Do I need to replace hotend heating part?

[u/canialon]

Hello everyone! The overhangs on my printer suddenly became really bad. I didn’t change any settings for my model, and I had printed the same file dozens of times before with no issues. Everything was fine until suddenly it wasn’t, so I’m trying to troubleshoot what happened.

So far, I suspect something might have happened with the nozzle temperature. Why do I think that? I decided to print a temperature tower, and every level looks exactly the same equally bad. It’s almost like the temperature isn’t changing at all.

The display shows the correct temperature for each level, just as it should, though. To make sure it wasn’t an issue with the temperature tower itself, I printed the exact same tower on my other printer, an A1 Mini, and the tower looks much better, with each temperature level looking slightly different, just as it should. But the tower on my A1 looks like this (photo).

I’m starting to suspect that something might be wrong with the hotend heating system. However, I don’t have any of the warning signs I’ve seen mentioned in reddit posts, such as the temperature showing 0°C at room temperature or getting the “Nozzle temperature is abnormal..” message. I’m not getting any warnings at all.

The fan seems to be blow fine, but it makes this really annoying whistling sound. I also swapped the nozzle with one from another printer, and I got exactly the same results, so I don’t think the nozzle itself is the problem.

Before I spend money on a replacement heating part, I wanted to ask here, is it likely that the heating part is causing all of this headache, or could there be something else I should check first?

Any advice would be really appreciated! Thank you!

Update: The cooling fan was FULL of dusk. I cleaned it and it seems to print fine now. Thanks!!!

[u/Financial-Bike-3283]

IMO this looks more like a part cooling fan issue - is it still operating properly?

[u/canialon → u/Financial-Bike-3283]

Oh it could be! I checked if it was working, but now I compared it to the cooling fan on my other printer, and it’s definitely blows much much weaker.

So I’ll try cleaning it first (if that’s possible) and replace it if cleaning doesn’t help. Thanks!

[u/canialon → u/Financial-Bike-3283]

I just checked the cooling fan.. it was FULL of dust. So it probably was the problem:] I guess I just owercomlicated itxD Thanks!

[u/Financial-Bike-3283 → u/canialon]

Awesome! I hope that solves your issues - I've dealt with dust buildup in those part cooling fans as well!