Micro Swiss All Metal Hotend with Slotted Cooling Block for Wanhao i3 w/.4mm Nozzle

I have had this for quite some time and it is fantastic and I recommend it to all of my friends that have stock horns. Its the first upgrade j do to my new printers

BE SURE to follow the instructions on Micro Swiss website fully until the end to avoid a leak--unlike me. After correctly installing it it has been a pleasure to use compared to the original hot end. It has never completely jammed, and minor jams are easy to clear. Still seems a bit pricey for what it is though.

Installed this on my Monoprice Maker Select Plus because I kept getting jams with the stock PTFE solution. Its much easier to load/unload filament (though that might be partly due to the Micro Swiss extruder plate which I added at the same time). I can now also print at much higher temperatures which opens up other filament types. Just wish it came with a hardened nozzle so I could print abrasive filaments. Then itd be the perfect upgrade.

It installed easily in my Maker Select V2 using the many published guides and videos. I have only tried PLA but it works fine.

Good product

so far so good

Installation was fairly simple. To get the 1.7mm measurement accurate I simply cut a small flat piece of plastic that I positioned next to the hot tube. Big difference in operating with higher temps. Stringing and blobs are present but havent affected overall good quality of PETG prints. Benchy printed well with some bridging problems inside roof not affecting Quality of finished surface. Overall good quality machined parts, good value for money.

This hotend works very well! Those who have reviewed this product negatively dont understand the implications or steps necessary to install an all metal hotend. Firstly, the ENTIRE hotend will get very hot! The heat break will not prevent temperatures reaching above melting temperatures from entering your extruder (if top fed, like Wanhao i3). THIS WILL CAUSE JAMMING!!! To prevent this, make sure your fans are always running at 100%. I put some thermal paste on my heat sink to improve contact. I also cut a small piece of PTFE liner to fit within the bottom of the extruder and long enough to hit the top of the hotend to insulate the wire a bit (in total, pretty short). You can further improve cooling by replacing your side fan and printing out some parts to create airflow to cool the top of the hotend a bit. Do not let it sit at melting temperatures while idle without proper cooling or it will jam. Secondly, all parts of the hotend need to be snugly secured or it will leak. To prevent this, put together parts of the hotend and keep the heating block about a quarter turn loose for both heat break and nozzle. Bring the parts up to temperature (others recommended 250°c and that worked for me) and tighten them snugly AFTER they reach temperature. The parts are very hot, be careful not to touch them. Thirdly, increase your temperature about 10-15°c for printing PLA (about 12°c worked for me), others as necessary to work well again.

Highly recommend changing the hot end in your printer to this ASAP

I bought two of the cheaper knock-off all metal hotends you can find here on Amazon. In both cases I had trouble with heat creep causing clogging after several hours of printing PLA at 200 degrees. In one case I purchased a new nozzle and heatbreak from the same supplier as the knock-off hotend, and the nozzle was so poorly machined that it wouldn’t extrude at all. The .4mm hole was almost completely occluded with metal. Perhaps a drill or machining chip? Then I bough the Micro Swiss all Metal hotend for my Maker Select v2 3D printer. Should have bought this to begin with. My son has been printing Mandalorian armor almost non-stop for a week. 20-26 hour prints. Not a single clog or air print. Works like a charm! I don’t know what all the differences are, but Micro Swiss has something the knock-offs don’t have. It just works. First of all, the steel lower section is tightly fitted to the aluminum section of the heatbreak. The top hole, where the filament enters the hot end, is deeper and smoother making it easier to feed new filament in. The nozzle is clean and well made. The inside also seems smoother than the others. I’m very pleased with this hotend. I wasted over $50 on the knock-offs. Wish I had just bought this one instead. Lesson learned!