E3D's

Now that several people have upgraded to the E3D's, can you REALLY see a big difference in print quality using the same settings as with the older style hot end? Are there any other advantages?

I guess that answers my question! Silence.

I've used both the Hexagonal hotend and an E3D Lite (currently running now). I can't see a difference between the two but I did see a difference between them and the cheap knock offs. I picked up a E3D Full for the Delta I'm building (currently running a Prusa I3 Steel) but I don't have real good feel for the differences between the E3D's as I'm still assembling the Delta.

I think the big difference is finish quality of the actual interior, the knock offs need some polishing to get them to work smoother. The actual ceramic cartridges are the same as far as I can see across the hot ends as are the thermistors. The metal part of the hot end where the cartridges go are built a bit differently from each other and I think E3D has an edge on getting fuller contact between the hot end and the cartridge than some of the other brands.

I wouldn't go back to a cheap knock off unless either 1) I was broke and 2) wanted to spend a bit of time getting the ends and shafts polished and mated. That's just me.

Thanks, Viper, for the honest assessment.

I've seen what comes with the Folger Tech acrylic i3 kit when I helped a local Hackspace member.
It's not only the hot end but also the extruder design. The person I helped was having all sorts of trouble getting decent prints.
IMHO they are just junk.
I printed a Wades style extruder and he bought a genuine Hexagon hot end - night and day difference.

While I have bought 3D printer stuff from ebay and Aliexpress I will never use a cheap Chinese knock-off hot end. I'm not one to buy crap and "upgrade" later.
I have used either genuine J-Heads or Hexagon in my builds. I have printed hours on the J-Heads and never has it jam up. I have only had to clear one jam in the Hexagon - it's used in the printer I built for our Hackspace and some other member was the one left it like that.
My 2c

Steve

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My updated Instructable on our Prusa i3 Build
[www.instructables.com]

Quote
SteveRoy
I've seen what comes with the Folger Tech acrylic i3 kit when I helped a local Hackspace member.
It's not only the hot end but also the extruder design. The person I helped was having all sorts of trouble getting decent prints.
IMHO they are just junk.
I printed a Wades style extruder and he bought a genuine Hexagon hot end - night and day difference.

While I have bought 3D printer stuff from ebay and Aliexpress I will never use a cheap Chinese knock-off hot end. I'm not one to buy crap and "upgrade" later.
I have used either genuine J-Heads or Hexagon in my builds. I have printed hours on the J-Heads and never has it jam up. I have only had to clear one jam in the Hexagon - it's used in the printer I built for our Hackspace and some other member was the one left it like that.
My 2c

Steve

Folger Tech upgraded their extruder some time back, so perhaps you were looking at their old design, which I read was horrible. The new one works very well for me. I did, however, have to correct rubbing between the geared drive wheel and the bellhousing of the motor.

My main reason to upgrade to an E3D is to be able to print with higher temperature materials that would melt the teflon inside the barrels of normal hot ends and it appears they have better heat dissipation at that part as we only want melted material in the tips and not in the barrel. The clamping of the actual heater cartridge is much better than just some easily stripped set screw(Grub screw) as a loose cartridge either takes forever to heat or never reaches temperature at the tip(nozzle). I am sure there are other good Hot ends or even better units but better comes with a price.

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rwt

My E3Dlite6 works great for printing PETG.