Something is rotten with the Vertex Hot-end

Well. The Vertex hot-end sucks.

I have made a few experiments with the Vertex hot-end.

The first experiment was to modify the mounting of the temperature sensing ntc. My thought was that the thermal resistance between the alu-block and the ntc was too high, So I removed the insulating hose around the ntc. Drilled a 2.8mm hole in the aluminium block so the ntc could be mounted inside the block. Just like it is done on other hot-ends.

Then tried to load ABS. 10 minutes observation of temperature. Marlin never found the temperature stable enough to let the filament load begin.

Next experiment was to replace the Vertex ntc with a 100k ntc from an e3d-v6 hot-end.
Result: same as above. No filament loaded.

I don't know much about hot-end design but something is wrong with the Vertex hot-end.

What to do next? Well I have an extra e3d-v6 hot-end so a quick-n-dirty test prepared. Connectors for heat, ntc and blower was soldered and connected to the controllerboard. The ptfe tube moved from the Vertex hot-end to the e3d-v6 hot-end. Photo below showing pla flowing from the hot-end hanging in the ptfe tube.

Nano powered up and ABS-filament load requested. Temperature raised to 240deg very fast and within a few minutes molten filament was streaming out from the hot-end.

So I have a small job replacing the Vertex hot-end with the e3d-v6 and then recalibrate the Nano.

Below is from the first testprint  with the e3d-v6 hot-end. Filament is white pla that I usually print at 200deg on my Prusa, (first layer of 210deg). Time from power-up (26deg ambient temperature) to print started about 2½minute.

Now happy printing :-)
/Niels

PS All tests is done with the Marlin version from Vertex.