How to Prepare Bitcoin Miners for Hot Weather

ASIC miners generate a massive amount of heat. During colder months, that excess heat can actually be an advantage, but as outside temperatures rise, cooling systems are pushed to their limits. If your operation isn’t prepared for summer conditions, you’ll likely face more frequent thermal shutdowns, lower uptime, reduced efficiency, and a shorter hardware lifespan. Since uptime directly translates to profitability, adjusting your setup for hot weather isn’t optional, it’s essential.

If heat is your enemy then uptime is your edge.

It’s a simple equation: when machines overheat, they go offline. And when they’re offline, they don’t earn. The focus for any serious mining operation should be maximizing uptime through the hottest months of the year. That means planning ahead, maintaining your infrastructure, and leaning on smart automation tools that react faster than any human can.

Clean out the dust – seriously

Dust buildup is one of the most common (and preventable) reasons miners overheat in the summer. Start with the hashboards: clogged heatsinks can trap heat and choke performance. Use compressed air or dry brushes to clean them thoroughly - no moisture, no shortcuts. Don’t wait for thermal errors in your logs; by then, you’re already losing uptime.

Replace broken or weak fans

Running on two or three fans during a 40°C day is a recipe for throttling or shutdowns. Every intake, exhaust, and onboard fan needs to be functional and up to speed. If they’re slow, loud, or dead - swap them out. Proper airflow starts with healthy fans.

Reapply thermal paste (re-thermal)

Thermal paste degrades with time and heat cycles. When it breaks down, heat transfer from the chips to the heatsinks becomes inefficient. Reapplying quality thermal paste to your hashboards can drastically improve heat dissipation and performance stability.

Isolate hot and cold aisles

Hot/cold aisle isolation isn’t just for large data centers. Separating intake (cold) and exhaust (hot) airflow zones prevents thermal recirculation and lets your miners breathe cooler air. Whether you're using curtains, baffles, or custom builds, it’s one of the most effective passive cooling upgrades you can make.

Add shade and use evaporative cooling

If your farm is outdoors or semi-exposed, shading your miners from direct sunlight is step one. In low-humidity regions, water curtains or evaporative coolers can further lower intake temperatures by several degrees. Just be sure your electrical setup is water-safe.

Underclock or curtail during peak heat

When the outside temp spikes, even the best ventilation may not be enough. Consider curtailing or underclocking during the hottest part of the day. A few hours of reduced performance can save you from full system shutdowns - and extend hardware lifespan in the long run.

Improve airflow across the facility

Don’t just look at individual machines, walk your entire facility. Identify hot spots, airflow bottlenecks, and any signs of poor ventilation. Reposition fans, unblock vents, and optimize ducting to maintain even cooling throughout the operation. Minor airflow improvements can mean major gains in uptime.

Check your power connectors

Hotter chips draw more power. And more power means more heat, not just inside the machine, but along every cable and connector. As summer temps rise, inspect all power cords and connectors, especially on high-wattage units like the 21 series. Look for signs of wear, looseness, or discoloration. A poor connection can lead to resistance, overheating, or even a fire hazard. Don’t assume it’s fine, check it.

Optimize Hydro cooling loops

Running Hydro units this summer? Adjust your coolant mix. Too much glycol in the loop can hurt thermal efficiency. Increasing the water-to-antifreeze ratio improves heat transfer, just make sure the setup still prevents corrosion and microbial growth. In warm months, better heat transfer = more stable performance. And when it comes to immersion, the fluid matters as much as the flow.

Scaling Performance Smartly

For miners running Braiins OS, dynamic control over power targets becomes essential in warmer weather. When machines are overclocked during cooler months, they can usually tolerate the higher thermal output. But in summer, the same profiles may push miners past safe operating temperatures. That’s where Dynamic Performance Scaling (DPS) comes in.

DPS automatically adjusts your miner’s power target based on chip temperature. If the machine crosses a set threshold, it reduces power to bring temps back into range, keeping the miner online instead of letting it overheat and shut down. Once temperatures stabilize, DPS brings the power back up.

This not only improves uptime by avoiding shutdowns, but also prevents harmful thermal cycling, where machines constantly jump between hot, shutdown, and restart states. That kind of stress can shorten hardware lifespan. DPS helps your miner cruise smoothly through heat, reducing wear and keeping it hashing longer.

Stay Cool with Braiins Manager

Preparing your hardware is only half the equation. Managing it smartly, especially during extreme heat, requires visibility, control, and automation. That’s where Braiins Manager steps in.

Control power under pressure

‍Downclock miners easily across your farm using Braiins Manager: set power targets for BOS devices or adjust power modes on stock firmware, individually or in batch. Lowering power during peak heat helps prevent shutdowns and extends hardware lifespan.

Spot the heat before it spreads

‍Use the Sitemap view, a visual layout of your racks and miners, to identify thermal hot spots with built-in temperature heatmaps. This makes airflow issues and overheating areas immediately visible, so you can act before machines go offline.

Automate protection with Triggers‍

Set up Triggers to automatically pause mining when temperatures exceed safe thresholds. This gives you similar protection to DPS, especially useful for miners running on stock firmware without native DPS capabilities.

Coming soon: Batch DPS settings‍

In just a few weeks, you’ll be able to set DPS thresholds in bulk for all your BOS miners directly from Braiins Manager, saving time and ensuring consistent thermal control across your fleet. Stay tuned for upcoming announcements.

Next up: Fully automated thermal logic‍

We’re building automation that will let you define temperature-based rules to automatically downclock, pause, or resume mining, without lifting a finger. Stay tuned.

Mine smarter when power gets pricey‍

During heat waves, not only do machines run hotter, electricity prices can spike. Braiins Manager’s Strike Price Curtailment feature lets you pause mining when market prices exceed your defined thresholds, protecting your margins during volatile energy events. See the Strike Price Curtailment feature explained in our article here.

Heat Happens. Be Ready.

Summer isn’t optional. It’s coming whether your operation is prepared or not. The question is whether you’ll let it reduce your uptime or take control early.

By investing in basic maintenance, smarter performance scaling, and better monitoring, you give your machines the best chance to operate efficiently all summer long.

Bitcoin mining doesn’t stop when it’s hot. And neither should you.