In the past I’ve written about my rechargeable handheld dust removal tool I’ve used to clean dust from electronics. This has completely eliminated “canned air” from my life and paid for itself many times over not to mention the vastly reduced environmental impact.
After years of operation my OPOLAR dust removal tool is starting to have issues with the switch that turns on the blower. Since I was very happy having a powered dust removal tool and it had paid for itself previously I decided to try taking a step up this time and get a more powerful model.
I decided to try out the DataVac Electric Duster ED500 and oh boy is it powerful. It honestly feels like a cannon! Today I’ll cover how this compared to my previous tool and why these are so great. Let’s get started!
Hardware Used
DataVac Electric Duster
The DataVac Electric Duster ED500 has a powerful 500W 0.75HP motor. It comes with various attachments allowing you to direct the powerful airstream however you need to.
Let’s cover the most important difference between this device and the common OPOLAR handheld one. This device has a cord. This was not a problem for my use case but it may be a dealbreaker for many people so I wanted to address that right off the bat.
The noise level is about the same as a vacuum. I think it’s probably extremely similar to an actual vacuum because it certainly sounds just like one.
Performance
Now it’s time to get to the important part. How does it perform? I had a difficult time describing it so I made a video to show the performance:
During this video the unit did not get very hot at all. Note that if you use the smaller attachments though it gets hot faster. They even include a warning card with the attachments telling you this and indeed I did observe it gets hot faster if I put something like the straw attachment on the unit.
This is probably because it’s restricting the airflow with the smaller attachments and making the motor work harder (producing more heat faster). Alternatively maybe the heat is exhausted through the airflow and restricting airflow with the smaller attachments makes the heat build up faster. Whatever the reason, more heat builds up faster when using the smaller attachments.
I’d imagine using the larger bore general cleaning attachment like I’m using in the video I could have cleaned at least one more full-size PC before the unit would have needed to cool down for a minute or two. It’s then ready to go again. I honestly don’t find myself using the smaller attachments that often because as you could see in the video I had no trouble blasting that PC clean with basically pure force including inside the formerly furry fan blades and the GPU / PSU.
Pros / Cons
Pros
Safe to use with electronics (won’t generate static or moisture like an air compressor)
Small and easily fits in a bag or toolkit or on a cart
Gets everything very clean
Cons
Needs a cord
Generates noise about the level of a vacuum
Conclusion
The DataVac ED500 makes quick work of any PC / electronics cleaning job. I did not even need to use any other attachments for this video as the stream was powerful enough from the main attachment to easily get the job done. It only took me a little over a minute of actual cleaning in that video to completely change that PC from a gross dusty hairy mess into looking as fresh as the day we built it.
It’s not battery powered / portable like the OPOLAR one I had previously but it’s way, way more powerful. If you are using the DataVac for too long and it gets too hot all you need to do is let it cool down for a couple of minutes and it’s ready to go again!
One might say why not use an air compressor? Well for one the DataVac is designed specifically for cleaning electronics so you don’t have to worry about putting a hole in something or damaging it like with an air compressor. Air compressors also generate moisture and static (google it if you don’t believe me). It’s not only possible but is expected unless you buy a specialized one that has features to remove moisture and static charge from the air (expensive). Otherwise you are concentrating/pressurizing the moisture in the air along with the air itself and it will go straight into whatever you are cleaning (at a very high pressure).
The DataVac is also a lot more convenient to use. You just plug it in and clean. There’s no waiting for pressure or hearing a super loud compressor motor (even compared to this which is closer in volume to a vacuum) ramping up. This is also small and easy to carry anywhere there’s a plug available (many of which would be inappropriate or impractical to try to take an air compressor but this device would be no problem).
I invested in this tool because I had saved so much money over buying things like compressed air cans to clean all of my devices. I expect the DataVac will continue to keep my electronics clean for many years to come!
