L3+ oil cooled

https://youtu.be/ceTUKvyxktk

Antminer L3+ oil cooled.

This is my first trial and error system.

I am using oil from some oil cooled electronic equipment so had no worries about it causing an issue.

The best thing I found from the test is that the HW errors were 0 at 450Mhz overclock and minimum at 456Mhz, I think if I can get a temp of 40°C I can OC higher and not get any HW errors.

Having oil on the chips after removing the L3+ and putting back with my other units has made the temp +10°C lower which I was very surprised about.

The first part was to see if the oil would just work on its own without any additional equipment or cooling but the L3+ just acted like an element from a kettle and continuously warmed up the oil until I was too scared it would blow the chips.

Second part I moved into a heavy metal container to help dissipate the heat and with a submersible pump to help move the oil around but again it was very similar to the first try.

I added some extra pipe to the pump and and put it in a bucket of cold water to cool down the oil but my pump wasn't strong enough to transfer quickly enough to make a difference.

I will be making another video when I install a better pump and I can get a couple of small AC style radiators which I will mount the fans from the L3+ to cool down the oil, hopefully this will work.

Saved for later part 2

Fascinating. Can't wait to see where this go's.

Does the power supply need the cooling? It's performance is not really a variable at normal or sub-normal temperatures for Hashing rate. Also placing it in the oil tank just adds an unnecessary heat source.

Very cool
Wish there was some audio, explanations and such. I suspect that most of us that are watching are familiar enough with the equipment. If you want to share the video with me on google drive, I ll speed up some parts where you are undoing and re applying the screws, and any other mundane parts

Tom

Will try and work on it next week but off work for a few days and that's where most of the cooling stuff is.

@zafar I did have the psu in the oil but thought it was just making the oil hotter so re installed the fan and left it outside.

I think keeping in the oil definitely will be better from the results I got and its mainly for those who want to OC if you want it at 500Mhz and 40°C with zero or close to hw errors it's worth it.

The oil is designed for transformers and high power equipment to keep it cool.

@holygoof I removed the audio because I didn't speak and don't like the sound of my own voice lol, I can speed it up I guess for those bits.

I found since I put the fans blowing from the wrong direction the L3+ is colder and I changed another and instantly 20°C cooler so I have now changed all 4 of mine.

Cool man, I thought I would offer cause I film weddings and grads and stuff, and easy enough for me to speed vids up. Was great seeing the insides and the attention to what you did however.
So, you the puts fans to blow in the opposite direction and the L3 is not running so hot?, I gotta try that with one of mine
Tom

I had 1 L3 come with the fan cord stuck in the fan hah. Then the fans did not want to work. So, I took them off, put them back on and voila, thing works.
It is one of only two out all of mine that I do not overclock, at least until 90 or 180 days is up

@holygoof cheers for the offer if I decide to speed up and can't do it I'll give you a shout

After turning the fans around they are running cooler and with the fans at much lower rpm 3.6k and 2.9 instead of 4.5k and 3.5k so a massive difference in noise too.

If the fans are not working the l3 won't hash which is a good safety feature I guess.

@foxx yeah I saw that one just after I posted mine, but really in a fish tank with the gravel and other stuff and keeping the fans on I think they will burn out and cause errors on the system because of the running speed not correct.
At the end of the video you can see the miners webpage and +50°C but for only 1m26secs if he left it for 30mins with that pump it will be at 80°C.
Passive cooling will not work.

I read a 3m data center document which included details about bitcoin mining using oil cooling and this was after deciding I was going to try it.

Bitfury half way down page https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/novec-us/applications/immersion-cooling/

Yeah I've looked at doing this extensively over the years with PC's and even gaming systems need a heat exchanger for the oil, a miner absolutely needs it.

The issue that always stops me from doing it is the fact that you add all those other components to the loop and you just create more chances of failure IMO. On top of that if you ever had some sort of critical failure where you exceeded the flash point of the oil (lightning/act of god/whatever) and you ended up with a nice oil fire.... try explaining that to an insurance company and having them cover the damages...