Cleaning Systems and Games with Canned AIR SPRAYERS?

[Vectorman0]

It's actually really cool firing off the compressed air can while it's upside down. If you haven't tried it, do it on a piece of paper and watch the freezing cold liquid work its magic.

[bargora]

When you buy the compressed "air" sprays, what you are getting is a low-weight hydrocarbon or halogenated hydrocarbon compressed to a liquid. When you release the pressure (by pulling the trigger), the liquid rapidly expands and evaporates, absorbing heat from the surroundings. As a result, you get a jet of cold hydrocarbon gas. The gas is pretty inert (although I havent tried spraying it across a blowtorch), so the absorption of heat is strictly due to the expansion and phase change, not due to a "chemical reaction" with the air.

if you hold the can upside down and observe liquid coming out, that's the hydrocarbon in liquid phase. It will quickly evaporate. So it's not "moisture" per se, because "moisture", at least where I come from, indicates "water". That liquid coming out of the can sure isn't water.

However, if you make something really cold, then you'll see condensation forming on it. Like you'd get on an ice cold glass of lemonade/water/beer on a hot summer day. So prolonged spraying of a cold, dry jet of gas onto an electronic component can have the end effect of getting your electronics wet.

Because the compressed "air" sprays are pretty much designed to be sprayed on computer components, the chemicals used in them (as pointed out above) are pretty much inert (or non-chemically reactive, at least under normal circumstances). So I wouldn't worry too much about getting the OMG CHEMICALS on your electroncs. But as was also pointed out, you don't want to cool your equipment to the point where you get condensation. I'd probably stick to using short, contained bursts, like you were shooting aliens with a pulse rifle (or like the instructions on the side of the can probably say). RTFM. YMMV. BBQ.

Finally, you may want to read this web page. In particular,

First off, DO NOT BLOW CANNED AIR INTO THE DRIVE WITHOUT OPENING IT!
This will almost certainly make things worse, you just assure that the dust will be redistributed evenly inside the drive and this includes a coating on the optics you are trying to clean.

That page is talking about fixing dirty DVD drives in Xboxes. But the lesson may be applicable to other systems using optical drives as well.

[SuperNES]

Hm... i wonder if you could use compresed air for paintball guns somehow... shoot the gun into your system on full auto (with no paitballs in there of course) and freezing cold CO2 comes out!

[NeoSNightmarE]

ive used that with my VCR and DVD player for the longest time. i havent seen any problems yet. as for my systems, my SNES and NES has been fine and my XBOX is already modded so i just open it to clean it. and since i just bought a PS2 theres hardly any dust. if the air is held at an angle, the coldness and moisture could definately cause a problem. but i havent gotten any of that with my VCR and DVD player.

[ozyr]

Been using canned air for years - to clean game systems, computer, etc., etc. Great suff! And no problem in doing so.

[spoon]

If you are not taking the top of your system off, all you are doing is blowing the dust around in the machine. Not really cleaning it out.

Fun tip

Get a zip lock bag. Hold a can of compressed air upside down and spray it inside for abotu 30 seconds to a minute. Drop the bag and run. The more you put in, the better it is.

[NintendoMan]

If you are not taking the top of your system off, all you are doing is blowing the dust around in the machine. Not really cleaning it out.

Fun tip

Get a zip lock bag. Hold a can of compressed air upside down and spray it inside for abotu 30 seconds to a minute. Drop the bag and run. The more you put in, the better it is.

Do you close the bag after your done? I think I like where this is going!

[spoon]

If you are not taking the top of your system off, all you are doing is blowing the dust around in the machine. Not really cleaning it out.

Fun tip

Get a zip lock bag. Hold a can of compressed air upside down and spray it inside for abotu 30 seconds to a minute. Drop the bag and run. The more you put in, the better it is.

Do you close the bag after your done? I think I like where this is going!

Woops, yeah, I forgot to add that part. make sure you close the bag kiddies. Yeah, it can be fun.Ii d this sometimes when I have nothing to do at GS.