[SOLVED] How long does it take for thermal paste to dry in the tube ?

[lyxres]

I bought a genuine tube of kryonaut in like early 2024 and I've been keeping it open in the sealed bag since I lost the cap. A few weeks ago I used it on my ps3 and it seemed fine but I wanna know, if I use this on my laptop will it cause any issues since it was open for a year I guess. I didn't really care about the PS3 since it's not that important so if the thermal paste goes bad I could wait but the my laptop is important so.. but I doubt it's any worse than the generic MSI paste. I also live in Puerto Rico so it's very humid

 

[Aeacus]

Unless the paste isn't completely dried up and lost all it's moisture, it can survive for a very long time.

Thermal paste in normal operation is constantly heated up and then cools down. This temperature change will make the thermal paste to dry up and harden, loosing the heat transfer efficiency. So, when you see your CPU (or GPU) temps to go high after some years, it would be good to repaste the hardware. But when your hardware doesn't expel too much heat, the thermal paste also lasts for longer.

Here's good testing about it:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO0gK2p8wUg

 

[lyxres]

Unless the paste isn't completely dried up and lost all it's moisture, it can survive for a very long time.

Thermal paste in normal operation is constantly heated up and then cools down. This temperature change will make the thermal paste to dry up and harden, loosing the heat transfer efficiency. So, when you see your CPU (or GPU) temps to go high after some years, it would be good to repaste the hardware. But when your hardware doesn't expel too much heat, the thermal paste also lasts for longer.

Here's good testing about it:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO0gK2p8wUg

I'm gonna try and find some thermal paste in my local stores tomorrow but if I don't find any then at least I know it ain't gonna be the end of the world 😁

 

[williamjeremiah]

If the paste still flows from the tube, it's all right.

 

[Aeacus]

I'm gonna try and find some thermal paste in my local stores tomorrow

Do note that not all thermal paste is created equal. There are temp (heat transfer) differences, which could be up to 10C.
Further reading: https://www.tomshardware.com/best-picks/best-thermal-paste

 

[JayGau]

Some people say that even if the tube is sealed, it should not be used if it's more than 2 year old. I don't believe that. It doesn't make any sense. Thermal paste doesn't lose its molecular properties because it's old.

If the paste still has the right consistency it's fine. If your tube was opened, just get rid of paste at the tip (just in case) and the rest should be good.

 

[bit_user]

I bought a genuine tube of kryonaut in like early 2024 and I've been keeping it open in the sealed bag since I lost the cap.

I just wanted to add: After suffering dry-out of some super glue and pre-moistened lens wipes, I make it a policy to double-bag anything I'm worried about drying out. If it's worth one bag, it's probably worth two.

One data point: It gets rather dry here, for half the year. I have some Arctic MX-4 that's 15 years old and it's only been single-bagged (it pre-dated my double-bagging policy) and it's still fine. I now only use it on secondary heatsinks, like for SSDs, but that's only because I have better stuff for when it really matters.