zippo lighter fluid to clean cpu?

[chilicheeseburger]

Yeah,i'm pretty sure that's not it. It is not poisonous. Anyway,too much hassle.I'll let it go!

Lol,that's a traditional Greek drink.

Must be that ethyl alcohol though.

I think I'use the lighter fluid. Probably gonna be fine right?

[Guest]

Like 99% alcohol isn't flammmable...

Yeah, but it evaporates in seconds. (This is a legit question) does lighter fluid do that?

[TDP_Equinox]

Sure.
I mean, if you want to burn your house down.

99% Iso propyl Alcohol on a coffee filter.
you can get a bottle at any wall mart for about 10 bucks.

EDIT: Lets think about this.
Lighter fluid, around a bunch of components with electricity flowing through it.
that is asking for a bad time. Play it safe and go with the 99% Iso. It evaporates instantly, and it burns quickly in the case where someone is stupid enough to light it. Where as Lighter fluid is meant to burn for a long time. The additives mean it will burn longer, and leave a residue on your system.

[chilicheeseburger]

Sure.

I mean, if you want to burn your house down.

99% Iso propyl Alcohol on a coffee filter.

you can get a bottle at any wall mart for about 10 bucks.

EDIT: Lets think about this.

Lighter fluid, around a bunch of components with electricity flowing through it.

that is asking for a bad time. Play it safe and go with the 99% Iso. It evaporates instantly, and it burns quickly in the case where someone is stupid enough to light it. Where as Lighter fluid is meant to burn for a long time. The additives mean it will burn longer, and leave a residue on your system.

i only used a very small amount like a drop of it on a coffee filter and carefully cleaned it off. repeated that process likr 3 times. As for evaporation I'm gonna leave it like that till tomorrow night when I get home and hopefully the new cooler has arrived by then. So 24hrs for it to evaporate should be fine I guess. And we don't have wal-mart here or any convenience store that sells the stuff as far as I know.

[phillrulz]

I read you could use lighter fluid to clean the thermal compound off your cpu in some posts, on here and elswhere on the internet. Now I have literally no idea about chemistry and all that so I can't tell if that's a good alternative or not.

Most commonly people will recommend isopropyl alcohol but it's expensive and I'd have to go to a pharmacy to buy some. And they'd go on and on for 15mins about how you're not supposed to drink it and what not. I can't stand pharmacies here in Germany because whatever you're trying to buy they treat you like a drug abuser. Ordering it online will take too long.

So I read about using lighter fluid instead.

I figured I could just put a small amount of zippo lighter fluid on a coffee filter and then just rub the thermal paste off, then wipe it with another coffee filter and let it dry.

Has anybody done that and can confirm it actually works? Thanks in advance for your help and replies!

 

Chemistry wise the reason we use any liquid is a solvent to dissolve the glue in the paste, there is different solvents depending on what bonds the molecule can make, water is a common solvent and makes hydrogen bonds with things, however it isnt volatile so it will remain wet. Alcohols are also solvents they can be volatile meaning they will evaporate readily in standard temperature and pressure. Some molecules will dissolve in alcohols but not water. there is another common solvent which are hydrocarbons this can be things like benzene or oils. Hydrocarbons and oils tend to dissolve non polar molecules whereas water dissolves polar stuff what can make hydrogen bonds. quick google found an experiment where you add food coloring to sugar and then as some of the coloured sugar to water, alcohol and then oil. The water will dissolve the sugar and take up the colour, the alcohol will take up the colour but not dissolve the sugar and the oil will do neither.

 

Lighter fluid is volatile however tends to have impurities and a bit slow to evaporate, it would work however its better to use something like alcohol or nail varnish remover ( acetone) best thing i ever did was bought a box of injection swabs its a little square of paper soaked in alcohol and they are sooooooo cheap ( amazon found 100 for £2.00) they come in useful not only for removing thermal compound.

[chilicheeseburger]

Chemistry wise the reason we use any liquid is a solvent to dissolve the glue in the paste, there is different solvents depending on what bonds the molecule can make, water is a common solvent and makes hydrogen bonds with things, however it isnt volatile so it will remain wet. Alcohols are also solvents they can be volatile meaning they will evaporate readily in standard temperature and pressure. Some molecules will dissolve in alcohols but not water. there is another common solvent which are hydrocarbons this can be things like benzene or oils. Hydrocarbons and oils tend to dissolve non polar molecules whereas water dissolves polar stuff what can make hydrogen bonds. quick google found an experiment where you add food coloring to sugar and then as some of the coloured sugar to water, alcohol and then oil. The water will dissolve the sugar and take up the colour, the alcohol will take up the colour but not dissolve the sugar and the oil will do neither.

Lighter fluid is volatile however tends to have impurities and a bit slow to evaporate, it would work however its better to use something like alcohol or nail varnish remover ( acetone) best thing i ever did was bought a box of injection swabs its a little square of paper soaked in alcohol and they are sooooooo cheap ( amazon found 100 for £2.00) they come in useful not only for removing thermal compound.

Thank you that just taught me more then every chemistry class I ever had. It sounds very logical the way you put it.

So basically if I leave it for a day to evaporate, which I do, I'll be fine?

I'm gonna order the swabs anyway now sounds good and they'll be useful enough in the future. Thanks for the advice.

[phillrulz]

Thank you that just taught me more then every chemistry class I ever had. It sounds very logical the way you put it.

So basically if I leave it for a day to evaporate, which I do, I'll be fine?

I'm gonna order the swabs anyway now sounds good and they'll be useful enough in the future. Thanks for the advice.

 

IMO you can remove thermal paste purely with a cotton pad no need for any liquid aslong as its not solid like OEM shit, with that its best to use acetone or alcohol. Use say a single drop on the paper you down want to make the CPU/Heatsink visibly wet with it dont wanna risk it dripping into the socket and possibly taking some conductive stuff with it that where shit gets real fast. ( believe it or not water/alcohol/oil is not conductive its the solutes in it which conduct like my oil submerged pc the oil is very poor solvent of ionic compounds as the main reason submerged pcs die is due to the dissolving of the anodized aluminum heatsink making a conductive path. )

[chilicheeseburger]

IMO you can remove thermal paste purely with a cotton pad no need for any liquid aslong as its not solid like OEM shit, with that its best to use acetone or alcohol. Use say a single drop on the paper you down want to make the CPU/Heatsink visibly wet with it dont wanna risk it dripping into the socket and possibly taking some conductive stuff with it that where shit gets real fast. ( believe it or not water/alcohol/oil is not conductive its the solutes in it which conduct like my oil submerged pc the oil is very poor solvent of ionic compounds as the main reason submerged pcs die is due to the dissolving of the anodized aluminum heatsink making a conductive path. )

I used single drops on a coffe filter, i even let it dry into the filter for a few seconds so the cpu was never visibly wet.

BTW

The part about the oil submerged PCs was very informative I didn't know that.

[Xanzan]

I can confirm that Zippo Lighter Fluid does work! Evaporates quickly as other alcohols.