· Austin Prysock

Best Filament Dryer for Bambu Lab in 2026: Complete Buyer's Guide

We tested every major filament dryer on the market for Bambu Lab printers. Here's which one to buy for your AMS setup — SUNLU S2, S4, Eibos Cyclopes, and more compared head-to-head.

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If you own a Bambu Lab printer — whether it’s an X1C, P1S, A1, or anything in between — you’ve probably already run into moisture problems. Stringing that shouldn’t exist. Layer delamination on a spool that printed perfectly three weeks ago. A popping, crackling sound from the hotend that makes your stomach drop mid-print. All of these are classic wet filament symptoms, and they cost you time, material, and sanity.

This guide exists to help you find the best filament dryer for your Bambu Lab setup in 2026. We’ve evaluated the top options on the market, compared specs, and cut through the marketing fluff so you can make the right call and get back to printing.

Why Bambu Lab Owners Especially Need a Filament Dryer

Bambu printers are fast. That’s their whole value proposition. Print speeds of 250–500mm/s on the X1C and P1S mean your hotend is eating through filament at a rate that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago. At those speeds, the thermal demands on filament quality are significantly higher. Wet filament that might print “okay” at 60mm/s on an older machine can fail spectacularly at 300mm/s on a Bambu.

The AMS (Automatic Material System) compounds the problem. Your filament sits inside the AMS for days, weeks, even months before that spool runs out. Even with the PTFE tubes and a reasonably tight enclosure, humidity finds its way in — especially if you live anywhere in the Southeast US, the Pacific Northwest, coastal areas, or anywhere that gets humid summers. Nylon, TPU, and high-speed PLA variants are the worst offenders, absorbing enough moisture in 24–48 hours of ambient exposure to noticeably affect print quality. PETG and ABS aren’t far behind.

The AMS 2 Pro introduced a built-in drying function, which we’ll cover below — but even that has its limits. For the original AMS users and anyone printing serious engineering materials, a dedicated filament dryer is not a luxury. It’s infrastructure. Think of it the same way you’d think about air filtration or a quality enclosure: you don’t notice it when it’s working, but you absolutely notice when it’s not there.

Quick Recommendations at a Glance

Here’s the short version before we go deep. These are our picks by use case:

  • Best budget pick (1 spool): SUNLU FilaDryer S2 — ~$35–$40

  • Best value overall (4 spools): SUNLU FilaDryer S4 — ~$65–$75

  • Best compact alternative (2 spools): Eibos Cyclopes — ~$50–$60

  • Best premium single-spool dryer: Eibos Easdry — ~$80–$95

  • Best for Creality crossover users: Creality Space Pi — ~$60–$80

  • If you’re already buying an AMS upgrade: Bambu Lab AMS 2 Pro — ~$299

    • Built-in drying to 65°C, RFID auto-profiles — but it’s an AMS, not a standalone dryer

  • Our top overall pick for most Bambu users: SUNLU FilaDryer S4 — covers 4 spools, 70°C max, 350W heater, and costs less than two bad prints’ worth of engineering filament

The Detailed Reviews

1. SUNLU FilaDryer S2 — The Tried-and-True Budget Pick

Price: ~$35–$42
Capacity: 1 spool
Temperature range: 35°C – 70°C
Wattage: 48W
Timer: Up to 99 hours
SUNLU FilaDryer S2

The SUNLU S2 is where most people start their filament dryer journey, and for good reason. It hits the critical spec: 70°C max temperature. That’s hot enough to dry Nylon PA properly — a threshold a lot of cheaper dryers miss. The 2024 refresh added a 4.6-inch LCD touch screen and a 360° heating fan, both meaningful upgrades over the original cylindrical design that just had basic dial controls.

What it does well:

  • Legitimate 70°C max temperature (independently verified, not just marketing)
  • Preloaded drying presets for PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU, and Nylon — you don’t have to guess
  • 360° hot air circulation via internal fan means consistent temperature across the whole spool
  • Runs while printing — filament feeds directly out the top through a PTFE guide
  • Clean interface with visible temp, humidity, timer, and material type
  • Extremely available — ships from US warehouses via Amazon Prime

What it lacks:

  • Only holds one spool at a time — if you’re doing multi-material with AMS, you need multiple units
  • 48W is adequate but not aggressive — drying time on a fully soaked Nylon spool can hit 8+ hours
  • No wifi/app connectivity (which honestly, most people don’t miss)
  • Build quality is functional, not premium — the plastic feels like what it costs

Who should buy it: The S2 is ideal if you’re a single-material printer, if you want a low-commitment entry point to see whether filament drying actually helps your print quality (it will), or if you’re buying one for each material type. At $35–$40 each, buying three S2s to cover PLA, PETG, and Nylon isn’t unreasonable. It’s also the right call if you’re on a tight budget and the S4 feels like too much.

Real-world drying time with S2:

  • PLA: 45°C, 4–6 hours for a fresh-from-bag spool; 6–8 hours for a spool that’s been open 2+ weeks
  • PETG: 60°C, 4–6 hours
  • Nylon/PA: 70°C, 8–12 hours minimum

2. SUNLU FilaDryer S4 — Best Value for Bambu AMS Users

Price: ~$65–$75
Capacity: 4 spools
Temperature range: up to 70°C
Wattage: 350W PTC heater
Fans: 3 circulation fans
SUNLU FilaDryer S4

If the S2 is the entry drug, the S4 is where Bambu Lab users should actually land. The original AMS holds 4 spools. The AMS 2 Pro holds 4 spools. The S4 holds 4 spools. Coincidence? Not really — this is the natural pairing.

The jump from 48W (S2) to 350W (S4) is not minor. That PTC (Positive Temperature Coefficient) heater with three dedicated circulation fans means the S4 reaches target temperature significantly faster and holds it more uniformly across all four positions. On a cold morning in a drafty shop, that difference is real. We’ve seen the S2 struggle to hold 65°C when ambient temps are low; the S4 doesn’t have that problem.

The S4 also includes a “Power Saving Storage Mode” — essentially a low-heat standby that keeps filament dry without running the heater at full tilt. If you’re the type who loads up the dryer Monday morning and prints through the week, this mode keeps your spools in ready-to-print condition without burning electricity all week at full wattage.

What it does well:

  • Matches the 4-spool capacity of Bambu’s AMS — dry everything in one shot before a big print
  • 350W PTC heater + 3 fans = fast, uniform heat distribution across all four spools
  • Power saving storage mode — excellent if you pre-dry and want to hold moisture out
  • Still hits 70°C for engineering materials
  • Very competitive price-per-spool-capacity vs. any alternative

What it lacks:

  • Physically large — this is a meaningful footprint on your workbench, especially if you’re running a fleet
  • Like the S2, no wireless connectivity
  • The power saving mode is useful but the humidity display is basic — no real-time graphing or logging
  • Can be overkill if you only ever run one filament at a time

Who should buy it: Multi-material AMS users. Anyone printing with an X1C or P1S running 4-spool setups. Anyone who runs production volumes and wants to dry a full batch before a long weekend print farm run. If you’re printing PA-CF, TPU-95A, or PETG-HF alongside regular PLA, you want your full arsenal dry simultaneously — the S4 is built for that workflow.

Real-world drying time with S4:

  • PLA: 45°C, 4–5 hours for four spools simultaneously
  • PETG: 60°C, 4–6 hours
  • ABS: 60°C, 4–6 hours
  • Nylon/PA: 70°C, 8–10 hours
  • TPU: 50°C, 4–6 hours

3. Eibos Cyclopes — The Compact Two-Spool Alternative

Price: ~$50–$65
Capacity: 2 spools
Temperature range: up to 70°C
Features: Internal fan, active circulation
Eibos Cyclopes Filament Dryer

Eibos isn’t as big a name as SUNLU in the US market, but the Cyclopes has a genuinely loyal following in the 3D printing community — and for good reason. It hits 70°C, it fits two spools, it’s compact, and it has better build quality than what you’d expect at this price point.

The internal fan placement on the Cyclopes is notably better engineered than on budget competitors. Rather than blowing air down from the top (which creates a hot spot at the top of the spool and a cold zone at the bottom), the Cyclopes circulates air more horizontally, resulting in more even heat distribution across a spool’s full width. For materials like Nylon where uneven drying can leave moisture pockets at the spool core, this matters.

The Cyclopes also has a humidity sensor — you can actually watch the percentage drop in real time as drying progresses. It’s genuinely useful for knowing when a spool is actually ready rather than guessing based on a timer.

What it does well:

  • Real-time humidity display — know exactly when your filament is dry
  • Better air circulation design than many competitors — more uniform heating
  • Fits two spools — better than single-spool units, costs less than the S4
  • Compact footprint — it doesn’t eat up as much bench space as the S4
  • Solid build quality — feels more premium than the SUNLU at a similar price

What it lacks:

  • Two-spool cap is a weird middle ground — not as versatile as 4-spool, not as cheap as single-spool
  • Eibos is a smaller company; availability on Amazon can be inconsistent
  • At 70°C it handles PA okay, but the thermal headroom isn’t as comfortable as the S4’s 350W heater
  • Less community documentation than SUNLU — fewer YouTube tutorials if you need troubleshooting

Who should buy it: The Eibos Cyclopes is the right call if you typically run 2 materials at a time and want something more premium-feeling than the SUNLU S2 without committing to the bulk of the S4. It’s also a solid pick for people who like data — watching the humidity percentage drop in real time is satisfying in a way that a simple timer isn’t. Great for a small workshop setup where two materials in rotation covers most of your needs.

Real-world drying time with Cyclopes:

  • PLA: 45°C, 4–6 hours
  • PETG: 60°C, 4–6 hours
  • Nylon/PA: 70°C, 8–12 hours
  • TPU: 50°C, 4–6 hours

4. Eibos Easdry — The Premium Single-Spool Experience

Price: ~$80–$95
Capacity: 1 spool
Temperature range: 40°C – 65°C (stepless)
Features: Fan, humidity control, spool holder, filament feed-through
Eibos Easdry

The Eibos Easdry is a well-built, thoughtfully designed filament dryer that earns its premium price in fit and finish — but comes with one significant caveat you need to understand before buying: its maximum temperature is 65°C, not 70°C. For most materials, this is fine. For Nylon PA, PA-CF, or any high-temperature engineering material, this is a meaningful limitation.

What the Easdry does better than nearly everything else at single-spool scale is the complete package. Stepless temperature control (set it to exactly 58°C if that’s what you want, not just a preset). A built-in humidity sensor with a clear display. A proper filament feed-through so you can print directly from the dryer without opening it. A spool holder that accommodates 1.75mm, 2.85mm, and 3.00mm filament. The build quality feels genuinely premium — this is something you’d put on a desk next to a Bambu Lab printer and not feel embarrassed about aesthetically.

What it does well:

  • Premium build quality — this thing feels solid and looks good
  • Stepless temperature control — fine-tune to your exact material spec
  • Humidity display — real-time feedback on drying progress
  • Compatible with multiple filament diameters — useful if you cross between 1.75mm and 2.85mm setups
  • Prints-from-dryer design — clean integration into your workflow
  • Quiet operation — the fan is notably subdued compared to SUNLU units

What it lacks:

  • 65°C max temperature is the hard limitation — Nylon and PC absolutely want 70°C+
  • Only one spool — at $80–$95, you’re paying premium pricing for single-spool throughput
  • More expensive than the S4, which holds four spools and hits 70°C
  • Not always available on Amazon with Prime shipping

Who should buy it: The Easdry is the right pick if your materials are primarily PLA, PETG, ABS, or TPU — all of which dry comfortably at or below 65°C — and you want the nicest single-spool experience available. It’s also a solid choice for studio or office environments where aesthetics and quiet operation matter. If you’re running PA-CF, PA12, or any serious Nylon blend, step up to the Cyclopes or the S4 instead for that extra 5°C headroom.

Real-world drying time with Easdry:

  • PLA: 45°C, 4–6 hours
  • PETG: 60°C, 4–6 hours
  • ABS: 65°C, 4–6 hours
  • TPU: 50°C, 4–6 hours
  • Nylon: technically possible at 65°C, but 8–12 hours and results are less reliable than at 70°C

5. Creality Space Pi — The Solid Middle-Ground Option

Price: ~$60–$80
Capacity: 1 spool
Temperature range: 45°C – 70°C
Features: 12 presets, PTC heater, 360° hot-air circulation, humidity monitoring, up to 48-hour timer
Creality Space Pi Filament Dryer

Creality entered the filament dryer market with the Space Pi and did what Creality usually does — packed in a lot of features at a competitive price point and made the unit widely available through their distribution network. The Space Pi Plus variant pushes the max temperature up to 75°C, which is the highest ceiling of any dryer in this roundup.

The 12 built-in material presets are a genuine convenience feature. Rather than researching and manually entering drying parameters for every material type, you pick your material and it handles the temp and time. For someone running a range of Bambu Lab official filaments (which publish their drying parameters clearly), this maps well. The PTC heating element with 360° air circulation performs comparably to the S2 at single-spool scale — efficient, even, and genuinely capable of reaching target temp.

Where the Space Pi loses points is value positioning. At $60–$80 for a single spool, you’re getting less capacity than the S4 at a higher price. The feature set is solid but doesn’t meaningfully surpass the SUNLU S2 at a price premium. The Space Pi Plus’s 75°C ceiling is a genuine differentiator for PA and PC printing, but most users won’t push those limits regularly.

What it does well:

  • 12 material presets — extremely easy to use for common Bambu Lab filament types
  • 70°C standard / 75°C on the Plus — solid temperature range
  • PTC heater with 360° circulation — even, reliable heat
  • Clean UI with humidity and temperature display
  • Good Amazon availability with Creality’s distribution network

What it lacks:

  • Single spool only — value proposition versus the S4 is weak
  • More expensive than the S2 for similar single-spool capability
  • The preset system is convenient but less flexible than stepless control
  • Creality’s QA has historically been inconsistent — check reviews before buying a specific batch

Who should buy it: The Space Pi makes sense if you’re already in the Creality ecosystem, if the 75°C max temp of the Plus model is specifically important to you (for PC or high-temp PA), or if the preset-driven interface appeals to your workflow. For Bambu Lab users who aren’t already Creality customers, it’s hard to recommend over the SUNLU S4 at a lower price with 4× the capacity.

6. Bambu Lab AMS 2 Pro — Built-In Drying Is Real, But It’s Not a Dryer

Price: ~$299
Capacity: 4 spools (plus prints)
Max drying temperature: 65°C
Features: RFID auto-profile sync, built-in heating module, compatible with X1/P1/H2D series

Let’s be clear about what the AMS 2 Pro’s drying function is and isn’t. It is a genuine filament drying capability — the unit has a real heating and drying module under the central frame, reaches 65°C, and the RFID system automatically applies the correct drying parameters when you load Bambu-branded filament. For light moisture absorption on PLA or PETG that’s been sitting in the AMS for a week, this is absolutely enough to get you back to good print quality.

What it isn’t is a replacement for a dedicated dryer. 65°C is below the recommended drying temperature for Nylon PA and PA-CF. The heating module is supplemental — it’s not designed as an aggressive drying system that can rescue a spool that’s been sitting in open air for a month. And the AMS 2 Pro costs $299. You are not buying a $299 filament dryer. You are buying a $299 multi-material system that also does moderate filament drying.

The right way to use AMS 2 Pro’s drying: Use it for routine maintenance drying — keeping filament in ready-to-print condition. If you have a spool that’s been sitting open and is visibly problematic (crackling, stringing, bubble-laden extrusion), pull it and hit it with a dedicated dryer first at the appropriate temperature. Then load it into the AMS.

Bottom line: If you’re upgrading to AMS 2 Pro anyway, the drying function is a genuine bonus that reduces how often you need to reach for a standalone dryer. It does not eliminate the need for one, especially if you run Nylon, PA-CF, or TPU.

Which Dryer for Which Filament: Temperature & Time Reference

Every material absorbs moisture differently and requires different conditions to dry properly. Here’s a practical reference guide. These are working ranges — adjust based on how wet your filament actually is.

PLA and PLA+ (including Bambu’s PLA Basic, PLA Matte, PLA Silk):

  • Target temperature: 45°C – 55°C
  • Drying time: 4–6 hours for a recently opened spool; 6–8 hours if it’s been open for weeks
  • Symptoms of wet PLA: slight stringing, minor surface bubbling, reduced layer strength
  • Note: PLA can warp if you go above 60°C, so don’t crank it to max

PETG and PETG-CF:

  • Target temperature: 55°C – 65°C
  • Drying time: 4–6 hours
  • Symptoms of wet PETG: aggressive stringing, bubbling, weak layer adhesion
  • Note: PETG is more hygroscopic than PLA — if it’s been in an open AMS for more than a week in humid climates, it probably needs a dry

ABS and ASA:

  • Target temperature: 60°C – 70°C
  • Drying time: 4–6 hours
  • Symptoms of wet ABS: popping/crackling during print, layer splitting, rough surface finish
  • Note: Both ABS and ASA benefit from the enclosure during printing — but pre-dry them too

Nylon / PA (including PA-CF, PA12-CF, PA6-CF):

  • Target temperature: 70°C – 80°C for pure PA; 70°C for CF variants
  • Drying time: 8–12 hours minimum; severely wet PA may need 12–16 hours
  • Symptoms of wet Nylon: stringing immediately on first layer, visible steam/bubbles at hotend, prints that fall apart mid-job
  • Critical: Nylon is extremely hygroscopic. It absorbs enough moisture to ruin a print in 4–6 hours of open-air exposure. Never load undried Nylon into an AMS and walk away.
  • Note: This is where the 70°C max temp on the SUNLU S2/S4 matters. The Eibos Easdry’s 65°C ceiling is marginal for PA

TPU (including TPU 95A, 87A soft variants):

  • Target temperature: 50°C – 60°C
  • Drying time: 4–6 hours
  • Symptoms of wet TPU: stringing, poor surface texture, reduced elasticity in the final print
  • Note: Don’t overheat TPU — above 65°C you risk degrading the material

PC (Polycarbonate) and PC-ABS:

  • Target temperature: 70°C – 80°C
  • Drying time: 6–8 hours
  • Symptoms of wet PC: cloudiness in transparent prints, cracking, severe delamination
  • Note: This is one case where the Creality Space Pi Plus’s 75°C ceiling provides real value over competitors maxing at 70°C

Quick rule of thumb for AMS users: If a spool has been loaded in the AMS for more than 5 days and you’re in a humid environment (>50% relative humidity), give it a dry before any long print job. The 30 minutes of setup time is always cheaper than a failed 8-hour print.

Do You Really Need a Filament Dryer? (Yes, Especially for AMS)

Short answer: yes. Longer answer: it depends on your materials, your environment, and how serious you are about print quality — but the AMS specifically makes this more critical than it would be for a typical open-frame printer.

Here’s the physics: thermoplastic filaments are hygroscopic. They absorb water molecules from ambient air into the polymer matrix. When that water-laden filament hits your hotend at 220°C–280°C, the water flash-vaporizes — creating micro-bubbles in the extrudate, inconsistent flow, and dramatically increased stringing. At the extrusion speeds Bambu printers run, this happens faster and more visibly than on slower machines.

The AMS creates a specific problem: slow spool consumption on any given material creates long dwell times. If your AMS slot 3 has a grey PETG spool that you use occasionally as a support interface material, that spool might sit in the AMS for two to three months. Even inside the AMS enclosure, with the humidity rising and falling daily, that PETG spool is slowly absorbing moisture the entire time. By month two, it’s printing noticeably worse than it did on day one.

People often debug this as a hardware problem — checking their hotend, their AMS, their feed tension — when the actual problem is sitting inside the spool itself. A wet filament fix is almost always cheaper and simpler than any hardware diagnosis: pull the spool, dry it for 4–6 hours, reload, and your stringing issues disappear.

The other argument is the economic one. A SUNLU S4 costs ~$70. A spool of Bambu Lab PA-CF costs ~$50–$60. If you ruin two PA-CF spools to moisture-related print failures — something that happens embarrassingly often when people first start printing engineering materials — you’ve already paid for the dryer. The math is obvious once you do it.

When you might genuinely not need one:

  • You only ever print PLA in low-humidity environments (below 40% RH year-round)
  • You go through spools quickly enough that filament never sits open for more than a week
  • You have vacuum-sealed storage and use silica gel aggressively

For everyone else — and especially for Bambu AMS users printing anything beyond basic PLA — a filament dryer is one of those purchases that makes you wonder how you printed without it.

SUNLU S2 vs S4: Which One Is Right for You?

Since “SUNLU dryer S2 vs S4” is one of the most common questions we see, let’s address it directly.

Choose the S2 if:

  • You’re a single-material printer and never run more than one spool at a time
  • Budget is the primary constraint and you need to stay under $40
  • You have limited bench space and can’t accommodate the S4’s footprint
  • You want to test whether drying actually improves your print quality before committing more money

Choose the S4 if:

  • You run an AMS (original or 2 Pro) and want to dry all 4 slots in one session
  • You print engineering materials at volume and need the 350W heater for consistent performance in cold shops
  • You want to pre-dry a full filament batch before a long weekend print run
  • You can spend $70 instead of $40 and want a setup you won’t outgrow

The honest answer: If you run an AMS, get the S4. The only reason to get the S2 is price constraint or desk space. The S4’s 4-spool capacity is too well-matched to the Bambu AMS ecosystem to ignore, and the 350W heater genuinely outperforms the S2’s 48W element in real-world conditions.

Common Questions

Can I print directly from a filament dryer into the AMS? Yes, with some setup. Most dryers have a top exit port for the filament, and you can feed from the dryer through the external spool holder position on the Bambu printer, bypassing the AMS entirely. This is actually ideal for Nylon and TPU, which benefit from staying warm all the way to the hotend. Running it through the AMS is possible but the buffer system can cause issues — direct external feed is cleaner for engineering materials.

How do I know if my filament is actually wet? Listen for popping or crackling at the hotend during extrusion — that’s moisture flash-vaporizing. Watch the extrudate for bubbles. Check your print surface for rough texture, increased stringing, or layer adhesion issues that appeared on a spool that printed fine before. If in doubt, dry it. 4 hours at the right temp costs you nothing but time.

How long does dried filament stay dry? In a sealed container with desiccant: weeks to months. Sitting open on a desk in a humid environment: 24–48 hours for hygroscopic materials like Nylon. This is why dryer-as-storage (running the dryer at low heat as a storage box) is such a useful feature — the SUNLU S4’s power-saving storage mode was built exactly for this use case.

Are there filament dryers that connect to wifi or an app? Not in this price range as of 2026. The premium smart-dryer segment hasn’t developed the way some expected. For most users, the simple timer-plus-temp interface on units like the S4 is all you need.

Our Pick

After evaluating every option in this guide against the specific needs of Bambu Lab printer owners, our recommendation is clear:

The SUNLU FilaDryer S4 is the best filament dryer for Bambu Lab users in 2026.

Here’s why it wins:

  • 4-spool capacity matches the AMS directly — dry your entire filament set in one session
  • 350W PTC heater with 3 circulation fans delivers fast, even drying even in cold environments
  • 70°C maximum temperature handles every material from PLA to Nylon PA to PC
  • Power-saving storage mode keeps filament dry between print sessions without full power draw
  • ~$70 price point makes it the highest-value dryer per spool of capacity on the market

Runner-up: If you genuinely only ever run one material at a time and $70 feels steep, the SUNLU FilaDryer S2 at ~$35–$40 gives you the same 70°C max temp, solid 360° circulation, and the same reliability in a single-spool package. It’s the best filament dryer for Bambu Lab users on a budget.

Premium pick: If build quality and quiet operation matter more than capacity, the Eibos Cyclopes at ~$50–$60 offers a genuinely more polished experience with real-time humidity feedback and better-engineered air circulation — just know that you’re getting 2 spools instead of 4.

Whatever you choose, choose something. Wet filament is one of the most common sources of print quality degradation in the Bambu Lab ecosystem, and it has a simple, inexpensive fix. Your PA-CF prints will thank you.

All prices reflect Amazon US market pricing as of early 2026 and are subject to change. We recommend verifying current pricing before purchasing. This article contains affiliate links — we may earn a small commission if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you.

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