Are block erupter suppose to get too hot to touch?

[Saturn7]

Just got mine today and plugged it in, after about 5 min i couldn't touch it-it was so hot.

[Trillium]

So put a fan next to them.

[cdogster]

Yes, they get very hot.  As long as nothing is resting on them, they are fine.

[ct1aic]

Use also a heatsink glued on the ASIC chip.

[coinprize]

It's small and simple.
It nearly has not any designs for heat radiation.

So pay attention to its defects liability period and rules.
Heat radiation could be a big problem for hardware.   

[SilentSonicBoom]

Just got mine today and plugged it in, after about 5 min i couldn't touch it-it was so hot.

Just have a small movement of airflow across the miner and you will be fine. I speak from experience. No airflow is bad. Some airflow is better. They stay nice and cool with a small breeze to help cool them down. Good luck mining!

[Melbustus]

I've been running one for a few weeks with zero active airflow. It's just dangling on a USB hub next to my desk. There's nothing else hot around it, and I wouldn't run several close together with no flow, but this one is doing just fine. With an IR gun, I'm getting up to 175 degrees F on the ASIC itself, and about 155 across the heat-spreader on the back.

[logicbomb666]

I only have 1, and it gets too hot to touch. Its been hashing along 24/7 for weeks with no issues. 

Too hot to touch? well, don't touch it then.  problem solved. 

[SebastianJu]

Use also a heatsink glued on the ASIC chip.

Glued? I hope you meant thermal paste. Im pretty sure that glue is a bad heat conductor you dont want between the to cooled chip and the heatsink.

[tlr]

Use also a heatsink glued on the ASIC chip.

Where can you get these heatsinks and (thermal?) glue?

[grue]

fingers are NOT good for measuring chip temperatures. CPUs and GPUs can run well into 70s without any damage. Wikipedia states:

At temperatures greater than 44 °C (111 °F), proteins begin losing their three-dimensional shape and start breaking down.[33] This results in cell and tissue damage

So don't get worried if it's too hot to touch. It doesn't necessarily mean it's hot to operate.

[ct1aic]

Use also a heatsink glued on the ASIC chip.

Glued? I hope you meant thermal paste. Im pretty sure that glue is a bad heat conductor you dont want between the to cooled chip and the heatsink.

I mean 3M like thermal tape. See next post for the link to the heatsink kit, SebastianJu.

[ct1aic]

Use also a heatsink glued on the ASIC chip.

Where can you get these heatsinks and (thermal?) glue?

I bought a Raspberry Pi heatsink kit, that includes a 6x8mm and a 8x8mm heatsinks, both good for the USB Block Erupter ASIC chip.

The kit includes the thermal tape needed to "glue" the heatsink to the ASIC chip.

I spoke with the seller about this USB Gizmo and he is trying to have a selling of a 6x6mm heatsink. I'm still waiting for news from him.

Meanwhile, this is the link to the eBay selling kit if you would like to buy it, tlr: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121059845105?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

[k9quaint]

Put your coffee cup on it. 

[Ashkelon]

i run four of them off a USB3 hub and I have a usb powered fan washing air over them and they seem to be running alright. If you're really worried, use a tower PC fan, you can buy them cheap and power them either of a psu or with a cheap 230AC/12DC converter (the ones on the bigger christmas lights are more than sufficient.

[Trillium]

I have attached heatsinks to mine with just some Arctic Silver 5 thermally conductive paste.

You could use thermal adhesive (which dries like a glue and can't really be removed) but I would not recommend it as the heatsink will be more or less permanently bonded to the chip. If you tried to remove it you'd risk snapping the chip off the board.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_thermal_adhesive.htm

[boost75]

I use these fans http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008LHBCQA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008LHBCQA&linkCode=as2&tag=smamedgro-20

[SebastianJu]

Hm... i now searched google and found different opinions. Most claimed that thermal paste is far better than thermal pad. But another one claimed that he measured the opposite.
I tend to believe that thermal paste is better since i doubt that a tape can be a better heat conductor than a fluid of metal. On the other hand... its not so important in this case of use.

[notlist3d]

I put in front of a fan i have aimed at a GPU rig, with that they haven't got hot to touch once.  Not the most power efficient cooling wise.  But if you have a GPU rig still running works great.

[Trillium]

Hm... i now searched google and found different opinions. Most claimed that thermal paste is far better than thermal pad. But another one claimed that he measured the opposite.
I tend to believe that thermal paste is better since i doubt that a tape can be a better heat conductor than a fluid of metal. On the other hand... its not so important in this case of use.

I have come up against this problem with trying to cool high power VRM's with poorly fitting waterblocks on cards like 5970's. The simple fact of the matter is that those grey silicone(?) thermal pads (which often tear extremely easily) have 'good' thermal conductivity but as only as far as soft compressible materials go. THEY ARE COMPLETELY INFERIOR TO PROPER HEAT CONDUCTORS LIKE ALUMINIUM, COPPER, SILVER METAL by at least a few orders of magnitude. In my experience they are also inferior to good quality thermal pastes.

If you absolutely must use those thermal adhesive pads, try to get ones that are as thin as possible, more heat will pass through it that way giving you better temperatures. Some thermal adhesive tapes are extremely thin but offer good stickiness, these are what you want to use.

Just like with those pads, even thermal paste (and thermal adhesive) can be very problematic if you apply it too thick. There is a very fine line between using too little and too much but hey, it's still better than having air gaps (air being a gas is one of the best thermal insulators).