Recommended Repair Parts For Creality Printers
After seeing almost every repair possible from years of maintaining our fleet of 3D printers, we've created a list of the replacement parts we always keep on hand for our Creality CR-10 and Ender series printers. It’s always a good idea to get these parts in advance so you won’t need to wait on delivery if something does go wrong.
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Heaters and Thermistors
Recommendation:
12V Printers (CR-10/10s/S4/S5): 12V 40W Cartridge Heater and 100K NTC Thermistor (10 pack)
24V Printers (Ender series, CR-10S Pro, CR-X): 24V 40W Cartridge Heater and 100K NTC Thermistor (10 pack)
The heater and thermistor in the hot end make sure that the nozzle is heated and set to the correct temperature. Since these parts are necessary for the operation of the printer, we like to keep a few spares on hand. If you have even an intermittent issue with these parts, we recommend replacing them to be safe.
If you’d rather not solder the wires for these components, we often use small screw-on wire nuts to connect these when they need to be replaced. We use the grey ones for the thermistor wires and the larger blue ones for heat elements.
NOTE: Make Sure that you check the voltage of your printer (12V or 24V) and get a matching kit. This is CRITICAL for heating elements since a mismatch can cause overheating.
Screws
Recommendation: Hex Bolts, 360 Pieces M3 x 6mm/8mm/10mm/12mm/16mm/20mm
Nothing is quite as fun as dropping a screw when you are performing a repair or upgrade and having to frantically search for it for 20 minutes since your printer can’t run without it. We always like to have spare screws around just in case we accidentally lose one.
This set includes the long 20mm screws used on most of Creality’s 3D printers to fasten the hot end, in case you are unfortunate enough to lose one of those. We’ve also find that these come in handy for fastening pieces of your 3D printer projects, either using the included nuts or just threading the nuts directly into the plastic.
Nozzles
Recommendation: 3D Printer Nozzle Variety Pack
The nozzle of your Creality printer makes a huge difference in the 3D printing process. Nozzles wear out over time, and even if yours is in good condition, you may want to change to a different nozzle size to print larger or smaller objects. Check out our guide to Creality printer nozzle replacement for more information on nozzles and how to replace them.
Hot End / Part Cooling Fan
Recommendation:
24V Printers (Ender series, CR-10S Pro, CR-X): Ender 3 Original Fans Kit
12V Printers (CR-10/10s/S4/S5): 40 x 40mm Brushless DC Cooling Fan
The Creality Ender 3 and Creality CR-10 (and many other printers) use a 40mm cooling fan to blow cold air through a heatsink on the hot end. If this fan fails, heat will move up to the top part of the hot end, which will cause filament to start melting earlier than it should. This results in frequent jamming, and a large thick end of the filament when you pull it out.
Because the fan is close to the printing surface, it can pick up strings of plastic. This can eventually cause the fan to stop working, which will quickly cause jamming. If removing the plastic doesn’t fix the issue, you can replace the fan easily.
We like this kit since it also includes a part cooling fan. While a failure of the part cooling fan won’t cause the print to fail, it’s important for getting overhangs to print well, so it’s a good idea to replace as well if you notice it stop working or spinning slowly.
NOTE: Make sure that you check the voltage of your printer (12V or 24V) and get a matching fan. If you replace the fan and it sounds like a jet engine or barely spins, it is probably because you got the wrong voltage, and the fan will fail quickly.
Heat Bed Glass
Recommendation:
CR-10 (300 mm) Creality CR10 Glass Bed
Ender Series (220 mm): Ender 3 Glass Bed
In rare cases, it’s possible to break the glass on the CR10 print bed. Typically, this happens when you are removing a print that is adhered to the bed. If this happens, you’ll want to replace the bed glass immediately.
Some models of the Ender 3 and Ender 3 Pro use a different textured bed surface, but we have found that glass with a bit of Aqua Net hairspray provides the best adhesion, and allows for simple part removal once the bed cools.
Idler Pulleys
Recommendation: Aluminum GT2 5mm Bore Idler
The X and Y axis on Creality 3D printers use GT2 rubber belts to move the X carriage and bed. These belts each have an idler pulley on the opposite side of the belt from the motor that drives it. In some cases, the bearing in one of the idlers can fail, which will cause your printer to stop moving smoothly. To test this, disable the steppers on your printer, and move the bed and hot end carriage slowly with your hand. If you notice any changes in resistance or bumps, the issue might be the bearings in these idlers is failing.
Hot End Assembly
Recommendations:
CR-10 series: Upgraded Assembled Extruder Hot End (12V)
Ender Series: Creality Assembled Hotend Kit (24V)
You can purchase all of the individual parts for the hot end assembly if you want to, but it's often faster and easier to replace the entire assembly. We like to keep one of these on hand for quick repairs. This is perfect if you don't want to mess with assembling or repairing the hot end on your printer. The tradeoff is that it costs more than individual parts - its up to you whether this full kit is worth the extra money.
For the CR-10, you can just swap this out with no wire connections. The Ender 3 version will require you to connect each of the wires. If you’d rather not solder the wires for these components, we often use small screw-on wire nuts to connect these when they need to be replaced. We use the grey ones for the thermistor wires and the larger blue ones for heat elements.