ASIC Cleaning
Cleaning means taking dust out of the heatsinks and fans on a regular basis. A clogged heatsink raises chip temperatures, and hashrate falls after them.
Why an asic needs cleaning
An asic pushes a huge volume of air through itself in a day, and whatever was in that air stays inside. Dust settles between the heatsink fins like felt, air stops passing, and the chips heat up. The fans answer with revolutions, and you get the heat and the extra noise at the same time.
After that the quiet loss of money begins. The firmware drops frequencies because of temperature, hashrate goes down by a few percent, and the electricity bill stays the same. Nothing is broken; the asic simply works worse than it could.
How often to clean is decided by the room rather than by the calendar. In a dry clean room once every six months is enough, next to a building site or a road you will be cleaning every month. The guide is simple: look at the intake temperature and at the difference from last month.
Water and a wet rag inside a powered asic are out of the question. A board takes washing well enough, but only once removed, in a workshop and with drying. At home you clean with dry air and a brush.
Quick reference table
| What clogs up | heatsinks and fans |
| First consequence | chip temperatures climb |
| Second consequence | hashrate falls at the same bill |
| How often | from once a month to once every six months, by the room |
| What not to use | water and a wet rag on the spot |
How to clean
Switch it off and cut the power. Blowing out a running asic means driving dust around live electronics.
Take it outside. Blowing it out in the same room just lifts the dust into the air, and an hour later it is back inside.
Compressed air at moderate pressure plus a soft brush. A jet held point blank bends the heatsink fins and spins a fan up until the bearing is damaged.
Hold the fans with a finger while you blow them out and check them for play and for rumble at the same time. A noisy fan is easier to replace now than to chase overheating later.
Write down the date and the temperature after cleaning. A month later that note tells you how fast your heatsinks clog up.
An example from the bench
An asic sits in a utility room next to a road. Over two months the intake temperature climbs, the chips go up, hashrate sags by a few percent. After a blow out the figures come back to the ones from installation day. Not a single part was changed; the only thing that changed was how well air gets through the heatsinks.
Related terms
Where to go next on the site
Hardware
- ASIC Miner knowledge base
- ASIC Chip and Hashboard knowledge base
Software
- Software firmware
Questions and answers
How often should you clean an asic
By the room rather than by the calendar: from once a month next to a road to once every six months in a clean dry utility room. Watch the intake temperature.
Can a hashboard be washed
It can, once removed and in a workshop, with drying. On the spot and with water, no.
Does thermal paste need changing at every cleaning
Not every time. Paste gets changed when temperatures do not come back after a cleaning, and on an asic under warranty that is done at a service shop.
How the terms connect
Every link in the chain is clickable. Orange marks where you are now.
Looking for an ASIC miner
The catalog holds 212 models. You can compare them by hashrate and by joules per terahash, then plug your own rate into the calculator and see what stays in your pocket.
Page written and checked by Denys Klimchuk. Updated .