canned air
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Sander_Marechal Mar 01, 2007 9:57 PM EDT |
Quoting:am I the only one that blows out the dust in my cases every week? I occasionally use a vacuum cleaner to clean my PC (not weekly though). Not ideal, but it sorta works. The trouble is that now there's some dust in my videocard's fan and I really need canned air to get it out. Where do you buy canned air? I've been to every computer shop in my home town but none sell canned air. When I ask for it they all look at me as if I'm crazy, until I tell them what I need it for. So, where do you get it? |
| jimf Mar 01, 2007 11:57 PM EDT |
Well, I don't know where you are, but around here office max and even wallmart carry it. |
| Sander_Marechal Mar 02, 2007 12:01 AM EDT |
I'm in The Netherlands. We don't have Walmart or similar stores. The entire concept simply isn't viable in a small country like ours. But I'll check the Office Center and see if they carry it. Thanks! |
| devnet Mar 02, 2007 5:35 AM EDT |
You could get a straw and a balloon...blow up the balloon and then attach the straw at the end... Your very own air blower thing-a-mah-jig! |
| Scott_Ruecker Mar 02, 2007 5:42 AM EDT |
I couldn't live without canned air, I use to help dust my house let alone my computers. |
| amadensor Mar 02, 2007 6:37 AM EDT |
The balloon is cute, but the real challenge is that the air needs to be very dry, and it won't be if you blow up the balloon with your mouth and lungs. In fact, "canned air" is not air, but actually a freon. You may be able to get away with air from a compressor, but only if you live in a very dry climate, or have a drier on it. |
| SFN Mar 02, 2007 6:57 AM EDT |
I have a neighbor I don't like. I wait until the wind is blowing in the direction of their house. Then I take my computer outside with a blow dryer and blow it out next to one of their windows. |
| devnet Mar 03, 2007 2:51 PM EDT |
Dino is full of hot air... Have him come over to your house and blow out your computers. :D |
| tuxchick Mar 03, 2007 3:35 PM EDT |
weekly seems excessive. There's more risk from dropping something or giving it a good static zap, methinks. I dust mine out maybe twice a year. In the good old US of A even something as innocuous as canned air becomes suspect. For awhile the younguns had this fad of "huffing", or inhaling canned air to get high. Presumably the propellant does something to their dim little brain cells, or perhaps it's just oxygen deprivation. |
| jimf Mar 03, 2007 5:41 PM EDT |
> In the good old US of A even something as innocuous as canned air becomes suspect. You're right TC. Last time I purchased a can at Walmart, they wanted to see an id. Apparently state law prohibits anyone under 21 from buying aerosols.... Afraid they'll be sniffing to get high... Air in this case ;-) |
| tuxchick Mar 03, 2007 5:49 PM EDT |
"...only terrorists will have air." |
| jimf Mar 03, 2007 6:31 PM EDT |
The most absurd part of it is how any sane person could have mistaken me for a 20 year old??? Those terrorists must be getting awfully clever ;D |
| dinotrac Mar 03, 2007 7:13 PM EDT |
It is a new terrorist strategy that every concerned citizen should know about. Suicide puffers go from office to office blowing dust of equipment. By keeping the equipment clean, they increase its uptime, thus reducing the opportunities for people to goof off at the job. At the same time, however, increased productivity makes the company more competitive, leading to pay raises and general satisifaction. At that point, the terrorists' plot goes a little flat... |
| Aladdin_Sane Mar 04, 2007 12:56 PM EDT |
Like tuxchick I do the cleaning thing about twice a year. Like sander I use the vacuum. The brush attachment thingy works ok, I guess. If canned air contains freon, then we won't see it sold in this state except on the black market. The thing that that caught my eye in this thread was the anti-balloon argument from humidity. Nice warm moist climates like here in Texas, there's very little chance of static zapping electronics, but the chance is still far from zero. I do take precautions, based on hideous experience. I welcome myself to do whatever needs doing to make the stuff work. I'm not really concerned with too much humidity except when humidity+temp puts the thing outside of spec. If the air I'm using to clean is I think too wet, then I'll leave the stuff turned off overnight, use a hair dryer, oven, or something silly like that. OK, I just put a broken 120mm fan in the dishwasher. Didn't help, after 48 hours of air drying bearing is still toast. /me expected as much. Favorite heat/humidity story: There's this engineer on top of a half-built building in San Antonio calling in July going, "Every time I go out in the sunlight, my portable shuts off." Me goes, "And...?" Since most systems are rated at around 30% humidity at about 105 degrees F, your portable had better shut down in naked Texas sunlight. 110 degrees F and 60-90% humidity just won't cut it, nor should it. |
| Bob_Robertson Mar 04, 2007 1:13 PM EDT |
"110 degrees F and 60-90% humidity just won't cut it, nor should it." It doesn't have to cut, if it bludgeons hard enough it's still deadly. Texas heat does exactly that. I will never forget >110 degrees for 20 days straight while I was in Fort Worth, without airconditioning. Being poor SUCKS. |
| jimf Mar 04, 2007 2:14 PM EDT |
> If canned air contains freon nope, nor nitrogen (though that would be nice). The canned air I've seen is just cleaned, dehumidified, and compressed. > "110 degrees F and 60-90% humidity just won't cut it, nor should it." Used to design custom controls for the food and drug industry. On day's that were 100 deg 90-99% humidity we'd be doing final control panel testing in the shop with all sorts of errors and failures. Drove us all crazy trying to get it to work. When a cooler front came through, within 5 minutes, everything would work perfectly. |
| Scott_Ruecker Mar 04, 2007 2:17 PM EDT |
I realize that I may be going a little overboard blowing out my cases but here in Phoenix dust can very quickly accumilate. The power supply and processor attract a lot of the really fine stuff. I have had two good quality and not very old power supplies die on me and the only clues I had to go on was the severe amount of dust in them. Which led me to the habit I have now. I rarely put the side panels on my machines anyway so I just shut them down and just give them a quick couple of shots to keep the dust from building up. I agree with the balloon humidity in general but where I live it is so dry that it might not be an issue here in the summertime. Except for our "monsoon" season the humidity never gets above 15 to 20 percent. |
| Aladdin_Sane Mar 04, 2007 3:09 PM EDT |
It's weird isn't it? If no chemicals, then what are the kids huffing? |
| azerthoth Mar 04, 2007 3:48 PM EDT |
diflouroethaneQuoting:Overexposure by inhalation may include nonspecific discomfort, such as nausea, headache, or weakness; or temporary nervous system depression with anesthetic effects such as dizziness, headache, confusion, incoordination and loss of consciousness. For more info: http://www.blowoff.com/msds/gun_duster.htm |
| jimf Mar 04, 2007 4:09 PM EDT |
> diflouroethane That's not the stuff we're getting here . Just 'air' is listed on the label. I do have another blow off/cleaner, but that's specifically for cleaning circuits. Ahh... you don wanna know what's in that... |
| dcparris Mar 05, 2007 3:02 PM EDT |
We got several computers donated from a wallboard manufacturer. Most of them did not come from the local office, but from the plants/quarries. Me thinks from the quarries - as in they mined these boxes from the quarries, along with the gypsum. There just happened to be some circuit boards in the computer cases. But I didn't know that till I took the vacuum and sucked out enough gypsum dust to sell back to the company. ;-) |
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