Extruder starts smoking, never reaches temperature

Hey folks,

Got a bit of a weird problem. I just had to replace the heating element in one of my extruders. I bought the correct part from a re-seller recommended by the manufacturer, and the seller said it was the correct part. However, after installing it, it starts to smoke badly when heating up. The thermocouple reads it never reaching the target temperature, and the printer gives an error timing out. However, using a digital noncontact thermometer, I was able to see temperatures as high as 300 degrees, and the heating element gets red-hot(not something the working extruder does). My best guess is I did something wrong on the install, but am wracking my brain over what it could be.

The printer is a Wanhao Duplicator 4S, which as I understand is a clone of the makerbot design. It uses a Mark 10 Extruder.

Any assistance would be appreciated. I've been simply not using that extruder for a couple of weeks but would like to get back to dual extrusion.

sounds like you need a new heating element.

It is a new heating element; that's the problem. The whole thing started when I replaced the heating element and heating block.

Looking back over my notes, it seems the element I purchases was actually for a Duplicator 3. I had assumed it would be the same part, but is it possible it's the wrong element? The two components looked visually identical.

well you said it was smaller. so might not be transferring as a much heat to the heat block as it should if it were slightly larger.

I should have probably said you need a different heater :-)
Just because it's new, doesn't mean it's working properly :-)

Yep, its all making sense, now. In addition to the size being off there's a possibility the device is using the wrong voltage. Really wish I could find better information about my printer's components :PThanks!