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Finally getting up to the Calibrate Hot End step in the manual, the instructions say "Your hot end may smoke a tiny, tiny amount when reaching temperature"

I started it, watched the thermistor start climbing to 150C, then my hot end started making very small spitting noises and giving off a bit of smoke, not more than a candle, but it kept smoking a small bit and spitting. Is this normal? I shut the power off before it could go any higher and am a little worried about starting it up again...

Basically it's a constant stream of very light smoke, like a candle that's been blown out, with intermittent spitting noises.

SOrry for the double post, but I got brave and tried again. I waited until the hot end cooled down to 30C, then tried it again. The hotend got all the way to 220 without smoking at all, but then I got this message in the console:

Error: PID Autotune failed! Temperature to [sic] high

Do I have to start the autotune when the hotend is below a certain temperature?

I think so. I always start my PID autotunes cold.

My hotend also smoked more than what I considered a "tiny" amount, but it wound up being OK.

I've heard from others on this forum that the spitting is air bubbles escaping from the liquid gasket and is not something to worry about. Sounds plausible, but mine didn't spit, so I can't say...