Best Multicolor 3D Printers 2026 (Measured Purge Waste)

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The best multicolor 3D printer is the one that throws away the least filament for the colors you actually print. Nick has measured that waste on seven machines he has tested. The Bambu Lab H2C purges nothing. The Snapmaker U1 purges nothing between its four colors. Of the budget machines, the Anycubic Kobra X wasted 76 g on a dragon print where the Bambu Lab A1 wasted 230 g.

Every number below comes from a video where Nick ran the print himself, and each one links to the moment. The prices are today’s store prices, and Bambu Lab’s Black Friday prices start on October 27. If you’re comparing other machines too, the side by side compare tool covers the whole directory, and our best 3D printers guide covers single color picks.

The best multicolor 3D printers in 2026, by measured waste

Seven printers, all on Nick’s bench, each picked for a different job. Every one has a waste figure from his own prints, except the U1, which changes color without purging at all.

The Bambu Lab H2C: no purge at all

The H2C doesn’t push old filament through the nozzle. It parks the whole hotend and picks up another one, from a rack of six Vortek hotends. Each one heats in about 8 seconds by induction. Bambu Studio maps your colors to the hotends for you.

Nick ran three prints on it and set each one against his H2S. The first was a Borderlands mask. It took 2 days 5 hours on the H2C, where the slicer estimated 4 days 1 hour on an H2S setup, and it saved 853 g of filament poop.

The second was a hand painted witch with over 1,500 color changes. There was zero poop, and it saved 504 g against his H2S. A small Grinch Dog print saved another 227 g. That’s 1,584 g across three prints, roughly one and a half rolls, which he puts at about 22 dollars at 15 dollars a roll.

The trade is space. The changer takes about 15 mm of width and 10 mm of height, so the build volume drops from the H2S’s 340 x 320 x 340 mm to 320 x 320 x 325 mm. Nick also says the hotend swaps are the loudest part, a brief hum and a clunk, but quiet enough for a phone call.

The Snapmaker U1: four tool heads, no purge between colors

The U1 takes a different route to the same goal. It has four tool heads, each with its own filament already loaded. When the color changes, it swaps heads in about 5 seconds, with no unloading or reloading. Nick says the color changes are faster than on his H2C.

The limit is the count. Four colors covered his falcon and toucan prints. His Mario figures need at least seven, and today he can only print those on the H2C. A community project called Full Spectrum, in a beta of Snapmaker Orca, blends the four filaments layer by layer into over 100 in between colors.

Two more things from his time with it. The tool head changes are loud enough to hear from the next room, about the same as his H2C, and he quieted it with a BIQU top. And when a long print stopped on a false power off error, Snapmaker’s open firmware and its own wiki page let him fix it in about 5 minutes.

Nick hasn’t weighed the U1’s waste yet. The box does include a purge chute and a poop bucket, which he fits in his setup video, so treat “no purge between colors” as the claim, not a gram figure.

What the waste actually costs

Waste is a running cost, so it grows with how much you print. Nick’s example from the dragon test: print ten of those a month. At about 15 dollars a roll, roughly 1.5 cents a gram, the Kobra X wastes about 11.40 dollars a month and the A1 about 34.50.

Over a year that’s about 136 dollars against 414, a gap of roughly 278 dollars. That’s more than the price difference between the two printers.

The H2C runs the same sum at a bigger scale. Nick works out that ten of his mask prints would save over 130 dollars in filament, before you count the print time. If you only print in color now and then, none of this matters much. If color is most of what you print, it should decide the purchase.

Should your first printer be a zero waste machine?

Nick’s answer is no. The H2C and the U1 are the machines that waste the least, and they’re also the ones he’d steer a first time buyer away from. Start with something like the A1, the i7 or the Kobra X, and read our best 3D printer for beginners guide for the full comparison.

Which multicolor printer should you buy?

You print color most days and the budget allows it: the H2C. It’s the only machine here that printed over 1,500 color changes with zero poop, and it handles seven colors.

Four colors is enough and you want fast changes: the U1 at 749 dollars. Nick uses his for multicolor PLA and PETG decor and gifts.

You want low waste for under 300 dollars: the Kobra X. It had the lowest measured waste of the three budget machines.

Damp air or a fast setup matters more: the SparkX i7 with its enclosed CFS.

You want the safe choice with the biggest community: the A1 Combo, at 359 dollars from October 27.

You print models with heavy supports: the X2D over the P2S. The second nozzle is what took the jaw test from 59.69 g of purge to none.