Anyone ever use one of these.

Anyone ever use one of these. I’ve only ever used a resistor for my heater and wasnt sure if these worked out any better. I like having the wires on one side.

That, or something very like that, is what’s in the E3D (and most other newer hot ends people have developed). It works very well, it heats up fast and unlike power resistors is actually designed to do what it’s being used for so it ought to have a better life span.

They’re MEANT to be better… I just ordered 3 to convert my mendel to a tricolor so hopefully they’re better! :slight_smile:

RepRapPro sell them, they used resistors initially and then “upgraded” to these - they say they “heat up quicker, hold temperature better and are actually MADE for this purpose”…

Don’t know about the failure @Rick_Zehr is speaking of though - sounds scary!

Hum that does sound scary. From what I’ve read they look like they wouldn’t be to bad. Ill have to look into the shorting thing a little more because that wouldn’t be good.

They are nichrome wire and ceramic when they fail the wire burns through and goes open. Nichrome is resistance wire so heats for the same reason resistors do.

…and nichrome wire is designed for heating applications, unlike power resistors which are merely made to withstand heat as part of their operations. You’re always better off using something actually designed for the application at hand rather than hacking something into an unintended use, especially when there’s minimal price difference.

I haven’t ever used anything else.

@Rick_Zehr where did you hear about hazards of heat cartridges?

Yea, with how many hot ends use them now you would think that you would hear that more often.

For the record Ive had fuses fail in the same way and blow car audio amps. **it happens some times…

The power supply you are using should have built in short circuit protection. And it sounds like these fail in an open state, so I don’t think you need to worry

that works for me ill be getting one then. thanks for the help