Nozzle wear over 1 year and 3 months heavy use

Hello everyone,
I thought some of you may have been wondering about the Nozzle wear over time just like me. How much it actually wears in time and when should you change it? Should you at least start taking the wear into account in your gcode adjustments if not yet willing to replace?

I have been printing a lot with my Lulzbot Mini since I bought it 1 year and 3 months ago. Normally I print PLA (80 %) and the rest is mostly ABS. Some say glow in the dark wears the nozzle quicker than regular type colors. I have printed less than 1 kg of glow in the dark ABS filament with this nozzle.

I measured the old 0.5-mm nozzle under a microscope and used my 3 new 0.5-mm nozzles as reference. All brass nozzles are original Lulzbot/Hexagon type similar that ships with the printer. I also included a picture of a new 0.3-mm nozzle which is original Lulzbot/Hexagon type brass nozzle similar to the others.

I noticed that the diameter of the old nozzle is about 100 um larger than that of the reference nozzles. The nozzle still performed OK when I changed it but the accuracy is of course not the same as when it was new. If I one day want to use it again I can get best results by assuming a 0.6-mm nozzle in my gcode settings.

BR,
Juho