The Bambu Lab H2C has been launched on November 18 at Formnext 2025 in Germany. Youtubers and influencers also released their review right after that, first groups of the buyers have been received and used it for a while. I bought the printer at the first time and started to use it since November 24th. It is the time to say something about those details that you won’t see in the review.
Vortek
Vortek system uses 6 Vortek induction hotends to swap filaments quickly. To use the full function of the H2C, you need 2 AMS 2 Pros and 1 AMS HT, which is already the H2C AMS Combo + Ultimate Set.
And you’d better place an order on that option because of two reasons:
1 It is cheaper to get the full combo than buying AMS separately
2 The standard version only has 3 0.4mm Induction Hotends, 1 0.2mm Induction Hotend, 2 0.4mm Hardened Steel Hotends, you still need an extra 2 0.4mm Induction Hotends.
So far, Bambu Lab doesn’t sell the Induction Hotends individually.
AMS
Take the H2C AMS Combo + Ultimate Set, for example. Here is what you need:
1 Assign the AMS HT to the left Nozzle and the 2 AMS 2 Pro to the right nozzle.
2 Put the most frequent color change material in the AMS HT, because the nozzle switch takes 5 seconds only but 10 seconds for the hotend swap.
3 An extra power supply for the second AMS 2 Pro, the printer powers up only one AMS 2 Pro for filament drying,
4 An AMS stack
5 Two AMS power adapter
6 A power strip
Multi-color Printing
The H2C supports up to 24 colors; you can use 4 AMS/AMS 2 Pro and 8 AMS HT. It was limited to software but was more likely to be physical. The H2C is already quite huge, and 24 colors means 4 AMS 2 Pro power Adapter, 8 AMS HT power cable, and 12 AMS cables. Even if you use stacks the whole things still take a very large room. Even if you have more AMSs and Bambu Lab doesn’t limit on software side, more color means PTFE tube longer enough to let the printer think the AMS is having a problem on loading filament.
The H2C does save a lot of filaments and time, but you do need to arrange the filament in a right way.
For prints less then 7 colors, put the most-frequently used in the left nozzle to reduce the time on color switching, then the Vortek takes care of everything else. There are no poops within 7 colors.
For printings over 7 colors, do the same on the most-frequent-use filament if you can. If there are some filaments require higher drying temperatures, put them in the AMS HT.
Multi-material Printing
When you get an H2C, you’d better try multi-material printing; it is magical. The support materials give the prints a smooth support surface but is usually very expensive. But the vortek system saves the support material. Meanwhile, you can add more materials to give the prints more features and more colors to get a stylish looking.
TPU Printing
Still, TPU printing is still a thing that H2C is not good at. Since the TPU can only be supported by the right nozzle, the vortek system become useless. If you want to print shoes or the TPU for AMS doesn’t satisfy you, the H2C is just a smaller size of H2D.
But the good news is Bambu Lab is testing on printing TPU on with the left nozzle. If things go smoothly, we should be able to get a huge leap on shoe printing.
Saved time
We all know the Vortek system saves printing time on multi-color printing, but how much time it saves? It is huge enough for people to invest money in.
Actually, the answer is yes. Just take the Majora's Mask as an example, it was published on May 12, 2024, 8 colors, takes X1C 205 hours (8 days 13 hours), but takes H2C only 90 days (3 day 18 hours), saves 115 hours. Although there is one color over its best combination, the result is still quite shocking. And the print quality is amazing.
External Drive
The H2C uses the USB drive for external storage, which is for saving work videos, timelapse and print cache. But Bambu Lab doesn’t offer any USB drive with the H2C, it won’t affect anything since the printer has internal storage. If you decide to do time-lapse videos or turn on the working videos, you need to prepare a USB drive for its use. And its reading and writing speed should be at least 10M/s, the storage should be at least 32GB.
Poop Chute
H2C can use the same poop chute as H2D. Except the color and LOGO, H2C seems has no structure on its framework. So, you can print one before its release.
Cross Area May Cause Slice Failure
Due to the Vortek, the H2C reduces some print volume on its right side, which causes some changes: 1, a smaller printing volume, 2 different PEI and heatbed, 3 different printing volume on the right hotend. It brings an old problem that starts from the H2D. Two hotends don’t share materials, it cannot print across areas by changing hotend with the same material either. So when the prints are large enough, it can only be covered by one hotend, then you must put the material in the correct side, otherwise the cloud slicing will fail.
