Thermal paste wait period

robin3989

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I own a Musical Fidelity A1 amp and wanted to check the type of PSU Electrolytic caps (axial or radial) in order to buy new. Today I opened the amp, and took a good look at the components and decided to clean up the dry thermal paste previously applied and apply some new compound. I’ve applied a thin layer as advised and closed the top heat sink cover also. Its been 1 hour, and my question now is “Is it okay to turn on the amp now or should I wait for some time or days to begin operating the power amp?”
 
Where did you apply the thermal compound previously... and on what you intend to apply it now?
can you pl post few images showing the internals of your amp?

Where ever you apply... I'm fairly sure that paste doesn't need a "curing" time now and should be good right from the onset. That has certainly been my experience with a lot of applications.

...
 
Where did you apply the thermal compound previously... and on what you intend to apply it now?
can you pl post few images showing the internals of your amp?

Where ever you apply... I'm fairly sure that paste doesn't need a "curing" time now and should be good right from the onset. That has certainly been my experience with a lot of applications.

...
I applied the thermal paste over the heat sink that transfers the heat to top panel of the amp that aren’t basically fins, but used to dissipate heat outside. I ensured that only sufficient amount of the compound is applied evenly on the heat sink and I also sealed the transistors with paper to avoid accidental spill. As my actual intention was to see the internals, I closed the top panel after replacing the therm paste.

I’m not the first owner of the amp and I bought this from a person locally last month. So I don’t know how they have handled this. I followed the instructions provided here to apply the thermal paste.

I took one pic of the internals. Unfortunately I didn’t take pics while applying the compound. I scraped off all the old compound completely first and then applied new compound.

Per the pic, The previous owner has replaced one of the PSU caps and a resistor.

I’ll connect the amp and let you know
 

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Amp is working fine. 15 mins of tracks at medium volume and no problems, does heat as usual which indicates that the heat sink is intact with the top panel. Thanks everyone!!
 
Where did you apply the thermal compound previously... and on what you intend to apply it now?
can you pl post few images showing the internals of your amp?

Where ever you apply... I'm fairly sure that paste doesn't need a "curing" time now and should be good right from the onset. That has certainly been my experience with a lot of applications.

...
How long will the thermal coating be effective? Is it necessary to remove and re-apply the paste after certain years?
 
How long will the thermal coating be effective? Is it necessary to remove and re-apply the paste after certain years?
If you don’t disturb the area, I doubt if there’s a need. But there’s nothing wrong in replacing it once in few years. Replacing the compound will actually help in better heat transfer, as repeated heat cycles cause the compound to harden as they dry.
 
If you don’t disturb the area, I doubt if there’s a need. But there’s nothing wrong in replacing it once in few years. Replacing the compound will actually help in better heat transfer, as repeated heat cycles cause the compound to harden as they dry.
Thank you Robin. Are there any grade in the paste. Is it available in India? Thanks.
 
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