E3D-v6 Troubleshooting

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The most common causes of trouble with extrusion on E3D hotends are as follows:

1.Inadequate cooling
2.Bad Filament
3.Misconfigured thermistor/temperature
4.PTFE tubing not properly inserted (where applicable)
5.Misconfigured slicer settings
6.Poor extruder design


Inadequate cooling

This is the most common cause of problems, accounting for nearly half of all issues reported to us. The entirety of the heatsink must be kept cool at all times during printing. For this to happen enough airflow must be directed at the heatsink, and that airflow must be distributed over the whole heatsink.

The use of the supplied 30mm fan and duct is highly recommended, the supplied fan has adequate airflow (4-5 CFM) and the duct is specifically designed to aim that airflow at the fins of the heatsink.

An easy way to check that your hotend is being properly cooled is to simply feel the heatsink with a finger after a print has been running for some time. (Be careful not to touch the heater-block, it will burn you instantly) The entirety of the heatsink should be cool to the touch, including the bottom fins closest to the hot parts.

Common issues are:

  • Not wiring the fan directly to a 12v power supply.
  • Connecting the hotend fan to the “Fan” output on an electronics board, which is software controlled and should be used for print cooling, not for a hotend fan.
  • Using a 3rd party designed printed duct that is improperly designed and impedes flow or does not direct flow properly to all fins. This is not to say all ducts other than the supplied one are bad, but that you should be cautious in your selection or design of a duct.
  • Using a 3rd party designed printed duct that is improperly designed and impedes flow or does not direct flow properly to all fins. This is not to say all ducts other than the supplied one are bad, but that you should be cautious in your selection or design of a duct.
  • Having some sort of obstruction in front of the fan or behind the duct which restricts airflow.

Bad Filament

There are a huge number of filament vendors out there, to cater to all needs and budgets. The E3D hotends are designed to cope with and print the vast majority of filaments on the market. ​ Filament must be of an appropriate dimensional tolerance in order to smoothly pass through the hotend. Filament that is too big will have excessive friction in the hotend. Filament that is too thin will buckle or snake inside the hotend and jam. Be aware that just making a couple of measurements on the start of a spool will not reveal if the filament has bulges where the diameter of the filament is too wide, or hard kinks that will not easily pass down the hotend. Filament can also be out-of-round or oval in cross section, this can lead to deceptive measurements if you do not measure your filament at multiple angles.

1.75mm Filament:

Should be within 1.65mm to 1.85mm in diameter.
Significant increases in friction occur once diameter exceeds 1.90mm.

3mm Filament:

Usually 2.85mm nominal diameter, but the hotend should handle filament that is 3mm nominal as long as it is accurately 3mm.
Significant increases in friction occur once diameter exceeds 3.05mm.

Some particular brands/colours of filament are particularly troublesome despite having good dimensions. This may be due to additives added to bulk-out the filament and reduce costs, particularly in the cheaper filaments. The exact mechanism or cause of why this happens is not clear, but it seems that some of these filament are more “sticky” when partially molten and therefore cause more jams. Ultimately the solution is here is to stick to good quality filament.

Black is often a troublesome colour as unscrupulous manufacturers can easily hide low quality recycled regrind behind lots of black pigment.

You cannot use 1.75mm filament in a 3mm hotend. Please stop asking. If you think you might be able to use 3mm filament in a 1.75mm hotend you shouldn’t be modifying or building a 3D Printer. Put the screwdriver down. ​ Misconfigured thermistor/temperature

The supplied thermistor is a Semitec 104-GT2 and your firmware must be configured to use this thermistor. In Marlin this means using thermistor definition number 5:

  1. define TEMP_SENSOR_0 5

In Repetier Firmware use thermistor definition number 8:

  1. define EXT0_TEMPSENSOR_TYPE 8

In Smoothieware use thermistor definition “Semitec”:

temperature_control.hotend.thermistor Semitec

For RepRapFirmware use the Beta value 4267K.

Using an incorrect thermistor can result in temperatures being too low and increasing extrusion force, as well as producing prints that are poorly bonded.

You may find that after changing your hotend you may need to use slightly different temperatures, as a guide at E3D we tend to print PLA between 190C and 210C, and ABS at 230C to 240C. Your particular filament may however need different settings