E3D Revo™ is great BUT has a dirty secret! (REVIEW)

RapidChange REVO is E3Ds new hotend eco system. I had a great time testing it the last two and a half months, never changed so many nozzles so conveniently but also had one fail on me and discovered some things during my tests that you should know if you already use one or if you consider buying one. (Disclaimer: E3D provided the review hardware free of charge. All opinions are my own!)

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🔴 LIVE STREAMING

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:45 Sponsor Part
02:17 E3D Revo Ecosystem
04:22 Revo NozzleBreaks & Patent
05:46 Price
06:42 Installation on Prusa Mk3s
07:21 Print Quality
07:56 Quick Swap System
11:39 Heater Core
12:51 Thermal Tests
16:25 "The Gradient Problem" (Dirty Secret)
18:10 Flow Test
19:17 Failed Heater Core
19:59 Summary

#3dprinting #revo #rapidchange

DISCLAIMER: This video was sponsored by Grammarly.

[nachiketmhatre]

Extruding the thermocouple into the nozzle to measure the gradient between the heatbreak and actual nozzle temps was brilliant. And so was the way you figured out the temperature gradient. I had tuned my Revo Hemera to run 15 degrees hotter, but I put it down to the massive inconsistencies between different batches of eSun ABS+ filament.

This is some top notch testing and terrific example of lateral thinking. Genuinely impressed with this review.

[MihaiDesigns]

I had no idea the new thermistor position had such a significant effect. Cool study!

[justinchamberlin]

1) I love how thorough you are with testing. I don't think anyone else on YouTube does it the way you do...thank you!

2) It seems like a lot of expense for benefits that may be rather minimal to a number of users. It seems that the #1 benefit is rapid nozzle changes, but I don't stress about performing nozzle changes, either on the Mk8 hot end on my Ender 3 or the Volcano on my Sidewinder X1. Having a palm ratchet instead of the basic tools that come with most printers maybe helps with that, of course, but those are relatively inexpensive and are useful for anyone with a V6, Mk8, Volcano, or other standard hot end. That kind of price tag for otherwise similar performance and a slightly increase in overall safety seems a bit much.

3) The inaccurate temperature thing might not affect normal printing performance (albeit after what might be a lengthy profile re-tuning process), but it is concerning that there doesn't seem to have been more thought put into how to account for the new thermal profile of the hot end.

4) The lack of licensing for clones is one more example of a seemingly growing trend back towards proprietary tech in 3D printing. The reasoning seems good this time, certainly compared to what Elegoo and ChiTuBox are trying to do with resin printing, but the end result is the same. We'd still be mired in the dark days of using $3, 000 printers that are more finicky than a Rube Goldberg machine to print only ABS if it weren't for the massive amount of innovation that came from the open-source model that the industry has thrived on over the last several years.

[joost]

The tool-less changing is really a game changer. I had some other nozzles laying around, but never used them because I was afraid to mess up. Since I installed the revo I print every piece on the most suitable detail level. Winning a lot of speed and print quality!

[umranium]

The problem with changing nozzles is less the hassle of it and more that I'm scared I might screw it up and either over tighten it or not tighten it enough leaving plastic to sip in between the nozzle and heat break. I imagine the new system is a lot more newbie friendly than the existing nozzle system.

[fluxcapacitor]

Long story short in favor of the Revo. The other day I wanted to change the nozzle on my Prusa i3. As usual I heated the hotend, held the heater block with a wrench with my left hand and used another 7 mm key with my right hand to unscrew the nozzle. But this time I didn't pay enough attention. During a fraction of a second, the wrench touched the exposed cables of the heater cartridge on the side (these cables are indeed EXPOSED because of their silly 90° orientation caused by how idiotic heater blocks have been designed). A short circuit ensued, with a visible and audible spark that cut one of the cables of the heater cartridge straight. After repair, I came to the sad conclusion that the motherboard (Einsy RAMBo) had been toasted by the spark too: there was no more voltage on the pins when asking the hotend to heat. This is a €150 repair, with 2× 1 week waiting for the parts, with excessive shipping costs. For such a bad heater block design, which I despised since the beginning even before I even had a problem with it. On my other printer (Voron 2.4) I went with another kind of hotend not so stupidly designed (a clone of the Mosquito, with a fixed, non-rotatable heater block). But for my Prusa I will seriously consider replacing the E3D V6 with a Revo when it is eventually repaired.

[KeriRautenkranz]

I have a Revo Six running on my Mk3s, having changed over from a Mosquito. I do a lot of nozzle size changes and the Mosquito was a good solution. The Revo nozzle changes are slower than with a Mosquito, but the tidy heater wiring and PTC heater are why I switched. As a bonus, the Revo stays much cleaner. The inevitable plastic mess never gets highter than the bottom of the Revo nozzle.

[chadshumway]

I tried to get a warranty for the heater core assembly that the thermistor failed on for my MK3S after little use. They made me jump through too many hoops and multiple correspondences. Finally gave up and purchased another assembly and it fixed the problem. Out $40. I could use a kit for my Mini but I am reluctant to do so after that. Otherwise it works great and convenient. Might as well forget trying to get a warranty.

[munzlp]

Currently throwing up a document about 3d printing extrusion systems. A big list for say. I appreciate your work a lot, always got great research. Keep it up Stefan!

[sublimationman]

Iv'e had my Revo for a few weeks and I love it. I never liked changing nozzles in the past as I had bad luck with things breaking or leaking and it was just a pain, now it's painless. Thanks for your very detailed review and investigations.

[Cmpblor]

I had a heater core fail too! Their RMA was amazing, new one sorted with little trouble.

[printing]

Great review, thanks Stefan! What bothers me most when changing nozzles (I switch them a lot atm): re-adjusting Z-offsets. Will be interesting if the tolerances of the final production units eliminate that process 🧐

[cyphre]

Man, these sorts of features are exactly the thing we need in the hobby. Swapping nozzles is such a hassle, and it's not just about swapping sizes, but maybe other things, like swapping out clogged nozzles for unclogged ones or whatever. Shame there are no aftermarket solutions yet for abrasives, but I imagine they will come.

[askolds]

I loved the temperature in the nozzle and heat break test and graph!

[someplan]

A Voron 2.4 Build planned? The boxes full of ABS parts most certainly look like it.

[kerbodynamicx]

There is an unofficial high-flow Revo, and it is the Phaetus Rapido hotend... It uses the same ring-heater approach but with an incredible 115W of heating, it can achieve flow rates of 45 mm^3/s with a standard V6 nozzle and supports a one-hand nozzle swap, as the heating core is bolted to the heat sink with 3 titanium screws. It's like a fusion of E3D Volcano, E3D Revo and SE Copperhead, costs less than either, and is powerful/durable AF.

[michaelcutler]

Amazing video Stefan, thank you! I switched my MINI+ to Revo Micro as soon as it became available. I frequently switch between 0.25 / 0.4 / 0.6 mm nozzles and just got tired of the cycle times. Revo changed all that, especially with the additional retraction in end-gcode. That said I did notice a need for higher temperatures with certain filaments. I have a thermocouple multimeter here and thought about testing the temperatures, but I'm glad to see you did a far more thorough job! :o) Thanks again, and I have just bought Grammarly Premium 1yr through your affiliate link.

[Duraltia]

I for one have to give it a hard pass for a bunch of reasons with the most prominent one being the lack of backwards compatibility with the established V6 _Nozzle_ Standard allowing for outside innovations ( like the CHT Nozzles ) to be added to the system.

[sycoaniliz]

The temperature disparity is actually a deal breaker for me. Many of my prints rely on airflow and speed changes to achieve desired properties and inaccurate temperature that will vary based on the amount of airflow is a no go for me.

[aidenbagshaw]

For me, V6 is the best because I can use literally any type of third-party nozzle, and I can easily machine custom heating blocks. However, as someone who’s recently had a two-and-a-half-day print fail at work due to a V6 heatbreak that had come loose and filled the head with PLA gloop, I certainly see the benefit of a more sealed and reliable unit. Pity we won’t see third-party nozzles.