The Inside of a Solid State Relay from Ebay

Hi all! Sorry I haven’t posted in months, I’ve been really busy with various things!

I ordered a solid state relay off of Ebay for my project, which I’ll post on here when it’s done. It worked fine for a couple of days, but eventually, it failed in the open position. I used plenty of thermal paste, a large heat sink, and all I was driving was some christmas lights, so I was sure it wasn’t me. Either way, I contacted the seller and they sent me a new one for free.

Opening the dead relay was harder than I expected. In the end, I had to chip away at the plastic until it came off. It took about half an hour in total.

I couldn’t get it apart any more than I did, because the whole thing is covered in a weird solidified goop.

It doesn’t look as unsafe as some people say about Ebay relays. The low voltage side and high voltage side are far apart. The high voltage side has traces that definitely can support 25 amps, which is what the relay is rated for.

I tried to get the triac off to see if it had thermal paste behind it, and to see if it had anything visibly wrong with it, but the gunk was in the screw and I couldn’t get it out, unfortunately.

Pictures of the inside below.