<p>Looking at the picture of your nozzle, it appears to seal against the heat break and not the Bowden tube.  (A nozzle sealing against the heat break will have an entry hole of about 2 mm dia. for 1.75 mm filament.  A nozzle will have an opening large enough for the Bowden tube to slip into if it seals against the Bowden tube.)</p>
<p>If your heat break is all metal, you have an all metal hot end that can extrude above 250 °C.  If your heat break has a Teflon tube inside it, your hot has a highest temperature below 250 °C to avoid degrading the Teflon.  Both follow the same procedure below, but you highest temperature for making the seal will be different.</p>
<p>To see if your nozzle is OK (not clogged), try pulling the filament out with the hot end at temperature (same procedure as unloading filament).  Trim the irregularities off the filament while leaving a sharp end.  Then, see if you can push the filament through the nozzle at extrusion temperature.</p>
<p>If still clogged, remove the nozzle (you will need to tighten it later anyway) and see if the filament will go through without the nozzle.</p>
<p><strong>After camera piture:</strong> unless your hot end is all metal, the Bowden tube likely forms the seal to the nozzle.  See if the length of the tube going into the hotend goes down to the nozzle.  The end of the tube needs to be smooth to make the seal and the seal surface to the nozzle needs to be clean or the filament material soft enough to push out of the way.  Pull up to release the tube.  When you push down to lock the tube in, it should push the tube against the nozzle.</p>
<p>For an all metal hot end follow the procedure below.</p>
<p><strong>Before camera picture:</strong>
Sounds like you lost the seal between the nozzle and the heat break.  For most hotends (unless you have a plastic tube that pushes up against the nozzle) heat up to the maximum hotend temperature, then tighten the nozzle tight against the heat break in the heat block, to form a seal between the two.</p>
<p>If the nozzle tightens against the heat block before the heat break, you won't get a seal.  You should see some threads of the nozzle exposed and not in the heat block.</p>
<p>Take care not to over tighten the heat break in the heat sink because the heat break is thin going into the heat sink to minimize heat conduction and will easily break.</p>
<p>If your seal to the nozzle is with a plastic tube, investigate why you don't have a seal.</p>
<p><strong>Looking at picture:</strong>
Follow the above procedure while the heat break to the heat sink is of less consern since it appears that separate screws tighten it into the heat sink.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-05-19T18:55:17.580Z
2021-05-20T16:23:28.957Z
2021-05-20T16:23:28.957Z
Perry Webb
<p>My Ender 3 just started having this problem a couple of months ago. Prior to that the amount of excess filament showing up on the hotend was <strong>very</strong> minimal, but now it is oozing so much out of the top of the metal hotend, that it is hardening on my prints and hitting my extruder. How did this happen? and what can I do to fix this problem?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.creality3dofficial.com/products/assembled-extruder" rel="nofollow noreferrer">This</a> is the hotend I have, a detailed image of my hotend is shown below:
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/BjeBX.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/BjeBX.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/RTDra.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/RTDra.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a>
The part of the hotend that I think is oozing is highlighted in purple/blue.</p>
<p>Here is the actual Image
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/M6C24.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/M6C24.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<hr />
<p><s>There is now a clog somewhere, since I changed the filament yesterday, not sure if that is related, just thought I should mention it.</s>
UPDATE: I fixed the clog, and it is not related to the hotend...</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-05-19T18:46:53.277Z
Can you supply a picture so we can see exactly what is happening? This will help in being able to give you the best solution possible.
agarza
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-05-19T19:09:48.207Z
Do you have a motor (pushing the filament) attached to the heat sink or do you have a Bowden tub attached to it?
Perry Webb
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-05-19T19:17:03.320Z
@PerryWebb I have a filament extruder, attached to a tube, that is attached to the filament hotend.
X Builder
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-10T06:04:32.200Z
I know it's a little late... but... this specific problem seems to be common with thread in tips and heat break tubes. E3D's heads have it too.

The source of frustration is there are 3 dissimilar metals that all thread together, all have different thermal coefficients of expansion, so with heating and cooling cycles there is "crawling" of the parts and gaps widen.

Common wisdom is to "assemble everything hot" so you are at max metal expansion before tightening things down. I have only limited success doing this.

If I ever find a better solution, I will post it.
Charlie
<creality-ender-3><hotend>
Hotend is oozing out the sides and getting in the way of my print
X Builder
# Hotend is oozing out the sides and getting in the way of my print

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-05-19)

My Ender 3 just started having this problem a couple of months ago. Prior to that the amount of excess filament showing up on the hotend was **very** minimal, but now it is oozing so much out of the top of the metal hotend, that it is hardening on my prints and hitting my extruder. How did this happen? and what can I do to fix this problem?

[This](https://www.creality3dofficial.com/products/assembled-extruder) is the hotend I have, a detailed image of my hotend is shown below:
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/BjeBX.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/BjeBX.png)

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/RTDra.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/RTDra.png)
The part of the hotend that I think is oozing is highlighted in purple/blue.

Here is the actual Image
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/M6C24.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/M6C24.jpg)

---

~~There is now a clog somewhere, since I changed the filament yesterday, not sure if that is related, just thought I should mention it.~~
UPDATE: I fixed the clog, and it is not related to the hotend...

**Tags:** creality-ender-3, hotend

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Can you supply a picture so we can see exactly what is happening? This will help in being able to give you the best solution possible.  
> **username_2**: Do you have a motor (pushing the filament) attached to the heat sink or do you have a Bowden tub attached to it?  
> **username_0**: @username_2 I have a filament extruder, attached to a tube, that is attached to the filament hotend.  
> **username_3**: I know it's a little late... but... this specific problem seems to be common with thread in tips and heat break tubes. E3D's heads have it too.  The source of frustration is there are 3 dissimilar metals that all thread together, all have different thermal coefficients of expansion, so with heating and cooling cycles there is "crawling" of the parts and gaps widen.  Common wisdom is to "assemble everything hot" so you are at max metal expansion before tightening things down. I have only limited success doing this.  If I ever find a better solution, I will post it.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2021-05-19. Score: 2

Looking at the picture of your nozzle, it appears to seal against the heat break and not the Bowden tube. (A nozzle sealing against the heat break will have an entry hole of about 2 mm dia. for 1.75 mm filament. A nozzle will have an opening large enough for the Bowden tube to slip into if it seals against the Bowden tube.)

If your heat break is all metal, you have an all metal hot end that can extrude above 250 °C. If your heat break has a Teflon tube inside it, your hot has a highest temperature below 250 °C to avoid degrading the Teflon. Both follow the same procedure below, but you highest temperature for making the seal will be different.

To see if your nozzle is OK (not clogged), try pulling the filament out with the hot end at temperature (same procedure as unloading filament). Trim the irregularities off the filament while leaving a sharp end. Then, see if you can push the filament through the nozzle at extrusion temperature.

If still clogged, remove the nozzle (you will need to tighten it later anyway) and see if the filament will go through without the nozzle.

**After camera piture:** unless your hot end is all metal, the Bowden tube likely forms the seal to the nozzle. See if the length of the tube going into the hotend goes down to the nozzle. The end of the tube needs to be smooth to make the seal and the seal surface to the nozzle needs to be clean or the filament material soft enough to push out of the way. Pull up to release the tube. When you push down to lock the tube in, it should push the tube against the nozzle.

For an all metal hot end follow the procedure below.

**Before camera picture:**
Sounds like you lost the seal between the nozzle and the heat break. For most hotends (unless you have a plastic tube that pushes up against the nozzle) heat up to the maximum hotend temperature, then tighten the nozzle tight against the heat break in the heat block, to form a seal between the two.

If the nozzle tightens against the heat block before the heat break, you won't get a seal. You should see some threads of the nozzle exposed and not in the heat block.

Take care not to over tighten the heat break in the heat sink because the heat break is thin going into the heat sink to minimize heat conduction and will easily break.

If your seal to the nozzle is with a plastic tube, investigate why you don't have a seal.

**Looking at picture:**
Follow the above procedure while the heat break to the heat sink is of less consern since it appears that separate screws tighten it into the heat sink.


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