PLA on my i3 is not extruding unless I force it through  

PLA on my i3 is not extruding unless I force it through

Hi all. I got my i3 a almost a month ago and I've loved it a lot! So much so that I use it for my university research. I began printing with the grey PLA that comes with the i3 kit and everything went fine and dandy. Then I started printing with some red PLA that I got from esun3d.net and at first it was printing like a dream. Then it happened! It exploded! I ducked out of the way just in time to avoid the shrapnel flying everywhere, which thankfully took out two henchmen of my eternal nemesis, Doctor MUAHAHA, whom I was fighting at the time. They had snuck up on me while I was distractedly admiring the beauty of my latest creation. They were trying to kill me before I could stop Doctor MUAHAHA's latest plot to, what else, TAKE OVER THE WORLD! Thanks to the i3's explosion taking out the goons, I was able to sneak into Doctor MUAHAHA's super-secret-hidden-secret layer in an abandoned warehouse and stop his nefarious plans. The world has been saved once again, you're welcome.

Or maybe that was a dream I had while waiting for the printer to finish. Either way I am serious when I say that the red filament that I mentioned above does not extrude unless I force it through with a pair of pliers. Let me explain.

When I follow the load filament procedure everything goes fine and the filament (usually) extrudes correctly. Then I set it to print and for no apparent reason the red PLA does not come out. I can see the wheels turning in the extruder but it almost seems like it's jammed. I tried several times to clean the nozzle with an acupuncture needle both during loading and with the extruder still but I can't feel any clogs. I have also tried heating the nozzle to 260 deg for several minutes which works for a bit but then the filament stops flowing again. There have also been instances when I tried to load the filament, but nothing came out of the nozzle. I then immediately unloaded the filament and saw that the end of the filament was not melted at all, i.e. it had not been heated at all even though the wheels of the extruder were working fine. The only solution I have found for now is to set the printer to print and to force the filament into the nozzle by pushing it in with a pair of pliers. It seems that that somehow gets the filament flowing properly and printing happens like normal.

Other things I've noticed that might be of importance:
- Sometimes I hear popping when the filament is being extruded which leads me to believe that the filaments might be humid. I should specify that I live in Singapore which, as you might know, is pretty humid all year round. I got a dry cabinet to store my filaments in so I hope that helps to solve that problem. I try to store the filaments in the dry cabinets whenever I'm not using them.
- I have tried to unload the filament, heat the nozzle to 215 deg, then pushed the filament into the extruder without starting the load filament function. In that case the filament comes out fine. Then when I start the load filament function it works (sometimes) but while printing it stops extruding again.

Could it be a problem with the bottom part of the nozzle or could it be a problem with the extruder cogs and wheels? Or is it a humidity problem? I don't think it's the latter because before writing this I unwrapped a brand new roll of filament that had been vacuum bagged with silica and it still gave me the same problems. I managed to get it printing with the pliers trick but I would really want to not have to resort to it.

Any help is appreciated because I'm at the limits of my knowledge, sorry for the long post.

TLDR: I stopped Doctor MUAHAHA's plans once again! Also, PLA is not being extruded but will load properly (most of the times). I don't think there is a clog so I'm stumped.