One thing I’ve noticed watching some of the Youtube videos promoting these hotends is a lack of info on how much benefit is there really in regards to printing speed. My biggest concern is that (other than the ones that allow quick nozzle changes) is that the firmware for your Bambu printers can’t be updated to really support some of the higher wattage heaters.
My question is, is there enough of a gain to justify the costs of changing your nozzle? Just curious here, not trying to downplay them.
That is a good question. For print speed, it depends if you are flow rate limited. Which generally is the case with X1/P1 series when using regular print profiles.
I recently bought an E3D Obxidian 0,4mm nozzle.
I think that flow rates are way understated. With both PETG and PLA I easily reached 40mm³/s with temperature reduced by 10°C compared to stock settings. I didn’t test yet how fast I have to go to see defects. 40 mm³/s is just more than I need.
I also tested layer adhesion with my test setup, I presented some time ago.
For example with Sunlu PETG, with the stock hotend, at 70mm/s, I needed 180N to break parts. at 260mm/s (limited by flow) that was down to 150N.
With the Obxidian at 230 instead of 240°C , max flow set to 35, the force needed was at constant 185N from 70 to 300 mm/s.
Only drawback I have seen so far is more oozing compared to the stock hotend.
Well possible that other HF hotends yield the same improvement in layer adhesion.
Numbers are from memory, I will check them later and correct if necessary.
@Kehali_Woldemichael I realize it has been less than a week since you got the MicroSwiss stuff, but do you have any testing updates you could share?
I am very interested in the MicroSwiss, as it seems that I am not dexterous enough to do the hotend changes with native Bambu hotends without breaking something.
I use the Obxidian for quite a few months now and won’t look back, let alone go back to the Bambu ones.
Limited ?? Can’t agree as I can print PLA at 500mm/s if need be and similar for PETG if you don’t mind the resulting surface quality at those speeds.
For me though the speed isn’t the selling point, it is the consistency and quality of the results.
People seem to think a high flow hotend makes their machine faster - it does not.
All it does is to remove the limitations of cheap, low end hardware
The heater is only an issue for filaments that do need very high print temps but not really a limitation.
Why just under 50W if the electronics are rated for 60W ??
Unless you have racing boat no one really keeps an engine at the red line from the moment it starts…
While Bambu might have used 60W hardware I severely question that they did this as the default.
Meaning the heatsink, if present won’t hold up to the task if you are in a hotter climate with above average room temperatures.
So going with a 80W hotend without some in-line mod to supply the power will certainly wreck things sooner rather than later.
So 60W is still good to go ?
Be my guest to try and risk it but before you do you should ask yourself if you REALLY need the extra heating power…
Also how this might affect things in the head.
For power electronics you always try to stay a bit under the rated limit - for good reason…
I don’t fully disagree with the points you raised. The E3D ObXidian HF is a quality product. I just have different criteria for selecting a hotend that make it a poor value for me.
Lack of an inter-changable nozzle and limited nozzle sizes. I use a variety of nozzle sizes (0.2-0.6) and value being able to quickly and easily change nozzles.
I mostly print polycarbonate and nylon so high temp performance is important to me. And I am more concerned about layer adhesion rather than print speed. The stock 48W heater becomes the limiting factor in performance once you start using nozzles with CHT style internal geometry.
I don’t see any evidence of a 60W heater causing problems. I myself have been using the 60W Panda Revo for the past year without issue.
But I do agree 80W is probably excessive. Hence why I said the Phaetus Conch makes me nervous. I have seen some people online reporting issues when using heaters higher wattage (i.e. >60W).
There was a very interesting youtube video I watched on comparing the aftermarket hot ends. I took a screenshot to show that even if you aren’t looking to race your printer with higher flow rates, across the board the layer adhesion is increased with CHT style nozzles.
Here’s the video, lots of good info in there comparing hot ends.
