this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2025
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Flashforge AD5X, how long do nozzles last? Premature wear (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 months ago by batmaniam@lemmy.world to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
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Hi All,

This will be difficult to pin down, but getting pointed in the right direction would be helpful.

Purchased a FlashForge AD5X ~5 weeks ago. Worked great, one button calibration out of the box, I proceeded to do what everyone does when learning: print a bunch of stuff, mix success and stumble over the usual stuff. Ie: Learned why you clean the bed, learned how supports work, deal with filament breaks etc etc.

About a week ago I had a print fail, it looked like there was a broken filament that wasn't being pushed. I do a cold pull on the nozzle, and was able to print successfully for a time (although there were some small features on some prints that seemed sloppy compared to previous prints).

After that though ALL my prints started to fail. Even after cleaning the bed, double checking bed/nozzle temp, I'd get bad adhesion. I'd also get the nozzle dragging through layers, as if the Z was off (even after running calibration repeatedly and before each print). There was some popping and oozing, which I put up to not storing my PLA dry (although ambient was only ~40%). However the problem persisted even with a freshly opened vac-sealed (confirmed seal was good) roll of PLA.

I ordered a replacement nozzle that arrives today, but can anyone give me some insight? I only ran ~2kg of PLA through, that seems like really premature wear; I must have done something wrong.

Thanks for anything putting me in the right direction.

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[–] nyan@lemmy.cafe 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Was it plain PLA? Some of the fancier types cause increased wear. I've seen photos of glow-in-the-dark filament having worn through someone's heat block (not just the nozzle). Wood- or metal-filled PLA can also be somewhat abrasive.

Vacuum-sealed PLA can still be soaked with moisture—it depends entirely on how it was handled at the factory. To be absolutely certain, you have to dry it yourself.

The nozzle dragging, though . . . if the print isn't visibly warped, that sounds more like faulty hardware or incorrect software settings—the printer no longer accurately knows where the nozzle is in space. Maybe your printer had a marginal part installed at the factory, and it's now failed. If so, that's no fault of yours and you should contact the manufacturer.

[–] batmaniam@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It was just normal PLA. The only special filament was some TPU, but that was <10g total.

This is helpful, I think it's one of 3 things based on your input:

  1. Wet filament. That's causing oozing/build up on the nozzle and causing dragging. Fix: Try drying like you mentioned.
  2. The hardware had a failure somewhere. Fix/Verify: ???
  3. The firmware is bugging and not setting the Z properly after calibration. Fix/Verify ???

Edit: I think the fix/verify for scenario 2/3 above might just be trying the new nozzle after drying the filament. IE: If the filament is confirmed dry and still causing issues, then I try the new nozzle (after calibrating) with the confirmed dry filament. If that works fine then it was nozzle that was screwy (although the cause could have still been wet filament and me screwing it up unclogging?)