Hey guys,
I’d like to ask about the clogging frequency to check if I am not doing something wrong. I think my consumption of nozzles and hot-end kits is relatively high. I have F350 with the single-nozzled toohead.
How often do you get clogged?
In my case, I think it is within each 40-100 print hours. Do you clean the nozzle or do you trash it after clog?
Generally, I am trying to trash it, but if I am in a hurry or lack nozzles, I set the temperature to a higher value, e.g., 250C for PLA, and then push the filament through. Even if this could work for a few hours, I’ll get clogged again very soon. How often do you change hot end kit?
Typically, each two nozzles (~80-120 print hours). I think once I get clogged, the hot-end kit suffers too. I can typically see some plastic melted in space for the nozzle screw (after clogging). After a while, I could see that PLA for 200C is not melted properly at 200C, and I need to increase the temp - that’s a typical situation when I change it. Do you have some material recommendations?
If I change filaments frequently, I get clogged sooner - especially if materials are not the same - i.e. using ABS and PLA with 0.4 nozzle leads to the clog very fast. But even if I have just PLA filaments and I change them frequently (for color reasons), it speeds up the clogging. On the other hand, 0.8 nozzles proved quite durability against clogging. Do you somehow treat your nozzles/hot-end kits/toolheads?
I am just trying not to overheat and to not store it with the material in it. Nothing special, I guess. Do you have better experience with the new dual toolhead?
I don’t have it. But I would consider buying it if it is more durable, like 500-1000 print hours without servicing nozzles…
So, what are your numbers? do you find mine okay? any recommendations?
I’ve thousands of hours across several printers, and not once trashed a nozzle. Especially compared to other printers I have, the snapmaker has a really easy to clear hotend. I’ve never changed the hotend out either, I still have the spare that came with all my machines (one A350, two A350T, and one A250T)
You should get in the habit of doing a cold pull when you swap filaments, especially between types. When it’s fully cold, unclip the tension arm on the front via the sliding button (since you said you have the normal single extruder) and begin heating up the nozzle. at 80-100C, begin pulling straight up. It should be hot enough to release the filament from inside the nozzle and you’ll get a perfect inside copy of the nozzle. Here’s a picture of one I did on an A250 when testing a repaired printhead (the heatsink fan died);
Sidenote; silver is from a Sovol SV06, the black is from the Snapmaker, you can see the different taper of the nozzles.
Doing this removes all the filament from the nozzle, along with any potential burned bits. However; it’s not a perfect method. The filament might break off if it’s not hot enough to release, or if it’s too hot and begins melting a little.
Then it comes down to properly swapping filaments, especially higher to lower. If you’ve used a higher temp filament, such as PETG, ABS, etc. and want to swap back to PLA. Keep the tension door open and preheat to the HIGHER temp, such as 230/240 for PETG. Manually push the PLA through at this higher temp to purge out the higher temp material. Once it seems it’s all out, turn the temp down to 0 and continue to push PLA through so it doesn’t sit and burn, and ensure to purge the rest of the higher temp out until about 180-190C. You should be good to go. However, you could also let it fully cool down and do a cold pull just to make sure.
EDIT: To show how much print time I really do, while not a snapmaker, my MK3S+ statistics. 5 minutes under 8,954 hours.
After changing to an all-metal heatbreak and a nickle-plated nozzle, haven’t had any clogs or related issues in over 500hrs of use, all of that at temps in excess of 230C. With this setup, my cold pulls come out just as clean as those shown above, except I can do them at 0C because it releases so easy.
Lots of detail on clogging issues in the forum post linked here. TLDR:
Temps above 240C cause the hotend liner to deteriorate faster (which leads to clogs).
Retraction >3mm causes hot filament to pull into the liner (causing clogs when it cools).
Plus more…
