A superior silicone sock for the H2D

[NeverDie]

I purchased some knock-off silicone socks on amazon for my H2D, and early indications are that they are superior to the official Bambulab ones.

Two of the official bambulab socks are on the left, and the knock-off is on the right:

This photo shows the most common point of failure (at least in my experience)–open the photo and zoom in to see the difference more clearly:

just below the opening for the nozzle tip, the silicone tears between the nozzle opening and the open slot beneath it. Both of the official bambulab’s socks show this tear, the one in the middle being the more obvious. However, the knock-off doesn’t have this slot, and so it’s much more robust. It doesn’t seem to tear at all.

Does that open slot serve any purpose? Because if not, I would deem the knock-off to be the superior sock. At least so far, I haven’t had a knock-off fail on me, whereas the official Bambulab socks fail quite regularly and often after just a few prints. When those failures occur, I have to replace them, or else melted filament finds its way up through the break and starts coating underneath the sock around the nozzle and invading further up the hotend, potentially leading (I suspect) to a blob of death scenario if left unchecked for long enough.

For what it’s worth, this tearing of the official bambulab sock happens so reguarly that I’ve taken to inspecting the condition of the sock after every print, and replacing when torn, which is extra hassle I don’t need.

Thoughts? The knock-offs are considerably cheaper, which is a bonus, but regardless of price, is there any reason not to prefer the knock-off? Does the slot in the Bambulab sock serve any useful purpose that would justify having it?

[Itsjef]

Interesting observation.

Bambu sells this style specifically for the P2S Silicone Sock for Hotend - P2S | Bambu Lab US Store

I do wonder the same though.

*Edit - May be the nozzle temp difference, I wonder if the ones that come standard are able to withstand the 350 temp opposed to the 300 of the P2S.

[MaxThreeD]

There are other knockoffs that copy the H2-style design. They look very similar from the front but w/out the three printed dashes at the bottom. I was confused also (until I found the socks on BL site and just got those). Some reviewers of some of those still swear they’re better, somehow, but

But no, I don’t know what that slit does specifically… definitely makes the sock more fragile, so it’s probably either a “necessary evil” or “planned obsolescence” I’m going with the former, for now. So far only replaced one sock after ~200 hours (tore in the same place as yours)., but only one of those nozzles on my H2C… the induction nozzle socks are way simpler and more robust.

-Max

[R3d-Five]

I’m curious now. I have some ordered from Ali and never took them out of the bag. They’re down in the spare parts box. Eventually I’ll get up enough energy to dig them out and check.

[NeverDie]

@R3d-Five

I’m curious now. I have some ordered from Ali and never took them out of the bag.

Looking at this image (from an aliexpress store linked by @maxim3D on a different thread as https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqFlbu9) :

it looks as though they have the slot, so in theory they’d be more likely to tear. Nonetheless, in a post on a different thread, @maxim3D reports they’re a lot more durable anyway than the official Bambulab socks. He didn’t indicate if he noted any particular failure pattern when they do fail, so maybe (?) they fail in a different place. In any case, he reports getting a lot more print hours on his aliexpress knock-off socks before failure than I am with the official Bambulab socks.

Source:

Nozzle camera lens is dirty ... too frequently?

Here you go: https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqFlbu9 In the printers “print options” menu you can turn off a lot of the AI monitoring or turn down the sensitivity.

It’s not easy finding pictures on the area of interest, as most posted photos just show the front and not the bottom.

[R3d-Five]

I’m going to look after my 3rd cup of coffee.
I’ve only replaced 2 since early December. I can’t remember the hours but it’s been printing non-stop.

I remember one was tore up at that point. I think the other was user error when taking it off. I have issues where I can’t get my hands and fingers to do some things at most times. I could have pulled it off wrong.

I have an E3D nozzle so nothing really sticks or gets balled up on it. However I did have a particularly irritating spool of 3rd party ABS that stuck to the sock and then just hung around. A brass brush and new sock (the first) it was all good.

I’ll take a look today. See what I got. I purchased on price because, well it’s a silicone sock.

[LarryCnAZ]

Here’s a pic of the ones I ordered using the link @NeverDie linked to above. I tried different angles to *cover them as well as I could.

*Note: I’m not much of a photographer so hopefully they show up okay

Edit to say they have lasted quite a bit longer than the stock ones. My stock ones failed within a month, I haven’t had one of these fail yet and I have almost 1200 hours on my H2D now.

[NeverDie]

Thanks! Based on your photo, they clearly do have the slot:

just like the stock ones have, and yet, as you and @maxim3D report, they are far more durable.