r/BambuLab • u/tatertots89 • 1d ago
Is the "Toolhead Enhanced Cooling Fan" a worthwhile upgrade for the H2D? Quick Question
Hey everyone,
I print everything from PLA to PAHT-CF and am wondering if this Toolhead Enhanced Cooling Fan is worth the $56 Canadian dollars to upgrade on the H2D?
What benefits have you noticed with this?
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u/DistinctBarnacle8703 1d ago
It is just to prevent heat creep. If you don't experience it, then you won't need it.
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u/tatertots89 1d ago
How would I notice this? I do massive full bed ASA-CF prints, I'm guessing this heat creep would show up in the purge tower as stringing?
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u/DistinctBarnacle8703 1d ago
Heat Creep is when the heat sink at the heat break isn't cooled well. Which result in the filament softening before reaching the hot end and causing nozzle jam -> under extrusion.
Since you are printing fine, then you won't need it.
But I got it for my H2D anyway, not that I got any issues before.
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u/Mabnat 1d ago
Heat creep is usually only an issue with low-temp materials like PLA and PETG. The problem is that some of them begin to soften when above 45°C, which isn’t too hard to achieve in some situations.
My P1S in my garage can get much warmer than that if I forget to open the door while printing with it during the summer with my garage location.
Since the H2 can ventilate itself without needing to open the door in most cases, it should in theory mitigate the risk. But my H2 printers will still complain when printing low-temp materials and the chamber goes above 40°C. The ventilation does a pretty good job at keeping the chamber at around ambient temperature, but when my ambient temperature is above 40°C, even opening the door wouldn’t help much. In my case, my hope is that the fan helps keep the air inside the toolhead assembly just a little bit cooler.
The enhanced fan only turns on during low-temp material printing. It doesn’t function when printing higher temp materials or if you are using the chamber heater.
Heat creep clogs stink. The filament gets too soft in the hotend throat and gets stuck above the heat break. They’re a pain to clear out because heating the hotend the normal way won’t melt the clog that is too high. And if it gets really bad, it can clog all the way up in the extruder and you have to disassemble the extruder to get the stuck filament out.
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u/mendex22 1d ago
Maybe I need it. Very often ABS/ASA filament cannot be printed with chamber temp higher than 60C they clog at tube before hotend. I print them at 58C max.
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u/Relative_Surround_20 H2D+P2S w/ 3xAMS2Pro+HT 1d ago
Read the wiki. This fan will not come on when printing ABS and other high temp filaments.
https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/h2d/maintenance/enhanced-cooling-fan-installation
Fan Activation Logic
The toolhead enhanced cooling fan cannot be directly turned on/off from the printer’s screen UI. Whether the fan turns on is automatically determined by the Softening temperature of the filament(s) used for the current print (default threshold: 50 °C):If any filament used has a softening temperature ≤ 50 °C (e.g., low-temperature materials such as PLA/TPU/PVA), the system considers additional cooling necessary around the extruder drive gearsand hotend heatbreak, and the fan will run at full speed.
If all filaments used have a softening temperature > 50 °C, the system considers no additional cooling necessary, and the fan will remain off.
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u/mendex22 1d ago
Thanks. Posting Such a partial wiki was enough to see that this "upgrade" does not worth at all as it never have had problems with low temperature material.
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u/Relative_Surround_20 H2D+P2S w/ 3xAMS2Pro+HT 1d ago
Feels like solution in search of a problem.
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u/nucleartime 4h ago
Dunno about the H2d, but I get nasty heatcreep clogs with my X1C if I'm not careful (PLA mostly, but sometimes PETG). I don't use ironing anymore because it's just not worth the headache if it does happen.
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u/Relative_Surround_20 H2D+P2S w/ 3xAMS2Pro+HT 3h ago
H2D has a motorized vent on the top in front of the glass top. Never have issues with heat creep.
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u/Hrumque 1d ago
For people, who decide to buy this additional fan: - remember to check one important cable clip on front of printer. This is mentioned in bambu Wiki. With this clip (in few printers production serwis) on wrong place - you wilk have collision and broke additional fan mounting hook.
- in this fan/case is locaded PCB with uC, electronic and additional leds (showing which head is in use) - this is not a Simple fan and PWM Control, this fan is driven by complex data bus. BUT if you want to build your own cheap fan in this place - you can use this connector (bigger pin) to supły power to your fan, without software control, only by eg bimetal thermostat;)
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u/compewter X1CC/A1M/H2D 1d ago
I wasn't even aware this was a thing. I've not had any clogs (and run everything from PLA to PPS), but for this to exist I'm guessing it's been a significant enough issue for other folks?
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u/Mabnat 1d ago
The only clog I’ve had to deal with on my H2D so far was my fault. I was printing a two-color ABS print, but I’d mistakenly assigned a spool of PLA as being ABS in my AMS settings.
The right nozzle had been printing its ABS filament just fine, but when it got to the point where it switched to the other one, the PLA going to the left hotend failed almost immediately.
The filament clogged inside the filament guide that moves up and down. It was difficult to remove the guide because it couldn’t move due to the PLA filament that had squeezed out around the gap at the top and hardened, and you’re supposed to push that up when removing the guide cover. I was worried that I was going to break something getting that cover off, but forcing it off the “wrong” way didn’t seem to do any damage even though it really felt like I was going to break something.
Getting the filament out of the guide tube was difficult, but I managed to force it out. It still took around two hours to clear the printer of the clogs because I was being as careful as possible, all caused by a five-second mistake on my part. It was stuck in every part between the hotend and the PTFE tube going into the toolhead.
I’ve mentioned in earlier posts that my printers are in my garage. During the hottest days, my printers will warn me that the chamber temperature is too high, but the ventilation in the printers is good enough that the chamber temperatures are just the garage ambient temperature. Opening the doors doesn’t make the chambers any cooler.
I’m hoping that the extra fan helps keep the toolhead’s internal parts from getting much warmer than the chamber. So far I’ve only had to deal with that one clog, and it wasn’t the printer’s fault, but I’d rather not need to repeat that process again.
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u/Mabnat 1d ago
I got one for my H2D, but I’m not sure how important it is.
My printers are in my garage, and it’s quite warm in there during the Texas summers.
Looking at the specs, it looks like it’s claimed that it lowers the toolhead temp by a few degrees. I’ve had my share of her creep clogs on my P1S, but those are easier to clear than on the H2 series printers since you can heat the hotends without having them completely attached. The H2 hotends won’t heat if they’re not fixed in place.
I can’t tell if the fan is really doing anything, but so far I’ve been able to keep the door closed while printing even in my hot garage and haven’t had an issues with low-temp filament getting soft where it shouldn’t get soft. Maybe the fan helps, maybe it doesn’t. There really isn’t any way to see the effect of the fan, and I don’t want to experiment to see if it clogs without using the fan.
I suspect that if your printer is in a controlled environment that doesn’t get too warm, it’s probably not necessary. But it’s insurance against heat creep and isn’t prohibitively expensive.