SUNLU AMS Heater for Bambu Lab AMS

| Filament Dryer | Custom Addon for Bambu Lab AMS | 4x Spools |

SUNLU AMS Heater for Bambu Lab AMS, a custom heater born to fit the Bambu Lab AMS (1st gen) while adding heating and dehumidification features while printing.

SUNLU was very smart creating a seamless add-on kit for a lacking feature of the Bambu Lab AMS; without doubt Bambu Lab fans will be thrilled by this new release from SUNLU.

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SUNLU AMS Heater for Bambu Lab AMS Review

Tests & Scores

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SUNLU AMS Heater for Bambu Lab AMS Scores

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ACCESSORIES & PACKAGING
^2.5^_/5

The SUNLU AMS Heater comes in a large packaging with sufficient protective foam inside.

With the device you will also get:

• Power cable

• Assembly pieces

This might vary on the final retail version.

ASSEMBLY
⁵^_/5

The SUNLU AMS Heater for Bambu Lab is quite straightforward to install and fully assemble with less than 5 steps to be completed.

Basically you will need to remove the original top cover of your Bambu Lab AMS and replace it with the SUNLU AMS Heater by simply getting in place the screws bundled and the original hinge system.

DESIGN
^4.25^_/5

Before getting further ahead on the review, it is important to highlight that our SUNLU AMS Heater unit is a prototype; therefore, you will see some “rough around the edges” finish and details.

You will notice that the unit has some bubbling and unevenly “glued” frosted black film; this is one of the many differences that will not be found on the final version. In fact, the final version will not have a frosted finish but a semi-translucent black one instead.

Apart from this, the SUNLU the main design and form factor will be the same.

To fit the shape and style of the Bambu Lab AMS, the SUNLU heater has similar rectangular shape with curved edges. Installing and using the SUNLU AMS Heater does not limit nor reduces the use of the 4 spool banks in the Bambu Lab AMS system.

On the front you will find a display screen while on the top panel section you will see a sliding cover to block or open the ventilation outlet.

The back panel holds the power connector and power switch.

Aesthetically, the SUNLU AMS looks like a kit coming directly from Bambu Lab for their AMS. On the other hand, the buttons and display might not fully match the spirit and style of the more fancy touch screen display of the Bambu Lab printer.

DISPLAY SCREEN
⁴^_/5

As we mentioned in the Design section, the SUNLU AMS Heater holds a display screen on the front.

The screen will inform users about the status and settings of the heater, like:

• Current Temperature
• Target Temperature
• Relative Humidity
• Running time
• Mode
• Filament Presets

The display clearly a very similar UI as what we have seen on the SUNLU FilaDryer S4 and SUNLU Filament Connector.

OPERATION & CONTROL
^4.25^_/5

The display itself is not touch sensitive but there is a row of 4 buttons below it with printed icons, these are touch sensitive and serve to fully control the SUNLU AMS Heater.

The fonts of the user-interface are large enough to be read with ease while the displayed icons and info are intuitive and easy to understand.

When pressing each of the touch buttons, the unit will respond with an audible beep feedback to confirm that the button has been pressed.

Through the 4 buttons and display screen you gain access to setting target temperatures, target humidity level, desired runtime, filament presets and selecting the working mode.

The unit allows to be used in 2 different modes; an automatic relative humidity mode and a preset mode. In the auto-humidity mode, the machine monitors the humidity inside the chamber and as soon as the levels are above 50% the heater will activate and run until the humidity measurement reaches 25%.

The other “filament mode” gives you the freedom to choose among pre-made for the most common filament types, setting automatically the best target temperature for each filament.

On top of that, you have the option to override at will the temperature target, humidity target and runtimes to fit your needs (from 1 hour up to 99 hours)

CONSTRUCTION & BUILD
^3.75^_/5

The whole external and main construction of the SUNLU AMS Heater is made of plastic, which makes it light weighted (1.7kg) but you will not sense a feel of ultra-ruggedness or tank-alike build.

Internally, though, is where the device shows the better manufacturing with a dual fans and dual PTC heaters that ensure 360 degrees of coverage for all the 4 spools inside the Bambu Lab AMS, efficient airflow and fast heating. Each of the fans and heaters are placed independently on the left and right area of the internal chamber to grant that all spools receive the drying air evenly.

The PTC heater system has a rated power of 220W and can be set to heat up freely in a temperature range that goes from 35°C to 70°C.

To avoid issues, the machine includes audible alerts in case that the operating temperature exceeds the target temperature by 10% or if other malfunctioning is detected.

VERSATILITY
^4.5^_/5

The versatility of the SUNLU is unique as exponentially upgrades the features and usability of your current Bambu Lab AMS without forcing you to buy a dedicated heater unit.

In addition to this, the SUNLU AMS Heater is as usable as most other good heaters. with a temperature/humidity range and pre-made setting presets that cover filaments such as:

• PLA
• ABS
• TPU
• PC
• PA
• PETG

Moreover, the addon allows users to preserve their workflow and AMS functionality as it does not interfere with any of the native functions of the Bambu Lab AMS.

It is worth mentioning that the SUNLU AMS Heater is exclusively designed to work with the Bambu Lab AMS 1st generation and not with other versions nor variants.

PERFORMANCE
⁵^_/5

The lack of an active heating system inside the Bambu Lab AMS is a feature that we have always wanted to be found from factory but Bambu Lab never offered a “Pro” variant with this function.

This was a detail that made intense 3D printing kind of cumbersome after a time where your filaments start absorbing humidity or you are handling more “picky” filament types that are prone to show printing defects and problems when humidity reaches them.

In fact, the SUNLU AMS Heater allowed us to print straight from the Bambu Lab AMS + SUINLU AMS Heater combo without having to think nor worry about removing the spools and running them through drying cycles on external dryer machines.

We used the SUNLU AMS Heater with conflicting PLA, PLA Wood and PC-ABS filaments that were showing signs of humidity with stringing and other typical issues related with humidity.

To ensure that the filaments were in their optimal humidity levels, we first run them through a cycle of the recommended parameters by the SUNLU AMS Heater and then kept it in RH Mode while printing.

The resulting prints with these filaments before and after the SUNLU AMS Heater cycling and preservation were night and day. All issues vanished and no single section came out of the printer with stringing.

The SUNLU AMS Heater proved to be a phenomenal add-on for all Bambu Lab AMS owners, allowing to upgrade their unit yet without the steep pricing typical from Bambu Lab products.

POWER CONSUMPTION
^4.5^_/5

With a rated power of 220W and idle power of just 0.6W, the SUNLU AMS Heater was as efficient as other dedicated heaters but with a significant lower impact on the electricity bill.

We also appreciated that the brand lists the maximum power peaks (390W); a tech spec that for some reason most other filament dryers do not specify but might serve to users that want to plan ahead their future setup