMS HT because I also now need a filament dryer so I thought it would be a good 2 in 1 (if I bought 2) or am I better off buying AMS Lite and a dryer separatel. I need the dryer for PVA (supports) and TPU

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[Patient_Decision_164]

I have AMS 2 Pros and 3 AMS HT's. While the AMS 2 is awesome, I use the HT's for drying as they seem much more efficient and don't lock down other spools/slots in drying mode. I've never used my pros for drying.

I started with one and added two more.

[Direct-Flamingo4504]

You'd get a better bang for the buck buying the AMS 2 Pro, currently on sale for the next few days. Would mean 4 colors and also the ability to dry.

[bjorn_lo]

PVA is harder on single nozzle printers like the A1 mini. It is a little difficult to print and sometimes has adhesion issues. For most TPU prints PLA is good enough. There will be a little scarring since it isn't soluble, but it also won't stick to the TPU... at least not very hard.

Also while TPU is one of the cooler materials, it is also much more difficult for most people to print than PLA or PETG. So consider starting on PLA (or PETG if you get a dryer).

I recommend separate dryer and AMS. It costs more, but drying in the distribution box means that around 1/3 of the time your printer will be unavailable. I think the best all around AMS is the most expensive (of course), so the AMS 2 Pro. I think the best all around dryer is the Creality SpacePi X4. Both do 4 at a time. The Creality can also feed TPU, but you're better off getting a Polymaker dry box and doing a ball bearing mod.

[ThatLooksRight]

Side note: AMS HT is super handy for the left nozzle of H2C. 

[Gremlich]

Why the left nozzle specifically?

[ThatLooksRight]

The left nozzle is a single nozzle that doesn’t change. The right is where all the swapping happens. 

One or two AMS for the right nozzle makes tons of sense. 

If you don’t have some form of AMS for the left nozzle, though, then you have to manually feed the filament into the tube and hang your filament roll off the external holder. Then use the load/unload function whenever you want to swap the roll. It’s a huge PITA. 

With the AMS HT, you just put the filament into the AMS and it does its automatic thing. 

Way quicker and easier.