Air Compressor for Computer Cleaning?

[Baron_Osiris]

I have been using cans of compressed air to clean computers for some time now and I think it's time to get a more cost effective solution for computer cleaning. I am thinking about buying a portable air tank.

However I have some concerns about that. I was told that compressed air contains a lot of moisture which can damage electronics. When I worked at Best Buy in the tech department we used a portable air tank to clean systems. This tank was filled from an air compressor in the car install bay. When I went to a different store they couldn't use this solution because, as my boss tells me, the air compressor at this location does not have a "condenser" on the air compressor which is needed to remove the mositure from the air. I've done some searching around on the internet and have not been able to confirm wether this is true or not.

I talked to this guy at Northern Tool and Equipment and he said that a condenser for an air compressor is thousands of dollars. He also mentioned that the cans of condensed air you buy at the store is dry air.

Kind of long winded I know but here are the questions I have.

Do any of you use portable air tanks to clean computers? Do any of you have your own compressors? If so do they have condensers? Is it safe to use any air compressor to fill an air tank or do I need to find an air compressor with a "condenser"? Or was it all BS and nothing to worry about?

[Damned Angel]

We use a compressor at my shop to clean systems. There is no condenser on the unit, so once a month we drain it. Not usually that much water in it, and we certainly dont have water spraying out of it onto customers machines.

[geoscomp]

I've been using one here for a couple of years without problems, and this is a high humidity area..I just stuck my airbrush compressors air filter and water trap..about 40 bucks..on it. A similar one is on this link

[Shard92]

I've been using one here for a couple of years without problems, and this is a high humidity area..I just stuck my airbrush compressors air filter and water trap..about 40 bucks..on it. A similar one is on this link

yep same here.... rather moist here with the big puddle next door and we had a compressor at a previous place i worked without problems. There are a lot of stories around as I heard one you shouldn't use canned air because it's dry and therefore prone to static electricity so.....

[slgrieb]

I use a water filter/regulator on my compressor, keep the pressure fairly low and it works fine.

[technokat]

one can get a cheap (around 20-50 us cash) water trap
(small glass bowl affair that will trap most of the water that
"may" make its way down the line. above and beyond that
visit a automotive paint shop and you can aslo buy a relativly inexpensive water trap that is meant to keep moisture out of
painting guns - droplets there will cause havoc in a finsihed paint job, so they are rather effective at removing moisture.
(random thoughts)
I do considerable air brushing with a dual cyl air compresser,
and i use a expansion chamber that has a "dribble" drain in its bottem. (aproxamatly half the air is bled out the bottem to create a pressure differential, the pressure drop in the chamber cools the air which causes any residual moiusture to drop out.) the chamber i have set up is a 4 foot tall steel
pipe with the air entering aproxamatly 4 inches above the bottem- the air enters through a restricted orifice (old carb jet in this unit) I pull the air i use from the top of the unit.
at the bottem is a thumscrew style valve that i set so it is always leaking air. (that leak creates the lower pressure in the tube which cools the air and drops moisture)
(this is only if you feel like dinking and building one)
(/randomn thoughts)
*peace out all*
*feeling very geeky*

[xt477]

I use a "shop vac" style vacuum. Use the vacuum to clean up the large bits then reverse it to blow out the stubborn stuff.

[Platypus]

I've used air compressors to blow dust from electronic equipment I've been repairing, since I started in 1975. Use a "flicking" motion to drive dust & fluff away, thus avoiding a heavy blast of air travelling across the surface of non-conductive components like ICs, which can produce a substantial static electricity potential. This will be worse in low humidity conditions or with air that is drier.

[3fingersalute]

I have been using cans of compressed air to clean computers for some time now and I think it's time to get a more cost effective solution for computer cleaning. I am thinking about buying a portable air tank.

However I have some concerns about that. I was told that compressed air contains a lot of moisture which can damage electronics. When I worked at Best Buy in the tech department we used a portable air tank to clean systems. This tank was filled from an air compressor in the car install bay. When I went to a different store they couldn't use this solution because, as my boss tells me, the air compressor at this location does not have a "condenser" on the air compressor which is needed to remove the mositure from the air. I've done some searching around on the internet and have not been able to confirm wether this is true or not.

I talked to this guy at Northern Tool and Equipment and he said that a condenser for an air compressor is thousands of dollars. He also mentioned that the cans of condensed air you buy at the store is dry air.

Kind of long winded I know but here are the questions I have.

Do any of you use portable air tanks to clean computers? Do any of you have your own compressors? If so do they have condensers? Is it safe to use any air compressor to fill an air tank or do I need to find an air compressor with a "condenser"? Or was it all BS and nothing to worry about?

The last retail shop I worked at completely renovated their building, and we got to design the tech area. We made a huge bench with 10 workstations, each station had an air compressor hookup that we used for computers, printers, copiers, etc, and never had any problems at all!

[John_K]

I use a compressor for cleaning computer guts all the time and have never had a problem. As some of the other posts have mentioned water separators are cheap. You can get disposable separators at an auto paint shop for a few dollars that would last quite a long time if you keep your tank drained.