I've had my Monoprice Maker Ultimate for about a year and a half now. It has been the workhorse behind many, many projects in that time. Including some fairly major projects Luggable PC (both Mark I and Mark II) and Sawppy the Rover. The major projects usually demanded around-the-clock printing for weeks on end, and the only real problem it has given me was the 24V relay that died. Twice.

Towards the end of getting Sawppy to version 1.0, I had been printing in PETG on my Maker Select, leaving the Maker Ultimate mostly unused in the home stretch. After I reached a pausing point for Sawppy, I came back to the Ultimate for a few quick prints because it was still loaded with inexpensive PLA.... and the print failed halfway from insufficient extrusion.

I had thought it was a clogged nozzle which wouldn't be a big deal, but after clearing the nozzle with the 0.4mm drill bit and running the cleaning filament, the problem persisted. Fortunately, I recognize the symptoms from a hard-learned lesson on the Maker Select - the PTFE liner tube is damaged and needed to be replaced.

This particular liner tube wasn't abused with high temperature like it was on a Maker Select trying to print PETG fast. But internet consensus seems to be that the liner tube is accepted as a wear-and-tear item that eventually requires replacement even under ideal usage. So - probably not indicative of anything wrong here, it's just time.

Removing the jammed nozzle the printer immediately unveiled a charred tube.

Liner Charred

It took some heat and persuasion to remove the old tube, which stretched in the process of removal. We can see there was quite a bit of cruft welding the tube to the nozzle.

Liner Removed

Interestingly, there are two distinct and separate areas of browning. The print tip was expected. The middle charred section would be right around the length of the heating block and makes sense as one of the hottest sections this tube had to endure. It's a bit of a surprise that we still have a little white section between them, though.

Anyway, it's clear this tube has put in a long and productive career guiding filament into the nozzle, but it's time for a replacement which brought the printer back up and running.