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Heater question

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Lance Weston, Apr 14, 2020.

  1. Lance Weston

    Lance Weston Active Member

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    I was getting intermittent heater_0 failures. I changed every part in the path, cables and boards, hotends, but to no avail. I then replaced the heater in the hotend, three days and not a problem. All of the hotend heaters were about the same age.

    My question: How long can I run a heater before it has to be replaced? Has anyone else experienced the intermittent heater.
     
    #1 Lance Weston, Apr 14, 2020
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Yes, I have had some from the early ones wear out. They may become intermittent when they are nearing the end of life.
    They are a wear item and they are relatively cheap. I prefer the 40w ceramic cores to the ones the hotends have stock (Hexagon is 30w, E3D is 25w). How long they last depends on how hard you run the printer (how many hours of runtime it has). I don't have a number, but with hard use you will replace them more often.
     
    #2 mark tomlinson, Apr 15, 2020
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  3. Lance Weston

    Lance Weston Active Member

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    I run the printers 24/7. I would guess that I am getting 6 months before flaky begins.
     
    #3 Lance Weston, Apr 18, 2020
  4. tkoco

    tkoco - -.- --- -.-. ---
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    Sounds like it would be a good idea to stock a few extra heater cores
     
    #4 tkoco, Apr 18, 2020
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  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I know I do. with near constant printing 6 months is not unreasonable. I replace mine at least once a year but we no longer run quite that often on all the printers. You can get a bundle of the 40 ceramic cores for not a lot from Amazon.
     
    #5 mark tomlinson, Apr 19, 2020
  6. tkoco

    tkoco - -.- --- -.-. ---
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    What search term would help on amazon?
     
    #6 tkoco, Apr 19, 2020
  7. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    #7 mark tomlinson, Apr 19, 2020
  8. Lance Weston

    Lance Weston Active Member

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    I am real anal on spares. I keep a dozen heaters. I use the PA-09 engineers crimper from Japan and I have all of the connectors. ,Every part that I can get a spare for I have. I even keep a complete carriage assembly ready to go. The Partsbuilt.com R2 replacement board lets me keep spares of all electronics. I have switched over to hardened steel nozzles because the glass beds are silicon dioxide and will just sand a brass nozzle right off the first time you get too close. I am trying for minimum down time. I use bushings instead of ball bearings where I can in the carriage assembly, because they may wear, but they don't fail and my print just keeps on going.

    There should be some discussion on fans. This is the fan I use and it can be gotten from Amazon or Ebay.
    https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dual-Ball-...290109?hash=item3d3c19357d:g:ntoAAOSwGSRbMe-h
    These are meant for continuous duty and I use E3D hotends. I have tested tons of fans and these are the highest output I can get.
     
    #8 Lance Weston, Apr 19, 2020

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