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General discussion

Handheld vacuum

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but I didn't see a suitable forum for this kind of thread, so I'll go for it anyways. I'm looking for a handheld vaccum to keep my entertainment center dust-free, but mostly to get rid of the dust that's clogging up my consoles. My PS3 in particurlar is making a rather alarming noise, and I'd like to do something about it before it gets any worse.

The problem is that I don't want to scratch my consoles while vacuuming over the vents, so I'm wondering if there are any handheld vacuums with a soft tip out there, or if handheld vacuums come with some sort of attachment to prevent furniture and electronics from getting scratched or damaged.

Discussion is locked

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Blow, don't suck
Jan 8, 2010 12:34AM PST

You want to blow, not suck in these situations.

Go to your nearest office supply store, and pick up a couple cans of compressed air. Use those to blow some gusts into the vents of systems to dislodge any dust bunnies.

Granted all this does is just move the dust from one place to another, but if you can get it OUT of your consoles, then you can use regular dusting methods to clean it up elsewhere.

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Thanks for the help, but...

I can't help but think that a vacuum cleaner would do a better job in this case, but I do want to clean up my consoles as soon as possible, so I probably will go buy a can of compressed air. Thanks for the suggestion.

I still intend to buy a handheld vacuum, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Well
Jan 8, 2010 3:29AM PST

Well, the primary thing is to break up the dust bunnies clogging fan blades. Ideally you could take devices apart so you can get down in there and really get at the dust, or they would be hermetically sealed, but such is not the case.

And you want to be careful of sticking some kind of plastic vacuum attachment into any kind of electric device. They very easily could pick up a static charge that will then damage the electronics.

I will say however, and it just kind of occurred to me, is that I've seen vacuums designed specifically for computers at Fry's. Whether or not you have a Fry's in your area, a vacuum like that would probably be your best bet.

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TigerDirect