Honest review: E3D’s new v6 hotend

E3D’s v6 hotend is all new and shiny, but is it any good? Let’s find out.

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E3D just released the v6 version of their popular all-metal hotend, and it’s the biggest update their design has ever seen. It still looks and feels like an E3D hotend, but almost every single part was redesigned.

The first thing that strikes you when looking at the v6 is just how much smaller it looks compared to the v5, especially when you’re comparing the bowden versions. Because the v6 now uses the integrated bowden coupler from the Kraken, there is less bulk sticking out from the top. And because the heatsink is now seven and half millimeters shorter, you actually gain print height when upgrading to the v6. But that’s also something to watch out for: If your printer’s z axis is already short on travel, those extra millimeters might actually have you running out of space. The heatsink now also has more and thinner cooling fins, a smaller overall diameter and is 10 grams lighter than its predecessor.

The next thing you’ll notice is that they ditched the printed fan shroud and replaced it with a clear injection-molded one, which grabs onto the heatsink much better and helps dampen the vibrations from the fan. And, while we’re at it, the v6 also comes with the updated and quieter seven-blade fan instead of the noisy five-blade one that came with the early v5 hotends.

Down at the heater block things have changed, too: One of the greatest annoyances with the previous E3D hotends was that you needed to basically turn the heater block into a Kapton burrito to keep the thermistor in place. With the v6, the thermistor comes with glass fiber sleeving that allow the thermistor’s legs to be simply clamped down with a screw. I was a bit worried that this screw might come loose over time, but if you tighten it up well enough, it’s going to work much better than Kapton tape. The heater block now also grasps around the heater cartridge and allows for a slightly better heat transfer.

E3D’s signature heat break has also been updated: It now uses a slightly bigger thread in the top section to allow for 1.75mm bowden tubing to reach all the way down into the heat break. But because the heat break acts as a thermal insulator and keeps the top section from getting hot, you can still use the hotend at up to 300°C, or even hotter when you swap the thermistor for a thermocouple. But there is a price to pay for this: Since the heat break is essentially a thin-walled stainless tube, there is only a limited amount of abuse it can take before it starts to bend. The redesigned heat break also means that you’ll get a bowden-compatible version even when you have a direct-drive setup – you can use a short piece of bowden tubing and guide the filament all the way from your extruder gear into the hotend. For the 3mm versions, you can still choose between a direct-drive and bowden version. At the same time, the heat break’s bore is machined in a different way, which yields a slightly smoother surface finish and should reduce the force needed to extrude filament.

Now, none of these improvements are game-changers, but they all add up to a hotend that is simply a much nicer overall product. In the time that i’ve been testing it, it kept printing without any hiccups – but that’s something that one should be able to expect from a premium hotend. For printing ABS, none of the improvements actually make much of a difference – just like the v5 and v4 before it, it just works. But for example for PLA, the smoother heat break and the extended bowden tube makes the hotend less likely to jam. For flexible or softer filaments, it reduces the chances of the filament buckling in the extruder and also allows you to print them a tiny bit faster.

The v6 is still easy to service and allows you to swap out nozzles without having to disassemble any other part of the hotend or having to calibrate your printer every time. Spare nozzles are available in sizes from a very fine 0.25 to a very coarse 0.8mm – the hotend comes with a 0.4mm one, which is a good choice for most users. The whole hotend is still beautifully machined and well-designed with a proper heat management.

Now, because of this, E3D’s hotends were always a bit bulky because they use such a large heat sink and a fan. The v6 improves on that front, but it’s still much larger than for example a Jhead, though most printer designs nowadays have enough space to use these larger hotends. It’s also not exactly a cheap hotend. However, i do think it is worth its money – the v4 that i’ve been using on a daily basis for almost a year now, has been the most trouble-free and most precise hotend that i’ve ever owned. The v6 only improves on that with many new details that honestly don’t make it a revolutionary new product, but rather one that combines tried-and-true concepts with smart, straightforward updates to the already exceptional predecessor. And that, i think, makes the E3D v6 the most versatile and simply the best hotend there is today.

 

I’m Tom, thanks for watching. Check out my build guide for the v6 if you want to see more of its new details.


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