Heat Creep

Also known as: Thermal Creep

intermediate Print Quality

When heat travels up the hotend and softens filament too early, causing jams.

Heat creep occurs when heat travels up the heat break and softens filament before it reaches the melt zone, causing jams and clogs.

Symptoms

  • Clogs after extended printing
  • Works at first, fails later
  • Extruder grinding
  • Worse with retractions

Causes

  • Poor hotend cooling
  • Too many retractions
  • Printing too slow
  • High ambient temperature

Fixes

  • Improve hotend cooling fan
  • Reduce retraction count/distance
  • Lower hotend temperature
  • Upgrade to all-metal hotend with better heat break
  • Check thermal paste between heat break and heatsink