When Should You Turn Off Your Ender 3? After the Print?

After completing a 3D print, many people wonder whether they should turn off their 3D printers. This is a question that will be answered in this article, as well as a few other related questions about turning off an Ender 3 or other 3D printers.

When Should You Turn Off Your Ender 3? After Print?

You should not turn off your Ender 3 right after the print, instead, wait for the hotend to cool down to a certain temperature before you turn the 3D printer off.

If you shut off your Ender 3 right after completing a print, the fan will stop immediately while the hotend is still hot and that can lead to heat creep.

This is because when you complete a print, the fan is cooling down the cooler end of the hotend where the filament is. If the fan is turned off, the heat can travel up to the filament and cause it to soften and jam.

The next time you try to print, you’ll have to clean out this jam/clog. Many people have talked about hot this clog has happened to them on a few occasions.

A user said that this decision will depend on different situations but it is better to let the hotend cool down, wait for its temperature to go below the glass transition temperature, and then shut the 3D printer off.

Another user shared his experience with Ultimaker 3D printers stating that their hotend gets jammed simply because the fans were not spinning because of a sucked-up string.

Another user said that you should only turn your 3D printer off immediately after completing print if there is a g-code written to completely cool down the hotend.

He further said that by using the PSU Control Plugin and OctoPrint, you can let your 3D printer wait and then shut off automatically after the hotend has cooled down to a certain or set temperature.

If you do a hard shutdown while the hotend is at full temperature, it could lead to a troublesome jam.

Another user says he always waits for the hotend to go below 100°C temperature before he turns off the 3D printer.

I think 100°C should work as a temperature cut off point because it’s not hot enough for the heat to travel up the cold end and soften the filament which can cause the clogs.

Similarly, another user said that waiting for the temperature to drop below 90°C is recommended before you turn your 3D printer off.

A user also said that he waits for the hotend to reach a temperature below 70°C before his printer shuts down. Another user further decreased this safe limit to 50°C.

How to Shut Down an Ender 3 (Pro, V2)

To shut down an Ender 3, you can simply flip the power switch on the 3D printer after your hotend has cooled down to a temperature below 100°C. There isn’t a command in your menu to turn the 3D printer off.

A user recommended different procedures to turn off your 3D printer depending upon different scenarios and situations:

If you have just completed a print, simply go to “Prepare” > “Cooldown”, wait for some time, and then turn off the switch.

It only takes a few minutes for the hotend to cool down, so if the print has been completed for a bit of time, then you can turn it off.

In a situation where you want to change out the filament, you can heat up the hotend, pull out the current filament, then replace it with the new filament and let it extrude out the nozzle.

You can then let the hotend cool down and turn off the 3D printer by flipping the switch when you are ready to start your next print.

Another user suggested modifying the “end” G-code in terms of adding a time or by waiting for the hotend to reach a certain temperature and then turning the 3D printer off.

You can add an end script within your slicer with a simple command of either:

• G4 P<time in milliseconds>
• G10 R100 (100°C)

Then normally turn off your 3D printer.

Here is a picture of the end G-Code in Cura.

One user found a unique way to automatically shut off your 3D printer after a print.

He used an Ender 3 V2 Auto Power Off Switch model that attaches to the 3D printer and automatically pushes the off switch when the 3D printer homes.

Here is the end G-Code used:

G91 ;Relative positioning
G1 E-2 F2700 ;Retract a bit
G1 E-2 Z0.2 F2400 ;Retract and raise Z
G1 X5 Y5 F3000 ;Wipe out
G1 Z10 ;Raise Z more
G90 ;Absolute positioning
G1 X0 ;X go home
M104 S0 ;Turn-off hotend
M140 S0 ;Turn-off bed
; Message and End Tones
M117 Print Completed
M300 S440 P200 ; Make Print Completed Tones
M300 S660 P250
M300 S880 P300
; End Message and End Tones
G04 S160 ;wait 160s to cool down
G1 Y{machine_depth} ;Present print
M84 X Y E ;Disable all steppers but Z

Check out this example in the video below.

One user made an interesting way of automatically turning off their 3D printer.

People recommended that he implements a script to pause the 3D printer before moving up. Another technique with G-Code is to turn the hotend and bed off, then use a command that slowly raises the Z-axis up automatically.

This was the example given:

M140 S0 ;bed off
M104 S0 ;hotend off
G91 ;rel pos
G1 Z5 E-5; move away from print and retract
G28 X0 Y0; move x,y to endstops
G1 Z300 F2 ;move up slowly to switch up
G90 ;revert to abs pos just to be safe
M84 ;motors off just to be safe

Does the Ender 3 Cool Down After Prints? Auto Shutoff

Yes, the Ender 3 does cool down after the print is finished. You will see the temperature of the hotend and bed gradually decrease until it gets to room temperature. A full cool down for a 3D printer takes around 5-10 minutes to happen. The 3D printer will remain on until you turn it off though.

Slicers have an end G-Code that turns off the heaters to the hotend and bed after a print. This should happen normally unless you remove that script from the G-Code manually.

How to Turn Off Ender 3 Fan

You don’t want to turn off the Ender 3 fan because it’s a safety feature since the hotend fan is wired to a power terminal on the board so you can’t change things in the firmware or settings to turn it off, unless you wire it up differently. Similarly, the power supply fan should always run when it’s powered on.

It is possible to turn off the Ender 3 fan by tweaking its mainboard and adding an external circuit.

Here is a video by CHEP that will tell you how to do it.

The user said that you should let hotend fans run all the time because forcing them to shut off can cause a clog as the filament will keep on melting.

Other users recommended upgrading cooling fans to be much quieter as it is working fine for them.

You may buy a buck converter along with 12V fans (Noctua’s 40mm fans are recommended) as they are so quiet and seem like they are not running at all.

How to Turn Off 3D Printer Remotely – OctoPrint

To turn off your 3D printer remotely using OctoPrint, you can use the PSU Control plugin. This allows you to turn off your 3D printer after you complete a 3D printer. For safety, you can set a relay so it turns off after the hotend temperature decreases to a specific temperature.

You can also upgrade your firmware to Klipper and use Fluidd or Mainsail as your interface to do this. Klipper also allows you to do input shaping and pressure advance which is known to improve the 3D printing process.

One user said that if you are shutting off your 3D printer with OctoPrint attached, he recommends that you disconnect the 3D printer within the software, remove the USB cable, then do your normal shutdown by flipping the switch.

This is because he tried disconnecting from OctoPrint during a print and it didn’t stop the print.

The video below will show you how to remotely turn ON/OFF your 3D printer using OctoPrint and PSU Control.

A user also talked about using a TP-Link that comes with a power meter as well. It has a plugin compatible with OctoPrint that allows you to remotely control 3D printers such as shutting it down abruptly for safety issues or after the hotend has been cooled down.

Apart from OctoPrint, there are some other ways as well to remotely turn off or control your 3D printers.

A user suggested plugging in your 3D printer into a Wi-Fi outlet and you can turn off the outlet anytime you like.

Another user further added that he uses two Wi-Fi outlets. He plugs a Raspberry Pi in one outlet while the 3D printers are in the other.

A few people also talked about a new plugin, OctoEverywhere. This plugin gives you full control over different functionalities of 3D printers along with shutting them down.