Question My router has cooling vents on the top, good way for dust to enter. Solutions?

[mikeymikec]

My router has cooling vents on the top, which is good to some extent for ventilation, but on the flipside surely it's also a good way for dust to get in and help heat components that presumably prefer ventilation. My only thought for stopping dust entering while allowing ventilation from the inside is some kind of miniature DIY stand that allows heat to flow out (like a table with very small legs, perhaps 1cm long) while acting as a barrier to some extent for dust to get in.

On my PC I use magnetic dust filters but I think the router's outer casing is all plastic.

 

[mnewsham]

Buy a can of compressed air, take the router outside every 3-6 months and spend 10-20 seconds blowing some air through the vents.

 

[mxnerd]

Don't you have vacuum? Do it every half year.

Or buy a small stand and keep it from the floor or mount it under the table.

 

[mindless1]

You could use standoffs (generic picture example below), to hold a sheet of material (plastic, metal, whatever) above the vent holes so dust doesn't fall down in.

I go the opposite direction. Once the warranty is over (or if it didn't cost much in the first place), I pop the top of the case off, mark a grid with a pencil, and use a drill press to put in a lot more holes. Doing this, dust accumulation is pretty low, probably due to a combination of the room not being frequently used for other things, and also due to warm air rising so airflow is up out of those holes, pushing falling dust away from them.

I recall opening a few to replace capacitors and there wasn't much dust at all inside, but what little there was, I just blew out by exhaling... lands on the floor, vacuum the floor every once in a while as needed.

I suppose the easier way to do it is just use a leaf blower and don't even bother opening the case. I find myself using my leaf blower a lot more for similar purposes, after I switched to electric/cordless. Otherwise I'd just use an air compressor nozzle at a distance.




Ancient Router, but you can see the holes better on a white case.

 

[Justinus]

Routers are generally fanless and will use convection to draw in cool air from the bottom and hot air will rise to exhaust out the top. Without fans forcing air into the chassis, dust buildup will be significantly less than a PC or laptop with active cooling.

In addition, you likely do not have your router on the floor where it will draw in larger clumps of dust or hair from the floor or carpet like a PC might.

Not to mention the ease of blowing the mild amount of dust that will accumulate. I have a ton of dust and I've never had an issue with a router building up enough dust to cause a heat or other problem. In fact, I've never even blown dust out of a router before and I'm using a router I've had 7 years.

I think you're overthinking it.

 

[aigomorla]

Heat rises.
Those vents are probably holes so heat can escape.
I think more likely it will push air out though convection, so dust wont get in, unless you physically wipe the top when it has dust collected and manually push it in.

Your dust issues is probably more likely from another vent.

Also if you have that much dust in your environment, id suggest you get a air purifier and trap the dust before it even begins to be a problem.
But note, if you live in a hot enviorment and leave your windows open all the time, an air purifier wont help.

Then its best to brute force feed dust free air, by mounting a 20x20 HVAC filter to a 20inch box fan and aiming the dust free air directly at the components.

 

[mindless1]

I always get routers that have DD-WRT support, which shows CPU temperature in the web gui. Unfortunately DD-WRT doesn't support wifi6 yet, but I don't have significant enough wifi traffic to need it.