I am about to install my second SSR as my first one died. When taking the old one off the heat sink I found that there was no thermal paste. How necessary is it? I found the heat sink got pretty hot when running. My system uses is a 2000w 120v element. My heat sink is on the outside of my control panel. Thanks.
Thermal paste between SSR and heat sink?
- Thread starter Tandor
- Start date
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if the heat sink was getting hot, you had good contact between it and the SSR, but there may still have been areas of the SSR body that were not in full contact (like a small airspce is possible), so the themal paste may still be a good idea.
aubiecat
Well-Known Member
Thermal paste will give you a complete thermal bond between the SSR and the heat sink. I happened to have some Arctic Silver 5 left over from a computer build so that is what I used. They have thermal paste at Radio Shack.
Snood
Well-Known Member
Same here, anyone who's built their own PC will probably have some thermal compound left over, I too used Arctic silver which usually would be overkill for an SSR
I used the cheapest stuff they had at radioshock for my current in progress build and on my previous build. It works fine on my current rig running 26 A through a 40 A SSR. If you're closer to the load current rating for your SSR it might be worth the extra $ to get the good stuff, but at that point you will see more benefit from going with larger heatsinks or forced air cooling.
