A question about isopropyl alcohol.

EyesOnly

In this article mediaman said to use 99% isopropyl alcohol to remove thermal paste from cpus. Well i noticed that audiocassete cleaners use iso too, though it's called 100% isopropyl alcohol. So my question is. Can i use this instead of the 99% when cleaning cpus, or would it be a bad idea?

The reason for asking is that i have the 100% and i don't plan the mess around to much with paste so i won't need that much.

leishi85

it's safe, when they say 100%, they mean 99%
no such thing as 100%

Straight_Man

Quite safe. I use 91% or better. The 91% came from Walmart, less than $2.00 per pint. In fact, have used rubbing alcohol on P4s with no problems (note, the P4's I have used it on have a nice metal heat spreading CAP on the CPU, it is not high iron so the extra WATER molecule content will not corrode it if you let it dry before putting HS stuff on, and the real advantage of purer Isoprophyl is that it evaporates faster so you can put the HS compund on faster).

The two other related things I will note, are that you do not want to soak your hands with pure Isoprophyl alcohol (it is toxic enough that you also never want to drink it or get in eyes, and if you use a lot of it often a Latex or Nitrile(Nitrile if you get a rash from Latex rubber, some folks do) throw-away glove is a nice thing to protect your alcohol-porous skin with), so apply out out of bottle onto a rag(hold rag against open bottle top, then turn bottle upside down until rag is soaked in small area and not dripping, turn right side up) and use that way. Second, power must be off and drained, if you have a motherboard with an LED wait until the mobo LED is off before useing isoprophyl to clean off HS gunk. Alcohol can be somewhat electrolytic when electrical flow is present and it is not evaporated, and it can burn under those circumstances.

John.

edcentric

If you haunt hardware stores instead of drug stores you can pick up small cans of isopropanol, methanol or ethanol. Any of them will work. eth is the best solvent, meth is the weakest.
Any concentration over 90% will clean well and dry fast.
Don't breath too many fumes. And they are all highly flamable.
Keep the can tightly closed. Alcohol will absorb moiture from the air over time.

RADA

My 2 cents:

You may want to look into using "denatured" alcohol, it leave less residue. You know that multi-colored shine you get when you used alcohol on glass? Won't happen with denatured acohol.

Most hardware stores carry it, about the same price as the other stuff

madmat

One thing to consider, when using denatured alcohol wear gloves as it is cumulative meaning that it'll be absorbed by your body and the effects will build up on you over time as it builds up in your fat cells.
My dad was always telling me about that as the effects are supposed to be pretty horrid, it was something he learned in the military way back when.

RADA

Thanks Mat, I always wear gloves when I work with the stuff, forgot to metion it! BAD RADA!

EyesOnly

Thanks for the help guys. I wasn't sure if there was a differens but now i know it doesn't matter. I know how it smells and i wouldn't wanna got some on me. Was planning on using cotton dabs. As for finding it i checked the local pharmacys webpage but couldn't find it. It can be found in hifi-stores though since they sell tapecleaners and if i remember correctly they also have refillers for the cleaningfluid(iso) so one can look there too.

Enverex

Make sure you get strong cotton buds as otherwise they end up getting bits of cotton all over it. Another place you could pick up Isoprohyl alcohol is the Pharmacy.

edcentric

Denatured alchohol is ethanol with a small amount of other solvents (ofetn MCK) in it. If it wasn't denatured you could drink it.
In a pinch Everclear makes real good cleaner. B151 has too much water in it, just drink it.

madmat

This is a bit copied from a M.S.D.S. (Material Safety Data Sheet) for denatured alcohol:
Special Hazard Precautions: ACUTE:MAY BE FATAL IF SWALLOWED. HARMFUL IF
INHALED OR ABSORBED THROUGH THE SKIN. CAUSES SKIN, EYE, AND UPPER RESPIRATO
TRACT IRRITATION. CAN CAUSE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM DEPRESSION AND
BLINDNESS. CHRONIC:LIVER AND KIDNEY DAMAGE. STORE IN A FLAMMABLE LIQUID
STORAGE ROOM OR CABINET. KEEP CONTAINERS TIGHTLY CLOSED WHEN NOT IN USE.
FIRST AID:INHALATION:REMOVE TO FRESH AIR. RESUSCITATE IF NOT BREATHING. GET
MEDICAL ATTENTION. EYES:FLUSH WITH WATER FOR 15 MINUTES. GET MEDICAL
ATTENTION. SKIN:REMOVE CONTAMINATED CLOTHING FLUSH WITH WATER. INGESTION: DO NOT INDUCE VOMITING UNLESS INSTRUCTED TO DO SO. GIVE NOTHING BY MOUTH IF UNCONSCIOUS. GET MED HELP.

Thrax

FFS, just use Isopropyl like the rest of the world.

fuxor

I use 99.7% Isopropyl. The Alcohol becomes diluted the second it's exposed to air, so you're never really using 100%, you can only get close. If the material is being finnicky, I'll use nail polish remover.

edcentric

fux has a point, there are a lot of other solvents.
Acetone (in nail polish remover) is good, but very aggressive and very flamible.
MEK should be avoided, it will even disolve epoxy.
Stodard solvent, is a mixture, I have used it when faced with a tough clean-up.
In some places you can still find benzene, don't use it, the health risk is too great.

madmat

Part of the reason denatured alcohol is nasty is that it contains benzene.

muddocktor

If I have a tough cleanup job I use mineral spirits or xylene, then I wipe everything down with 95% pure ethanol(Everclear :bigggrin: ). The mineral spirits or xylene won't harm the processor if you use it for cleaning off stubborn paste or TIM material and wiping it down with ethanol after removes any residual paste or residue from the mineral spirits/xylene.

fuxor

save the ethanol for drinking, use isopropyl for cleaning

madmat

You can always dab your rag into your shot-glass with the ethanol and drink what you don't use for cleaning.
Now that's what I call recycling.

drasnor

edcentric wrote:

fux has a point, there are a lot of other solvents.
Acetone (in nail polish remover) is good, but very aggressive and very flamible.
MEK should be avoided, it will even disolve epoxy.
Stodard solvent, is a mixture, I have used it when faced with a tough clean-up.
In some places you can still find benzene, don't use it, the health risk is too great.

Personal Experience:
MEK (methyl ethyl ketone) is really, really nasty. I've got some and I use it as a plastic cement when I need a load-bearing plastic-plastic bond, since it dissolves the plastic and allows the two pieces to run and join together. Use a well-ventilated area unless you don't want to have children.

Acetone will dissolve plastic, but not to the point that it becomes tacky like MEK. I use it to remove scratches from beige cases and de-yellow old equipment (takes the top layer of plastic off).

I guess the floor is a bad place for the denatured alcohol can? I use that stuff as a general-purpose solvent, and it works wonders for getting thermal grease off of processors.

-drasnor