Prusa CORE One Kits Ship With Wrong Nozzles, Bondtech Admits Error

What Happened

The Prusa CORE One is one of the most anticipated FDM printers of the year. The Founders Edition launched with a premium price tag and a Bondtech-made INDX toolchanger system. Buyers paid for hardened, abrasion-resistant nozzles. What arrived was something else entirely.

Soft steel nozzles were shipped in boxes labeled as hardened. Bondtech, the Swedish company behind the INDX system, confirmed the problem on July 29 in a public update. The nozzles were mislabeled during manufacturing. The mistake affects every Founders Edition CORE One that shipped with the original nozzle set.

What Hardened Means in This Context

Hardened steel nozzles are standard on mid-to-high-end FDM printers for a reason. Carbon-fiber-filled filaments, glow-in-the-dark compounds, and metal-infused materials will chew through soft brass or unhardened steel nozzles in a matter of hours. A nozzle that should last hundreds of hours becomes a consumable after a few prints.

Bondtech's own product page for the INDX system stated that the included nozzles were hardened and abrasion-resistant. That statement is now retracted.

No Quick Fix Available

Bondtech's update was direct: there is no immediate replacement program. The company is working to produce corrected nozzles but has not provided a timeline. Founders Edition buyers who expected to print engineering-grade materials right out of the box are left waiting.

The situation is particularly frustrating for early adopters. Many paid a premium for the Founders Edition specifically to get the hardened INDX hardware. Instead, they received a toolchanger system with nozzles that defeat the purpose of buying it.

Community Response

Owners responded quickly. A site called "Nozzle Gate" went live to track the issue, compile documentation, and give buyers a central place to find updates. The name is a nod to the scale of the backlash: this isn't a minor QC slip, it's a spec mismatch at the heart of a premium product launch.

The Prusa subreddit and various Discord communities filled with reports within hours of Bondtech's admission. Buyers who had just unboxed their CORE Ones were the loudest voices. The printer itself is solid, but the hardware that makes it distinctive was not what was promised.

Where This Leaves Buyers

If you own a Founders Edition CORE One and haven't started printing abrasive materials, you're probably fine for now. If you planned to run carbon-fiber nylon or metal-filled PLA, hold off until corrected nozzles are available. Bondtech has not announced a recall or replacement timeline, so the wait is open-ended.

For prospective buyers: the standard production CORE One may ship with corrected hardware, but confirm before ordering. Prusa has not issued a public statement beyond relaying Bondtech's update.