TL;DR: My Our Recommendations
#
| If you want: | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| General purpose printing | Darkmoon Satin |
| General purpose runner-up | BIQU Glacier |
| Smooth bottom surfaces | Darkmoon G10 |
| PLA & PETG cool plate | Darkmoon ICE |
| PLA-only cool plate | Juupine Geco * |
| Engineering/fiber-filled materials | Darkmoon CFX |
| Mirror finish | Darkmoon LUX |
About this guide #
My recommendations are based on my personal experience with these build plates; I own every plate I recommend. Additional information and perceptions are crowd-sourced from 3D printing Discord servers, including the Bambu Official Discord. I have clearly marked below when I’ve mentioned a plate I don’t own. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all available build plates.
What’s with all the Darkmoon plates? #
Darkmoon makes great plates, and where I’ve recommended them, I think they’re the right plate for most people. Folks in the Bambu Discord seem to agree.
I do not receive any sort of compensation from Darkmoon for mentioning or getting you to buy their plates.
A Note on the Stock Textured PEI Plate #
The stock “gold” textured PEI plate that comes with your printer is fine, and is likely all most people need.
I personally hate the texture it leaves on prints, and that PETG can over-adhere to it.
The plates on this list are what are considered “upgrade” options.
My plate recommendations take these preferences into account:
- excellent adhesion, without glue or release agents as much as possible
- printing without brims
- a matte smooth or textured bottom surface
Plate Details #
A comparison of the plate surfaces can be found in this YouTube video. Glacier is missing, but is very close to Darkmoon Satin, just a little shinier.
First row: Juupine Geco, Darkmoon Satin, Fysetc Cryonix
Second Row: BBL Texpei, Darkmoon ICE, BQ Cryogrip Frostbite
Third Row: Darkmoon G10 Black, Darkmoon G10 White, Darkmoon LUX
General Purpose Plates #
#1 Recommendation: Darkmoon Satin #
If you can only get one plate, this is the one to get.
The Darkmoon Satin is the GOAT of general-purpose build plates. It works with almost every material. It prints PLA almost like a cool plate, and PLA Matte adheres extremely well. PETG self-releases when cooled. It has a very nice textured surface finish that is less “shiny” than the stock plate.
If you can only get one plate, and don’t need something more specialized, this is the one to get.
BIQU Glacier #
Grab it from Amazon ↗Probably the most common third-party plate. Prints PLA and PETG well, and supports lots of other materials. PETG releases easily when cooled. A runner-up to the Satin. The Satin wins out because it has great QC, and can print materials >= 300C, unlike the Glacier.
If you can’t get a Satin, this is a good alternative.
“Smooth” Plates #
Only one plate made the cut here. Check the Non-Recommendations section below for why.
Darkmoon G10 #
Great adhesion and easy self-release when cooled. Awesome for PETG, works well with other materials. Smoother than most. White G10 is slightly more textured than black, and looks amazing in your timelapses. Not for use with high-temp filaments like nylon.
“Cool” Plates #
“Cool” plates require lower bed temperatures than regular plates. They’re a great choice for open printers, or models that have a high chance of warping off the bed.
Darkmoon ICE #
Works with PLA and PETG only. Really good adhesion (better than the Frostbite in my experience). Do not use with TPU. Has a shiny texture that I don’t love. But if you want a cool plate that can print PETG, this is my only recommendation.
Juupine Geco #
Grab it from Amazon ↗PLA ONLY, but is the only cool plate that actually doesn’t need any heating*. If I were trying to save energy and only printed PLA, I’d get this plate. It has a matte texture.
* Caveats:
- Parts printed at ambient temp have the highest warp amount in my testing.
- If ambient temperature is <= 20C, heat to at least 20C.
- If printing models that take up a lot of the plate (opengrid/multiboard/gridfinity base plates come to mind), you might need to add heat (<=40C) to prevent warping.
Specialty Plates #
Darkmoon CFX #
Excellent for engineering filaments, especially anything fiber-filled. Benefits from pre-heating for most materials. The CFX is not a “carbon fiber effect” plate, it’s a sheet of carbon fiber attached to a spring steel plate.
This is the only plate I print high-temp materials on. It’s also the only plate I’ll use glue with. A little bit of Vision Miner Nano-polymer adhesive ↗ cut with IPA works amazing, and tends to not leave any visible marks on the part.
Printing flexibles on CFX is amazing. TPU and PEBA both come off like a slightly more sticky post-it note.
Note that this is the only plate on the list that has documented support for Polypropylene filament.
Darkmoon LUX #
Unmatched mirror finish. If you are printing light boxes or something else where you want the bottom surface to reflect lights or be extremely smooth, this is the only plate for you.
Works great with PLA and TPU without glue. TPU printed on this resists sliding, great for printed “feet” for objects. I wouldn’t bother with it for other materials personally, but they are supported.
The mirror surface can be easily scratched, so be careful with it.
Non-Recommendations / Caveats #
Bambu Cool Plate Supertack #
The Supertack’s a fine plate, but it’s a gamble now. The initial batches of this plate (including mine for my X1C) performed well. Reports of poor adhesion were abundant about the time the H2 and P2 series printers came out, though.
There have been too many reports of new plates having adhesion issues for me to recommend it. Don’t bother rolling the dice; get something else.
Bambu Lab Smooth PEI Plate #
It’s a fine plate, but needs glue for everything but PLA, so why bother? Darkmoon G10 is a better plate in every respect, imo.
Bambu Engineering Plate (2025) #
I don’t own this plate.
The plate that needs glue for every material. I don’t understand why this plate was brought to market. Use a Darkmoon CFX instead. The CFX wants adhesive for some filaments but at least it can print some without.
BIQU Frostbite #
Grab it from Amazon ↗PLA and PETG only. I really dislike the texture it leaves on prints. Gave mine away. Had very inconsistent adhesion across the bed. Took 3 prints to get the small chip for the YouTube video. Get a Darkmoon ICE instead.
Fysetc Low Temp Plate / Cryonix #
Grab it from Amazon ↗Nice, matte textured surface. Intended for PLA and PETG. Calls for some heat for PLA and PETG.
TODO: Interactive Plate Selector #
I’ll be adding an interactive plate selector soon. Needs a little more coding.
TODO: MOAR PLATES #
There are other plates I’d like to test or get some some sentiment about. If you have a plate you’d like to see added, please let me know!
- Juupine ESP
- Darkmoon PPX
- Tyson T-95
- Tyson T-6436
- KDEAVI Textured
- Phaetus Arkfly Conweb
- Biqu Pyrogrip
Acknowledgments #
Thanks to all the folks in the Bambu and Darkmoon Discords for their help and recommendations!
Changelog #
- 2025-12-10:
- Added caveats for the Frostbite and Glacier.
- Moved Fysetc Low Temp Plate to not recommended.
- Moved Glacier out of “Cool Plates” section to “General Purpose Plates” section.
- Moved Frostbite to not-recommended status.
- Added note about Glacier reported QC issues.
- Expanded info on Darkmoon LUX.
- Added TODO list for more plates to test.
- 2025-11-30: Initial version.