Update: I thought canned air was fine for everything until a laptop repair last week

Honestly, I used to blast dust out of power supplies and fans with the regular stuff. Then a client brought in a gaming laptop from Phoenix with a totally clogged heatsink. I gave it a shot with my can and it just pushed the dust deeper into the fins. A guy at the supply shop told me to try the 'anti-static' version with the long straw. Ngl, it was like eight bucks more, but it actually lifted the dust out without making a bigger mess. Has anyone else found a better trick for those super tight laptop cooling modules?

3 comments

3 Comments

max4151mo ago

Yeah, the anti-static thing is real. I read a teardown article where they tested it under a microscope. Regular canned air can build up a crazy charge on the plastic fins, it basically makes the dust stick harder. The anti-static formula doesn't do that. It's not just about the straw, the stuff inside is different. For those packed laptop heatsinks, it's the only way to actually get the clumps out instead of just moving them around.

brown.gavin1mo ago

That "crazy charge" thing @max415 mentioned is why I fried a motherboard once, just cleaning an old PC case fan.

faith6841mo ago

The teardown article showed the static can hit over 10,000 volts, enough to jump right through a board's coating.