I had a print failure that resulted in filament getting all up into the module and in the process of cleaning it out I tore the thermal protective sleeve (that rubbery sock that wraps the hotend). I see that I can find new nozzles on Amazon, but not a complete Snapmaker hotend. i do have the 1 included extra hotend with a new sleeve but I wanted to know if anyone knew if that sleeve is actually necessary or can I put this hotend back in the module and go forward?
The silicone sock helps to keep your hotend clean and should also help to keep the temperature stable and help to radiate too much heat towards your print.
So in reality, it’s probably possible to print without one, but the performance of your printhead might deteriorate. More heat will get lost and possibly heat up the module more as well.
If you’re feeling ambitious you could try creating a new one yourself:
Snapmaker does sell the extruder hot-end kit as a whole for 7.99EUR on their website and they seem to consider this as a “single” part. I can’t really blame them at that price point. (You won’t make one yourself for that price unless you have all the required materials already)
I would suggest you start using your spare one, in case something goes wrong on that one, you might be able to reuse the silicone sock on that one.
I’d be mostly worried about losing the protection (while it may be minimal) that it provides for the plastic pieces that are around it. (as well as the electronics inside).
You should be able to use any type of pure 100% silicone sealant you’d find at a hardware store to repair it long enough to get by.
-S
Hotends are like 8 bucks by the way.
I’m going back to snapmaker.com and try and find it, for $8 I’ll get a couple
Save yourself the shipping time from Snapmaker 
and it’s unavailable…nvrm!
I guess someone else decided 8$ was a steal.
Buy it from Snapmaker - because theres a 2nd revised version. buying from a third party would probably be using old inventory. plus they come in pretty fast anyhow.
Extruder Hot End Kit for Snapmaker 2.0
I try to have like 3 or 4 at least, after awhile it just easier to throw it out and replace it, but i will swap nozzles out too.
Of course buying them from Snapmaker doubles the cost of them.
Shipping 2 heads adds nearly $14USD.