Preparing Hash Boards for Winter Maintenance in Gangwon Province
Thermal cycling between heated farm interiors and cold intake air causes more board failures in January than any other month. Here is our pre-winter checklist.
Gangwon Province farms see the highest hash board failure rates between late December and mid-February. The temperature differential between a heated maintenance bay and the sub-zero intake air on the mining floor causes condensation on board connectors — and condensation on powered electronics leads to short circuits.
Before the First Frost
Inspect thermal pads on your highest-hour boards. Pads that have hardened over a summer of 40°C+ operation crack when cooled rapidly. Replace any pad that does not spring back when pressed with a gloved finger.
Stock one spare board per four rigs minimum. Our spare-part database shows lead times lengthen by 40% between November and January as distributors clear inventory for year-end accounting. Order in October.
Document your swap procedures now. If you have not assessed your rig models, schedule assessments before winter rather than during a failure event when the maintenance bay is at 5°C and fingers are stiff.
During Winter Operations
Maintain a 10°C minimum in the maintenance area. This sounds obvious, but three farms we visited last January were doing board swaps in an unheated corner of the warehouse. Cold solder joints on connector fingers become brittle.
Run intake air through a dehumidifier if your farm pulls outside air directly. Relative humidity above 70% at the board level correlates with connector corrosion in our maintenance logs.
Log board temperatures weekly, not monthly. A board that runs 10°C hotter than its neighbours in November will likely fail by February. Catch it during a planned swap, not during a holiday weekend.
After Winter
Schedule a fleet walkthrough in March. Boards that survived winter with elevated temperatures should be assessed for pad replacement before summer heat compounds the damage.
If your operation spans more than two rig models, a Fleet Serviceability Audit before winter gives you a ranked maintenance priority list based on your actual hardware mix.