Ender 3 hotend upgrade

Hi, I mostly print in PLA, occasionally PETG. I would like to try nylon and other hi-temp materials soon or later...
I'm using an Ender 3 v2 with stock hotend, I'll soon upgrade to double z-axis and probably herome fanduct. When I'll finish double z-axis I'll also print a direct drive plate and move the extruder/stepper.
I'm currently having a lot of trouble with clogged hotend.
I tried chep's fix with a small washer pressing over a short capricorn piece... it helped a bit but still having problems.

I'm considering upgrading to an all-metal hotend but I'm not sure which one would work best for me... as I said I'm not interested in high flow and print mainly PLA.

Option 1)
TRIANGLE LABS BIMETAL HOTEND FROM ALIEXPRESS WITH STOCK BLOCK AND HEATSINK
some says that it works good... it is also the quicker/easier upgrade

Option2)
E3D v6 CLONE FROM TRIANGLE LAB WITH ALL-METAL HEATBREAK
The heat break is not bimetal and I'm a little bit worried about heatcreap

Opion3)
DRAGON HOTEND
This is pretty expansive at approx 70USD... I will also need to adjust mounting on the plate for it with something custom designed.

Option4)
MICROSWISS HOTEND
The most expansive upgrade

Can you give some feedback and maybe some suggestion on which route to take? thanks!

go for the cheapest.
As long as the heatblock has a decent fan on it - heatcreep is just not a 'thing'.

never had it or seen it on any of my machines. I suspect it was invented by hot end manufacturers - but then I'm cynical ;-)

I suspect that once you've fixed the mechanical issues with the ender - the z-screw and the bowden setup. Your problems will all go away woithout changing the hotend.

The bowden setup is just poor.
And is most likely repsonsible for most feeding issues with the ender 3.

So do the imporetant stuff first. The second z-screw and the direct drive conversion.
And then see if things have righted themselves and only then think about changing anything else.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by curious aardvark

So do the imporetant stuff first. The second z-screw and the direct drive conversion.
And then see if things have righted themselves and only then think about changing anything else.

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Yes, I also believe that double z and direct drive are a must to improve things... thanks for your advice.
Probably without the bowden going up and down the hotend the leakage problem will be fixed, but still I would like to be able to print higher temp materials without having to worry about cooking the ptfe tube in the hotend.
Since the bimetal heatbreak is quite cheap this is something hard to resist...
My main concern it to make things worse with PLA sticking to the steel tube.
Anybody here tried upgrading the stock hotend with a bimetal heatbreak?

Of those I'd choose the dragon. That more robust heatblock is way too appealing.
Second choice would be the BiMetal. Easy to install, and Triangle labs do good work from what I've heard.
Contrary to what aardvark says, heatcreep does exist, and is quite common if printing in a hot environment (e.g., enclosure, or a hot room). However, the V6 is usually quite robust against heatcreep. It will need a new mount though (as per the Dragon). That would be my third choice as it's fiddly to work on compared to the dragon

In my crazyness I was also thinking about mounting a 5020 fan in place of the stock 4010 to improve cooling...
I'll probably go with the bimetal upgrade and if I'm not satisfied (and I already know I won't :rolleyes:) I'll consider the dragon, even though it is becoming hard to find... on aliexpress it is somehow "hidden" with no real photo... maybe a patenting issue with the mosquito?

Exactly that. All the mosquito clones have disappeared. May be able to construct them from individual parts.

Why do you think you need extra cooling. Have you had heatcreep issues before? Usually it’s manageable on most hotends, unless the ambient temperature is getting high, or the printer has a terrible hotend setup.

Mainly to increase CFM while lowering noise.
ambient temperature may be an issue here on summer... but I'm willing to build an enclosure anyway sooner or later so ambient temperature will surely be high...

If you build an enclosure, make sure you can open it right up, or ventilate for PLA. Generally from around 30ºC and up and heatcreep starts to be a problem with PLA.

thanks I'll look into this.
bimetal heatbreak in the mail, I'll update if someone is interested

Bowden conversion to direct drive? Hmmmm :) Ender 3V2, have the 2nd Z axis part on the do list already...

yep, I modified the gantry adapted of the herome gen5, printing it right now... not the best looking mod of the world but it should work, let's how it goes...
Attachment 16422

I did an E3DV6 with a bimetal heatbreak from triangle labs and my print quality is much better than I ever imagined. You cannot see my layer lines even with 0.2mm layer height due to the linear advance settings I enabled. I will be writing a full instruction sheet on how to replicate my set up soon on my blog.