Hot End Heating Issue

I have been troubleshooting our ender 6 for the last week or so. Last week we had a clogged hot end. I replaced that with little issue and had a 2 fantastic 18 hr plus prints after doing so. I set a larger (over 30 hr) print to do over the weekend. I came back in to it frozen right after the raft layer with a heating failure. The bed heated up just fine but the hot end would not heat up at all. One of the screws from the heating cartridge had somehow fallen off also. I fixed the cartridge and unplugged the heat wire and plugged it back in. The hot end finally did heat up and I was able to run a benchy, which came out fine. I tried to run another larger print last night and had the same heating error. After closer inspection this morning it looks like there is some fraying on the heating wire. Would this be the issue, and a simple replacement is all we need? After unplugging and replugging the wire it heats up again.

Thanks in advance. I tried to give as much context as possible to see if I messed something up in the process.

Hi, @BBCOdesign Welcome to the forum, Glad you found us.

There could be a couple of things going on but yes I think you may have it, The heater cartridges cannot have any fray or lose wires, It will cause issues. Simple replacement is the easiest way to go.

I am curious though you said something about a screw falling out? is this the one for the thirmostor? because that could cause similar issues and will cause you to lose control of the hot end. Also a bit of a concern.

You can post pics up here as well if that would help to explain what you are looking at.

Jason is right, I’ll just add the thirmostor and heat cart are ‘semi’ consumable. The wires are tiny and are easily damaged. I keep spares on hand so when they no longer look good I can replace them.

Screws falling out are never good.