ESD-safe motherboard vacuum cleaner?

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

Hello,

 

I have been looking around online for an affordable handheld vacuum cleaner that I can use to clean my dusty-ass motherboard and case. I seemingly can't find anything that sub-100 USD, and most of the options I find are either suspicious-looking Chinese garbage or massive vacuum cleaners that I can probably use to clean the entire earth, which I don't need.

 

Can anyone suggest something good (or decent) and affordable?

 

Thanks.

[Levent]

Not gonna happen for <$100. Get a blower if anti static vacuum cleaners are out of your budget.

[Motifator]

If you don't want the Chinese handheld mini type-C or the others, you're going to have to resort to the brand names.

Bosch, Makita, etc... just to name a few.

It'll cost.

[DoctorNick]

13 minutes ago, Abdelfattah Radwan said:

Hello,

 

I have been looking around online for an affordable handheld vacuum cleaner that I can use to clean my dusty-ass motherboard and case. I seemingly can't find anything that sub-100 USD, and most of the options I find are either suspicious-looking Chinese garbage or massive vacuum cleaners that I can probably use to clean the entire earth, which I don't need.

 

Can anyone suggest something good (or decent) and affordable?

 

Thanks.

Something like this should work: https://www.amazon.com/electric-blowers-computer/s?k=electric+blowers+for+computer

Electric blower

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

2 minutes ago, Levent said:

Not gonna happen for <$100. Get a blower if anti static vacuum cleaners are out of your budget.

It's not that it's out of my budget, but I don't want to overpay, and I never bought something like that before and didn't want to be screwed

 

I already have a blower, but it's so weak it can hardly blow leaves

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

2 minutes ago, Motifator said:

If you don't want the Chinese handheld mini type-C or the others, you're going to have to resort to the brand names.

Bosch, Makita, etc... just to name a few.

It'll cost.

Hmm, that's reasonable. I might end up getting one if I come across them then. I can't seem to find anything Bosch or Makita when I look on Amazon. They're probably buried deep down. I will have to look harder.

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

4 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

Something like this should work: https://www.amazon.com/electric-blowers-computer/s?k=electric+blowers+for+computer

Electric blower

I already did a query similar to this one. I see the products listed have fancy pics and a lot of "people" giving positive reviews. But, I can't find a single review mentioning "ESD" or even "Electrostatic" at the least to confirm whether it is safe or not.

[DoctorNick]

8 minutes ago, Abdelfattah Radwan said:

I already did a query similar to this one. I see the products listed have fancy pics and a lot of "people" giving positive reviews. But, I can't find a single review mentioning "ESD" or even "Electrostatic" at the least to confirm whether it is safe or not.

These ones are better and is ESD safe: https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Replacement-Compressed-Multi-Use-Electronics/dp/B0C2VJMP7G/ref=sr_1_10?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.CuRLSuiWEcThbHTuHVVfi57U0qMunR6QamZme3whlBZKI24829bU6xZpJqzKxOBy60x_cF0occQBLdEsYBF6isVVRZdXWyw-TwWY1PkQetygiEaWUk9kotT8_6QTQs2fyF42L0FGhnCSjUTC5x5OoeUDtloX2bntS0yzgFuJlTIUPC1Ee3oJkn_NKLnBR2HH8nqnYVUlT6_nyOqIGwGbH8_uEwvj8nxAf18fqEaiD1k.tq8IOodG477l4zP_M4vv70ndBgHY-1D1dwOxA1OCSIQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=electric+blowers+for+computer&qid=1711530513&sr=8-10

 

 

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

5 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

These ones are better and is ESD safe: https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Replacement-Compressed-Multi-Use-Electronics/dp/B0C2VJMP7G/ref=sr_1_10?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.CuRLSuiWEcThbHTuHVVfi57U0qMunR6QamZme3whlBZKI24829bU6xZpJqzKxOBy60x_cF0occQBLdEsYBF6isVVRZdXWyw-TwWY1PkQetygiEaWUk9kotT8_6QTQs2fyF42L0FGhnCSjUTC5x5OoeUDtloX2bntS0yzgFuJlTIUPC1Ee3oJkn_NKLnBR2HH8nqnYVUlT6_nyOqIGwGbH8_uEwvj8nxAf18fqEaiD1k.tq8IOodG477l4zP_M4vv70ndBgHY-1D1dwOxA1OCSIQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=electric+blowers+for+computer&qid=1711530513&sr=8-10

 

 

This one looks interesting. Thank you so much for your help! I appreciate it.

[Needfuldoer]

You don't want to vacuum your PC, you want to take it outside and blow the dust out.

 

If you don't have a leaf blower or air compressor, get a small "Shop Vac" style canister vacuum and put the hose on the discharge (blowy) side. They move plenty of air for this job (especially if you use the crevice tool to concentrate the flow), and it's clean as long as you have a bag or filter installed. That relatively expensive Datavac duster is basically just a vacuum cleaner motor in a handheld form factor.

[Mark Kaine]

i also wanted to say a vacuum cleaner is much worse than a blower (like a data vac)

 

also you shouldn't be worried about static,  you should worry about knocking out smds or similarly physically...

 

ie. do not touch anything on the motherboard or other pcbs (that's also why vacuum cleaners are bad news for the majority of parts in a pc) 

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

You don't want to vacuum your PC, you want to take it outside and blow the dust out.

 

If you don't have a leaf blower or air compressor, get a small "Shop Vac" style canister vacuum and put the hose on the discharge (blowy) side. They move plenty of air for this job (especially if you use the crevice tool to concentrate the flow), and it's clean as long as you have a bag or filter installed. That relatively expensive Datavac duster is basically just a vacuum cleaner motor in a handheld form factor.

i have a "compu cleaner" same thing basically,  its super good and due to being relatively small super easy to use too. also the filter is very easy to clean. 

 

 

fun fact i use my Philips Power Cyclone 5 vaccum cleaner regularly to vacuum my pc... its not "esd safe" of course,  i even vacuumed my gpu with it...!

 

its fine as long you pay attention not to knock anything off, i also don't use it for any pcbs, ie the motherboard. 

 

if the motherboard needs cleaning i use PCB cleaner (german product,  name is "Kontakt leiterplattenreiniger" and its a professional grade product) qtips and a brush.

 

[GuiltySpark_]

I've been cleaning my computers with automotive detail brushes to dislodge surface dust and suck it up with my normal home vacuum for 15+ years and will continue to do so. Haven't killed anything because I'm not an idiot. The vacuum shouldn't be touching components, that's the brushes job.

 

This is FAR more effective for me than using some sort of blower/compressed air and just blowing the dust back into the room. Screw that.

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

3 hours ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

I've been cleaning my computers with automotive detail brushes to dislodge surface dust and suck it up with my normal home vacuum for 15+ years and will continue to do so. Haven't killed anything because I'm not an idiot. The vacuum shouldn't be touching components, that's the brushes job.

 

This is FAR more effective for me than using some sort of blower/compressed air and just blowing the dust back into the room. Screw that.

Well, that's reassuring I never killed anything too, but since I don't have enough knowledge about the field of electricity in general, I was just worrid I would ruin my PC, well because I'm an idiot

 

I have used a blower before though and had the common sense to take the case outside first. Nobody wants to deal with MASSIVE amounts of dust in his room, yep, screw that

[Poinkachu]

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

I ended up getting this and it cleaned every last bit of dust!

[Mark Kaine]

On 3/27/2024 at 2:14 PM, GuiltySpark_ said:

I've been cleaning my computers with automotive detail brushes to dislodge surface dust and suck it up with my normal home vacuum for 15+ years and will continue to do so. Haven't killed anything because I'm not an idiot. The vacuum shouldn't be touching components, that's the brushes job.

 

This is FAR more effective for me than using some sort of blower/compressed air and just blowing the dust back into the room. Screw that.

the amount of people who believe the myth that vacuums cause esd damage when they really just knocked off some parts is astonishing.

 

yeah, just because it can happen "in theory" doesnt mean that's what actually happened.

 

(the chances of critical esd damage by vacuum are just so tiny... I'd say 0.01% or so lol)

[Mark Kaine]

On 3/27/2024 at 8:12 PM, Poinkachu said:

The GOAT.

[Mark Kaine]

On 3/27/2024 at 2:14 PM, GuiltySpark_ said:

I've been cleaning my computers with automotive detail brushes to dislodge surface dust and suck it up with my normal home vacuum for 15+ years and will continue to do so. Haven't killed anything because I'm not an idiot. The vacuum shouldn't be touching components, that's the brushes job.

 

This is FAR more effective for me than using some sort of blower/compressed air and just blowing the dust back into the room. Screw that.

i have 2 very large roof windows that I open when i blow the dust out of my pc, no need for this outside thing you're talking about!