My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
Hello everyone,
I've been having issues with my XL-5T clogging nozzles right and left, and I mean a complete and utter clog that renders the nozzle unusable. Replacement is the only solution. It all began once I made the enclosure/firmware upgrade, so I'm not sure which one did what.
I contacted support, but they just gave me the canned message, "Nozzles clog and are a consumable," without any further help on why this was happening. They only assumed I was an idiot and called it a day. This XL is not my only printer, nor my first, and it has only 17 days of pampered printing on the clock. I have replaced two completely clogged nozzles already and am now dealing with a third one, and this printer is only six months old. Any ideas on what this should be happening?
My MK4 works like a charm; I'm using mostly Prusament filaments, but all-in-all, the cheapest filament I use is Jessie, and all of my nozzles are 0.4, so I'm guessing I may be able to use a printer without constant clogging.
I've performed manual cold pulls and all of that, including, but not limited to, the use of the acupuncture needle, to no avail. It keeps clogging with both a closed enclosure and an open one.
Thanks in advance!
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
My second entirely clogged nozzle:
This severe under-extrusion is happening to my third nozzle in two weeks today. It's not completely clogged yet, but it's struggling even after proper cleaning, cold pull, needle, etc.
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but are you certain it's a clog? When you replace the nozzle, is it not possible to push the needle fully through? I've not had a single clogged-past-the-point-of-redemption nozzle on the XL after several thousand hours of printing, however I have had similar kinds of under-extrusion happen for a few reasons including too low a temperature, broken filament just after the extruder gear, tension settings on the extrusion door, etc.
The rare occasion I have had filament stuck in the nozzle I can usually overdrive the nozzle temperature and manually feed a piece of filament in and push it through.
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
Hi LD,
Actually, your questions make a lot of sense since that is how an eventual and almost predictable clog happens. The problem is my printer is blocking the extruders using quality filaments (mostly Prusament PLA/PETG) one by one. So far, three nozles are blocked in a way I've never seen before (out of 5). I've tried everything, including a heat gun, but I had to order some 1.6 mm diameter tungsten bars to see if I can finally unclog them. The question remains: Why is this happening? What is causing it? I can't rely on a printer that unexpectedly blocks the nozzle for no apparent reason.
How many people with a barely used, fastidiously maintained printer have "completely and utterly blocked" three nozzles in two weeks while using PLA and PETG from Prusament (My XL has 17D 10H of accumulated print time in six months)? Is it related to the PCCF nextruder upgrade that came with the XL enclosure? Was it the firmware upgrade? I don't have the answer to any of those questions, and it is not like a six-month-old printer will entitle you to some support or anything. I'm waiting for the new high-flow nozzles to see if this issue magically disappears, but whatever solves my issue won't be because of Prusa's support. For now, I have a gigantic paperweight that used to work beautifully, and then suddenly, it didn't anymore.
The under-extrusion I shared was what was happening before the third nozzle got blocked. It was printing perfectly until it didn't. Nothing changed: the same filament, the same parameters (out-of-the-box printing profiles), and absolutely everything printing on a clean (soap, water, and a good bounty paper dry) bed. My MK4 has used the same nozzle since it was new. It is almost a year older than my XL and is not blocking anything.
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
I forgot to mention: Even if it is a user error, which is always possible, what is that error? What did I do that is making my printer fail multiple times? On different three of its five tools until I had to stop using it?
Hi LD,
Actually, your questions make a lot of sense since that is how an eventual and almost predictable clog happens. The problem is my printer is blocking the extruders using quality filaments (mostly Prusament PLA/PETG) one by one. So far, three nozles are blocked in a way I've never seen before (out of 5). I've tried everything, including a heat gun, but I had to order some 1.6 mm diameter tungsten bars to see if I can finally unclog them. The question remains: Why is this happening? What is causing it? I can't rely on a printer that unexpectedly blocks the nozzle for no apparent reason.
How many people with a barely used, fastidiously maintained printer have "completely and utterly blocked" three nozzles in two weeks while using PLA and PETG from Prusament (My XL has 17D 10H of accumulated print time in six months)? Is it related to the PCCF nextruder upgrade that came with the XL enclosure? Was it the firmware upgrade? I don't have the answer to any of those questions, and it is not like a six-month-old printer will entitle you to some support or anything. I'm waiting for the new high-flow nozzles to see if this issue magically disappears, but whatever solves my issue won't be because of Prusa's support. For now, I have a gigantic paperweight that used to work beautifully, and then suddenly, it didn't anymore.
The under-extrusion I shared was what was happening before the third nozzle got blocked. It was printing perfectly until it didn't. Nothing changed: the same filament, the same parameters (out-of-the-box printing profiles), and absolutely everything printing on a clean (soap, water, and a good bounty paper dry) bed. My MK4 has used the same nozzle since it was new. It is almost a year older than my XL and is not blocking anything.
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
All fair points, just thought I'd state the obvious, since I know I've certainly overlooked it myself plenty. 🙂
So if you crank the nozzle temp manually via the Control menu to something high like 250 or 260, you're not able to manually push a length of filament through (I do this with the tension door open, feeding directly into the nozzle tube opening just below the gear, sometimes with a pair of flat needle-nose pliers)?
How far up the nozzle tube does the block start? My next thought would be unusual heat properties/creep is causing filament to soften far above the heat block and get stuck way up there... But I'd assume you'd notice that right away.
Honestly the circumstances and what it sounds like you've tried makes this quite the mystery, I've never heard of this from XL owners before.
I forgot to mention: Even if it is a user error, which is always possible, what is that error? What did I do that is making my printer fail multiple times? On different three of its five tools until I had to stop using it?
Hi LD,
Actually, your questions make a lot of sense since that is how an eventual and almost predictable clog happens. The problem is my printer is blocking the extruders using quality filaments (mostly Prusament PLA/PETG) one by one. So far, three nozles are blocked in a way I've never seen before (out of 5). I've tried everything, including a heat gun, but I had to order some 1.6 mm diameter tungsten bars to see if I can finally unclog them. The question remains: Why is this happening? What is causing it? I can't rely on a printer that unexpectedly blocks the nozzle for no apparent reason.
How many people with a barely used, fastidiously maintained printer have "completely and utterly blocked" three nozzles in two weeks while using PLA and PETG from Prusament (My XL has 17D 10H of accumulated print time in six months)? Is it related to the PCCF nextruder upgrade that came with the XL enclosure? Was it the firmware upgrade? I don't have the answer to any of those questions, and it is not like a six-month-old printer will entitle you to some support or anything. I'm waiting for the new high-flow nozzles to see if this issue magically disappears, but whatever solves my issue won't be because of Prusa's support. For now, I have a gigantic paperweight that used to work beautifully, and then suddenly, it didn't anymore.
The under-extrusion I shared was what was happening before the third nozzle got blocked. It was printing perfectly until it didn't. Nothing changed: the same filament, the same parameters (out-of-the-box printing profiles), and absolutely everything printing on a clean (soap, water, and a good bounty paper dry) bed. My MK4 has used the same nozzle since it was new. It is almost a year older than my XL and is not blocking anything.
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
Thanks, LD. That is entirely my point: What is happening is weird and uncommon and has not happened to me before.
Yes, I tried pushing the filament downwards with the door open; I even used PC filament after cranking up the temp to 290c to no avail.
Below are the tungsten bars I had to buy; the first one is the same as the photo on the original post, but after some severe torch intervention (look at the color of the nozzle), it is now unclogged. You'll see the difference if you look at the bars coming out of them. The block starts (almost invariably) in the middle of the reinforcing ring:
This is not simply a good old clog, making me wonder if something went terribly wrong here when pushing a filament through a hot nozzle will only make matters worse, and I had to use a little metal bar with serious heat to unclog the thing. Unrelated but fun to mention, burning clogged filaments smell, and the nozzle will separate from the metal tube with excessive heat.
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
Wow, that's wild. Are these all the stock nozzles that came with the printer? If you hadn't already had days of printing on the printer I'd suspect a bad batch of nozzles, or a contaminated roll of filament.
I don't suppose
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
I get these very often if I print with any filament containing additive like carbon fiber with a 0.4 nozzle. So far I have never had a plug using filaments with a 0.6 nozzle.
Across the various forums the filament plugs are usually occurring exactingly as indicated in your pics. Now I only get one of theses plugs if I forget that a hybrid filament is loaded and I us a 0.4 nozzle.
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
I will add that I have not been successful in clearing all of them, maybe 80%. It's definitely a bummer, because these suckers are not cheap.
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
Well,
Wow, that's wild. Are these all the stock nozzles that came with the printer? If you hadn't already had days of printing on the printer I'd suspect a bad batch of nozzles, or a contaminated roll of filament.
I don't suppose
Yes, those were the nozzles that came with the printer, except the Obxydian one, which I only put on the fifth tool.
I just got my new high-flow nozzles delivered. Well, I made a mistake, and I'm two nozzles short, but I will try with these. I really hope Prusa reviews their magic on the software or their design because, unless there was a factory defect on my factory-installed nozzles, there's a problem here. I'm not asking for nozzle replacement; I'm just asking for a solution, but for that to happen, they first need to accept there's something funny going on.
I also use an Ultimaker S3, which is arguably famous for clogging nozzles, mainly between people who have never used one. While it takes some maintenance like every other printer to work reliably, I have never, ever replaced a hot end on that printer. Will they eventually wear? Absolutely. Have they ever clogged? Very rarely and always a partial and predictable clog. Same exact story with my previous Mini+, X1C, Crapality, etc. and my present MK4, but I have never seen a totally blocked nozzle before.
These are the statistics of my XL. Heads 1,2 and 5 had blocked nozzles after the firmware/enclosure/nextruders upgrades. I performed all three at once two or three weeks ago.
The new (I have to admit they look beautyful) nozzles which I hope will solve this problem:
I'll report back if they work. In the meantime, I'm ordering the two I forgot 😛
Hey @Prusa team, we are guiding a horse to water here, care to take a drink?
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
Are you printing PLA with the enclosure closed up when these clogs happened? Quality filament brand or not that's gonna cause heatcreep issues.
Needing to torch and ram rod a PLA/PETG clog seem a bit excessive too. I've had a couple clogs that were remedied with just a cheapo heatgun and letting the filament just ooze itself out.
XL-5T, MK3S MMU3 || GUIDE: How to print with multiple-nozzlesizes do read updated replies || PrusaSlicer Fork with multi-nozzlesize freedom || How Feasible is Printing PETG for PLA supports on XL very
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
Are you still using original petg idler levers, resp. have you replaced them by newer PC-CF already? As per my experience using an closure even once can ruin the petg levers and can cause exactly the described issues.
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
Are you still using original petg idler levers, resp. have you replaced them by newer PC-CF already? As per my experience using an closure even once can ruin the petg levers and can cause exactly the described issues.
Also replace the lock for the levers. The stock ones come loose with the bolt and nut must be checked and tightened on a regular basis. If it is loose you will not get enough pressure to keep the levers tight. Then you will get under extrusion.
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
As someone who has ruined several nozzles due to this exact thing...... are you possibly overtightening the grub screw and denting the nozzle at the locking collar?
I found that I had one grub screw that was a bit sharp on the outer ring of the contact zone, and was able to begin a dent in the nozzle with much less force compared to the rest. Once that happened, it shows all the signs of underextrusion/heat creep/clog.
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
My thoughts also go into direction of overthightened grub screw or insufficient coldend cooling, like blocked airflow or fan problem (which should be detected during selftest however).
I never had a clogged nozzle in my XL up to now.
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
Hello everyone...
@Prusa DO SOMETHING!!!!
I have been traveling and printed for the first time in a week with a brand-new nozzle original Prusa high flow nozzle; it clogged after just 45 minutes of printing!!!!
Nope, it is not the enclosure, I know about the temperature, it was not the screw, I didn't touch them until I had to start changing nozzles, all of them were factory installed. This is getting very frustrating!!!!!
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
I just chatted with the support team. This time, it seems they listened, and they told me they would review the case and contact me. Let's see if that happens.
It is impossible to solve a problem without first recognizing there may be one. A brand new nozzle was completely blocked after just 45 minutes of its first print since it was new. The enclosure was wide open. Let's see if they can come up with a solution.
For now, thank you all for your comments and suggestions. I'll update this topic once something good or bad happens.
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
Hello everyone,
This situation has been solved!!! In case somebody else runs into this peculiar problem, I just printed all the PCCF parts for the Nextruder on my MK4 using the best quality available and Prusament PCCF, and now it is working as it should: Brilliantly!
I tried everything suggested by you above, plus disassembling the whole enclosure and reassembling it again, disassembling the extruder's upgrade parts, and reassembling them again with extreme care, to no avail. Then, I did two things simultaneously: reassembled the Nextruder's upgrade parts with my home-printed ones and performed the firmware upgrade to 6.1.3. Now it is working!!!
Which one was responsible for my printer's coming back to life? The release notes do not mention Nextruder issues, so my money is on the parts. I'm sure as hell I'm not going back to the previous parts to test it out.
Once again, thank you all for your suggestions. Now, my little monster is back on business! 😀
RE: My XL is now called Sir Clog-a-lot after upgrades. Any ideas?
After installing the XL enclosure, I have 10 times more clogging then before, mostly with PLA. I still looking for a solution. First, I thought it is the new PCCF Idler upgrade and then tension, but I tried 10 different tension settings without any improvement. I think the problem comes from the higher temps in the extruder through the enclosure and the summer room temp. I will try to reprint all parts of the extruder to a hightemp material like you. I hope this will work for me as well.