J**H
Great hotend, but be aware of what you're getting into
I purchased this and immediately started playing with printing in polycarbonate, nylon, etc, with really good results using default profiles in Cura (Carbon fiber polycarbonate is especially gorgeous and scarily durable). But as soon as I went back to trusty PLA, there were problems. Not from the quality of the product, but all-metal hotends play by their own rules. The steel nozzles that come with it, also take some finessing.First: Clogging. MAJOR clogging. Go lower your retraction distance to about 2-3mm if you're using a Bowden tube setup. I did this, but still had clogging from heat creep about 30 minutes into a print.I took everything apart and realized I'd applied the little packet of thermal compound to the wrong end of the heatbreak. Apply it to the smooth end that fits into the heatsink. DO NOT APPLY IT TO THE THREADED END THAT GOES INTO THE HEATER BLOCK LIKE I DID. Also, really try not to get it into the throat like I did. You'll play hell cleaning it all out.That solved the heat creep, but I was still having under extrusion and minor clogging. So that brings me to the nozzles. OIL THOSE SUCKERS. Think of them like a cast iron pan. They have to be "seasoned" or else everything will just stick to the insides. Start a print, get a good first layer down, then apply a few drops of canola oil with a cloth to the filament feeding into the extruder, and print something hot. It'll smell like a carnival funnel cake. Bam. All the clogging was gone.I was getting wonky stringing and blobbing, and just generally crappy prints, but at least it was printing. Which brings me to the 3rd thing. You're gonna need to fiddle with the firmware and perform a "PID tuning". Temps for the hotend will way overshoot or under heat because this thing has different thermal properties, and you have to recalibrate how it manages temperature. Don't worry, a little bit of googling will get you there, and there's an automated way to perform it in Marlin, so it ended up being quite easy.So, after ALL of that, which was maybe a week's worth of banging my head, there was smooth sailing. The only other thing to note is that differences in filaments will be much more prevalent. Whereas before, I could print nearly all my PLA at 205°, 50° bed, set it and forget it, well, you can forget about that. Every spool now has a sweet spot a few degrees different from the last spool, but all of them will need to be hotter than with the stock hotend.Would I say this is a great product? Yes. Would I say it's a must-have upgrade, no, at least not for a beginner like myself. It seems really well made, no defects, and all the problems I encountered were operator error. This is a big step from taking your 3d printing from "nifty gimmick", to a full blown hobby.
R**Y
Just doesn't work
UPDATE 1/4/21: I have finally given up! I really liked the idea of not having melting PTFE in my home office while printing, but in the end this hotend just constantly clogs. It doesn't matter the material, as I tried PLA, ABS and ASA. All will clog. I relented and put my old hotend back on (for the third time) and it is working flawlessly. A fan in the window is what I will use from now on, to vent any harmful fumes from the room.UPDATE 9/16/19: Please DO read my below review, but I'm hoping this helps someone else out. After all of this, it turns out the NOZZLES they send with this end are just not right. The hole is far too small, causing terrible under extrusion and clogging, and forcing the material out of the heat break.After replacing the steel nozzle that came with the new hotend with a brass one from my old hotend, all works fine! This still leads down the path of bad quality, but at least the part is usable... you just need to get your nozzles from a quality manufacturer.ORIGINAL REVIEW 9/15/19:I ordered this for my 2018 model Creality Ender 3 in hopes of eliminating PTFE fumes. Here is my terrible experience:First, you will get a bag of miscellanous parts, with no instructions at all. It's not too hard to figure out how to install (it's just a milled aluminum block after all), but some guidance would have been helpful. Screws arrive loose and nothing is really ready to go.Once installed, it worked for a few minutes, but kept clogging. After about 5 minutes of printing, it totally clogged so I replaced the nozzle. It was still clogged, so its seems that the hot end itself is clogging for some reason. It kept feeding but nothing would come out. Where is it going??After removing the fan shroud, I could see that filament was oozing out at the top of the hot end. Figuring it shipped with a loose guide coupler, I disassembled and cleaned it all up. I had to use a hacksaw to cut one of the screws holding the hot end together, as the leaking filament had locked it into place (it was EVERYWHERE).I found an exact screw replacement at the local hardware store and tightened everything up. Visual inspection says that everything is tight, clean, and is seated correctly. After installing yet again, It printed for a few minutes and then clogged again. Once again filament oozed from the top of the hot end! How is this getting out???This was now the third time I had to remove and install this end, each time requiring yet another bed leveling procedure, and calibration of the bed sensor. What a pain!After another cleaning... inspection... reassembly... bed leveling process, for the third and final time, the end clogged and leaked yet again! I should mention that each time I used a different filament roll, just in case I had some bad material.It acts like it isn't getting hot enough, but the temperature sensor says otherwise, as does my non-contact thermometer. Obviously the filament is melting, as it's coming out of the top all over the place. I even cranked the heat well beyond the glass temp for the PLA I was using, and it would not stop that clog. It just oozes out of the top of the hot end every time you advance the extruder. It refuses to come out of that nozzle!I suspect that the milling of this hot end is not very good, causing it to clog. Even the holes for the mounting screws were off by just enough that they wouldn't thread into the printer properly. You could see where one side had been drilled slightly off from the other. Bad manufacturing and zero quality control!I finally relented and put my original hot end back on. All is well again, despite the PTFE fumes I was trying to get away from. Sigh... a waste of several hours and $45.00. I was suckered in by the "drop in replacement" promise, and should have gone with a better quality manufacturer. Please don't make my mistake!
K**.
All-Metal on a Budget!
Pros:-Pretty quick installation. Once properly mounted and installed, it looks as close to stock as it can get.-Prints surprisingly well. The larger melt zone is definitely handy where you want to speed things up a little (80mm/sec with a .48mm line width is easily do-able). The quality of the prints is no better or worse than the factory hot end, except at higher speeds, where the stock hot end under-extrudes and leaves small gaps in infill.-The two screws on either side prevent the heater block from rotating, which can cause jams.-The heatbreak is surprisingly not bad. I have yet to experience a clog/jam.Con(s):-I thought the upgrade kit was pre-assembled, but sadly it isn't.Other Thoughts:-Make sure to apply the thermal compound to the cold side of the heatbreak only! And make sure to liberally apply the stuff.-The included heater cartridge is for 24V operation only.-You will have to print at a higher temperature than you normally do, even with a standard brass nozzle. On the stock hot end, PLA printed nicely at 200. With this hot end installed, 205-210 is fairly standard.Overall, I'm pleased with my purchase, and I would recommend one of these hot ends for someone looking to dabble in higher temperature filaments, which the stock hot end *will not* do.
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