Best Bambu Lab Accessories in 2026: Upgrades That Are Actually Worth It
We run a 6-printer Bambu Lab farm. Here are the accessories that actually earn their spot — and the ones that waste your money. Organized by priority with real-world testing data.
If you own a Bambu Lab printer — an X1C, P1S, A1 Mini, or anything in between — you’ve probably already noticed the ecosystem of accessories that’s exploded around these machines. Some of it is genuinely useful. Most of it is noise.
We run a 6-printer farm here at ADP Industries: an X1C, X1E, P1S, P2S, A1, and an A1 Mini on near-constant production loops. Over the past two years, we’ve bought, tested, and thrown away a lot of accessories. We know what actually earns its spot on the shelf and what’s going to collect dust by next month.
This guide is the result of that real-world experience. We’re not ranking products based on Amazon star ratings or marketing copy — we’re telling you what we actually keep buying, what we recommend to anyone who asks, and what we’d skip entirely if we were starting over.
We’ve organized everything into three tiers: Essential (buy these now, full stop), Highly Recommended (smart upgrades for active users), and Nice to Have (situational, but genuinely useful for the right person). At the end, we’ve added a What NOT to Buy section that’ll save you real money.
Let’s get into it.
Tier 1: Essential — Everyone Should Buy These
These aren’t optional. If you’re printing more than casually, every item on this list is going to pay for itself — either in print quality, time savings, or preventing a failed print that wasted 200g of filament and 14 hours of machine time.
1. Filament Dryer (SUNLU S2 or S4)
What it does: A filament dryer actively heats and circulates air around your spool to drive out absorbed moisture. Wet filament is one of the most common — and most underdiagnosed — causes of print failures: stringing, popping, weak layer adhesion, rough surface finish, and inconsistent extrusion can all trace back to moisture.
Why you need it: Filament starts absorbing atmospheric moisture the moment you open the bag. In humid environments (Florida in August, for example), PLA can get noticeably wet in 12–24 hours of sitting exposed. For hygroscopic materials like Nylon, TPU, or PETG, it’s even worse. A dryer isn’t a luxury — it’s insurance for every spool you own.
We run SUNLU S2s and S4s across our farm. The S2 handles single spools with a built-in humidity display and precise temperature control. The S4 handles two spools simultaneously, which is essential when you’re running multi-material setups or just want to pre-dry filament while another roll is printing. Both units let you print directly from the dryer while drying is active — no waiting.
Who it’s for: Every Bambu Lab owner. No exceptions. If you’re printing PETG, Nylon, TPU, or PA-CF, you need this before you do anything else.
Estimated price:
- SUNLU S2: ~$30–40
- SUNLU S4 (dual spool): ~$50–65
Further reading: We put together a full breakdown of filament dryers — including a comparison of every major brand — in our Filament Dryer Buyer’s Guide. Read that before you buy.
SUNLU S2 Filament Dryer
SUNLU S4 Dual Spool Filament Dryer
2. Hardened Steel Nozzle Kit
What it does: Replaces the stock brass nozzle with a hardened steel version that can withstand abrasive filaments — specifically carbon fiber (CF) and glass fiber (GF) composites — without wearing out in hours of printing.
Why you need it: Bambu Lab ships most of their printers with brass nozzles. Brass is great for standard PLA, PETG, and ABS — it has excellent thermal conductivity and consistent flow. But the moment you run a CF or GF filament through a brass nozzle, you start destroying it. The abrasive particles in composite filaments act like sandpaper on the nozzle orifice. A 0.4mm nozzle can become effectively 0.5mm or larger within a single spool. Your prints get sloppier, your first layer adhesion degrades, and you don’t always notice until something fails completely.
Hardened steel nozzles handle abrasives with no wear. The tradeoff is slightly lower thermal conductivity, which means you may need to bump print temps up by 5–10°C — but that’s a one-time profile tweak. We keep a full set of 0.4mm and 0.6mm hardened steel nozzles across every machine on the farm. Any time someone asks us about running Bambu’s PA-CF or eSUN’s CF-PETG, the first thing we ask is: “Do you have a hardened steel nozzle?”
The answer is almost always no. Fix that first.
Who it’s for: Anyone printing CF, GF, or abrasive composite filaments. Also worth having as a spare even if you’re running mostly standard materials — eventually you’ll want to try a composite and you’ll be glad you have one on hand.
Estimated price: ~$10–25 for a kit of 2–5 nozzles depending on size and brand.
Pro tip: Bambu Lab sells their own hardened steel nozzles in a multi-pack. Third-party options from brands like Micro Swiss and E3D also work well with the right adapter sizing — double-check compatibility with your specific printer model before ordering.
Bambu Lab Hardened Steel Nozzle Kit
Micro Swiss Hardened Steel Nozzle (Bambu Compatible)
3. PEI Build Plate — Textured and Smooth
What it does: PEI (Polyetherimide) build plates replace or supplement your stock Bambu build surface with a surface that offers better adhesion for a wide range of filaments and easier part release once the plate cools down.
Why you need it: Bambu Lab ships decent build plates, but having spare plates in rotation is a game-changer for production use. Here’s why: instead of waiting for a print to cool, releasing parts, cleaning the surface, and then starting the next job — you swap in a cold plate, start the next print immediately, and let the first plate cool on the side. This alone can cut 10–20 minutes of idle time per print cycle when you’re running back-to-back jobs.
Beyond the workflow benefit, different PEI surfaces excel at different materials:
- Textured PEI: Excellent adhesion for PETG, PLA, and ABS. Leaves a matte, slightly rough texture on the bottom surface of your parts — which looks intentional and professional. Great for functional prints where aesthetics aren’t critical.
- Smooth PEI: Better for parts where you want a clean, glossy bottom layer. Also good for materials that over-grip textured surfaces and are hard to remove.
We keep at least two of each type per machine. When one is in use, another is ready to go. It sounds like overkill until you’re running a 6-printer farm and every minute of idle time multiplies.
Who it’s for: Anyone printing more than a few times a week. The workflow benefit alone makes these essential for production or heavy hobbyist use.
Estimated price:
- Textured PEI plate (Bambu-compatible): ~$20–35
- Smooth PEI plate: ~$20–30
Textured PEI Build Plate (Bambu Lab Compatible)
Smooth PEI Build Plate (Bambu Lab Compatible)
4. IPA Cleaning Solution + Microfiber Cloths
What it does: Isopropyl alcohol (IPA) at 90%+ concentration removes oils, fingerprints, and filament residue from your build plate — which directly affects how well your first layer sticks.
Why you need it: This is the most unsexy item on this list and one of the most important. A single fingerprint on your build plate can cause a first layer adhesion failure. Skin oils create a barrier that prevents filament from bonding to the surface properly. This is especially true for materials like PLA and PETG that depend on surface contact for adhesion rather than high-temperature bonding.
The fix is dead simple: wipe the plate with 90%+ IPA on a clean microfiber cloth before every print. Takes 15 seconds. Prevents infuriating failures that would otherwise have you chasing ghost problems for hours.
We go through IPA in bulk — a gallon jug of 99% IPA lasts months even across 6 machines. Pair it with lint-free microfiber cloths (not paper towels — they can leave lint that also causes adhesion issues) and you’ve got a maintenance habit that costs pennies per print.
Who it’s for: Literally every 3D printer owner. Not negotiable.
Estimated price:
- 1 gallon 99% IPA: ~$25–35
- Microfiber cloth pack (10–20 cloths): ~$10–15
99% Isopropyl Alcohol 1 Gallon
Lint-Free Microfiber Cloths (20-Pack)
5. Silicone Sock Replacements
What it does: Silicone socks wrap around the hotend heater block to insulate it, reduce heat loss, and prevent filament blobs from sticking to the block. They’re a consumable — they degrade over time, especially with high-temp materials.
Why you need it: The silicone sock on your Bambu hotend does more than it looks like. It keeps the heater block temperature stable, which means more consistent extrusion. It also prevents filament that oozes during travel from caking onto the heater block, which can eventually cause thermal runaway errors or mess up temperature readings.
Socks wear out. The silicone degrades at sustained high temperatures (ABS, ASA, PC-range), and they can get contaminated with filament that’s nearly impossible to clean off without damaging the sock. Replacement packs are cheap — $8–15 for a 5-pack — and having spares means you’re never printing with a degraded sock because you forgot to order new ones.
We replace socks on our machines every 3–4 months of heavy use. You’ll probably go longer. But when one starts looking crusty or cracked, you want a replacement on hand, not a 2-week wait.
Who it’s for: Everyone. Especially anyone printing above 260°C regularly.
Estimated price: ~$8–15 for a 5-pack of Bambu-compatible socks.
Silicone Sock Replacement Kit (Bambu Lab Compatible, 5-Pack)
Tier 2: Highly Recommended — Smart Upgrades for Active Users
These aren’t urgent on day one, but if you’re printing regularly and want to improve your workflow, visibility, and print quality, every item here is worth the investment.
1. LED Light Bar for Enclosure
What it does: Adds bright, even lighting inside your printer’s enclosure so you can actually see what’s happening on the build plate — especially during first layer adhesion, which is when most print failures start.
Why you need it: The X1C and P1S have decent internal cameras, but the lighting in most enclosures is inadequate for spotting first-layer problems early. A well-positioned LED light bar illuminates the build plate evenly, eliminates shadows, and makes it dramatically easier to monitor prints remotely via Bambu Handy or Bambu Studio. When you’re watching a print from another room and you spot a spaghetti failure starting, those 2 minutes of early detection can mean the difference between pausing a 20-hour print at hour 1 and scrapping 12 hours of wasted material.
We mounted a simple magnetic LED light bar across the top of each enclosed printer. The difference in print visibility — both in person and via the camera feed — is significant. For anyone using Bambu’s remote monitoring features, this is a meaningful quality-of-life upgrade.
Who it’s for: X1C and P1S owners who monitor prints remotely. Also useful for anyone doing quality-critical work who wants better visibility during first layer.
Estimated price: ~$15–30 depending on length and brightness.
Magnetic LED Light Bar for 3D Printer Enclosure
2. PTFE Tube Replacement Kit
What it does: Replaces the Bowden PTFE tubes that route filament from the AMS or spool to the hotend. PTFE degrades over time, especially with high-temperature filaments.
Why you need it: PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) has a max continuous service temperature of around 260°C — and it starts releasing fumes and degrading structurally above that. If you’re regularly printing at 270°C+ (common for PC, Nylon, and some high-temp filaments), your PTFE tube is degrading slowly with every print. A degraded tube can cause increased friction, filament jams, or extrusion inconsistency.
Beyond high-temp use, PTFE tubes simply wear out mechanically. The ends that connect to push-fittings can chip or deform. The inner bore gets rougher with use. Keeping a spare set of correctly-sized PTFE tubes (matching the inner diameter for your filament size) costs almost nothing and saves you from a frustrating mid-print jam that’s hard to diagnose.
Who it’s for: Anyone printing regularly, and especially anyone running high-temp materials above 260°C.
Estimated price: ~$10–20 for a multi-length replacement kit with cutters.
PTFE Tube Replacement Kit for Bambu Lab (2mm ID)
3. Nozzle Cleaning Kit (Brass Brush + Needles)
What it does: A combination of a brass wire brush (for cleaning the outside of the nozzle) and stainless steel cleaning needles in various diameters (for clearing partial clogs from the inside) gives you a complete first-response toolkit for nozzle maintenance.
Why you need it: Partial clogs are one of the most common print quality issues, and they’re often subtle — reduced flow rate, underextrusion, inconsistent lines — before they become a full blockage. A cleaning needle pushed through a slightly warm nozzle (around 150–180°C) can clear a partial clog in under a minute. A brass brush on the outside of the nozzle tip removes carbonized filament buildup that can affect flow characteristics.
Cold pulls (atomic pulls) handle the deeper cleaning, but you still need needles for the initial probe and brushes for the tip. This kit costs $10–15 and it will save you nozzle replacements. We keep one at every machine.
Who it’s for: All Bambu owners, but especially anyone running PLA+ (which tends to carbonize more than standard PLA) or high-temp materials.
Estimated price: ~$10–15 for a combined needle + brass brush kit.
Nozzle Cleaning Kit — Brass Brush + Needle Set
4. Filament Storage Bags with Desiccant
What it does: Sealed storage bags designed for filament spools, paired with silica gel desiccant packets, keep your filament dry between print sessions without running the dryer continuously.
Why you need it: You can’t keep everything on the dryer all the time. For filaments you’re not actively using — especially hygroscopic materials like Nylon, TPU, and PETG — proper sealed storage is the next best thing. A quality resealable bag with fresh desiccant will keep a spool in good condition for months in storage.
We vacuum-seal high-value specialty spools (PA-CF, eSUN’s engineering grades) immediately after opening them. Standard PLA gets regular storage bags with fresh desiccant. The desiccant packets are rechargeable — toss them in the oven at 250°F for a couple hours and they’re like new. Replacement bags and fresh desiccant cost almost nothing compared to a ruined spool of $40 engineering-grade filament.
Who it’s for: Anyone with more filament than they can keep on a dryer at once. Which is most of us.
Estimated price:
- Resealable filament storage bags (10-pack): ~$15–25
- Silica gel desiccant packets (50-pack): ~$10–15
Resealable Filament Storage Bags with Humidity Indicator (10-Pack)
Rechargeable Silica Gel Desiccant Packets (50-Pack)
5. Webcam Upgrade (for P1S Owners)
What it does: Replaces or supplements the built-in P1S camera with a higher-resolution webcam that provides clearer remote monitoring — especially useful for detecting print failures and monitoring detail-critical layers.
Why you need it: The P1S ships with a 1080p camera that’s… adequate. It works. But the lens angle and image quality at distance leave something to be desired when you’re trying to spot a delamination issue or check first layer adhesion from across the house. A dedicated webcam with better low-light performance, a wider field of view, and higher effective resolution makes remote monitoring genuinely useful instead of just “better than nothing.”
This is specifically relevant for P1S owners because the enclosure creates consistent, controllable lighting conditions — making a camera upgrade more impactful than it would be on an open-frame printer. X1C owners get a better stock camera and the LiDAR system catches failures automatically, so this is lower priority there.
Who it’s for: P1S owners who do a lot of remote monitoring or time-lapses. Less urgent for X1C owners.
Estimated price: ~$30–60 depending on resolution and brand.
1080p/4K USB Webcam for 3D Printer Monitoring
Tier 3: Nice to Have — Situational but Genuinely Useful
These won’t transform your print quality, but they make life easier in specific situations. Buy these once you’ve got the essentials covered.
1. Enclosure Temperature and Humidity Monitor
What it does: A small sensor that sits inside your printer enclosure and reports real-time temperature and humidity to your phone or a local display.
Why you need it: If you’re printing ABS, ASA, or any material that’s sensitive to ambient temperature, knowing the actual enclosure temperature matters. Bambu’s enclosures build heat during long prints, but if you’re starting cold (in a garage in winter, for example) or you’ve got the door cracked, you may not be hitting the temps you expect. A monitor makes that visible.
The humidity reading is also useful for diagnosing filament moisture issues mid-print without doing a full teardown. If your enclosure humidity is high, that’s a signal to investigate your storage practices.
These are typically Bluetooth or WiFi-enabled and tie into existing smart home apps. Not essential, but once you have one, you’ll glance at it constantly.
Who it’s for: Anyone running temperature-sensitive materials (ABS, ASA, PC), printing in a garage or unconditioned space, or generally wanting more visibility into their print environment.
Estimated price: ~$15–30 for a WiFi-enabled sensor with app support.
WiFi Temperature and Humidity Monitor (Enclosure Compatible)
2. Cable Management Clips
What it does: 3D-printable or pre-made cable management clips that route and secure the cable harness along the toolhead and gantry arms, reducing stress and flex on cable connections.
Why you need it: The toolhead on Bambu printers moves fast — we’re talking CoreXY kinematics with aggressive acceleration. Over months of high-speed printing, the cable bundle that follows the toolhead takes a lot of mechanical stress. Cable management clips keep that bundle organized and reduce the likelihood of cable fatigue at bend points.
This is a minor longevity upgrade rather than a print quality upgrade. It’s cheap (or free if you print the clips yourself — STLs are all over Printables), and it’s the kind of preventative maintenance that people only regret skipping when they’re replacing a wire harness 18 months in.
Who it’s for: Heavy users running their machines near-continuously. Lower priority for casual use.
Estimated price: ~$5–15 for a printed or purchased set. Free if you already have filament and print the STLs yourself.
3D Printer Cable Management Clip Set (Bambu Lab Compatible)
3. Spare Extruder Gears
What it does: Keeps a set of replacement extruder drive gears on hand so you can swap them out immediately if you experience stripping or wear without waiting for a parts order.
Why you need it: Bambu’s extruder gears are hardened and hold up well — better than a lot of competitors’ options. But they’re not immortal. Running gritty, abrasive, or poorly-manufactured filaments can accelerate wear. And when the gears start to go, you’ll notice it as inconsistent extrusion and subtle underextrusion before a full failure. Catching this early and swapping the gears takes about 20 minutes with the right parts on hand.
The reason to buy these now rather than later is shipping time. If your gear fails mid-production and you don’t have a spare, you’re down a machine for however long it takes to get parts. That’s the kind of thing that’s not a big deal until it is.
Who it’s for: Production users and heavy hobbyists. Casual users can probably skip this until they have a reason to worry about it.
Estimated price: ~$15–25 for a compatible spare gear set.
Spare Extruder Drive Gear Kit (Bambu Lab Compatible)
4. Custom Print Surface — G10/Garolite for PA/Nylon
What it does: G10/Garolite is a fiberglass-reinforced epoxy laminate sheet that can be used as a print surface for Nylon (PA) and high-performance filaments that struggle to adhere to PEI.
Why you need it: PEI is excellent for most materials, but Nylon is notoriously problematic. It tends to warp, delaminate, or refuse to stick on standard PEI — even with an enclosure and high chamber temps. Garolite has been the go-to Nylon surface in the enthusiast community for years because Nylon actually bonds to it aggressively when warm and releases cleanly when cold.
If you’re printing a lot of PA or PA-CF (Bambu’s engineering filaments, eSUN’s PA12, etc.), a Garolite surface is a low-cost fix for a frustrating adhesion problem. Cut it to your bed size, glue it to a magnetic sheet or use binder clips, and you’re done.
This is situational because if you’re not printing Nylon regularly, you don’t need it. But for people who are, it’s one of those things that immediately becomes indispensable.
Who it’s for: Bambu X1C and P1S owners running PA, PA-CF, or any Nylon variant regularly.
Estimated price: ~$15–25 for a sheet large enough to cut multiple surfaces.
G10 Garolite Sheet — Custom 3D Print Surface for Nylon
What NOT to Buy: Accessories That Waste Your Money
We’ve tried a lot of things that turned out to be marketing-driven garbage. Here’s what to skip:
Automatic bed leveling add-ons for Bambu printers. Your Bambu printer already has automatic bed leveling built in. It’s excellent. Any aftermarket product that claims to improve it is either redundant or potentially disruptive to the existing calibration system. Save your money.
Cheap off-brand AMS hubs and spool holders. The AMS (Automatic Material System) is an engineered system with specific tolerances. Cheap third-party hubs and adapters that don’t match those tolerances introduce feeding inconsistencies that are maddening to diagnose. If you need expanded spool capacity, do it right — Bambu’s official AMS accessories or well-reviewed third-party options from the Printables community (which you can print yourself) are the better path.
“Magic” bed adhesion sprays marketed to Bambu owners. Hairspray, purple glue stick, and specialty adhesion sprays are a holdover from the early FDM days when bed adhesion was genuinely hard. A clean PEI plate and the right temperature profile handles adhesion for 95% of materials without any sprays. The remaining 5% (Nylon, PC) have purpose-built surface solutions. Adhesion sprays on PEI can actually make things worse by gumming up the surface texture.
Overpriced “premium” nozzles with dubious performance claims. Some companies sell nozzles at 3–5x the price of Bambu’s own hardened steel options with marketing copy about “superior flow geometry” or “exotic alloys.” For most users printing standard to advanced materials, a quality hardened steel nozzle from a reputable brand is all you need. The exotic nozzle materials (ruby, sapphire) have legitimate use cases in ultra-high-volume industrial printing — not in your home or small-farm setup.
Replacement screens and display panels you don’t need yet. These aren’t consumables. Bambu’s screens are robust. Don’t buy a spare screen “just in case” until you actually have a screen problem.
Fancy spool organizer towers and filament carousels. We know, they look cool. But unless you have a very specific storage problem that simple shelving doesn’t solve, these gadgets add complexity without improving your print quality or workflow in any meaningful way. A shelf, some desiccant, and resealable bags do the same job for a fraction of the cost.
Quick Reference: Priority Buy Order
If you’re starting from zero, here’s how we’d sequence these purchases:
- First: IPA + microfiber cloths (cheapest, most immediate impact)
- Second: Filament dryer (SUNLU S2 to start)
- Third: Hardened steel nozzles (especially if you want to run CF filaments)
- Fourth: Spare PEI plates (textured + smooth)
- Fifth: Silicone sock replacements + nozzle cleaning kit
- Then: Work through the Highly Recommended list based on your specific needs
Final Thoughts
The Bambu Lab ecosystem is genuinely impressive, and the right accessories make it better. But the 3D printing accessory market is full of products designed to capitalize on beginner enthusiasm — things that look useful, market well, and don’t actually improve anything.
The items on this list are what we use. The things in the “What NOT to Buy” section are things we’ve tried and discarded. Your setup may differ — if you’re printing exclusively PLA on an A1 Mini for casual hobby projects, you don’t need Garolite and spare extruder gears. But if you’re running production loops, chasing material versatility, or just printing enough that a failure costs you real time and money, this list is your starting point.
Buy the dryer first. That’s always the answer.
ADP Industries runs a 6-printer Bambu Lab farm in Gainesville, FL. We use all of the products listed in this article in our daily operations. Affiliate links help support the site at no cost to you. We only recommend products we actually buy and use.
Related: Best Filament for Bambu Lab 2026 · Best Filament Dryer 2026 · First Layer Calibration Guide