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What is PTFE and where do I find it?

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a synthetic material, similar to Teflon (and closely related to it). Thanks to their low friction coefficient, tubes from this material are used to guide filament in all Original Prusa i3 printers. Not all the tubes are the same, multi-material printers often require narrow and more precise tubes, than the single-material printer. Before your order or make a new tube, make sure you have the correct dimensions.

In general, we distinguish between :

A) the tubes for the hotend, which are inside the extruder (common for all printers)

B) the tubes guiding the filament to the extruder (mostly for the multi-material printers)

How to remove and check the PTFE tube?

Most of the tubes can be easily removed using your hand. However, the tubes in hotends require a partial printer disassembly. Learn how to change/inspect the PTFE tube in hotend for the MK3/MK2.5, and for the MK3S/MK2.5S/MMU2S.

 

 

My tube is damaged, what now?

In case your printer is jammed and the tube is damaged, you have three options:

  1. Check your original shipping package, we include some PTFE tubes as spare (e.g. with MMU2)
  2. Visit our online store and check for the spare tubes, at our E-shop (you have to be logged in)
  3. Find a local dealer of the PTFE tubes. To make your own follow How to trim PTFE tube - Original Prusa printers guide.
Prusa Research recommends purchasing PTFE tubes manufactured by company Festo, which provides the highest quality and precision. You can also use tubes from E3D, but please always check the internal dimensions and compare them to the PTFE-illustrations.