Air duster vs compressed air tank - I learned the hard way at my shop in Portland last month

I was cleaning out a dusty old tower at a workspace downtown. Used a canned air duster for like 10 minutes and it froze up on me mid-job, completely useless. Swapped to my buddy's 5 gallon compressed air tank and finished the whole thing in under 2 minutes without any sputtering. Has anyone else ditched the cans for a proper tank setup?

2 comments

2 Comments

mila_jones3911h ago

wait so you actually ran a can that long without letting it warm back up? i did that once but with a smaller can and it literally started spitting liquid all over my motherboard i freaked out lmao. the 5 gallon tank sounds like a game changer though, did you have to buy a special nozzle for it or does it come with one that works for electronics? also how loud is the compressor you use to fill it up?

the_terry8h ago

Does yours make that weird high pitched whine right before it starts spitting? I had a 3 gallon that did that and it about gave me a heart attack every time. I just use a regular adjustable air nozzle from Harbor Freight on my 5 gallon tank, works fine for blasting dust out of PCs without freezing anything up. My compressor is one of those old Husky ones from Home Depot, sounds like a lawnmower running in my garage but the neighbors stopped complaining after I brought them cookies.