this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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Can mere dirt cause heatcreep? (discuss.tchncs.de)
submitted 3 weeks ago by Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
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I'm trying to find the reason why my bigger printer suddenly decided to constantly create blockages as high as the PTFE tube in the cooling block (so a little bit above the heatbreak).

It's an older V6 head. The discolouring on the heating block comes from the single time the nozzle came lose and PETG was pressed through the threads upwards, that was a year ago though. I didn't change anything, from one day to another it just decided that (for both PLA and PETG) it'll now stop working properly.

Waiting on a stronger cooling fan (strongest Sunon I could find, the one with 9000rpm). Other than that I'm just confused why this suddenly happens.

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[–] drrodneymckay_@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The clogging I had was a result of creep because I was turning off the machine before the cooling fans could finish bringing the temps down. After the fans were off the heat would move up and swell the filament. After I started leaving it on longer and not using emergency stop for print failures my clogging went away.

[–] Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Good advice. I always wait until below 50°C hotend temp before I shutdown the machines. The issues I currently have also happen mid-print (after perhaps 5-10 minutes).

[–] drrodneymckay_@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

I would make sure your fan is moving sufficient air. Maybe the bushing is wearing down and it's running slower.

Looks like your heat break unscrews from the heatsink, maybe some fresh thermal paste to help the transfer. Some types can turn into insulators if over heated too much.

[–] cepelinas@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 weeks ago

I had mysterious clogging in my e3d v6 I too thought it was heatcreep and to some extent it was heatcreep, but the real issue was that the extruder spring was putting on way too much pressure on the filament and made it into an oval shape which wouldn't go through.

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 weeks ago

I have an old v6 hotend with about 2500h of print time on it, looking pretty dirty too, but I have no issues with heat creep. I also don't think that what you show should be causing heat creep, but giving things a good thorough cleaning occasionally is never a bad idea.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

You might check the rest of the filament path. On my old bed slinger, I had some GitD filament wear a groove through my tension arm to the point that it was pinching the filament as it was feeding through. I've also had my extruder motor get filled with plastic shavings and start sticking randomly. Both might resemble a clog.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

I just fixed heat creep because the extruder spring retainer had cracked a little. Filament wasn't being fed at the correct rate.

[–] morbidcactus@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Swap nozzles? I've had issues in the past with partial clogs with petg in particular, at the least it'll remove a variable from your troubleshooting. Also echo what others have suggested and check out your filament path, make sure there's not somewhere else causing an issue. I feel like dusty filament could potentially contribute to clogs, if you're concerned with that there's designs out there for in line wipers that pass the filament through some soft sponge.

Do you have any resistance feeding the filament? I've had a few cases where either the filament kinda tangled due to slack and would still be able to feed but needed more force, bad enough it can actually wear the filament in the extruder and won't advance anymore. Extra friction from tight tubing, small radius bends, cardboard spools etc. can do that too. Check your settings for the tension spring as well, too tight can totally cause issues that will look like this and make you chase ghosts.

I run a fan like this one on mine (9.9 cfm/0.277 m^3^/min), the ones that push more air get loud quick just as a heads up, this one I was also looking at, is 12.2 cfm/0.342 m^3^/min but is 39 vs 31.4 dB, I did a bunch of fan upgrades last year for both better performance and less fan noise, these will be noticeable. Don't get heat blockages but do have some oozing I really need to get around to tuning.

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

I've had a hotend that constantly clogged with looked like heat creep, but it was caused by the filament being pushed laterally and twisting inside it. I imagine that made the plastic flow back.

I have also had one constantly clog due to the print cooling fan being installed wrong and blowing into the heater. This one is weird because it just unclogs when you turn the print off, leaving no evidence of what happened.