this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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I see lots of “brush it, it’s fine” posts, but if you want to dunk your components, that’s a whole different story. Alcohol is certainly going to dissolve something like TIM or thermal pads; that might not be a problem.
But it might?
One thing very oldschool PC builders did is submerge their PCs in mineral oil for cooling. This liquid is more innocuous, AFAIK.
So you could get some in a plastic tray and dunk your components in it. I have no advice for getting the oil off though.
From an electrical standpoint, sure.
From the standpoint of making an enormous mess if it escapes, it's very much not.
The parts... Once oiled, always oiled. That shit is impossible to clean off.
I think this might do it: https://youtube.com/watch?v=SVuI-Fn27-U
In the German version he apparently also mentions "no rinse aid", but that's apparently missed out in the English version.
Hmmm, you could just… leave them submerged in the oil? Would that protect them from the smoke? I don’t know. I’ll have to look into these “underwater” builds though because that does sound cool.
It's very cool, but not cheap. If your goal is to save cash by extending the hardware's life, TBH it'd make way more financial sense to just invest that cash instead.