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I've had the Ender 5 Pro, as is, for 3 months.

After I tried a cheap PLA filament (maybe too cheap), it clogged the nozzle. I cleaned it, but any other filament I have would have similar problems from then on. After some days doing test prints, it clogged again. This time, I heated it up to 240 ºC, I unscrew the nozzle, cleaned it up, chopped the Capricorn tube (it had clear symptoms of a previous tube not reaching the bottom of the hotend and leaking material around it), perfectly aligned, cleaned the heating block with a brass brush, started screwing the nozzle… and it never reaches the end. It even jiggles a little bit (by "jiggles", I mean that when the hotend is hot, you can push the nozzle back and forth, and it does move... like it was a joint, and not a threaded bolt), like it was too small for the block. I try screwing a new nozzle. Same happens.

To me it looks like the heating block thread broke, but I can't be sure. I tried a thicker nozzle (0.8 mm, but same thread in the end) and it worked. I could feed filament and it wouldn't look like clogged (at least for 15 cm of feeding filament, when in previous cases it was almost instantaneous).

Time to get a new heating block? Any recommendation?

Would another kind of heating block be better?

Edit: Here's a picture of the bottom of the heating block. Now it's clear there's a metal chip glued with material, and almost (if any) no thread at all.

broken heating material

Another question. Could it have been that cheap material that caused the clogging, or was it just a lack of proper maintenance?

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  • $\begingroup$ By "jiggles", do you mean you can continue turning it indefinitely without it stopping, or just that once it stops, it's not rigigly held in place. I think you almost surely have damaged threads in the heating block, possibly with just barely enough working to hold some nozzles but not others. Can you get suitable light and camera angle to take a picture that would let you look at the threads? This would likely be the best way to confirm. If they are damaged badly enough not to hold a nozzle rigidly, you should replace the heating block, but there might be hacks you could do to keep using it. $\endgroup$
    – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
    May 10, 2020 at 20:23

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You need to order a new heating block (just a few bucks/euros, so order 2, and spare nozzles, you don't want to install the old nozzles), you completely worn out the threads, this is beyond repair. It looks as if you used too much force to secure the nozzle into place.

This is how it is supposed to look:

enter image description here

You can find these cheaply at those typical Chinese vending platforms or online marketplaces. Just search for and Ender / CR-10 heater block.

Typical dimensions are found below: enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks! Do you recommend also buying a new throat (or maybe the whole hotend straight away)? $\endgroup$
    – Sergi Juanola
    May 11, 2020 at 8:06
  • $\begingroup$ @Korcholis Yes buy new throats also, always handy to have spares. $\endgroup$
    – 0scar ♦
    May 11, 2020 at 8:07
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If the threads are damaged badly enough not to hold a nozzle rigidly, you should replace the heating block, but there might be hacks you could do to keep using it for a while until you're ready to replace. I've had luck replacing threads in completely unrelated applications with epoxy, and if you can get one that handles and transmits the heat well enough (maybe JB Weld? not sure) it might work here.

I don't think there's any indication you need to change to a different kind of heating block. That would only be indicated if there were lots of other people reporting the same problem you're having with your printer model or similar ones. It seems more likely that, if they're damaged, you just did it by over-tightening or over-vigorous cleaning with the brush.

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