There are a 3 main different types of heating elements for the extruder that I am seeing are used frequently.

Cartridge Heater - ala Makerbot
Resistor Heater - Hotends.com etc.
Nichrome Wire - Makergear etc.

What is your preference for a heating element and why?

Resistor because it works just as well as cartridge heater but is much cheaper.

Nichrome works when encased in high temperature thermally conductive cement like Makergear's, but that is hard to get hold of and construction is fiddly.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2011 06:09PM by nophead.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Resistor, hands down.

Nobody seems to be willing to make a small enough cartridge heater for our use, and the reliability/cost of the resistors has been superb.

If the resistors had better dimensional tolerances it would be nice though.

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www.Fablicator.com

Definitely resistor here on the J heads I use work excellent

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Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand