Is Compressed Air safe to clean your rig?
- Thread starter lemonade
- Start date
Compressed air is colder & therefore contains more water.
I have small compressor & that's something I don't suffer from, as I have fitted a cheap £9 air filter regulator, removes all the water from the air.
See this thread.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18474198
Last edited:
Soldato
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they're fine
-unplug from power
-don't shake the can
-use short bursts
-unplug from power
-don't shake the can
-use short bursts
Wait, what? You're giving the correct advice, but for the wrong reason.
Colder air contains LESS water than warmer air, due to it being denser (less room for water, essentially) in the same way as you can dissolve more salt into warm water than cold. I'll skip over the physics lesson that compressed air isn't necessarily colder than warm air, just under higher pressure, because it does get colder when you spray it (due to expanding).
The point being that the reason you get water when using compressed air is related but almost exactly reversed...
- You spray (cold) compressed air on the hardware
- The hardware gets colder (because it's being hit by cold air)
- The warm air (containing moisture) hits the cold hardware and gets colder itself
- Because that warm air isn't warm any more, it can't hold as much moisture. The moisture goes to the only place it can, and condenses onto the hardware, leaving moisture behind.
So yes, spraying compressed air on a computer CAN cause moisture to appear on the computer, but not necessarily. If any of the following are true, the air won't lose any moisture onto the computer.
- the room you are in has low-ish humidity (enough that the air can cool down a little without having to lose water)
- the compressed gas isn't as cold (hold the can further back, and the air around will warm the gas up a little before it hits the computer)
-if the computer is already cold, or the room is cold
If you take a can of compressed air from the cold garage into a warm humid room with a warm computer in it, you're going to get problems. If you do it in a cool room with normal humidity and a room temperature computer, and let the can warm up to room temperature then hold it in your hands for a moment before spraying it, you can avoid the problem.
Audigex:
Had a **** connection all day, my post has lost about three paragraphs somewhere,.
Thank you for highlighting & filling in the missing info, in my disjointed post.
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