Anycubic Kobra S1 Combo Multicolor 3D Printer, Core XY Stable Structure

Update 2/2026 After multiple back and forth buying parts and waiting was contacted and offered a warranty exchange. Been using for the last month and the unit came with newer versions of the hot end, extruder and has been printing flawless so far. I have a noisy cooling fan that I will look into but at least it's not affecting the prints. The build plate has a variance of 1.169 mm which was much better then the old one had. We shall see how it continues to perform and will update again. Stay away and buy a Bambu. Bought mine and it works great for the first 500 hours. Then I suspect trying to print asa and abs it warped the bed as it's too thin to not have issues. The auto leveling has scraped the bed recently and it looks like this 2bd picture more often then not, taken apart. Adhesion on the stock plate falls off pretty quickly. Bought another of theirs and it was ok until it got gouged on the auto level and extrude the purge line. Support was great initially sent out a piece that was squeekingin in the ace pro, but with all the leveling issues, now extruder issues I am having, it's obvious if you bought this spring summer of last year you get the beta version. they upgraded a bunch of the pieces since then but still not great In truth if you do buy this you will need to upgrade to the funasor build plate and carriage plate to have less issues, newer hot ends without a ptfe tube inside, because that made sense rather then all metal throat. I just bought a X1 carbon that I now use when I need parts that just print correctly without issue, and this will be my back up to print stuff that is functional but not pretty. The heated ams is nice but not worth the price. The nozzle wiper also is pretty bad you will get purge material on the build plate frequently. The webcam is potatoe quality, barely passable these days. And if you go on the Facebook group users will blame you for the issues despite this being a mediocre product with known issues. I had a friend buy one off my initial recommendation. He dumped his as it has had too many issues. I have had enders before this so I know how to pull them apart and tinker. Bought it so I wouldn't have to do that. Want brainless and easy, buy Bambu.

This is my first ever 3D printer. I had wanted a resin printer, but with an old house the ventilation would have been an issue. Got this one during Prime Days. It took a few minutes to set up, but within a short time I was printing test pieces and absolutely thrilled with the quality. Had an issue where one of the extruder gears slipped and needed a replacement, but the printer has been a workhorse ever since. Messing with layer heights, quality, infill and supports has weirdly been the most enjoyable part. I can screw up calculations and not worry since I can easily fix and reprint. No fuss, no muss. The ACE has been working fine for me. I know there are reports of it having issues, but so far I haven't had any problems with it at all. The Anycubic slicer is pretty darn good, but being based on others I would expect it to be. Overall, this is the perfect entry printer. I do plan on getting another one, possibly the Carbon or something with a bigger print bead, but for now this is all I need. Update: The printer stopped working. Just outright will not print anything. I was able to do a simple test print, but the quality was absolute rubbish. Now i'm getting retraction errors and have no clue what went wrong. From what I've read, it's most likely the Ace unit, which until just today was fine. I think i'm done with this brand.

Wow! I couldn't be happier with this printer and ACE Pro unit combo. It simply works, and works so well. Everything about it makes 3D printing easy. Its print quality is amazing, as well as its speed and consistency. Over the past two weeks I have printed approximately 100 items, big and small alike. None have been a problem. I've printed with PLA and ABS without issue. Bed adhesion is flawless with no need to continously tweak settings. The unit itself was easy to assemble and fit perfectly (with the ACE one the side) in the space that I had available (24" x 48"). On one instance I had an issue with the ACE getting filament miss routed which required some easy disassembly to get it un-stuck. That was my issue for not feeding it straight down into the hole. The accompanying Anycubic Slicer Next software (Orca variant) and phone app are also fantastic. Very simple to use and yet so functional and powerful. Loving the notification when a print is complete and the ability to check in on the print at anytime from anywhere. This was a major step up from my Ender 3 v1 and a great buy for only $429. Highly recommend!

The printer looks and feels as a very high end product (the way Samsung and Apple devices look and feel). The packaging was very good with easy instructions and color arrows on the platform to help ID all screws to be removed and all necessary Alan ranches were included (good quality tools). No other assembly is required, once the packaging is removed the printer is ready to be used. The printer can be ordered with optional 4 filament spools caddy to automatically change colors during printing. The printer is wifi capable and works with the latest wifi technology. At that point the user needs to install the mobile app and control the printer from the app. Very easy and straight forward process using QR codes to add the printer to your Anycubic account. Initially the controls were not as responsive, but once I installed the lates firmware (don't skip this, well worth it!) controlling the printer was a breeze. The Anycubic app gives you access to thousands of ready objects to be printed. The graphics are fully searchable with key words. Selections can be saved for easy access later on. Once you select the graphic on the mobile app, you click "Print" directly from there, select the colors you want, and the printer starts working. If you order the optional 4 filament spools caddy, the printer will automatically change colors during printing. Their customer service is excellent. The first printer had an immediate malfunction in the filament cutter mechanism. The immediately refunded the printer and I ordered a new one. The second printer didn't have any issues.

I really wanted to like this printer, but it has been a huge disappointment. Since I bought it, I have had constant problems: filament jams, clogs, random errors, and repeated situations where I had to open the print head just to get it working again. It has felt more like repairing a machine than actually using one. It has also been very unreliable on long prints. I had a print that was supposed to take about 3 days, and it shifted around 60% through the job, ruining the entire thing and wasting a lot of time and material. The multi-color system has been even worse. It wastes a huge amount of filament, and my latest issue has made it almost unusable for what I need. The printer completes the first layer correctly, even with multiple color changes, but when it starts moving to the second layer, it just freezes. There is no proper error message. The machine stays on, the fans keep running, and it looks like it is still printing, but it does nothing. I have not been able to solve this. What makes it even more frustrating is that I paid a lot to bring this printer to Colombia, so this was not a cheap purchase. For the price, I expected something far more reliable. Instead, it has been a constant source of wasted time, wasted filament, and frustration. Based on my experience, I would not recommend this printer at all.

To begin with, the product itself is great. The machine is much faster with better quality than ones I've used in the past. It's got a few different test models, not just benchy that you can test, one with multiple colors to test the included Ace Pro. I will warn, the Ace Pro requires the large spools to work properly. You can use smaller spools, but when you retract the filament, the spool rollers can't roll it up as the rollers are on the back, not the bottom of the unit. If using the small spools, you'll need to babysit the unit if you want a problem free run as the filaments tangle. The machine will pause when this happens and let you resume once everything is untangled. There are adapters online you can print out however. Aside from that, switching colors are hassle free and the model looks clean. The reason I docked a star is because it took almost a month to get my unit. The day it was due to be delivered, they would change the delivery date. This happened several times until we finally contacted Anycubic themselves. They had it shipped out the next day. The wait caused a lot of issues and it was a merry-go-round of back and forths until talking with corporate. It seems to have been an Amazon problem but I'm not sure who dropped the ball. I'm hoping it was a one time thing, but it interfered with my business so I can't in good faith give them 5 stars. If it wasn't for that issue, I would have given it a 5star rating because when used with proper spools, it works amazingly. Setup isn't awful, although be sure to read the manual for unboxing as well as set-up to save time and frustration. Things are bolted in you wouldn't think would be(at least if you're new to these newer models) and there is some setup. I have not used the Anycubic slicer yet, so I can't comment on ease of use of the software.

I am updating my previous 2 star review to 5 stars. The company reached out to me after the first review and “made things right”. They have now released a newer version of their slicer which does support the Kobra S1 with color change. This makes all the difference. The printer works nicely, and now lets me slice and print my own multicolor models. ——inital review —- I wish I had known before purchasing that there is no supported slicer for this printer with four color add-on. The latest version of the anycubic slicer does support the mono-filament version of the Kobra S1, but does not have support for the ACE PRO add on. The work around seems to be some arcane combination of using an older version of slicer, a different model printer, and modifying the machine parameters to match the Kobra S1. This is unacceptable - I think the company should get it's act together before it starts selling the product. I did print one thing on this printer, a multicolor object that comes preloaded as a test file. It's a sixteen hour print. It appeared to be printing without issues, but somewhere around hour 12 on the print a piece of the printer poop apparently bounced out of the discharge chute and way lying on the print bed. At some point the print head pushed against it and caused the Y Axis to lose position. The remainder of the print was skewed in the y axis making the part unuseable. I have to say that I regret purchasing this printer. I will attempt to create a modified Kobra 3 multi color instance modified to become the S1 combo, to see if this will work before I send the printer back. My recommendation is that you skip this model and order something else.

What a disappointment this machine has been. I've spent more time playing repair technician than I have actually printing with this thing. I have nearly 8 years of 3d printing experience, have machines from multiple vendors, and have both Resin and Filament printers, so let's get that out of the way first. The first issue was a clogged nozzle right out of the box. And I know it wasn't me who clogged it because I was running white filament in the machine and when I finally got the nozzle unclogged, I got black filament blobs out of the nozzle. Tell me you QCed it badly without telling me you QCed the printer badly. This machine was sealed up tight in the factory packaging, it wasn't an open box and showed NO signs of having been opened previously, yet somehow there was black filament in the hot end before I even ran it the first time. Even after clearing it, the clogging didn't stop. Couldn't order a nozzle from Anycubic because they were out of stock and stated lead times were MONTHS out. So, I took a wild chance on a recommended after market nozzle and VOILA! Problem solved. Then there was the bed adhesion issues. The build plate that comes with the machine is akin to tarpaper wrapped around a thin steel sheet. It's aweful. I cleaned and washed this thing multiple times, left the door open, left the top off, and still couldn't get good adhesion consistently. PLA was warping up on the corners, or sliding free and the nozzle was grabbing it and dragging it around the machine. Replaced the print bed, again with an aftermarket replacement, and again, VOILA fixed. Fit and finish on this thing is confusing at best. I had to tighten screws on the extruder housing that were loose from the factory, the front door and top are flimsy acrylic (and no, that's not a reasonable cost savings since Elegoo managed to get glass on theirs for $300 retail price). The ACE Pro is probably the worst designed contraption I've ever seen. I can't even begin to go into the amount of issues I've had with this thing in the space of an interview, but here are a few that have caused me to have to COMPLETELY disassemble the unit and replace parts Anycubic had to send to me: - Filament jammed in the inlet, wrapped itself around the bottom of the housing and fetched the entire thing up. - Filament got jammed in the buffer multiple times and bunched up so badly that it exploded one of the mechanisms from the pressure - The filament feed sensor failed on 2 different slots and had to be replaced - The filament buffer circuit board had to be replaced due to failure - The buffer has had to be replaced twice on one ACE unit and once on a second one At one point, anycubic replaced a spool of filament that kept jamming in the unit because it was a cardboard spool, so they replaced it with a plastic spool version. They advised me NOT to run cardboard spools (even though the majority of their filament ships on cardboard spools) They advised me not to use matte filament, filament on cardboard spools, silky filament, or anything other than their PLA on plastic spools. I've had this thing completely apart to replace parts at least 6 times at this point. I have finally been able to order factory nozzles from Anycubic and noticed that they have changed the design. The previous design had a brass throat through the heat sync that contained a teflon tube inside the throat. The new version is all metal with NO teflon tube inside. I suspect that this is what was causing a good majority of the clogs and jams, especially if the PTFE tube at the top of the extruder housing was not seated PERFECTLY against the throat of the nozzle. I have also learned that since I bought mine, just a few months ago, they have replaced gears and parts in the extruder housing with newer metal versions. So if you have an issue (or I should say when you have an issue) that causes them to replace it, you will get the new version. One quick tip for WHEN the machine jams filament in the buffer of the ACE Pro. When you pull the housing off the main unit, flip it over and look at the feed tubes coming from the filament loading mechanism and run to the inlet of the buffer. They will be "pinched" in little molded plastic holddowns inside the machine. I am convinced that this is pinching the PTFE tubes to the point that filament that is already traveling through multiple potential points of failure is meeting too much friction at this pinch point. Lift the tubes up so they are not pinched inside those hold downs. If you are worried about the tubes moving or shifting, use some electrical tape to hold them down lightly without pinching the tubes and restricting the filament path. I will say that their support people have been great, and usually get parts out to me quickly, but the fact that it even has to happen with a machine that is only a few months old is nuts. All in all, I would not buy this machine again, and in fact, they only got 2 stars because of how responsive their customer support has been.