Ender 3 Pro - Maintenance

Wow, is this the least well documented topic on the internet, and it is so important. I didn’t realize some of these, and quickly ran into consistency problems. In this post I’ll describe maintenance advice often overlooked.

Filament Change & Nozzle Cleaning

Something you will do regularly is change the filament, either for different materials (PETG, PLA, TPU, etc) or, more commonly to change color.

Remove the current filament

To change the filament, you need to start by heating the nozzle to the typical printing temperature for the material that is currently being used (e.g., 200 degrees for PLA).

Once at the correct nozzle temperature, squeeze the “trigger” on the extruder, and pull the filament all the way out. Try do this as smoothly as possible to avoid leaving any bits behind that may end up clogging the extruder nozzle and heating block.

Clean the nozzle

This rarely gets mentioned, but is a super important step. Take the time now to clean the nozzle and extruder head. Be careful, it is very hot!

Use the included needle (looks like an acupunture needle), insert with your super steady hands - not so easy with a hangover - insert the needle all the way up the nozzle, jiggle it up and down, and slowly remove while twisting. You may need to do this a couple of times until you feel less friction removing the needle. Keep cleaning the needle every time you remove it.

Next you will need a small steel/copper brush to get the small remains of print material off of the nozzle. Given the nozzle a quick scrub and inspect to make sure it’s clean.

Load new filament

Super important step if you’re changing filament material, make sure to adjust the nozzle temperature! For example, if you were using PLA (200 degrees), and you’re switching to PETG, make sure to increase the nozzle temperature to at least the minimum recommended for the filement (normally there is a sticker on the side with advised print ranges).

First, cut a 45 degree angle off the end of the filament.

Pull the “trigger” on the extruder and insert the filament, pushing it all the way through until you see it extruding out of the nozzle (the first couple of times this sucks balls, and it’s hard to get the filament through the extruder mechanism - trust me, it is possible). Keep pushing until the color fully changes, and you have a smooth output from the nozzle.

Turn off the heat

Now that you’ve loaded the new filament, remember to turn off the nozzle heat and let it cool down.