Electric Air Dusters?

GilesGuthrie · 27 Oct 2020 at 18:02

Coming up on a year since I built my current rig, and it could do with a decent clean. Coupled with this, I've just bought some Lian Li fans, so I'm going to be partially disassembling it anyway.

I'm looking at blower options for cleaning. Something in me objects to paying £4 for a can of air that's just going to have to get recycled, and so I was wondering about getting an electric duster.

Do any of you have experience with these? Am I being stupid in objecting to the canned air?

garnett · 27 Oct 2020 at 18:09

GilesGuthrie said:
Coming up on a year since I built my current rig, and it could do with a decent clean. Coupled with this, I've just bought some Lian Li fans, so I'm going to be partially disassembling it anyway.

I'm looking at blower options for cleaning. Something in me objects to paying £4 for a can of air that's just going to have to get recycled, and so I was wondering about getting an electric duster.

Do any of you have experience with these? Am I being stupid in objecting to the canned air?

Toying with this idea myself. The IT boys at work got one a while back and sang its praises over the canned air.

VaderDSL · 27 Oct 2020 at 18:12

I bought one of the compucleaner it dusters a year or so ago, use it fairly regularly not only to clean out the PC, but other things like coffee grinders etc

it's loud but does a really good job.

Uncle Petey · 27 Oct 2020 at 18:21

I picked up a Compucleaner for a friend a couple of years ago. Was fun seeing it blast surprising amounts of dust out of GPUs and radiators.

I'd recommend them and don't think you're being silly about the canned air.

clone · 28 Oct 2020 at 09:06

VaderDSL said:
I bought one of the compucleaner it dusters a year or so ago, use it fairly regularly not only to clean out the PC, but other things like coffee grinders etc it's loud but does a really good job.

This will be getting one for my birthday.

wellibob · 28 Oct 2020 at 10:19

I use a £15 airbed blower thing I got for our blow up mattress. It's noisy as hell but it'll blow you nads off, and the dust attached.

jsbombjack · 28 Oct 2020 at 12:30

I bought a usb charged car blower/vacuum from the forest based online store, works a treat for my uses and is cheap as chips. Much better value (long term) than cans of air. Great for cleaning keyboards, rads and gpus (from my use anyway)

garnett · 28 Oct 2020 at 20:31

wellibob said:
I use a £15 airbed blower thing I got for our blow up mattress. It's noisy as hell but it'll blow you nads off, and the dust attached.

I was wondering about what caused the 4x cost increase between the airbed inflators and the computer-specific equivalent. Thanks for confirming "little to none".

jsbombjack said:
I bought a usb charged car blower/vacuum from the forest based online store, works a treat for my uses and is cheap as chips. Much better value (long term) than cans of air. Great for cleaning keyboards, rads and gpus (from my use anyway)

Can you post the make and model? Interested to see.

GilesGuthrie · 28 Oct 2020 at 22:16

Thanks everyone. I've gone for one called "UKHONK Car Vacuum Cleaner/Air Blower." I'll report back on how it goes

jsbombjack · 29 Oct 2020 at 01:35

That's the exact one I bought

t31os · 29 Oct 2020 at 19:20

You might end up a bit disappointed with the amount of air pressure, though it'll probably work to a degree. I can speak to the IT Dusters though, they work great, myself and my father have one and they do a fantastic job. They'll never compare to a proper air compressor, but then they are an order of magnitude cheaper. No idea why the price has jacked up as much as it has in recent years(capitalising on increase sales i guess), picked mine up just over £30 years ago and dad grabbed his early last year at £38 (on some obscure website i advised against using, worked out fine though). A cheaper alternative potentially with a decent amount of air pressure as someone else mentioned might be airbed pumps (but i've never used one, so can't speak to how well they work comparatively).

Toothy1911 · 4 Nov 2020 at 07:43

Just get a mini air compressor for ~£80. Useful for a lot of other things too.

ukxenon · 4 Nov 2020 at 08:06

i have a electric air blower and it is amazing for blowing dust out worth every penny
i even use it on radiators in the house lol

bazzabear · 4 Nov 2020 at 09:37

Toothy1911 said:
Just get a mini air compressor for ~£80. Useful for a lot of other things too.

Got a link or a name of a good one?

Toothy1911 · 4 Nov 2020 at 13:40

bazzabear said:
Got a link or a name of a good one?

I have an Airmaster Tiger. Equivalent model today: https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/airmaster-tiger-7250-2hp-24-litre-oil-free-ai/
Think I got it on on sale for a bit cheaper.

Same sized Einhell ones get a good review on amazon and can be had 80-95 depending where you look.
There's an Impax on Screwfix for £110 which looks pretty darn similar to the Airmaster. But they also do a Stanley one with a little less power for £100.
I'd buy any of those. Just keep an eye out for any deals. Might get something in black friday.

I've had really cheap ones from B&Q before which broke after a couple of years. Valves in the head snapped.

MeddlE · 4 Nov 2020 at 19:45

GilesGuthrie said:
Thanks everyone. I've gone for one called "UKHONK Car Vacuum Cleaner/Air Blower." I'll report back on how it goes

How is it? That is the 35w version, there is also a 80w version available.

golden751 · 4 Nov 2020 at 20:39

VaderDSL said:
I bought one of the compucleaner it dusters a year or so ago, use it fairly regularly not only to clean out the PC, but other things like coffee grinders etc it's loud but does a really good job.

second this.
Got tired of constantly buying new air cans or putting off cleaning the pc because I wasn't bothered to order new ones, So I bought a compucleaner and keep it next to my desk. Much better investment imo.

bazzabear · 5 Nov 2020 at 17:25

Toothy1911 said:
I have an Airmaster Tiger. Equivalent model today: https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/airmaster-tiger-7250-2hp-24-litre-oil-free-ai/
Think I got it on on sale for a bit cheaper.

Same sized Einhell ones get a good review on amazon and can be had 80-95 depending where you look.
There's an Impax on Screwfix for £110 which looks pretty darn similar to the Airmaster. But they also do a Stanley one with a little less power for £100.
I'd buy any of those. Just keep an eye out for any deals. Might get something in black friday.

I've had really cheap ones from B&Q before which broke after a couple of years. Valves in the head snapped.

I have to admit, when you said 'mini' compressor, I was assuming something a lot smaller than that!

But looking myself, I'm only finding ones that are purely for tyres, or ones for airbrushing. (Or ones that are massive like yours!)

Toothy1911 · 5 Nov 2020 at 22:57

bazzabear said:
I have to admit, when you said 'mini' compressor, I was assuming something a lot smaller than that!

But looking myself, I'm only finding ones that are purely for tyres, or ones for airbrushing. (Or ones that are massive like yours!)

Haha. They're very mini compared to most compressors. Most are hot water tank sized.

GilesGuthrie · 6 Nov 2020 at 09:51

MeddlE said:
How is it? That is the 35w version, there is also a 80w version available.

I used it briefly (I didn't need to disassemble the computer as much as I'd feared to fit the new fans) and found it a bit weedy, but it's OK.