Slightly kinked laptop heatpipe

[djdelarosa25]

Didn't know how soft copper heatpipes are. I was in the process of repasting my laptop and while cleaning the old paste off the copper heatsink, I accidentally bent the heatpipe (only lightly, though). I bent it back and now it has a small kink. Temps seem to be the same as before, if not only a few degrees Celsius lower. Will this be bad in the long run?

[Guest]

No, heat pipes transfer heat, as long as the pipe itself is intact and thermally conductive it will work just fine. Even if you folded it into a pretzel, it would still transfer heat.

 

I wouldn't even be worried if your heat pipes were a vapor chamber. Small kinks should not cause copper to fail, you're fine.

[The_russian]

1 minute ago, djdelarosa25 said:

Didn't know how soft copper heatpipes are. I was in the process of repasting my laptop and while cleaning the old paste off the copper heatsink. I accidentally bent the heatpipe (only lightly, though). I bent it back and now it has a small kink. Temps seem to be the same as before, if not only a few degrees Celsius lower. Will this be bad in the long run?

If you stress tested it and the temps are still fine, I don't think there will be a problem. I don't see how the problem would worsen in the long run, unless it gets kinked more. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, The_russian said:

unless it gets kinked more. 

As long as it doesn't break, I don't think it'll be a problem at all. Even if you straight up bent it in half - copper still intact, heat still transfers.

 

If you're looking to actually bend your heatpipes in half in the future, don't. But a kink? It's harmless, only cosmetic.

[The_russian]

13 minutes ago, LoganDark said:

As long as it doesn't break, I don't think it'll be a problem at all. Even if you straight up bent it in half - copper still intact, heat still transfers.

I'm not sure that you know how a heatpipe works... They aren't just solid or hollow pipes of copper, but they are filled with a vapor that moves up and back down the heatpipe. If a heatpipe is kinked, even if the the pipe doesn't break, the thermal performance can suffer. It depends on how bad the kink is. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, The_russian said:

They aren't just solid or hollow pipes of copper, but they are filled with a vapor that moves up and back down the heatpipe

I actually included a bit about vapor chambers, you see. I said something as small as a kink isn't something to worry about, but I suppose I didn't mention what would happen if you did bend up a vapor chamber.

 

There are proper tools for doing this, but if you just torque it in half, yes you will absolutely ruin its thermal performance.

 

I suppose when you say "kink", you mean something that impacts the volume inside. That's reasonable. I think OP just means there's a visual 'crease' on the surface, which shouldn't noticeably affect anything thermally as far as I know.