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Question Hand held rechargeable blower or very small shop vac with blower?

B

boed

Senior member
Hello,

I'm debating between just buying more canned air or getting some sort of blower. I have my doubts about the little hand held units but I've never used them before. Some of my computers have some sort of pollution type dust in them that tends to be stickier than normal dust.
 
I use a small air compressor (that's not big enough for air tools). Generally works well; the main problem is that low-end air compressors tend to crap out. I think I'm on my 3rd one in twenty years.

It's way more powerful than canned air, which I find to be useless. Any decent air compressor will allow you to adjust the output pressure if you're worried about delicate components. If you have caked-on dust, an air compressor is the way to go!
 
boed said:
I'm debating between just buying more canned air or getting some sort of blower. I have my doubts about the little hand held units but I've never used them before. Some of my computers have some sort of pollution type dust in them that tends to be stickier than normal dust.
Click to expand...
The battery powered "duster/blowers" like this one are NOT as potent as the 10oz or 12oz canned air dusters, at least not initially:

duster.png


These are maybe 70% or 80% of what you get from the canned air dusters for that initial 30 seconds i.e. until the canned air starts to peter out (and starts to freeze on the outside). But the upside is they give a consistent performance for up to 15 minutes before the battery goes dead. I have another complaint about the one pictured which I bought (I only paid $25 for it, not this listed price), the attachments do not have any retention feature it's just push fit and well it doesn't fit all that tightly. And the ones with vacuum like the one pictured, the vacuum is very anemic.

There is another style/design that look like a plant/garden watering can, that have more potent motors and larger batts or even AC powered that might be more powerful but I haven't tried one of those.

But if the job is 'big' enough and weather permitting, I still do it this way in my OP....

Discussion - Goodbye $$ air blaster/duster products!

Found a new way to get the dust, bunnies, hair, fibers out effectively, no worries about condensation or moisture with tank air compressors, either. 130MPH goodness, baby! Remove side panels or otherwise open up the case (including laptops, or anything else like set-top boxes), set outside...
forums.anandtech.com
 
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I have an Electrolux canister vacuum that allows me to connect the hose to the exhaust. I use that to blow the dust out of my PC cases.
 
I have canned air (only because it was free after rebate, years ago) and never use it.

I have an air compressor but usually don't use that either, for computers. What I normally do is use a paint brush to dislodge dust, then a cordless leaf blower at a distance. It has throttle control so I'm not giving the system a full strength blast, and being at a distance, and having already dislodged the dust with the paintbrush, it is gentle enough. I do this in the garage near the door so I can blow the dust outdoors, or just do it outdoors.

This includes opening the PSU and using the paint brush there as well.

However I seldom need to do this, as I no longer service other peoples' PCs, and my own have filtered intake so I'm just taking the filter panels out and vac'ing or washing those instead.

Sticky dust could need washed off, in a solution of whatever is appropriate to dissolve whatever the sticky contaminant is. If it is tobacco smoke, then a very mild ammonia solution works best, like dilute Mr. Clean, but be aware that ammonia will eat away at the anodization of any anodized aluminum parts, and you'd also want to remove fans, battery, and potentially more. I'd only start with ammonia solution if you're sure it is tobacco smoke tar, otherwise just regular hot dish detergent solution, and again a paint brush to gently scrub the component. I do a full immersion cleaning if wet cleaning, in a utility sink.

Getting any identification stickers wet may void any remaining warranties.

Some people are worried about getting electronics wet, not realizing that for many years manufacturers have used water soluble flux and (most of) the flux left behind is rinsed off as a manufacturing step.

Water or detergent solution cleaning, done properly, won't hurt most PC components. I wouldn't get it in an optical drive or HDD, but motherboard, video card, other cards, just make sure they are completely dry before applying power again, and if you get them wet at all, thoroughly rinse them, not just spot cleaning without rinsing as that can cause traces of the flux remaining on the PCB, to pool into acidic areas and form conductive metal salt deposits as it dries.
 
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