General > General Technical Chat
Is it dangerous to clean your computer with compressed air or vacuum?
BradC:
--- Quote from: Circlotron on June 24, 2016, 03:05:03 am ---Make sure your compressor has a water trap. You don't want moisture spitting all over the place.
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And drain the tank _every_ time you use it. If you want the driest air using a cheap compressor, pump it up, leave it overnight to cool down, drain the tank and then go. A proportion of the moisture will condense out as the air cools in the tank. A moisture trap is also good for helping keep oil out of the air. Change your compressor oil every year or so (heck, it's cheap enough). I changed to a synthetic compressor oil a couple of years ago and have noted a pretty big reduction in the grunge that accumulates in my lines too.
I use compressed air all the time. I just do it outside so I don't need to deal with the mess. Even with an unregulated blowgun you'd have to be pretty ham fisted to damage electronics. You will certainly destroy fan bearings if you don't use a bit of common sense though.
apis:
You will destroy fan bearings with a vacuum too if you don't hold the blades fixed when cleaning.
BradC:
--- Quote from: apis on June 24, 2016, 09:55:25 am ---You will destroy fan bearings with a vacuum too if you don't hold the blades fixed when cleaning.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, absolutely. I've seen ball races explode with the the forces exerted by the balls when the bearings have been spun with compressed air. You don't want to be around when the outer race breaks.
Any over speed condition can be nasty.
I have a Festool vac with a conductive hose that comes in handy for really nasty cleaning jobs. Coupled with a paintbrush with the the bristles cut short to give them some stiffness it makes short work of dust bunnies, but most of my stuff happens with compressed air.
I have my 10 year old trackball a clean last weekend and got enough fur and dust out of there to make another pet. Stuff stacks up.
TerraHertz:
I too use compressed air (at around 90 to 100 psi, via a small metal tube nozzle) to clean out PCs and dirty test gear. Both to remove dust (with extra scrubbing using a paint brush if necessary) and also to blow dry boards after a soap and water wash if they were *really* dirty. Compressed air blast is the only way to get water out from under VLSI solder-bump mounted chips, for instance.
Never had any problems. I don't count the time I deliberately spun up a squirrel cage fan until it exploded. Just bear in mind that the air jet exerts physical force. Would you press the thing that hard with your finger? If not, don't hit it with the air jet. Standard fans can easily be spun up till they break. But even before that point, they contain coils and magnets, so can work as generators. How much AC signal from the coils is safe for the fan internal circuits? Best to hold the rotor to prevent it going really fast.
Circlotron:
--- Quote from: TerraHertz on June 26, 2016, 05:28:22 am ---Standard fans can easily be spun up till they break. But even before that point, they contain coils and magnets, so can work as generators. How much AC signal from the coils is safe for the fan internal circuits? Best to hold the rotor to prevent it going really fast.
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VERY good point!!
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