How to Properly Change 3D Printer Filament?

Treat your printer nicely, and it'll print you nice models

When you are changing filament, did you ever experienced one of the following problems below?
- Filament stuck in the hotend.
- Need to use excessive force to pull out the filament.
- Having a hard time feeding the filament back in the right place.
- Having bad print result after changing filament.

If so. STOP! You are damaging your hotend. Not only you will have poor quality prints, one day your hotend will give up and stop extruding. I learned it the hard way and have to throw out few hotends. To avoid all this from happening all you need is to follow our step by step guide for changing filament. I promise you that you will be glad you take the time to read this article. This video show you how I change filament.

Before you start you should have the below information and tools ready.

Information:

The extrusion temperature settings for both the current & replacement filaments (based on manufacturer’s recommendations)

Below is the BotFeeder temperature guide:

Material - Recommended Extrusion Temperature

• ABS - 150 to 260C
• PLA - 200 to 220C
• NEO-PLA - 188 to 200C
• Filaglow Glow in the Dark - 205 to 225C
• Filastic Flexible - 220 to 240C
• Filatron Conductive - 200 to 220C
• reFilactive Reflective - 230 to 240C

Tools:

• A pair of scissors
• A pair of tweezers
• Current filament
• Replacement filament

Removal of current filament

Step 1: Preheat your hot end based on the temperature guidelines of your current filament.

Step 2: Wait until the hot end heats up to the required temperature.

Step 3: Manually extrude a small portion of the filament.

• Unclamp the filament
• push the filament through the hot end until melted filament squeezes out from the nozzle. This process ensures easy extraction of the filament.

Step 4: Push down the coupling to release the filament from the hot end.

Step 5: Gently unplug the filament from the hot end.

Step 6: Clip off the blob-like end of the filament.

Step 7: Unwind the filament back to the spool holder.

• Unclamp the filament
• slowly wind them back on to the spool holder. Please note: secure the loose end at all times.

Step 8: Secure the loose end through the hole of the spool holder or by binding it with filament clip or tape.

Step 9: Remove the current spool.

LOAD REPLACEMENT FILAMENT

Step 1: Load the replacement spool on the filament slot.

Step 2: Preheat your hot end based on temperature guidelines of your replacement filament.

Step 3: Unclamp the filament and feed the filament through and up to the hot end.

Step 4: Prepare approximately 10cm of filament ready to be fed into the hot end.

Step 5: Wait until the hot end heats up to the required temperature.

Step 6: Start feeding the filament into the hot end until melted filament begins to squeeze out of the nozzle.

Step 7: Secure the coupling.

Step 8: Manually force down 3-4cm of filament through the hot end to flush out the old filament. Please note: flexible material may take more filament to flush out completely.

Step 9: Carefully clip off any excess filament from the nozzle with a pair of tweezers. Please note: do not touch the brass nozzle tip.

Step 10: Cool down your hot end.