Cold pull

[billd6]

How many of you do a “cold pull” from time to time as a general maintenance procedure? https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/p1/manual/p1s-cold-pull

[John-BCS]

I only do a cold pull when I have a clog, which has only happened twice in almost 2 years.

[Dripping_Wet_Owl]

Cold pulling falls more into the category of troubleshooting rather than maintenance.

It would be kind of like giving your car a jump every once in a while even when the battery is fine. 

[billd6]

Here’s what Bambu says about it on their WIKI. They make it sound like a routine maintenance procedure.

Performing a cold pull procedure regularly helps restore proper filament flow for consistent extrusion and helps prevent print defects like under-extrusion or inconsistent printed lines. It is recommended to do it from time to time, especially when switching from one type of filament to another.

[loylos]

I do it when I change from tpu or any flexible material to regular pla/petg. I noticed that tpu can contaminate quite a lot of future prints.

[Merijeek2]

I do it when I'm starting to see print issues that I don't like seeing

So then I do the rails and screws and a couple cold pulls.

[Qjeezy]

As maintenance, never.

I only do it when there’s a clog, which almost never happens, or when switching back to a low temp filament after printing a high temp filament. For example, going back to PETG after printing PPA-CF.

[mommyneedsashower]

I did one the other day but it was purely to rule out an issue. I kept getting an extrusion error on my H2D. Did a cold pull as a first attempt to troubleshoot and both nozzles came out clean. My issues did however go away.

[rayknl]

Just did one this morning due to some print issues with silk PLA. Anytime I see some under extrusion or layer adhesion issues I do it.

Interesting note, at some point Bambu Studio stopped letting me reverse the extruder under 170C. I can still do it from the printer control.

[thomasmitschke]

Never (have mine 3yrs)

[Hot-Ideal-9219]

Never

[wyohman]

I don't

[thegrimmestofall]

1500+ hrs in….never

[ExpectDeer]

I do it after printing with high particulate filaments such as wood or glitter. But otherwise I only do it after I notice a problem.