Every once in a while, someone asks about Z offset within a Klipper configuration. More often than not, I advise people not to use it. But, it’s there for a reason, so what exactly is it?

I often see people do a mesh bed level on their printer, then try to set a Z offset from the bed to the nozzle of their printer, and then start printing. Unless you need a few grooves in your bed, I would not advise this method.

Z offset is used when your printer has some type of probe (BLTouch, for example) that is used to automatically create your mesh bed level. The XYZ distance from your probe tip to your nozzle tip needs to be determined and calibrated against, so that when you use it to create a mesh bed level you end up with a valid map.

If you don’t have a probe, you probably don’t want to do anything with Z offset.