Slice Engineering released their “Ultimate Hotend Upgrade We’ve Been Waiting For” …
If you didn’t notice, there is a hint of sarcasm in that. Not only they didn’t show any improvements in the flow rate but also didn’t even show the quick swap they’ve bragged about. I find it a bit funny that they released a hotend for $100+ and claim that it takes 15-20 minutes to replace a stock nozzle on Bambu Lab printers; especially considering the recent controversy about Slice Engineering and IP “protection”…
There are multiple videos and texts available, I don’t think it will be right to link any of them, as there are many heated arguments lol.
But in short, Slice Engineering takes open-source designs, changes them a bit, and then patents in the US. After that, all they do is sit and strike down anyone for “IP theft”. In the EU and Asia countries, their IP patents were rejected, so it’s an issue for the USA only.
I’ll copy one Reddit response which is accurate enough:
Summary
Slice Engineering is a <***> company that is preventing Americans from having access to innovative low cost products because they exploit archaic criminal first to patent laws. They did not come up with anything new. Their attempts at patenting the same thing in Europe and Asia were rejected as unoriginal and frivolous common sense engineering.
They are not the only company out there making profits from the work of others.
Problem is that too many people fall for false advertisements and false claims that have no proof or verification.
Friend of mine fell for their new hotend and ordered one.
A day after arrival he called me to come over and fix things LOL
The design is not just a blunt copy with no merit, it is also of sub-standard quality.
Heat creep issues even when using plain PLA with the door open ROFL
Performance improvements? None at all, I would even say it perform worse than the original on all levels.
Having said that…
After opening a return ticket due to the hotend being so bad my friend was informed that they don’t take back used parts LOL
But if he would leave a good review they would give him store credit for the hotend…
The beauty of ordering from a US based company is that they can literally do what they want to international customers…
I prefer some unknown seller on AliExpress any time over such dodgy companies.
If you have other printers where you can use Revo, then for sure go with Panda Revo.
If not and not planning on using Revo anywhere else - then go with the E3D ObXidian HF nozzle. That nozzle is godlike.
I also thought it was a funny video. They never showed the ‘quick change’. I kept waiting till the end. The ‘slow’ way is 3 pull-off connectors and 2 screws.
The entire thing is a real joke. … so is the price. I can buy 2 complete hardened hotends for my XC, completely assembled, for less than the price of one of theirs…
And that’s the most insidious part of this. They rip off one customer and leverage a “refund” to lure unsuspecting users in with a coerced review.
It should be illegal to hold a credit or refund hostage in trade for deceptive reviews that whitewash vendor behaviors, products, or service. It’s a form of extortion so might already be.
Just use your one hand, lol. They are kind enough to give you a free hand to punch yourself in the face for being gullible enough to buy their bullshit.
I also prefer original parts, but I’ve bought both 0.4 and 0.6 ObXidian hotends from E3D for my X1C and I do not regret a single penny spent on them. They are much, much better than the stock hotends in almost every way. They have a higher flow rate, they have a coating that greatly reduces filament buildup on them during printing (PETG, yep). One minor “flaw” they have is the need to flush a bit more filament during filament changes due to the larger internal volume of these hotends. But that’s it.
They work as advertised. I was shocked by the results of my first max flow test. I set it to 40 mm3/s max and the 0.4 nozzle did not fail until the end of it with basic PLA. The stock hotend failed the same test at about 25 mm3/s.
So not all aftermarket parts are bad.
Despite my flippant earlier post, I do have respect for the Mosquito design, which AFAIK was innovative. They even have a liquid cooled version which allows a hotend of up to 500C. Who else can do that? Unfortunately, those high-end hotends aren’t a supported option for the existing Bambu printers.
Slice Engineering sells a plastic repellent paint for nozzles, and I wonder whether it might help the existing Bambu nozzles with respect to PETG:
It looks made-to-order for an appearance on Refashioned Hippie’s youtube shorts entitled “Bad Design” (yes, it’s a real youtube channel).