Cleaning and maintenance – dust, fans, thermal paste

Maintaining an air-cooled miner consists of three things: removing dust, keeping an eye on the fans, checking the contacts. Everything else is repair.

How often

That is determined by the environment, not the calendar.

• Clean hall with filter: inspect every few months.
• Workshop, barn, building site: monthly.
• Signs that it is time: the chip temperatures rise with the same intake air, or the fans run faster than they used to.

Removing dust

1. Switch off and disconnect from the power. Wait a few minutes.
2. Carry it outside. The dust should not go back into the room.
3. Hold the fans still. A fan driven by the air jet generates voltage and can damage its electronics.
4. Blow against the direction of airflow, from the exhaust side to the intake side. That way the dust leaves by the route it came in.
5. Compressed air dry and from a distance. A compressor without a water separator blows moisture into the unit.

No water, no cleaning agent, no vacuum cleaner directly on the boards.

Filters

A filter in front of the intake saves the most work. But it has to be cleaned itself: a clogged filter restricts the airflow and makes the temperatures rise. Check it more often than the unit.

Fans

Fans are wear parts. They announce their end:

• Noise: grinding, rattling or an uneven tone.
• Speed: one fan lags behind the others at the same setting.

Replace it then, not only when it fails. It takes minutes and costs little. If you have several units, keep spare fans of the right type in stock.

Contacts and cables

Look at the power connections at every cleaning. Discoloured plastic, a connector that feels warm or dark spots on the contacts indicate a poor connection. Such a connector is replaced, not pushed back in.

Thermal paste

Between the chips and the heatsinks sits thermal interface material, which can degrade over the years. The sign is a board that runs noticeably warmer than the others with a clean heatsink.

Replacing it means dismantling the unit. During the warranty period this ends the warranty. After that it is a job for someone with experience: the tightening torque of the heatsinks and the amount of paste must be right, otherwise the chips are cooled worse afterwards than before.

Hydro units

Dust hardly plays a role. Instead:

• Filter in the circuit: check and clean regularly.
• Coolant: check appearance and pH value.
• Fittings: look out for drips and deposits.
• Dry cooler: its fins clog with dust and pollen like the heatsinks of an air-cooled unit.

What to write down

Date, unit, what was done, and the temperatures before and after cleaning. After a year you can see from this which interval your site really needs.

Sources

• Bitmain: After-Sales Maintenance Policy, exclusion when the unit has been opened

As of October 2026. The manufacturer's manual and warranty terms are what count.