I need help with my new hot end! My last nozzle bent after I tried to mess around with it while the power was on. I can’t find an item replacement anywhere. They are out of stock on the Bambu shop and every online store in the UK hence I decided to purchase the aftermarket v2.0 nozzle from Amazon which boasted a beefier nozzle to prevent the bent tip I experienced.
The problem I am having with this new one is that it clogs almost straight away. I’m guessing that the larger mass of metal is holding more heat and the heatsink is unable to cope with it which is causing the pla to swell. If anyone has any ideas on how to fix this issue would be much appreciated. Or even just somewhere I can buy an OEM nozzle! It’s crazy that Bambu labs can’t provide their most consumer part of the printer.
Thanks unfortunately not available in the UK currently
For the clogging problem with the aftermarket nozzle, have you tried adjusting the temperature settings? Sometimes tweaking the temperature slightly can help with PLA flow. As for finding an OEM replacement, have you checked international suppliers or contacted Bambu Labs directly for restock updates?
Yes I’m impatiently waiting for them to restock on the 15th July. I’ve realized that with the aftermarket nozzle it’s thicker metal so holds the heat more and clogs on the first layer. As a temporary solution I have removed the top plate to aid cooling and I have turned on the fan for the first layer plus increased the bed temperature to offset the subsequent adhesion issue. This seems to be mostly working for now. I will definitely stock up on OEM nozzles when they are available again though.
Those nozzles from Ebay, Amazon, AiliExpress and so on are, how shall I say it?
Horse manure…
I had one, used for two days and then tossed it in the bin as the seller of course refuses to refund.
The problem starts with the materials.
While those replaceable nozzles do look great - the heatbreak of these hotends if the worst I have seen so far.
The Bambu design ensures that there is not enough space to fit a teflon tube.
That means the heatbreak and heatsink have to work properly.
Bambu’s hotends are far from perfect but at least they do work within their advertised parameters.
I tried a complete set - ordered hotend, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8mm nozzles, heater and temp sensor.
Took the original fan off and used it on the new hotend as long I tested it.
Mind you that I ordered the nozzles in hardened steel as well as in the high flow variant with three channels for the filament.
The hardened nozzles had no issues taking glow filament and printing it but retractions kept causing EXTRUDER blocks.
The heat actually travelled through the filament the heatsink and all to soften inside the extruder - I call that a total design failure.
The flow rates were actually LOWER that for the Bambu hotend otherwise the prints would come out bad.
For the high flow nozzles I was really impressed to see the flow rate test print fail about half way to the advertised flow rate of 35mm.
Before I tossed the hotend in the scrap (kept the nozzles) I had to take the thing apart to see why it performs so badly - apart from the obvious Made in China sticker…
A GOOD hotend has a melting chamber of sufficient size and thickness.
The China toys however come with shorter melting chamber than the Bambu ones - a deadly mix already.
Then there is this fancy heatbreak, made from ‘stainless steel’ - very soft and with a far too thick wall.
Stainless steel is bad at transferring heat, which is why we use it in this place on hotends.
But a thick pipe does not qualify…
On top of that of course comes this added plate that is claimed to prevent the nozzle stem from bending.
A thick piece of metal in the middle of a heatbreak - why did the disigner not know that this part will accumulate heat and turn the heatbreak completely useless ?
Well, Because it looks fancy and makes a good selling point ROFL
The heatbreak however…
There is different types of aluminium alloys out there.
And while basically any would do for a heatbreak of SUFFICIENT size and volume, that China thing works more like heat battery without the fan.
Did not want to ruin my Bambu hotend so I only took the fan off and placed it with just the heatsink from the China hotend in the oven at 100 degrees Celisius.
Waited about 20 minutes and than placed them next to each other onto a wooden board.
The China heatsink, after 10 minutes, was hotter than the Bambu heatsink which had the entire hotend attached to it.
The aluminium used does not radiate heat away as a good heatsink should.
Might be that the black oxide layer was grown too thick or that is just pain, did not check…
Decided to do the right thing and bought a hotend that keeps getting great reviews from users and never looked back.
Sure the Obxidian costs a fortune compared to China nozzles and is still just a consumable…
But if it means hassle free printing with no clogs or block while the prints look even batter than with the Bambu hotends…
And if the filament got stuck in the hotend you take it off and do a COLD pull to free the thing - try that with a Bambu hotend ROFL
Thanks for the informative post. It’s validated my thoughts on the aftermarket hot end I purchased.
You mentioned about the obsidian hot end. With the OEM nozzles still unavailable I am yet to purchase a new Bambu one. I’m open to getting the obsidian but obviously held back by the price. I wonder if you can quantify how much better it really is? Does it need any extra work to get it up and running? I definitely don’t want to end up with a fail when spending that kind of money…