Hah, looks like others have you covered pretty well – I suspect the same thing. Plug in the cold zone due to heat creep and terrible manufacturing of the heat sink. Thermal paste might help, a stronger fan on the heat sink might help, cleaning the inside out and polishing it might help, and the oil trick (but I really don’t like suggesting that)
Reprap Champion screwed you over. Go at least get a genuine E3D Lite6
Based on the picture it looks like there’s no heat break zone and the heat block is pressed up against the heatsink… That seems bad.
Wow. I did not notice that. Now that I notice that, it looks like the hotend is not screwed in all the way to the heated block either. The nozzle should be tightened well against the heated block. The heated block should not touch the cooling fins. Look at the picture from Jose.
@NathanielStenzel the nozzle should never be tight against the heater block, it should always be tightened against the end of the heat break!
@Thomas_Sanladerer well…should there be a gap between he spot that the wrench goes on and th eated block? It looks like he has one. I know the nozzle and the heat break should connect. Otherwise you can get filament hanging around in the gap. If I am being a bit silly here, feel free to toss an assembly link at me. It looks like he could use it too anyways.
@NathanielStenzel yes, there should be a visible gap between the nozzle’s hex section and the bottom of the heater block https://wiki.e3d-online.com/wiki/E3D-v6_Assembly
@Thomas_Sanladerer ah. I see the spot in their instructions. It seems like the goal there is for the heat break to be low enough in the heated block when butting up against the nozzle. I imagine those instructions should apply to a knockoff if it is an accurate enough of a copy. If not, I would say all bets are off. One thing that is definite here is that the cooling fins touching the heated block and cooling it is counter-productive.
I had the same problem a couple of weeks, the solution?
Add thermal paste (silver if you can) to the upper part of the heat break, and add a couple of turns of ptfe tape ( the one used by plumbers) to the side that fits in the heat block, it helps with a tigther fit AND it creates a bigger thermal gap avoiding this types of problems.
REMEMBER: leave at least 0.8 cm of the heater brake unscrew so it creates an air gap, that will solve your problem, will add a picture for reference
missing/deleted image from Google+
@Ben_Scott yes it is, it might reduce the temperature by 5 degres, but its more than enough for a thermal brake and a pace of mind
That’s the exact type of hack an Aliexpress seller will sell off as an “upgraded” version. So much on these knockoff hotends is just workarounds for the issues that shouldn’t exist in the first place
I have purchased plenty of these knockoffs and more often than not they work fine. It seems like you paid a bit more than most knockoffs go for. I have had an odd one or two that has not worked out but again sort of comes with the territory of going with a knock off.