Old IT guy told me to stop using compressed air on fans and he was right

Had a senior tech at my shop in Austin tell me canned air just pushes dust deeper into the bearings. I figured he was just being picky. After I killed a client's CPU fan on a Dell Optiplex 7050 last month, I swapped to a brush and vacuum method. Anyone else switched away from the air cans for good?

2 comments

2 Comments

clark.faith9d ago

Woah, gentle correction - he meant blowing dust into the motor windings, not bearings.

lunaw728d ago

Yeah but still, blowing compressed air into motor windings is a bad idea no matter what you call it. That air can shove debris deeper into the windings and cause shorts later. I've seen it happen where someone blasted a motor clean and then it died a week later. Better off using a vacuum or a soft brush to gently clean those areas. Just my two cents from watching too many motors get wrecked.