What is a Melt Zone Extender? The name is self-explanatory. It is a small machined part that screws between the heat block and the nozzle and extends the filament melting zone. Think of it as a modular Volcano.
What are the advantages of MZE?
- Cost – for just few bucks you can increase the flow capacity of your standard V6-compatible hotend. The Melt Zone Extender sales for 5 to 13 USD, depending on the quality, which is much less than a new HF hotend like Rapido or Magnum. It is cheaper than most CHT nozzles as well.
- Compatibility – the MZE is compatible with all V6 based hotends – e3d V6, Dragon, Dragonfly etc. You could even mount it on a Rapido if you want.
- Easy installation – take out the nozzle, screw the MZE in the heater block, screw the nozzle back in the MZE. Done.
- Sustainability – unlike CHT nozzles it won’t wear and will last much longer.
The sock is included.
Melt Zone Extender – the drawbacks
Probably you guessed it already – the MZE increases the height of your hotend. For example the ZS-MZE from Trianglelab, which is the product I have, increases the size with 8.4 mm.
This means you will have to redesign your toolhead for this bigger hotend, or at least the cooling fan system and the ABL probe location.
Another downside is the poor performance with retractions, which is a common issue for all high-flow hotends.
Our advise
If you have an original E3D V6 it has a 30W heater. We advise to use more powerful 40W+ heater with the Melt Zone Extender.
Melt Zone Extender – the performance
How much will your flow increase? My test with the standard ZS-MZE on a e3d V6 hotend gets me close to my Volcano setup – aprox. at 30 mm3/s. Other users report between 40% and 60% flow increase on different type of hotends. If you install the MZE + CHT nozzle you can go easy to 45 mm3/s.
The Melt Zone Extruder is a simple and cheap upgrade. If you are after fast printing or printing with big layer height/large nozzle, test the MZE before investing in more expensive HF options.
