Anycubic S1C 3D Printer: Review, Pros & Cons

Summary

A fully enclosed CoreXY 3D printer with a 250 mm cube build volume, a 320 °C hotend and a 4-color ACE Pro filament system that dries filament while printing. Check the slicer before you commit to multicolor: it does not show or control purge amount, so multicolor prints can waste as much filament as they use.

Strengths

Fully enclosed CoreXY frame with a 250 mm cube build volume and speeds up to 600 mm/s.
320 °C hotend handles PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA and TPU, with a 120 °C PEI bed.
ACE Pro dries filament up to 55 °C while printing, useful for engineering materials.
Reviewers found it mechanically dependable over hundreds of hours with few print failures.
Quick setup, about 15 minutes, with LeviQ 3.0 auto-leveling.

Weaknesses

Anycubic Slicer does not display or finely control purge amount, so multicolor prints can waste as much filament as they use.
Each color change takes about 2 minutes, slowing large multicolor prints.
ACE Pro feeds all four slots with one motor and can misfeed; loading slots 3 and 4 is awkward.
Small, cardboard and oversized spools (Prusament, Jessie) do not fit the ACE Pro.
AI spaghetti detection produces false positives.
Owner reports include units that printed once then failed to print again, plus nozzle clogging.

Verified specifications

Build volume	250 × 250 × 250 mm.
Print speed	recommended 300 mm/s; maximum 600 mm/s; recommended acceleration 10,000 mm/s2; maximum 20,000 mm/s2.
Construction	CoreXY, fully enclosed.
Nozzle	maximum 320 °C; standard 0.4 mm; supports 0.25, 0.6 and 0.8 mm.
Hotbed	maximum 120 °C; PEI spring-steel build plate.
Filaments	PLA, PETG, TPU (95A, not compatible with ACE Pro), ABS, ASA.
Layer thickness	0.05–0.28 mm.
Leveling	LeviQ 3.0 auto-leveling with Z-offset.
Extruder	direct drive, short-distance.
Filament diameter	1.75 mm.
Connectivity	USB, LAN, Wi-Fi, app.
Interface	4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen.
Noise	up to 46 dB in standard mode, 44 dB in quiet mode.
Camera	standard HD, supports 480P.
Weight	18 kg printer plus 4.6 kg ACE Pro (25.9 kg packaged).
Dimensions	400 × 410 × 490 mm printer; ACE Pro 365.94 × 282.84 × 234.5 mm (package 490 × 484 × 593 mm).
Multicolor	4 native, expandable to 8 with a second ACE Pro and 8-color hub.
Active drying	up to 55 °C while printing.
Features	power-loss resume, filament runout detection, AI spaghetti detection, object-skip, area leveling.
Warranty	1 year for 3D printers.

Full research notes and sources

Hardware and print quality

Tom’s Hardware (Denise Bertacchi) ran hundreds of hours on the machine with very few print failures and good first layers: a Benchy in 24 min 15 s, a multicolor dragon head in 56 h plus a claw in 8.5 h, and successful ABS, PC and TPU prints. 3DWithUs (Will Zoobkoff) scored it 4.6 and praised a roughly 15-minute setup and clean results across a speaker kit, a 73 h Kuchisake mask, a 29 h Tengu mask and a 26 h wall mask. Both flagged false AI spaghetti detections. Owner comments report units that printed one Benchy then failed to print again (nozzle not reaching the bed), nozzle clogging and “paperweight” outcomes, plus no persistent manual Z-offset control. The enclosure has no door sensor and no active chamber heating.

Multicolor and the slicer

The hardware is ready for multicolor; the software is not. The slicer, which is Orca-based, neither displays nor finely controls purge amount, so a 312 g dragon print wasted 730 g across supports, the purge tower and purge. Each color change takes about 2 minutes. The ACE Pro uses one motor for all four slots, can misfeed, and accepts neither small nor oversized spools such as Prusament and Jessie. The hotend is a quick-release unit, but the brass nozzle appears glued into the heater block, so the whole hotend is replaced as a unit. The enclosure retains heat but has no active heating.

Parts, consumables and running costs

Expect to feed it filament (PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA, TPU) and, for 8-color work, a second ACE Pro with the 8-color hub. Optional 0.25, 0.6 and 0.8 mm nozzles are sold separately, and the hotend is replaced as a whole unit. The activated-carbon filter and nozzle cleaning parts are consumables. Manufacturer documentation covers hotend cleaning, ACE Pro maintenance and part replacement for the hotend, extruder, cutter, motherboard, hotbed, camera, motion module and power supply. Manuals exist in seven languages (English at v1.3), and firmware updates ship from Anycubic. Manufacturer warranty is 1 year for 3D printers; store terms include a 14-day no-reason return and a 30-day after-sales guarantee.

Manufacturer lists the 4-color combo at $399 on sale versus $749 regular, and the 8-color bundle at $598. Tom’s Hardware listed it at $699 on sale and $829 at retail. Comparators from the same sources: Bambu Lab P1S Combo at $1049, Creality K2 Plus Combo at $1649, Bambu Lab A1 Mini Combo at $549.

Is it worth it?

At $399 to $549 it is a strong value for a fully enclosed CoreXY with multicolor and a built-in dryer; the software limits are acceptable. At $550 to $700 it is good value; compare it with the Bambu Lab A1 Mini Combo at $549 and the P1S Combo at $1049. Above $750 to $829 it is weaker, because purge control and color-change speed lag behind Bambu at similar prices. The differentiator is hardware (enclosed CoreXY, dryer, speed), not software.

Which model this is

This page covers the Anycubic Kobra S1 Combo (S1C): a fully enclosed CoreXY printer with the ACE Pro 4-color system, sold in 4-color and 8-color (two ACE Pro) configurations. It is not the single-color Anycubic Kobra S1 (no ACE Pro) and not the larger Anycubic Kobra S1 Max Combo. The 16-color claims belong to the newer ACE 2 Pro variant, not this model. The Amazon listing for this model is ASIN B0DBDTW2RK.