This is a fork of a thread that was already underway:
as it really is a topic that deserves it’s own thread.
More to come.
I came here expecting that @MalcTheOracle had made a comment about the title of the post… Someone’s slacking. 
I haven’t tried using the sponge yet. I have one that came with my H2C, and I remember looking at it and thinking, is this really a thing? I don’t remember getting one with my H2D. Thanks for the reminder though, it will give me something to play with tonight. (Malc, now I have practically gift-wrapped that for you.)
Here’s some motivation to answer the question “Why should I care?”: although the nozzle itself is made of hardened steel, it is surrounded by either brass or copper, which is turn is plated with something (chrome, nickle, who knows?). So, although you can get medieval cleaning the hardened steel nozzle itself and probably not scratch it using brass or fiberglass brushes, you maybe shouldn’t do the same on the plated surface surrounding the nozzle and filament path through the hotend. This plated surface will gradually accumulate gunk if yo do nothing about it, especially if you print a lot of PETG.
Since there aren’t especially good non-toxic solvents for chemically removing adhered PETG and cumulative gunk, it raises the question of “What to do?” Allegedly a wet sponge will help. And to that end, Bambulab’s store sells some itty bitty (20mmx10mm) “high temperature” sponges,
https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/nozzle-cleaning-sponge
and Bambulab provides a link in its wiki for a sponge holder so you can clean your hotend with Bambulab’s itty-bitty wet sponge and not burn your fingers:
Aside from the wiki, I haven’t seen much of anything written about this technique. As those of us with interest try it, and post results on this thread, I guess we’ll see how effective it is or isn’t.
Thanks, this is good information. I print a lot of PETG. Around 70% of what I run on my H2D is PETG, so nozzle buildup is something I deal with pretty often.
I clean the nozzles regularly, but I’ve never really felt like I was doing it the “right” way. Most of what I’ve found online is basically just “heat it up and wipe it off,” without much detail beyond that.
I’ve been using a pair of jewelry snips to carefully work around the tip when material starts building up. It works, but I’ve always suspected it probably isn’t the best long-term solution, especially around the plated area you mentioned.
I do have one of the Bambu sponges that came with my H2C, so I’m going to try the wet sponge method and see how it does. If it works well on PETG buildup without needing to scrape around the nozzle, that would be a big improvement.
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I had ordered some non-stick nozzle-hotends to try, but then it dawned on me that I’d probably have to retune the print profiles all over again. Now that I have my print profiles dialed in really well for the Bambulab nozzles, I just don’t feel like redoing it all over again. So, I really do hope this sponge technique works decently well.
Weird. What devices/nozzles are they recommending this on? I generally end up doing something similar at temp, but use a brass brush, and an ending wipe with something disposable and soft. I admit the brass brush is treating the socks unkindly.
I wonder if they’re counting on steam doing something but I dont think I want steam anywhere in that extruder
Well, judging for the “general” category in the wiki, I suppose any and all. They cite cleaning the H2C’s induction nozzles as an example, but nothing suggest it’s limited to only that.
MyTechFun just pushed his review of the E3D Diamondback nozzle, and he found NO improvement in flow rate.
Unfortunately, he made no observations regarding stickiness to the nozzle, so that remains unknown. His conclusion is that it mainly offers greater longevity.
When it comes to the Obxidian 500, he got only a minor boost on flow rate when printing PETG through a 0.4mm nozzle, which is the case I’m most interested in:
Well, better to find that out before paying through the nose. Other nozzle–material combinations were much more favorable to the Obxidian 500, for anyone with interest.
Based on these results, I’m going to send back my Diamond tipped Durozzle without even taking it out of its package, as I rather doubt it would be better.
Unfortunately, he hasn’t yet tested the Phaetus Conch, so I may still have a run at that since it’s relatively inexpensive to see if I can get both higher flowrate and less hotend stickiness. However, it may be unlikely at 0.4mm if even the Obxidian 500 had only minor improvement with PETG over Bambulab’s standard nozzle at 0.4mm diameter. I’ll see what test results I can find from other sources; otherwise, I might just return it too on the theory that if an Obxidian 500 shows only weak improvement, it probably can’t do much better either.
Anyone here already tried the Phaetus Conch for H2D by any chance? The results reported for the X1/P1 series made it sound worse:
although the results reported by @Alex_vG for Bambulab’s Obxidian were considerably better, and I consider him to be a highly reliable source of information. Unfortunately, as far as I know, there is no Bambulab branded Obxidian nozzle for the H2D.
I haven’t seen the video but from the screenshot, he only tested the standard nozzle and the diamond back?
BambuLab also has a high flow nozzle, right? I would have hoped to see it too in the review, to be helpful.
The other question is the brand of PETG he used. For PLA I didn’t find much difference between brands. Haven’t tested many though.
For PETG I saw far more spread between brands. And the brand doesn’t have to have HF or HS in its name to be printable fast. If I remember right, good PETG printed even faster than PLA.
So depending on the PETG brand used, the bottle neck might be the filament, not the nozzle.
Just some quick thoughts.
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Just viewed the review. Most comments support his findings. So seems like the diamond back really doesn’t help much for speed and strength.
He used Polymaker PETG:
and for the PLA he used Bambulab PLA Basic:
So, to your point, if he had tested a high flow PETG instead, maybe it would have shown more improvement on the 0.4mm Obxidian 500 nozzle. But since he didn’t, here we are wondering. Sigh, I suppose he had to find some way to jam his sponsor into the video, no matter what the consequences.
Just a couple of things - Weller and others have little sponges to clean soldering iron tips so they can take the heat, and they are easy to find. Generally around 2.5” x 2.5” x 0.4”.
Also, cardboard spools are water magnets which doesn’t help with PETG. I haven’t dug into it yet but the cardboard seems to dry well (deceiving) with filament but then still has a fair bit of water to release and prematurely ages out AMS desiccant.
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Yeah, it’s one of the reasons why I hate cardboard spools. Through a lot of measurements, I’ve found that the cardboard spools hold, on average, around 7-9g of moisture just in the cardboard itself! That compares to an average of around 1-3g of moisture for just the filament.
I arrived at these numbers by drying to bone dry over 3 or more days at 65C in a blast oven.
On the flip side, once you get it that dry, it acts like a desiccant afterward, at least initially.
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I just now gave it a spin doing the wet sponge nozzle cleaning on my H2D. I can post pictures and commentary, but for now I think I’ll just jump straight to the bottom line: I see no difference whatsoever from using the wet sponge on the applicator to clean the nozzle.
I do not think they ever claimed it would print faster, it’s more for not wearing out. Also slice engineering has some stuff you can put on your hot end to keep plastic from sticking to it. It doesn’t take alot and it lasts for a long time so a bottle should last a few years easily.
Since the sponge was a flop, at least for PETG, I’ll likely try Oatey clear primer:
available at Home Depot, as it contains some strong chemicals that can attack PETG, like THF, MEK, and Cyclohexanone, though the actual ratios may vary depending on the batch. These are all known to be fairly toxic chemicals, so I’ll likely run the test outdoors with lots of fresh air and probably some PPE as well, whenever I get around to it. Anyone here tried it? Hopefully it will be strong enough to attack whatever baked on varnish-like PETG as well as other unknown baked on stubborn residues that resist a hot wipe-down.
The standard Bambulab H2D hardened nozzles aren’t all that expensive, but it might be worth it for the high flow nozzles. Not for daily cleaning, but accumulate a few and then clean them en masse.
The wet sponge method seems like a simple way to keep the nozzle clean and reduce filament buildup.
Using a heat-resistant sponge correctly may help improve print quality and prevent nozzle-related problems.
Even service businesses like westlink cleaning rely on the right tools and regular maintenance to get better results.
It is still important to follow the manufacturer’s safety steps when cleaning a hot nozzle.