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Snapmaker U1: the 3D printer that swaps tools instead of purging

Four preheated print heads, each loaded with its own spool: the Snapmaker U1 moves from one colour or material to another by swapping heads, in five seconds according to the brand.

By Laurent — 2026-10-02 · 4 min read

The Snapmaker U1 seen from three-quarters on a white background: white casing, four heads lined up under their tubes, a touchscreen on the front and black, white, yellow and red filament spools on the sides.
Photo: Snapmaker

What it is

The Snapmaker U1 is a fused deposition modelling 3D printer with four independent print heads. Each keeps its own spool: one colour or material per head, and it is the whole head that the machine swaps when the model changes colour. The brand calls this system SnapSwap and presents the U1 as a tool changer for the general public. The machine measures 584 × 499 × 730 mm and weighs 18.2 kg.

The build volume is a cube 270 mm on each side. According to the brand, it leaves room for large models or for several parts at once. The box contains the four heads, four spools of SnapSpeed PLA, a waste collector and a toolbox.

The Snapmaker U1 from three-quarters, left side: two filament spools, black and yellow, fixed on the white flank, the four heads lined up at the top under their tubes and the touchscreen on the front.
Photo: Snapmaker

Why it exists

Conventional multicolour printers use a single nozzle: at every colour change, they purge the previous filament. According to the brand, this waste often exceeds the material of the model itself. With four preheated heads, the U1 no longer has to push one colour through the nozzle until the previous one disappears. The brand claims up to 85% less waste, based on measurements from its laboratory on comparable multicolour prints, and a colour or material change in five seconds.

Snapmaker, founded in 2016 in Shenzhen, was born on Kickstarter, where its modular 2.0 machine had raised nearly 8 million dollars. For the U1, the campaign ended on 30 September 2025 with more than 20 million dollars and more than 20,000 backers, a record for a 3D printer, according to 3DPrint.com.

What matters

Head swapping. Each head is positioned by steel-ball couplings, then held by a mechanical lock, with no extra motor. The brand says it has put the system through more than a million consecutive swaps without a mechanical failure. At Tom’s Hardware, a colour change took ten to twelve seconds, nozzle priming included; only a small prime tower is left instead of a pile of waste.

Head alignment. The machine sets the X, Y and Z offsets between the four heads on its own; according to the brand, their relative positions stay within 0.04 mm. An accelerometer compensates for vibrations, and the bed is mapped before every print. Tom’s Hardware judges this alignment fully automatic.

Speed. The CoreXY motion moves the active head at up to 500 mm/s, with an acceleration of 20,000 mm/s². The nozzle reaches 300 °C and the bed 100 °C.

Materials. Four heads make it possible to combine a rigid material with a flexible one, or a soluble PVA support. The optional lid, which adds an enclosure with three-stage air filtration according to the brand, opens up ABS, ASA, PA and PC. Tom’s Hardware nevertheless printed ASA without the lid.

Filament. The U1 takes up to four spools of 1 kg at most. It loads them automatically, switches to an identical spool when one runs out (backup mode) and reads the colour and type of Snapmaker spools by RFID chip.

The Snapmaker U1 seen from the front: the white front with its touchscreen, the print bed visible in the open bay, four spools, black, white, yellow and red, on each side, four heads at the top.
Photo: Snapmaker

Day to day

The 3.5-inch touchscreen handles the essentials on the machine. The Snapmaker app, on Android and iOS, lets you follow a print remotely; the built-in camera is used for monitoring and time-lapse videos, and its AI detection spots, among other things, tangled filament and obstacles on the bed. The machine also signals the end of a filament, a head-swap error or a power cut.

On the software side, the brand recommends Snapmaker Orca, built on OrcaSlicer and available for Windows, macOS and Linux; OrcaSlicer works too. The firmware is based on Klipper.

Make: praises the quick set-up and the hands-off calibration, but finds the injection-moulded plastic casing a little thin and flexible: seals sometimes pop out of their housing and have to be put back by hand.

The side of the Snapmaker U1 seen from the side: two filament spools numbered 3 and 4, one above the other on a white perforated background, with the tubes rising towards the heads.
Photo: Snapmaker

Technical specifications

Feature Value
Technology Fused deposition modelling (FDM), four print heads
Build volume 270 × 270 × 270 mm
Maximum head speed 500 mm/s
Maximum acceleration 20,000 mm/s²
Nozzle Stainless steel, 0.4 mm; 300 °C maximum
Bed Flexible steel sheet with a PEI surface; 100 °C maximum
Filament 1.75 mm diameter; filaments from other brands accepted
Standard materials PLA, PETG, TPU, PVA, PCTG
With the optional lid PLA, PETG, TPU, PVA, PET, ABS, ASA, PA, PC
With lid and hardened steel nozzle The above, plus carbon-fibre or glass-fibre reinforced polymers
Screen Touch, 3.5 inches
Connectivity 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, USB stick
Camera Built in, 2 megapixels
Software Snapmaker Orca, OrcaSlicer; Android and iOS app
Firmware Klipper
Weight 18.2 kg

What the brand says

Snapmaker states that the U1 cuts waste by up to 85% compared with shared-nozzle printers, that its four heads stay aligned to 0.04 mm and that its swap system has passed a million cycles without failure. The brand says it has shipped more than 100,000 units worldwide. It describes its ecosystem as open: software derived from an open-source project and filaments from other makers accepted.

Tom’s Hardware gave the machine its Editor’s Choice, seeing in it an affordable tool changer that is simple to use.

For readers in Switzerland

According to the brand, Switzerland is among the countries served by its global shop, with orders shipped from its German warehouse. The two-year warranty the brand states for the machine also applies, according to it, to buyers in Switzerland.

Why it caught our eye

We spotted it for its simple idea: rather than purging filament at every colour change, the printer swaps the whole head. We also like this four-head machine supplied with its four spools, its 270 mm cubic build volume and its open tools for software.

Exactly the kind of brand we’d love to come across on O!deal one day.

The Snapmaker U1 3D printer from three-quarters on a white background: white casing, four heads lined up at the top, two black and yellow filament spools fixed on the flank.
The brand behind this productSnapmaker: the Shenzhen brand born on Kickstarter, now with four headsBorn in Shenzhen in 2016 and launched on Kickstarter, Snapmaker makes desktop 3D printers. Its U1, with four interchangeable heads, raised more than 20 million dollars.Read the Snapmaker profile →

Snapmaker

SourcesSnapmaker (new tab) · Tom's Hardware (new tab) · Make: (new tab) · 3DPrint.com (new tab)

Frequently asked questions

How many colours or materials does the Snapmaker U1 print in a single piece?
Up to four: the printer carries four independent heads, each with its own spool, and moves from one to another by swapping heads. According to the brand, a swap takes five seconds.
Which materials can it print?
As standard, PLA, PETG, TPU, PVA and PCTG. With the optional lid, the brand adds ABS, ASA, PA and PC, among others; with hardened steel nozzles as well, carbon-fibre or glass-fibre reinforced filaments.
Do you have to use the brand's spools?
No. According to the brand, 1.75 mm filaments from other makers work too; only automatic recognition by RFID chip is reserved for Snapmaker spools.
How do you start a print?
From the machine's touchscreen, from the Snapmaker app on Android or iOS, or from the slicing in Snapmaker Orca or OrcaSlicer. The file arrives over 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi or on a USB stick.

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