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Topic: Should my cooling fan be constantly running?

Hi all, should my cooling fan be constantly running even when extruder is idle at room temp? I dont mean the cooling fan that cools the print I mean the one on the side. Is there any way it can be turned off whilst extruder is heating up as it is causing longer heat up times.
thanks!

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Re: Should my cooling fan be constantly running?

I don't think the fan causes any loss of heat-up time, unless it it misaligned.  if is did cause any loss of extruder heat, it would be noticeable when you print.  Don' know about your extruder, but mine heats to ~230 in ~3 minutes, so the time loss, if any is negligible.  The fan should cool the finned barrel only and not the nozzle.

Ender 3 Pro

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Re: Should my cooling fan be constantly running?

It depends on how it's wired up, but in general, the fan cooling the extruder (eg. E3D design), runs as soon as you turn on the printer.  At least mine does.

It's wired to 12V output pins on my RAMPS board, and unlike the GCode controlled fan that cools the print, it's not controlled by any board or code logic, so it's just on.

To print or, 3D print, that is the question...
SD3 printer w/too many mods,  Printrbot Simple Maker Ed.,  FormLabs Form 1+
AnyCubic Photon, Shining 3D EinScan-S & Atlas 3D scanners...
...and too much time on my hands.

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Re: Should my cooling fan be constantly running?

ahh I see thanks I just wanted to know if it was supposed to run straight away. thanks for your help guys