I’m noticing more frequent nozzle clogging on the Induction hotends of the H2C. I primarily print BL Matte PLA and where I don’t experience any clogging on my other BL printers (X1Cs, H2D and X2D), my 2 H2Cs have very frequent clogs.
I print the same models on all printers, same filaments and same settings.
I also find that once a nozzle is clogged, it is very hard to unclog it, to the point I’m even not trying anymore. Because when I do get it unclogged, it clogs up very fast after that again.
Support is advising to print hotter and slower, as there are ‘particles’ in PLA Matte. But that doesn’t help and as it is suitable for 0.2mm nozzles, that also doesn’t make sense.
What are your experiences with the induction nozzles and tips to prevent clogging?
I’ve had the clog sensor go off several times, but never found a clog. I finally turned down the sensitivity. How do you clear your clog? I also only use the .4 nozzle, so it may be different.
I also think they clog more easily and that’s certainly the reason why BL offers a specific 4-in1 adapter with a cleaning pad for the H2C. Of course if we only use 1 AMS the adapter is not resuired and no cleaning pad
This said, it’s still not frequent and while I generally use the cold pull procedure I now start with a simpler one. When it happens, I just bring the nozzle to 250C, cut the filament by pushing the cutter lever, disconnect the PTFE, pull on the filament I just cut, insert a length of fresh filament in the nozzle and use extrude in the menu while pushing my filament in. Forcing the filament in while extruding is generally enough to unclog it. When sufficient filament have extruded, I again cut it by hand on the lever, take it out, put the original back in, reconnect the PTFE and extrude that one again from the menu.
The added advantage is that if the clog occured on a non surface (infill) when the printer detected the clog and paused, the above procedure can be performed while the printer is on pause and you can just resume your print afterwards. Of course, if it paused on a visible surface, there is a good chance the area will have underextrusion and cannot be saved
I too have found the .2mm nozzles to be more susceptible to heat creep. In particular during long prints. I was fortunate though regarding the need for cold pulls.
I only had one clog in 2000+ hours. I was able to clear it the same way as with other bambu hot ends, heated up a clog poker with a blog torch and shoved it red hot into the nozzle.
I have an H2C and it is constantly clogged on .4 using standard PLA. The H2C has been the least reliable, most aggravating printer I own. I have 3 X1C’s, an A1 mini and 2 H2Ds. None experience the numerous clogs the H2C does. This is my 2nd H2C, the first one burnt itself up after 16 days. The replacement has been problematic since I got it. Print quality sucks. Nozzle clogs at 90% complete constantly. Just had another clog at 97% complete. Clogs will not clear unless I end the print and change nozzle so I can manually clean the nozzle. It then clogs again shortly thereafter. I thought this machine would be amazing. It’s been little more than utterly disappointing.
I have two H2Cs with about 800 hours on each. I’ve never experienced a nozzle clog on either machine. I imagine it would be frustrating though. Has Bambu support provided any help in trying to resolve the clog issue for you?
The only thing more aggravating than a printer malfunction is bambu’s support. They answer tickets once a day, and half the time give the least helpful response one could come up with. Bambu expects you the user to do all disassembly and repair to a machine that is supposed to be under warranty. The first H2C I got was a great machine with excellent print quality and no issues. The replacement for it after it burned up has been junk. I could complain to support and they’d just blame me for doing something wrong. I’ve said before and I’ll say again, Bambu makes amazing products that are typically second to none. But if you have an issue, their support is about equal to that of the cable company…..utterly useless.
The sad thing is my first two printers were Creality K2 Plus models. Creality support sucks as bad or worse than Bambu with the bonus that Creality printers are lower quality than Bambu and broke a lot. Not saying you don’t have a reason to be frustrated but if you had to live through Creality support you’d likely realize Bambu isn’t as bad comparatively. I still have the Creality printers plus I have two H2C printers. My experience is that the H2Cs are way more reliable. Fortunately I’ve only had to contact Bambu support a time or two for minor issues. Also, I’ve never had a clog in any of the nozzles.
Sunlu. All my black and yellow and red and a few others are Sunlu. Only problem I ever have from it is when there’s less than 15% on a roll and ams fails. I also use polymaker as they are the only ones who make the green color I use.
My biggest problem with Bambu support is that 1) you get a parts and labor warranty and yet you have to do the labor. 2) anytime I’ve gone through them they always direct blame at me. I wasted 9 days trying to get my first h1c replaced and then when support agreed and learned I’d bought it at Microcenter they said well that’s the retailers problem then. 8 wasted days for that. I’ve found their support arrogant, off putting and generally unpleasant to deal with.
I have a machine two weeks and I have to disassemble it to find the problem? So much for a parts and labor warranty.
I love Bambu machines (when working properly). They are second to none. I’ve just had terrible experience with support and find better success reading forums and finding solutions myself.
I started 3D printing on self designed and built printers about 14 years ago, back when PLA and ABS were the only filaments available. Back then, everyone had problems with nozzles clogging when printing PLA. Very few hobbyists were printing ABS at the time, but I never saw anyone complaining about clogged nozzles with ABS filament, so I quit using PLA and designed my printers to have heated enclosures and high temperature beds and just printed ABS (for about 10 years, without clogs) until PETG came along.
There are two groups of PLA users- those who have experienced nozzle clogging and those who will. I don’t know exactly what the problem is, but PLA has always been a problem and probably always will be. I think the best way to avoid nozzle clogging problems is to quit using PLA. In 99.9% of uses, PETG is a better material and I haven’t heard of or experienced nozzle clogging with PETG.
I get it, PLA is easy to print- no hairs, lots of colors available, etc. But it clogs nozzles. And it melts at very low temperatures (like in a hot car). It isn’t a good filament for anything that you want to last any length of time because you can’t guarantee that it won’t ever end up in a car. I was talking with a guy at the makerspace about his selling 3D printed stuff via amazon.com. He said he had sold a bunch of PLA printed parts via amazon and kept getting returns because the parts would sit in amazon delivery trucks and warp. He switched to PETG and ABS and hasn’t had any more problems.
I recently bought some PLA to use as support material for PETG prints. I haven’t used it yet and I’m hoping I don’t end up with clogged nozzles. When I finally use the PLA, if I get one clog I will give away the remaining filament and never touch the stuff again.
Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same
Nowadays, PLA is certainly the easiest material to print. Still the odd nozzle clog, in particular due to heat creep (keep the chamber below 35°C, even lower for ironing) but usually much easier than other materials.
PETG on the other hand is much more temperamental. Drying (especially!!!) new spools is very highly recommended and it does usually reward going slowly. I tend to avoid speeds above 80mm/s unless I am using HF variants. It can also benefit from “wipe on retract” but I have not had much luck with the default z-hop. The latter tends to create finer but more stringing, at least in my case.
Using PETG as a support interface for PLA is really useful. But do not expect a trouble free experience.
On single nozzle machines, a lot of purge is needed to avoid cross-contamination. Clogs can of course also occur if residual PETG gets into the PLA cycle.
On dual nozzle machines, cross-heating between nozzles can become an issue. In particular if the PETG nozzle’s heat promotes heat creep in the PLA nozzle.
But don’t dump those rolls in case of issues. The wiki and the forum can help in many cases.
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PS: Haven’t tried it myself yet but I am rather curious about trying PCTG. From what I have read so far, it sounds very interesting.
This really surprises me, I can honestly say in nearly 10 years of printing I must have experienced a handful of nozzle clogs with PLA under 5 times and they were probably down to my fault.
Where are you based? I wonder if its a climate thing, I am UK based where its naturally very miserable, grey and cold/boring weather wise.
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