Bi-Metallic Heat Breaks - A (R)Evolution?!

[@CNCKitchen]

Would you prefer changing just the Heat Break or would you rather replace the whole Hotend? Don't forget to like & subscribe and share this video on Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and other platforms!

[@antonrickert9427]

If the hotend is fine, the heatbreak will do

[@BeefIngot]

Heatbreak is a pain in the butt to change. You might have to apply thermal grease, you might need a wrench and pliers. Id much rather just have multiple hot ends. Honestly, if it was easily available id rather just have multiple hot ends on hand, and just change them out for differently sized nozzles/heatbreaks/etc

[@DarthTater5738]

I have been toying with the idea of putting a mosquito on my Prusa Mini.

[@TwinStarGenny]

What is extruder graff? @7:32

[@101rotarypower]

​@@TwinStarGenny extruder graph, I think is the manually weighed material plotted VS feed rate?

[@markthompson5983]

I got my bi-metal heat break from Trianglelabs, works extremely well and the press fit is pretty solid. Dropped 8c on my heatsink and haven't exceeded 40c on it even with both hot ends at printing temp. I have noticed that I was able to print very large extrusion widths very quickly, and for only $17. UPDATE: Benchmarked my max flow rate with a bimetal heat break, copper 0.6mm nozzle, copper heater block, BMG extruder 3:1 gear ratio, and pancake stepper at 0.5amp RMS in DD config. The final results were around 25mm/s^3 cubed, incredible for a non-volcano V6 hotend.

[@CNCKitchen]

Which version did you get? The one for the Ender as well?

[@randomstuff-cu4of]

@@CNCKitchen almost everything from trianglelabs is of good quality. its pretty much the only chinese knockoff worth buying. some of their clones are superior to the real deals. their bmg clone fits the ender 3 without rubbing against the leadscrew. the dragon hotend can barely be considered a mosquito clone its heavily redesigned and fits any v6 mount. the dragonfly too can barely be considered a copperhead clone theres 2 versions of it one that is somewhat obviously a copperhead clone and one thats a drop in replacement for an ender hotend. they also have a microswiss clone with a plated copper heat block. and their plated copper is good i have the dragon hotend and both the plated copper block and 0.4 nozzle have been working excellently for me.

[@vojtator]

@@CNCKitchen I can recommend the trianglelabs clones, these are of superior quality.

[@markthompson5983]

@@CNCKitchen Yeah I got the ender version off Ali Express.

[@derektran9404]

@@CNCKitchen They only have the kraken one, but that works in that mod also.

[@moodberry]

VERY impressed with your excellent summary of this part. I wasn't even aware of what a heat break was. Additionally, your excellent animations (which I know took a lot of your time) explained to me what was happening. All this, and it appears English isn't your native language, so you, sir, are truly a gifted teacher.

[@KrisRyanStallard]

I really appreciate that you always do multiple tests and show us your data.

[@saltysteel3996]

I bought the same style of heat break from Spool3D made out of titanium for the Ender 3 stock hotend. It worked great for CF nylon but clogged constantly with PLA even when oiling. I coated the heat break with a high temp thermal paste and it finally stopped clogging with PLA. I finally switched to the Micro Swiss direct drive and all metal hotend kit and never looked back. Lol works perfectly. Just did my first TPU parts without any issues.

[@qwewer6]

7:08 - 7:28 was single handedly the most useful tip in my 2 year of printing. Thank you!

[@Pablo_Arnold]

I'm having the same issue, but I'm not quite sure what the takeaway is. What should I adjust to eliminate the under and over extruding?

[@qwewer6]

If you have that kind of inconsistency, then that flow is too high for the hotend + extruder setup, so you could limit the flow so that every part has the same "low" flow rate, but this is just one of many, that can "help".

[@Pablo_Arnold]

@@qwewer6 thank you!

[@nrich5127]

I'm relatively new to 3D printing but I have 35 years of experience in technical work on office equipment and I received a working Ender 3 Pro for free and have learned how to use - maintain - and modify it. What I have discovered is that if I remain at relatively slow print speeds I have no problems but when I speed things up the gremlins come out to play. I think the Ender 3 product line is great to learn on but if I was to get serious about 3D Printing I would invest in a Bamboo Lab P1P and move to the next level . Still I'm having fun using and troubleshooting which is what I've done all my life. 3D Printing is relatively a complex hobby - the design CAD programs are an art form onto themselves - learning to use and make adjustments on the slicer program is also quite involved - then there's the printer itself which requires maintenance and knowledge. It's a great hobby but thank God for all the KZbin videos which are so helpful in understanding problems and solutions. Your video sure explains a lot of things.

[@keithadams240]

Went to Slice Engineering and purchased the Copperhead Heat Break for my Ender 3. I received it yesterday and quickly installed it. The results were amazing. I printed a curved Lithophane using Silk White filament and the backside was almost smooth as glass. The picture was amazing. Previous attempts were stringy loose layers and inconsistent as well. Your video was well done and your research was very much appreciated. This has changed my printing quality, I highly recommend the Copperhead Heat Break. Their website has a chart to help you get the right one for your printer.

[@vasko928]

I'm using the trianglelabs one for a lot of time now without any issues, printing high and low temp filaments!

[@DR-br5gb]

Trianglelabs is without a doubt the highest quality counterfeiters in the game.

[@vasko928]

@@DR-br5gb Knowing the majority of companies, they probably outsource the original ones to the same factory as trianglelab.

[@garramiro]

@@DR-br5gb is counterfeit the correct word?

[@vasko928]

@@garramiro it is open source so I don't think so

[@DR-br5gb]

@@vasko928 Wrong and wrong. Here's a link to Slice Engineering's mosquito. Tell me what it says on the heater block: www.sliceengineering.com/products/the-mosquito-hotend%E2%84%A2

[@jeanlesueur6936]

Yesterday, I printed several big part in PLA with my good old standard E3D V6 2.85 with 0.8 nozzle at 21mm3/s with no troubles, no under extrusion and excellent layer fusion. Extruder is à simple "reprap like" geared with hobbed bolt. Simply played with head temperature in prusa slicer with layer custom gcode M104. Making temperature change from 230° in thin parts to 245° in big area layer (100% infill).

[@matthewweinberger7023]

ive seen these around for a while and was wondering if they actually did anything, now i know

[@marsgizmo]

excellent insights Stefan 👍 thanks a lot, I also had some concerns about the heatbreaks, but now it became clear 🙌😎

[@Mister_Stork]

@marsgizmo please take part in the meltzone podcast 😉

[@ameliabuns4058]

Honestly I think that the main reason for that small extrusion rate on the ender 3 is because the ptfe tube is making the length of the heated section (melt zone) half as much as it normally is in an all metal hotend. v6 lite also has reduced extrusion rate. this one is basically just the nozzle as the heating zone.

[@ceet3015]

I got my Trianglelabs stainless steel bi-metal heatbreak for my Neptune 2 last week. I installed it with a Trianglelabs copper plated 0.4 nozzle and it's a dream. Besides the other upsides I never experienced skipping or grinding since then. The filament flow (with ABS) is just crazy and seems to have no limit. I got a malfunction a few days ago since my Neptune 2 is in a box right now to print ABS and the board overheated, which made the extruderstepper drive at a ridiculous speed. In a few seconds there was a great mass of ABS extruded. I was really happy to see that performance boost, even though i experienced this malfunktion :D The Trianglelabs stainless steel bi-metal heatbreak (and the copper plated nozzle!) is worth every cent. Wouldn't go for the titanium one, since it seems it has no copper part in the heating section.

[@jjdawg9918]

Perfect timing..thank you! I have been wanting to print ABS, Nylon and PC and have been looking at these.

[@tomoskoper3415]

I also had problems with extruding, then I tried linear advanced in Marlin and printer now runs perfectly

[@danielkruger4305]

You didn't test the knock off one with the changed retraction.

[@PedroKolbEmmel]

noticed it too..

[@Osmodium2000]

Missed this too. I installed the heatbreak from trianglelablabs and without changing the retraction (it was set to 6 mm) i had horible underextrusion. Now I changed it to 2 mm and everthing is fine.

[@jdrevenge]

He mentioned testing it.

[@99897767]

shhh he isn't supposed to let you know the clone works

[@Anyone700]

@@jdrevenge If he tested it, they would have had the same result. They are made of steel and copper. Sure the slice one will probably be a few degrees cooler due to better material choice, and be less likely to fall apart, but this kind of performance will be the same.

[@denny.wanderer]

thank you so much for showing me the advantages of bi-metal heat breaks. I orded 2 right away, because I know this might be the solution for my failed CR10S (Pro) dual direct drive volcano extruder conversion. It never really worked because of heat creep.. I was so frustrated that I failed my first and only printer, that I stopped the hobby for nearly two years. Now that I ordered an Artillery Sidewinder X1 I got back into it. Glad to be back! :) Schöne Grüße aus Hamburg

[@VectorRoll]

Finally someone explained why I would sometimes get Over Extrusion Bulges in certain spots on certain prints. I usually get them in line with holes in the print. Like screw holes and such. Now I know what to tweak to try and get rid of them. Thanks 👍 I use a Copperhead on the Core XY printer I built. I love it. Its a great hotend. Definitely been thinking of putting one on my Ender3. I have no problem suggesting it to others. 😉

[@SliceEngineering]

It appears the KZbin overlords didn't like us pointing people to our website to get more information, and removed our previous comment and related replies. We're happy to answer any questions here or via our website.

[@chrismawson4430]

Which model of the heatbreak is the direct replacement for the Ender 3 Pro?

[@SliceEngineering]

@@chrismawson4430 the Copperhead C-E Heat Break is the direct replacement for the Ender 3 Pro

[@ruuman4]

@@SliceEngineering Does it protrude like the heat break in the video? I was wondering if he purchased the correct version or if it was installed incorrectly.

[@greg-sliceengineering8389]

@@ruuman4 Yes, it will protrude a minor amount.

[@antno9158]

Would not a titanium tube be an even better option than the stainless? Would the thermal properties allow for a stable fit between the copper and titanium?

[@andri0mar]

Thank you for this video, knowing this could make things much easier in the future with my Ender 3. I just experienced many days of jamming after 1.5 hours with 245°C on my Ender 3, the solution was that the original heat sink has thicker fins than the aftermarket I bought (aftermarket but still a good company, just not original). Everything was the same and I was going insane on troubleshooting. If I would've had this heat break I would possibly not have experienced my problems, if/when my original heatsink will break then I know I have to have this product to successfully print with PETG temperatures. Thanks again!

[@FTGTapGod]

I replaced the heatbreak in my Artillery Sidewinder X1 for this with fantastic results. Debating replacing the heatbreak on my Prusa MK3 as well.

[@arianetrek7049]

Which model did you buy? Is your X1 a V4?

[@FTGTapGod]

@@arianetrek7049 yep, a V4.

[@arianetrek7049]

@@FTGTapGod Nice, I have a V4 too. Which heatbreak model did you chose for it? Slice has smooth and threaded models but I'm not sure of which one will fit

[@baivesan]

My experience with a bimetal heat break from biqu is a bit mixed. Performance is amazing, i have no issues with print uniformity, like in the video. However, the tube is a bit loose and does rotate a little bit, even tho it shows no indication of ever coming apart. A bigger issue is that long retractions, overpressure or pulling the filament out, without first pushing it a millimeter in before, results in molten plastic climbing in the cold zone and clogging the nozzle.

[@yertelt5570]

Thanks for the video, and thanks the caveat at the end. As a novice printer still learning PLA you saved me $30 and possibly some headaches. When I do progress to hotter materials I'll circle back to this video though. Thanks again.

[@sathyakumar2523]

Thank you @cnckitchen for the detailed testing and information about the Bi Metal heat break.

[@iskandartaib]

10:27 - I think the shorter "knock-off" heat break may actually be a "Kraken" or "Chimera" heat break made for a clone E3D or Volcano hot end rather than for a Ender 3. If the OAL is 20.5mm, it's a Kraken/Chimera heat break. The Ender 3 one has the same threads and barrel diameter but is considerably longer.

[@destructivecactus]

Thanks for this video. I've just performed the same upgrade to my Ender 3's hot end and was incredibly surprised to see my retraction distance go down from 6.5mm to 2mm, even though those are the results you got, as well! I ended up printing a bunch of retraction tests, just to be sure, and ... wow!

[@rickybobbyracing9106]

With the lower retraction what were you able to do that you couldn't before? I'm looking for good upgrades and I'm considering this one.

[@destructivecactus]

@@rickybobbyracing9106 with lower retraction I can print in higher quality much faster, as I don't have to wait for my extruder to retract so far before doing the next extrusion - it also makes it much much easier to print flexible filaments and more exotic filaments in general. There's an overall improvement to how my printed parts look, too.

[@omega52390]

I've been using the triangle lab bi metal for a while now and have to say it works great. with dry filament I can get a lot of material down to 1mm retraction on bowden and I can now print at 150mm/s on pla. I have yet to try higher speeds but I think I could get some serious flow out of it. not to mention this is a very cost effective way to upgrade to all metal allowing you to print higher temp filaments.

[@rowlandstraylight]

So I've had my copperhead heatbreak in my Ender 3 for a few weeks now. It ran for about a week in Bowden configuration and I was able to cut my retraction from 5mm to 2.2mm. Bowden tube gap cured and print consistency improved. So your results confirmed I didn't really get to play with volumetric flow before I put it in (almost) direct drive with a fake bondtech BMG and a pancake stepper with a printed mount. I'm still tuning flow rates, mostly I'm really enjoying how well it prints flexibles. I'm going through my stack of designs I wanted to print in TPU and cranking up the flow rate. The PrusaSlicer profiles top out at 2.5mm3/s for you and I'm currently riding 3.5mm3/s with Amazon basics TPU (95A I think?) and cranking this up for every print and now going to have to make changes to the linear speed limits for the basic 0.2mm ender 3 profile as I can't ride the volumetric speed limit everywhere... that's pretty cool for a slow melting filament. My tuning for PLA has gone as far as getting retraction down to 0.2mm with some PLA and running a printer default of 0.5mm which has really boosted my print speed on complicated parts. I need to put some time in tuning the PLA speeds now knowing I can push quite a way on volumetric flow before I have to worry.

[@iraborton3941]

I put in a bimetal heat break and upgraded heatsink in my direct drive extruder with volcano hot end. I can now print other exotic filaments on a mid range printer at up to 270C temp.

[@stevehutchesson1321]

The Slice engineering heat break did wonders for my Ender 3 max, able to print PLA+ faster, much easier to change filaments as the teflon tube was no longer being damaged and the effective nozzle temperature was higher with less heat loss going up the stock heat break.

[@arthurmorgan8966]

7:22 Looking at flow rate visualization vs printed model to see if it's an extrusion volume issue, brilliant idea and a feature of PrusaSlicer I did not know.

[@JDccc26]

I replaced the entire hot end and extruder. Running a Bondtech DDX with a Copperhead on both of my CR-10S Pro V2's. One has a 0.6 and the other, a 0.8 mm nozzle.

[@hartmutgeier8282]

Exactly this heatbrake presented in the video was broken within one!! week in my Sidewinder x1.....

[@Lynxdom]

Thanks! Watching this has helped me understand why my filament keeps clogging.

[@pixelpoppyproductions]

Thanks! that video of the skipping feeder was an eye opener! I’ve only had my Ender3 for a few months, and couldn’t figure out what that “clicking” sound was. I knew it was coming from the feeder, but I thought it was just the stepper motor or something.

[@WF3D]

Stefan you again went above and beyond with testing and research! Well done

[@BeefIngot]

At around 10:44 I had a thought. I wonder if screwing in the nozzle first, such that it is completely flush with the heat block would result in even better performance for free. I would think intuitively that the higher area of contact would keep the temperature of the nozzle more consistent while pulling double duty in reducing heat transfer to the cold end due to lower contact there.

[@lucasvandelogt5126]

I completely understand why you think that that’s a good idea. But unfortunately if you do it that way you can’t properly tighten the heat break against the nozzle. I’ve tried it because I also thought that would improve thermals.... my hot end exploded with molten plastic. SO DON’T DO IT! Leave a small gap between nozzle and heat break. Insert heat break first then tighten the nozzle against the heat break.

[@loopsu9940]

​@@lucasvandelogt5126 I think these two methods are effective, but I prefer the former method. However, if you use this method, you cannot change the nozzle at will, otherwise you will encounter the problem you mentioned. If you want to replace the nozzle, you need to remove the entire hot end. However, if you use hardened steel nozzles, it can indeed bring certain improvements.

[@Netherlands031]

Amazing! Must have been a lot of work to do the temperature simulations.

[@CNCKitchen]

Yes, it was but the results are now really nice!

[@Krmpfpks]

What a coincidence! I tested a cheap bi-metal heat break just two days ago (an all metal V6 clone). Clogged hotend approx 14 hours into the first larger print. After disassembling the hotend the heatbreak looked ok, but filament would just not fit through. On closer inspection I saw that the inner tube wasn't actual a tube but a rolled up metal sheet with a slit. That slit delaminated (I guess from the temperature gradient) from the wall and one end of the metal sheet pointed inwards. Filament no longer flowed. Went back to my titanium heat break I had no issues with.

[@deanhedin1615]

You should probably mention to redo the PID tuning on the hot end after installing the new heat break.

[@casadioDesign]

That's an amazing explanation, thank you so much for the help! I finally noticed what's wrong my my old Cr10

[@BlackDreaded]

I like that you added the images of the thermal simulation! Nice job!

[@CNCKitchen]

Glad you like it! Thinking about dedicating a separate video to the simulation part.

[@HarshSharma-sx2bc]

@@CNCKitchen please do.

[@viperbite18]

Good info. The extrusion % test is solid and where you point out the blobs or thicker parts of a print is very likely part of a compound issue I have been having with one of my printers.

[@JConnollystudio]

Very nice info thank you! I been running with titanium heatbreak, they cost around 20$ a pop, but last for 6 months plus ( I work with my printers ). I mostly print petg, titanium has been a great friend to me. But this new product will be my next try.

[@anthonyleggio4877]

Just bought one of these on a whim. I want to print some PC and Just finished my enclosure build so excited!

[@TheLouisEric]

I love the precision of your analysis and the quality of the recommendations that result from it.

[@BeefIngot]

We are literally getting engineering work for free. Don't be so loud about it or he might find out and start charging a few hundred per hour 😛

[@heh2393]

@@BeefIngot I wouldn't mind paying, will hopefully become a Patreon when I get my own 3D printer and really need his work.

[@rocksntwigs]

I had no idea there was a calibration print for retraction. I've been wanting to learn how to do calibration tests for my printer to fix the weird issues I have. It would be super cool if you could do a video talking about the different types of tests and prints you use to calibrate and test your printers. I'd love to know what you do to get such clean looking prints.

[@shitposter4688]

Search for teching tech's printer calibration guide. He provides a github with a great checklist for calibrating almost everything on your printer. Hope this helps.

[@BRUXXUS]

Oooh! Glad to see it wasn't a mistake when using thermal paste on my heatbreak to heatsink junction. I'd never seen or heard of anyone doing that before, but I always do add it because... well... it makes sense. haha

[@zeitseele7109]

I also use it in my soldering irons.

[@HeppyLP]

I currently got massive problems with heat creep printing PLA with my Prusa i3 MK2S MMU1. Tried everything together with the support of Prusa, like replacing the thermal paste and other stuff. Didn't really fixed the issue. I'll gonna definitely give this a shot. Hopefully, that fixes my issues.

[@HeppyLP]

So I got a update with really good news 😊 I got my copper heatbreak a few days ago. It fixed all extrusion issues I had with my MMU1. Big thanks Stefan for that recommendation. One little thing is, that the lower part of the heatbreak is a bit longer than the original one from e3d. But some tweaking with my PINDA fixed that.

[@DavidMulligan]

Stefan, you mention there are problems with titanium all metal heat breaks. Please elaborate. I would also love to see a video which compares the performance, especially using low temperature PLAs which tend to get sticky and jam in steel heat breaks. So many people on the forums tend to push titanium as the solution.

[@clintstlaurent4263]

Agreed. This is barely different than the MicroSwiss titanium upgrade I’ve used for years. Doesn’t seem like anything new to me.

[@linandy1]

I replaced my Bowden with a direct drive feed. Much better, now i must try this heat break.

[@Pigeon_FX]

Would be really interested in a caparison between the Bi-Metallic Heat Break mod seen here Vs the $5 Trianglelab Titanium Alloy Kraken Heatbreak mod on the Enders.

[@BusbyBiscuits]

I actually purchased the knock off "Swiss" all metal hot end from Triangle labs which uses a Ti heatbreak, and am yet to fit and test it on my Ender 6. I have been reluctant to test it as it has taken me a long time to get acceptable prints from the E6, but I'm getting there now, so I think it's time to move on. The quality of the Triangle lab parts, from my past experience, have been exponentially better than that of the usual chinesium cheapo knock offs. Usually as good as, if not better than some of the parts they're copying. Their nozzles are incredible value. I'm hoping the Ender 6 upgrade it will give me adequete TPU results, but think the Ender 6 is in urgent need of better part cooling than the, frankly lazy, duct design that's provided with it.

[@Pigeon_FX]

@@BusbyBiscuits I've been running a few of the TL all-metal hotends, and haven't had any issues with them over the last couple of years.

[@franzschmidt7621]

@@BusbyBiscuits I have no problems printing Pla with a titanium heatbreak from triangellabs

[@specialingu]

@@BusbyBiscuits oh yeah, hero me gen 5 is much much better than stock creality ender 3 stuff which looks the same as a ender 6. and you can use a 20mm deep fan to halve the noise.

[@lagcom]

I always love it when there’s more comments and/or likes than the view especially since I know why they happen

[@EFLO3D]

What

[@MarcAntoine01]

Cute that you are still surprised by this when you consider it's been a few years it does that

[@NoizieWorks]

Looks like you got a v6 heatbreak. I use the chinese trianglelab and i had the same problems in the beginning. But lubing the filament on first install fixed any sticky problems. Now it prints awesome without the use of adding more oil. Great info on the extrusion comparison! Greetings from Belgium🤟

[@lfnkf]

Amazing investigation. Seems exactly what i'm facing with stock Ender 3v2 Hotend

[@ozcanison]

Wow, ive been considering a bi-metal heatbreak from Slice, and this is exactly the kind of information i was after! Thankyou!

[@CrowClouds]

This finally made me understand what is going on in the hotend. Thank you!

[@OldCurmudgeon3DP]

I was able to get 14mm3 with a titan clone direct drive on a microswiss at 210C before my printed mount started deflecting enough to make me nervous. That equates to about 140mm/s at typical extrusion settings.

[@arthurmorgan8966]

I got the mellow version with titanium throat for Prusa Mini and my other printers which have screw in version (v6), so far so good.

[@BusbyBiscuits]

The dreaded click.... Great video as always, Stefan. Danke schön 👍

[@stuartpollock84]

I think I want to get some of these purely to eliminate the bowden tube creeping up. Since I'm printing for business, it is extremely frustrating waking up to a whole batch of prints that are under extruded due to the bowden tube backing out from the hotend.

[@lakitu6422]

Did you end up doing this? And if you did, did it work? I've been considering doing the same thing to stop stringing and clogs related to the tubing.

[@stuartpollock84]

@@lakitu6422 yeah I upgraded all my Ender 3s with this and it eliminated so many issues for me. I think I can only recall one clog that happened over the last year and that is from 6 printers that got upgraded. No more issues with the bowden tube pushing out of the hotend, no more blown out couplers. This won't eliminate stringing as that is an issue related to temperature, retraction, print speed and filament.

[@tubefrax]

Hi CNC Kitchen, i had the same heat creep problem on my e3. i think that is due to poor air flow through the fins on the heat sink, so i designed a new fan shroud and solved the problem. the heatbreak i used is similar to your shorter one

[@JJFX-]

Interesting. One important item to note is the use of thermal paste. The stock Ender heat break does not seem to come with any. I saw an improvement just by adding quality paste to the upper section that makes contact with the heatsink. I feel this is something a lot of people don't realize and it would have been interesting to see how simply doing it affected the results.

[@keantoken6433]

Wouldn't adding thermal paste to the threads just worsen the ability of the heat break to keep heat from getting out of the hotend?

[@JJFX-]

@@keantoken6433 Yes, that's my mistake. I was also thinking about the common heat break designs that have upper threads but for the Ender you'd only want paste on the upper, non-threaded section.

[@gabrielcr78]

it would be interesting to hear your impressions on the triangle lab new dragon hotend v2

[@TheyCallMeGoon]

Mine fell apart at the lower thread portion. The center came right out leaving the threaded portion in my heat block. I was pretty disappointed. Big flaw of these. Made sense when I took it apart as a leak had developed and everything was properly tight. Mine were bought on Amazon for my sidewinder x1 v4 , looks to be the same ones pictures.

[@GoatZilla]

Upgrades like this seem to be worth it even if you're not going as fast as possible because of the thermal performance which means less heat where it shouldn't be, either on the hot or cold side.

[@mrawesomelemons]

Could you cover the Mellow Nf V6? That is ceramic and looks crazy! Also, to fix the rotating heatbreak you can assemble the hotend and tighten the nozzle.

[@CursedCow678]

Thank you for making this video. You answered a question i had for a while now. I have prints with slight bumps randomly through my prints. Now I know where to focus. Thank you!

[@kiltedcraftworks4609]

I have been dogged by heat creep issues when printing larger fine detail models. I just ordered one of these heat breaks for my E3D V6! Hopefully this fixes the problem, thanks!

[@francoisdillenger5851]

Great video Stefan! I really appreciate that you showed us how you removed your old stock heat break and re-threaded the block, these are useful details for first time hot-end surgeons. One comment however: since the heat block was flush with the heat sink with the knockoff test; this likely cause a significant amount of heat creep and could have been the culprit for printing artifacts. Granted this is in part due to the shorter length of the knock off, however even the genuine part had some spacing issues due to length. I may be wrong but I think the heat block / heat sink screws could still have been used as a spacer.

[@frostburn8766]

The model you initially got was a model intended for the E3d Chimera. The shorter length is a good dictator of this.

[@garramiro]

Where can u find that retraction test shown at the 11th minute?

[@totallynotthefbi69]

I was looking for this too!

[@thetable123]

Same. Looks very useful.

[@tzarcoal1018]

yes, seems very helpful

[@a3sop]

w8 4 answer

[@CNCKitchen]

I made mine using 3DOptimizr. Should maybe program a similar one, so that I can share it.

[@zundappwatercooler]

I also bought the knock off brand and also had bad prints and stuck filament in the heatbreak🙈 than i found youre video thanks for sharing the knowledge👌

[@Coltography]

so well done man, your presentation of all the data leaves me feeling spoiled lol

[@michaelbujaki2462]

From what you described, I think my Prusa already has one of these.

[@imabeapirate]

less heat creep makes for more consistent temperature at the hotend, which is better for your mosfet/control board

[@MegaScienceguru]

I currently run a stock bowden setup on my anycubic predator and i wanted to print nylon so this is extremely helpful

[@mayoropl1]

9:23 - where should be one more line on the graph. Clean everything as you just did, install new standard heat break - guess, it also gives some improvement?

[@smokeduv]

I just changed the extruder to a double gear extruder and that solved most of the skipping problems

[@Flagazz]

if you want to improve even more than the bi-metal is the way to choose

[@grosserboss]

Did you buy a specific brand for it?

[@JAYTEEAU]

Excellent coverage Stefan, I don't need it but I'm glad to know it exists. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@SusiBiker]

Very nice review. Ordered new ones for all my printers. Thank you.

[@Nitram_3d]

A comparison with a all metal non "bi-metallic" would be a interesting follow up...

[@Flagazz]

Indeed. Another test print with low temperature materials such as PLA... to compare cogging issues would be nice as well

[@lukes1978]

A comparison between this one, stainless steel all metal and titanium all metal, maybe even including OEM and knockoff parts (yes I know that would be a lot of work).

[@vladimirseven777]

It depends from materials used. For me full metal was fine from PETG, flex, nylon to PC. The only problem I had is PLA - it is very sticky and when it sticks somewhere at the bottom of heatbreak I have problems, PTFE in heatbreak there was a solution. I can't see how bi-metallic heatbreak solves that problem.

[@alchemistTi]

@@lukes1978 agreed. I love my E3D titanium V6 heat break.

[@BigTwitchy]

Perfektes Timing - da ich an meinem Endergebnis 5 Pro demnächst auf Direct-Drive umstelle, kann ich gleichzeitig auch auf ein Bi-Metall Heat-Break umsteigen. Vielen Dank!

[@TrickyNekro]

I got a cloned volcano, seems like a very fitting candidate!

[@vladi_g]

I use it for nylon and PETG. A gorgeous thing.

[@vladi_g]

BIG TREE TECH Inexpensive and high quality.

[@TechExploresNYC]

This is probably where you don't want to go cheap. Nice work.

[@Lozoot2]

Something I've read before that may explain that slightly worse performance with the genuine part - the two screws that hold the heater block to the cold end are supposedly only there for aligning before tightening the grub screw, and should be removed because, since they're metal, they end up conducting heat to the heatsink. Notice how, because of the shorter heat break on the knockoff, you didn't use the screws? I'm willing to bet you'll see some improvement if you pull those screws out on the genuine part!

Great insights, Stefan! I've been printing a lot with a 0.6 nozzle lately and your extrusion investigation is something I should do for a new-to-me PLA that's working on my stock CR10 but problematic with the Ender 3. Thanks for also highlighting PrusaSlicer's volumetric flow view to help understand potential for that bulging effect 👌🏻Despite what one thinks of the hardware, there's value for everyone when it comes to showing troubleshooting and slicer exploits. Keep it up!

[@thomasfeix7979]

Would you expect a benefit for a prusa as well? I tend to print with a 0.6mm nozzle and more mechanical parts that don't need to look to pretty. So quicker would be better :)

[@davidgretlein9384]

Thanks for the tips. I really dislike the clicking sound, and am tired of breaking down my hot end (often) to clean out filament in the transition you describe. I have been searching for the “ideal” hot end ( Creality CR10S with a Micro-Swiss Direct Drive extruder ). I’ll check this out!

[@Jeppedy]

Bought the Slice heartbreak, and seems to have cleaned things up right away. No (very little…) stringing at 3 mm retraction.

[@marlonlacert8133]

Keep up the good work! Happens to be the current problem I am looking at to improve my printer! Keep up the good fight!

[@lucasvandelogt5126]

Hmmm looks like a nice upgrade for my bowden setup. I must say, PTFE is so bad. Capricorn tubing also helped to fix the heat creap issues for me. I had the same issue you have now, there’s molten filament in your ptfe tube.

[@soundmindtv2911]

Thank you for more great information. You’re such a blessing, fairly presenting information and testing that saves all of us so much time and headaches!!

[@ckleanth]

To be honest difference between materials (hence conductivity) only helps in transient response of the system not steady state. Also the hotend fix on the Bowden type extruders is one of the first mods one can do. Bottom line i agree with what you said in the summary, only worth doing this if you want to be able to print using higher temperature materials.

[@rainerschindler3330]

Very nice Video! I'd be interested, in the change of low rate of the Prusa in comparison of the Ender.

[@mattlogue1300]

Dunno I am currently trying to merger Bowdens for dual extrusion. But I rarely use 0.4. I swap nozzles more often than filament. So I'm happy to leave those supplemental screws in. Also upgrading extruder heads but pissed the dual gear one I got has wrong style pnuemo connecter.

[@licensetodrive9930]

Being able to increase the printing speed with one of these installed is good, but does that mean bridges come out worse with filaments like PLA because the cooling fan is already at maximum speed?

[@redheadsg1]

Then you have bad cooling fan setup if you are already running at 100% speed for PLA.

[@dumle29]

Just a small note, because it's confusing enough as is. Bowden setups don't have the PTFE extending into the hot-zone necessarily. Yours do, but I think I'll add to confusion if people just assume all bowdens have the PTFE extending into the heater block. lots have it extending into the break, but only in the cold side.