Replacing the ceramic heater in my QIDI Q1 Pro

Recently I needed to replace the ceramic heater in my QIDI Q1 Pro. The hotend would not stay hot, and when I opened it up, the ceramic heater part itself had almost turned to powder.

Replacing just the heater cost less than replacing the whole hotend. Saving money was my main reason for choosing that route. I ordered two heating elements and some thermal grease from AliExpress, so I would have a spare heater ready if the replacement failed too.

What failed

The symptom was that the hotend would not hold its temperature. I'd start a print and about 5 or so minutes in the temp would drop and not come back up so it would eventually cause an error in Klipper. Once I opened up the hotend, I found that the ceramic heater had pretty much disintegrated. It was crumbling into powder.

That was what I found during disassembly; I do not yet know what caused the ceramic to break down, but my guess is that just over the time of a couple years that I have had the printer it just broke down slowly.

What I bought

I bought two replacement heating elements and thermal grease from AliExpress. One heater went into the printer, and the other is a spare.

• Heating elements: 2 Pcs 3D Printer Hotend Ceramic Heater 24V 80W High Temperature Proof Ceramic Heater for QIDI X-Plus3 Smart3 Maximum3 Q1 Pro for about $7.30
• Thermal grease: Thermal Grease For Bambu Lab P1s Accessories GD900 Thermal Paste for BambuLab Creality Elegoo Hotend p1s x1c p1 3D Printer Parts
• Cost comparison: $10 for 2 replacements vs $35 for the whole hotend from Qidi directly
• Delivery was free since I bought some other things from AliExpress and qualified for free shipping

[Add the tools I actually used.]

Taking the hotend apart

• Remove the front 2 screws from the front of the hotend.

• Remove the rear 4 screws that hold on the back cover of the printer head. Below you can see where the heater connects (the 2 white wires plugged into the center) and the two top holes where screws were removed.

Here is the cover showing the 4 holes for the retaining screws

• Once you remove the cover, you can wiggle the hotend out of the printer head and get to the retaining clip that holds in the heater.

The clip can be slid off with a pair of pliers or the gentle application of some force with a flathed screwdriver.

• After I removed the retaining clip I could remove the heater and unplug it from the print head board.
• To make sure that the surface was ready for thermal paste, I used a cotton swab and some rubbing alcohol to clean off the hotend of any old residue.

• Next I applied some thermal paste to the hotend and made sure it covered the contact area of the heater. It might have been a bit more than I needed, but time will tell.

• The thermal paste is a bit messy, so wearing gloves is a good idea, but next I put the heater up against the thermal paste and slid the retaining clip back on.

• Lastly I reassembled the hotend, connected the heater wires, and re-attached the rear cover. Then it was time to fire it up and run a test print.

After replacing the heater, I printed a part for my E-flite Timber X RC airplane in white PETG. The print completed successfully, and the hotend held its temperature during the print. Next I'll probably try some ABS and really put it through its paces.

The heater-only replacement kept the cost down, and I now have a second heating element on hand if I need one again.

I didn't see any guide online on how to do this type of repair so I figured I would document it for anyone that needs to replace their heater in the future. Good Luck!