I recently got a bltouch as well. I should have done so waaaay earlier. It’s actually allowed me to switch out those horrible and easy to bump/misalign nobs that control bed height.

Now I just have two nuts per corner holding everything down.

All printers should come with one.

I recently got a bltouch as well. I should have done so waaaay earlier. It’s actually allowed me to switch out those horrible and easy to bump/misalign nobs that control bed height.

Now I just have two nuts per corner holding everything down.

All printers should come with one.

a lot of the amazon cheapos don't have proper bearings on the gear, so you slowly wear out the the drive bolt. if you see gray powder forming... you have a problem. Some 3-in-1 (though I recommend the PTFE 3-in-1) will slow it down, but it's still going to wear.

https://store.micro-swiss.com/products/micro-swiss-bowden-dual-gear-extruder

Yeah, this is like the 4th time I've had to replace it.

I don't think it's just a matter of print time, I think it's also a matter of how long you've had the machine. I've has mine for I think 4 or 5 years now. The tension arm on the extruder is under constant tension at all times every day. The plastic extruder Ender 3s come with is just not strong enough for the task, so they end up breaking.

I think my second one was basically and identical one made of alluminum. But that one ultimately died as well, for the same reason. So I switched to the above one, which turned out to be a mistake.

So now my 4th one is a CNCed steel dual extruder from micro Swiss. Hopefully it lasts.

The extenders on ender 3s are all sorts of trash, the bronze gear wears out pretty fast, tensioning issues, build quality.

How you have 100h on one is frankly a miracle. I have multiple ender3 s and I just immediately change out the extruder at this point.

I ended up switching to this one:

https://store.micro-swiss.com/products/micro-swiss-bowden-dual-gear-extruder

I've heard good things about micro swiss, so hopefully this one will last.

I'm a fan of Trianglelab's DDB V2.1. Sure it's fundamentally a clone, but at least they've made some improvements to it, and the original is really not worth the price Bondtech is charging for it.

It's a lot stronger than the Creality extruder and the single gear "all metal" red extruder, which makes extrusions more consistent. It can also print somewhat flexible filaments, at least if you slow down a little.

There are of course better and lighter extruders out there, but the DDB has the advantage that it can be used as a drop-in replacement on Enders etc., and if you want to mod the printer in the future it's compatible with most custom designs.

I have a Monoprice mini select V1 that I still use occasionally. It has a terrible extruder on it that can't handle anything. I put a better hot end on it and it runs much better.

I did the hot end because there are no aftermarket nozzles for the V1 Monoprice hot end that I'm aware of. Anyways, the better heating of the filament made the extruder skip less.

It won't make it amazing, but if you find a knockoff CHT nozzle for the printer. More efficient heating might flow more easily, reducing the pressure on the filament that the extruder has to overcome.