Electric air dusters - an alternative to aerosols

Are Electric Air Dusters worth it?

500W electric airduster, single speedIf you regularly use aerosol air dusters to blow out enclosures, computer fans, laser printers, keyboards or filters, then you’ll know how pricey these air dusters can become. Another problem is that, due to their very design, they usually have to be held upright and used in short bursts. After a short time the steel can starts to freeze and condensation forms, and the pressure may drop. The freezing steel tin can makes them more difficult to handle.

Air dusters don’t contain air but use flammable LPG (butane) as a propellant instead, a bit like an air freshener aerosol without any fragrance.  It’s the pressure of the propellant gas that does the ‘dusting’. They must be used in well ventilated areas and, due to the highly flammable butane gas used, they can’t be used where a spark hazard (eg arcing, or static) exists.

They must also be used nearly upright or they will expel an unpleasant icy stream of hazardous LPG everywhere. An ‘invertible’ air duster can be used in multiple positions though, eg within inaccessible areas of equipment, but they still use flammable gas so the same safety hazards apply.

I checked some typical prices for air dusters, and they cost anything from £5 each to over £20 depending on specification. If you get through two or three a year, then an alternative to consider is an electric duster instead. For regular users, they can eventually pay for themselves and are often more convenient and less wasteful.

550W electric air duster, two speed with toolkitAn electric duster contains a powerful fan motor that draws in air and compresses it through a nozzle, producing a blast easily equivalent to the pressure of an air duster aerosol. They are mains-powered and look like a small pistol-shaped hair dryer. They may have a lengthy cotton-covered (kink free) power cord.

Having got fed up with the mediocre performance and cost of air duster aerosols I’ve tried an electric duster marketed by ITDusters, which uses quite a powerful 500 Watt fan.

My kit came with three nozzle attachments that concentrates or shapes the air flow. The mains on-off switch is biased (spring loaded) so it can’t be left on accidentally. A removable foam air filter is on the base (a spare is included), and care is needed to ensure it’s kept clear and not blocked up with fluff etc.

In use, the electric air duster is proving to be a very handy item to have at hand, and I’m finding more uses all the time - blasting out vacuum cleaner filters for example, and other jobs where an aerosol would be ineffective or expensive, or a mains compressor too brutal or inconvenient. The 500W electric motor gradually gets warm in use after a short period and it is surprisingly noisy for its size.

As the electric duster is always ready for action, there’s no longer the risk of finding yourself out of stock of aerosol dusters when you need one, or finding ones that are nearly empty or proving temperamental due to freezing or condensation etc. 

If you regularly use aerosol air dusters, consider the always-ready and consistent performance of an electric duster instead, as well as the long term cost savings they may bring.

IT Dusters CompuCleaner Xpert - Electric Air Duster Blower - https://amzn.to/48VN1Wt

Compressed air kit 550W with accessories - https://amzn.to/43oS9RZ

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