Bitcoin Forum

Hi everyone,

Just a query I had recently regarding cleaning out the antminers (S3's in my case). Would the removal of dust etc bring down temps and improve the hashrate at all?

My hashrate seems to fall slightly over the course of a couple of weeks (2-3ghs) and wondered if this was a normal thing or due to something else.

Thanks.

If you are in a dusty area it depends on the miner on how easy it is.  But if it is a miner that people can easily open and is out of warranty yes if lots of dust I would open it and remove it.   I have noticed fan's can get a good amount.   You can also make it better by cleaning off the fan's and get the dust off of them.  When I sell a miner I try to clean it to normally.  

I don't know why but I never opened my SP20's just never seemed like they opened as much as a lot of others.  With them I used air you can push a good amount out with air.  It's not as good as opening a S3 and cleaning off the heatsinks and fan's.  But a little of air is better then nothing.

I don't think your hashrate decline is on a S3 is due to dust though.

Neither did I but I'm curious to know why the hashrate declines over a long period.

I clean my s3s and s5s usually once a month. Pull the fans off and clean the blades and the grilles. If either end is really dusty (right where the fans mount) I take off the frame and clean the board and heat sink.

Hi!

I use a vacuum cleaner every 3 weeks for clean my S3+. And remember also clean the power supply.
The temperature down 2 or 3 grade.

Regards.
Antuam

I don't run S5's anymore, but I use the same process with most my miners - if you have more than a couple, buy an air compressor and a air nozzle.  I would basically just hit them once a month to blow out any lingering dust and they are good to go. 

As someone else pointed out, the push fan needs to be removed usually on the S5 (I reconfigured mine with an enclosure and made them pull, which is easier to maintain) - I've found literally tons of stuff stuck to the heat sink that is basically blocked by the fan.

Either way, it shouldn't really have any effect of hash rate - just the mortality of the machine.

i never fhought i should clean them  ;D   old S1 in my case
they are running for about two years now without any failure stable temp and fans are working great
and im not paying electricity

Sounds like good advice. Looks like I'll be doing some disassembly soon then  :D. Thanks guys.

Cleaning out dust accumulation should let the miner run cooler, which MIGHT let you overclock it a bit more without overheating it.

 Don't use an air compressor to blow out miners, they end up blowing WATER through the electronics = BAD THING.
 Might be OK if you have a water trap on the compressor and blow out the accumulation for a minute or two BEFORE you use it to blow out the miner, but even then it's a bit iffy.


 Vaccum cleaner is a MUCH MUCH safer idea, and makes less of a mess too!

use a wet dry vac same as a vacuum cleaner but is a little different or made more for this kind of use . i use one .
 
This is the one i use http://www.google.com/shopping/product/6993520164776027800?lsf=seller:9119074,store:15978048017545669532&prds=oid:3706816105252360072&q=wet+dry+vac&hl=en&ei=AuPKVrKeE8my-QHIq6XIDg

I leave them run and have a vacuum nozzle at one end and using air duster at the other end. Takes about 10-30secs to do each.

Well just thought I'd update this seeing as I started it.

Cleaned out the 2 S3's I've got with a small brush and a vacuum cleaner. Both intake sides of the heatsinks were pretty clogged up with dust, so were the gaps around the fan motors.

Just got them up and running and after a few minutes they are already running 2-3 degrees cooler and seem to run quieter too seeing as the fan speeds have dropped around 200rpm (so the gui says anyway).

Ill update again in a couple of days to see if the hashrate has been affected.

Should be the same, that sound pretty much in par from what happen whenever i clean any kinf of miner and even my GPU's when i clean them after they've collected some dust. I enjoy the noise drop a lot. :)

I have them running under my desk in my bedroom (free heat so the radiator is turned off  ;)). I used to be able to hear them clearly from downstairs but now I can hardly hear them at all. Needless to say a clean once they get noisy again will be in order.

On the hashrate side of things they have been running for about 4.5hours and its not any better. I was being optimistic thinking I might be able to squeeze a couple of GHs out of them with a clean  :D

You're pretty lucky you can't hear your s3s at all. I have one next to my wifi router next to my tv, and at night I hear the whirring of my s3 hashing ALL NIGHT. The good thing is the sound makes me sleep faster,bad news is if I wake up at night and I hear it, I can't sleep ;-; It's probably just old components. My antminer used to energetically mine at 450 ghs without O.C , now it mines at the slow speed of 430 ghs.

Well I used to find it hard to drop off to sleep, but now im hoping ill be alright now they are quieter  :D

The old S3 is running 218freq and getting 420ghs/avg, the S3+ is at 250freq and getting 495-500ghs/avg. id like another s3+ to swap out the old S3 but cant seem to get one at a decent price.

My S3+ was overclocked a little so I could get 500GH/s out of it.  Sometimes it would run for days at 500GH and then slowly start decline to ~485GH and then I would reboot it to get the 15GH back.  It wasn't a dust or heat issue, I think that's just how the S3+ operates.  I clean mine out rarely, like only if there's a reason they need to be shut off, but they are inside a house and don't get too dirty.