How Zero Waste Are Toolchangers? P2S vs U1 vs Creator 5 Pro

As an Amazon Associate, 3DPrintedDecor earns from qualifying purchases. Prices were checked on Amazon on November 4, 2026 and change often. 3DPrintedDecor has not tested these printers; the waste figures below come from manufacturer data and the published reviews cited at the end, and we label which is which.

“Zero waste” and “zero purge” are now on the box of almost every multicolor 3D printer. None of them actually produces zero waste. The useful question is how much each one wastes on a real print, where that waste goes, and how much you can cut it.

We compared three printers that cost about the same but take very different approaches: the Bambu Lab P2S Combo ($779), a single-nozzle printer that swaps filament and purges on every color change, and two four-toolhead toolchangers, the Snapmaker U1 ($749) and the Flashforge Creator 5 Pro ($799). Here’s what the numbers show.

What “Zero Waste” Really Means: The Three Kinds of Waste

Multicolor waste comes from three places. Marketing claims usually talk about the first one only.

1. Purge (flushing): on a single-nozzle printer, every color change has to push the old color out of the nozzle before the new one prints cleanly. That’s the “poop” that comes out of a Bambu printer’s chute. This is the big one, and it’s what toolchangers eliminate.
2. Prime tower: a small tower printed beside your model. When a toolchanger picks up a nozzle that’s been sitting warm, a little filament has oozed or degraded, so it primes on the tower before printing. Snapmaker’s own FAQ explains that “zero purge” refers to eliminating flushing, not the prime tower. Single-nozzle printers often print one too.
3. Startup purge: most printers purge each nozzle that will be used once at the start of a print. On a toolchanger, that’s one purge per toolhead per print, not per color change.

The Three Printers

The baseline: single nozzle + filament changer

Bambu Lab P2S Combo

$779.00AMS 2 Pro included

An enclosed printer with Bambu’s four-spool AMS 2 Pro, which also dries filament. It’s the most polished of the three to use, with the best camera, RFID filament detection and the MakerWorld library. But it has one nozzle, so every color change means a full purge.

Pros

• Easiest software and setup
• Built-in filament drying
• Expands to more colors with more AMS units

Cons

• Purges on every color change
• Much slower on multicolor prints
• 256 mm build volume

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Toolchanger with auto-loading

Snapmaker U1

$749.0012% off (list $849)Sold by Snapmaker US

Four complete toolheads, each with its own nozzle and filament, swapped in about 5 seconds by Snapmaker’s figure, or about 10 seconds including priming in Tom’s Hardware’s testing. It auto-loads filament, reads RFID tags on Snapmaker spools, and has the largest build volume here at 270 mm per side.

Pros

• No purging between colors
• Auto filament loading
• Largest build volume of the three

Cons

• No heated chamber; open top without the optional cover
• No filament drying
• Four colors maximum

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Toolchanger with a heated chamber

Flashforge Creator 5 Pro

$799.00Enclosed, 65 °C chamber

Also four toolheads, but fully enclosed with an actively heated 65 °C chamber and HEPA plus carbon filtration, so ABS and ASA print easily. The trade-offs are manual filament loading with no RFID, a slow startup routine, and a startup purge that drops inside the machine.

Pros

• No purging between colors
• Heated chamber for ABS, ASA, nylon
• Very low waste after tuning

Cons

• Manual filament loading
• Long print preparation
• Weak camera; no filament drying

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The Numbers: How Much Each One Actually Wastes

We pulled every measured comparison we could find. Note which figures were actually printed and weighed, and which are slicer estimates or manufacturer claims.

Most single-nozzle comparisons used the older P1S. The P2S Combo’s AMS 2 Pro is a newer design, but it still purges on every color change, so the gap will be similar.

Three things the numbers tell us

• “Zero” is really 75–90% less. Across tests, toolchangers cut waste by roughly that much on four-color prints. That’s a huge improvement, but the prime tower is real, and the Notebookcheck Benchy shows that default settings can waste more than double the model’s own weight.
• Default settings are wasteful. The same Creator 5 Pro Benchy went from 36 g to 8 g of waste with prime-tower tuning, with no visible loss in quality, according to Notebookcheck.
• Time savings are as big as filament savings. Three times faster was typical in these tests. On a single-nozzle printer, a multicolor print that takes days can take less than one on a toolchanger.

How Long Each Color Change Really Takes

Every color change multiplies this. A model with 1,500 color changes, like the raccoon above, is where a single-nozzle printer’s purge time turns into days.

Where the Waste Hides

• P2S Combo: purge goes out the back through a chute, plus any prime tower. Easy to see and collect, but it adds up fast.
• Snapmaker U1: mostly the prime tower. Some owners shrink or skip it, but parked nozzles can ooze, and skipping the tower risks small blobs on the print.
• Creator 5 Pro: both reviewers we read noted that its startup purge drops inside the build chamber, under the bed, rather than into a chute or bin. It doesn’t land on your print, but you’ll need to clean it out, and community-made purge bins exist to catch it. Notebookcheck also noted it has no automatic nozzle wiper.

What the Waste Actually Costs You

At typical PLA prices of $15 to $25 per kilogram, here’s what the raccoon test means in money:

Calculations are ours, based on the reviewers’ figures. Savings rise with pricier filaments like TPU or carbon-fiber blends.

What this means for you: if you print a couple of small multicolor models a month, a toolchanger won’t pay for itself in filament. If you print large multicolor figures weekly, or sell prints, the savings in filament and printer time are real. A toolchanger can turn out two to three times as many multicolor prints in the same time.

How to Cut Multicolor Waste on Any of These Printers

On the toolchangers (U1 and Creator 5 Pro)

• Shrink the prime tower. Reducing its size and prime volume in the slicer is the single biggest saving. Notebookcheck’s Benchy went from 36 g to 8 g this way.
• Prime into infill when the model has enough of it. It worked in the Benchy’s hull, but not in the cabin, which had too little infill.
• Keep filament dry. Wet filament oozes more from parked nozzles and prints poorly. Neither toolchanger dries filament (see below).

On the P2S Combo

• Use flush into infill and flush into supports in Bambu Studio, so purged filament becomes part of the print instead of waste.
• Print several copies at once. Color changes happen per layer, not per object, so batching spreads each purge over more parts.
• Lower flushing volumes carefully for similar colors, like light to slightly darker shades. Changes from dark to light colors still need more purge.
• Design for fewer changes. Prints where colors are stacked by height, rather than mixed in every layer, need far fewer swaps.

Don’t Skip Filament Drying

The P2S Combo’s AMS 2 Pro dries filament built in. The U1 and Creator 5 Pro don’t, and both are typically fed from four spools at once. Damp filament strings, oozes from parked nozzles and wastes more on the prime tower. Notebookcheck’s undried TPU test print came out poorly, while dried TPU printed fine.

Best add-on for a four-toolhead printer

Creality Space Pi X4 Filament Dryer

$159.00Amazon’s Choice4 spools

Holds four spools in two heating chambers and heats up to 85 °C, so it covers every spool on a U1 or Creator 5 Pro at once, and you can print directly from it. Anton Månsson used this dryer with his Creator 5 Pro during testing, since Flashforge’s own dryer wasn’t available.

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For more, see our guide on how to store 3D printer filament.

Specs Side by Side

Which One Should You Buy?

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• Anton Månsson: Flashforge Creator 5 Pro review, measured waste
• Notebookcheck: Flashforge Creator 5 Pro tested
• Snapmaker Forum: U1 official FAQ on prime towers and “zero purge”
• Snapmaker: U1 product page and waste comparisons
• Tom’s Hardware: Snapmaker U1 review
• 3DPrint.com: Snapmaker U1 review
• Irish Examiner: Snapmaker U1 review

Published November 4, 2026. Prices checked on Amazon on November 4, 2026. 3DPrintedDecor has not tested these printers; all waste and time figures are from the sources above, and cost calculations are our own.