Thermal Grease in a 6P?

[kramer5150]

Can I slather the brass pill of my drop in module with thermal grease? It seems like it fits pretty snug in the body tube, and just a little thermal grease might further improve its ability to dissipate heat.

????

thanks

 

[Jarl]

Yes.

Can't hurt, anyway.

 

[Illum]

not a bad choice, just keep in mind not to put too much in....that stuff gets on the contacts your going to have problems...and if you "think" theres a gap big enough to cram more grease in, don't...should it ooze out when you replace the bezel it might [just might] flow on the reflector

 

[kramer5150]

not a bad choice, just keep in mind not to put too much in....that stuff gets on the contacts your going to have problems...and if you "think" theres a gap big enough to cram more grease in, don't...should it ooze out when you replace the bezel it might [just might] flow on the reflector

Oooh... Hmm OK I think I'll hold off for more replies. Doesn't seem like its worth the mess (literally). That part of the pill and flashlight body serves as the negative half of the circuit, and does conduct. If I am not mistaken.

thanks

 

[Illum]

I haven't found any thermal grease that also works as a conductor

which drop in are you using?

 

[Yoda4561]

As long as you use a non-conductive thermal grease there shouldn't be a problem, and most are non-conductive. Even the silver bearing greases for computer CPU's are considered non-conductive in most situations, they are capacitive though so I'd avoid getting any metal bearing grease on the electrical bits. On my MagLED 3d I've used AC MX-2 thermal grease on both the bulb socket and retainer threads. It comes in a syringe so I said what the hell and actually injected a bit inside the magled module. Zero problems and it seems to hold its brightness for a bit longer before dimming.

 

[davedds]

In the pc world if you use too much grease between the cpu and the heat sink on top it acts as an insulator and does not transfer heat well. The surface area of a cpu heat sink is about 1 sq inch. They are telling you to use about a grain of rice size amount of grease to be effective.

 

[Yoda4561]

Sure, because with a decent heatsink and cpu there is very little gap to fill, too much grease will just create a thick film with less heat transfer. But that's compared to using a proper thin application that still makes full contact. Any addition of thermal grease to a flashlight will be superior to none at all(well, as long as it isn't ON the emitter). There's alot of air between the magled drop-in and the bulb holder, every bit helps.