Thermal comparisons - Copperhead vs Nova

Just know these thermal tests don’t define anything besides how efficient each system is at cooling the critical zone in a heatbreak. We cannot infer anything else and won’t tell us much besides if it’ll clog low temp materials like PLA.

First neither hotend should have any issue printing PLA. I’ve tested the copperhead beta unit and this is the production unit and the values themselves are all in line as they should be.

Second we have two different logics in design. Copperhead uses a bimetallic heatbreak that uses a special thermal inefficient steel tube bonded to copper pieces that help speed cooling and increase thermal conductivity. The copper end that goes into the heatsink speeds the spread of heat to the heatsink while the copper in the heatblock stores more heat and keeps it as close to the material as possible.

The Nova uses a supposed high end titanium tube that is thermally inefficient to reduce heatcreep. Sadly this also comes with the issue that heat can’t transfer in to and out of the material as well but as seen in previous tests it keeps the critical zone cooler and helps prevent hearcreep.

As tested before the copperhead is stable at 35C on average with a 215C nozzle temp and below 20C ambient temp.

The nova tests show a 40C critical zone temp under the same conditions.

Each setup was tested 5 times and all values averaged and documented.

So why are we comparing these values? Both brands claimed to be the most thermally efficient hotend under $100. Vlad, the owner and proprietor of the Nova hotend attacked the Slice Kickstarter in comments saying that his Nova had this distinction and Slice hasn’t actually tested anything or had proof to claim the title.

Beyond the BS Nova also didn’t have any proof of their claim and Slice has thermal imaging tests done on their hotends vs others. So in fact Slice did have tests but those didn’t include the Nova which at the time and as of today is basically an unknown player in the game.

So is the Nova the most thermally efficient hotend? No. Not at all. The copperhead, dragon, and mosquito all have better thermals so sadly the bold claims are like most of the Nova claims are just plain wrong.

Again I still need to test it’s max flow rate and print quality. So far every bold claim has been shot down but I want to make one major point with both hotends. I can’t consider either to be under $100 technically. I spent $175 to get a working Nova hotend. Why? You can’t move anything from reprap over to the nova. No nozzles, no heatbreaks, no heater cartridges and no thermistors. It’s all proprietary. Everything. This is supposed to make it better but sadly it’s not yet. It’s actually worse but the point is you cannot get the nova system to work without spending over $175.

With the Slice Copperhead we have a similar issue. You can buy a heatbreak and block to reuse with your heatsink, thermistor, and cartridge for under $100. But if you buy the copperhead kit with heatsink you still need to technically provide a nozzle, heater cartridge and thermistor. Mind you being able to move components saves money I still consider this a cost when taking into account a fresh build. I do believe a brass nozzle should be included to make it a full hotend but that’s me and in the end the Copperhead is vastly less expensive to get in to as a system over the Nova. I mean you need a special $10 tool to remove and insert the Nova nozzles and it’s not included which makes the kit $185...

Again these tests should only be treated as thermal tests and cannot tell you more than which will be able to keep heatcreep away and they both can for sure. Basically thermally speaking Copperhead > Nova > V6.