With a PS4 sounding like a jet engine and a 12 year old who keeps dust bunnies as pets next to their computer, reaching for an can of compressed air only to find it empty is a common occurrence. Will the XPOWER Electronic Air Duster replace my need for canned air?
PRODUCT: XPOWER Electronic Air Duster
FROM: Amazon
COST: £42.49
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Let’s not mess about, I’ve wanted an electronic air duster for a while but there always seems to be better things to spend £40+ on, but I bit the bullet and grabbed one from Amazon after my eldest was showing me Minecraft and the CPU turbines kicked in during load up and I couldn’t hear a thing.
What’s In The Box?
The unboxing of the XPOWER air duster is quite unremarkable, the box looks cheap, and wouldn’t look out of place on the shelf of cheap electrics shop with it’s card corrugations visible through the graphics. I can however totally forgive the cheap looking box when the first thing I take out of it is a nice, thick bag to store the duster in when not in use because let’s face it, nothing fits back in the box once you’ve taken it out, that’s the law.
Inside the box we have the air duster, a number of heads for it and an instruction manual.
Looks & Quality
The air duster itself, isn’t a particularly pretty thing, and if, like the box suggests it was only available in bright blue or green it would be quite the eyesore however the black I ordered is less in your face.
The finish on the changeable heads while not the worst I’ve seen on plastic parts, isn’t the greatest, with a few rough edges that I’ll attack with a knife later. I the worst fitting part is the finest straw and the small brush head which really needs to be forced into each other which is difficult to do without damaging the brush head itself, but once it’s done the first time it’s easier the next.
Usability
I gave this a quick blast starting with the PS4, it was quite dusty and I’m not quite ready to pop it open to clean properly so wanted to see if the air duster could reach places a cloth can’t.
Using the duster is very easy, plug it in, pick a head and turn it on, the handle is comfortable to hold and the wide range of attachments will allow you to get into a lot of different places.
The electronic air duster has 2 settings, blowy, and very blowy, both of these settings are very effective at blowing dust, the brush attachments make cleaning grills and mesh a breeze (see what I did there?).
When I turned it on and pointed it at the vents on the PS4 a boat load of dust flew out of the other end, which is exactly the desired effect, so that’s a real plus point.
It got quite warm while I used it, although not hot enough to worry me, which I guess I prefer over the blistering cold a can of compressed air can get after continuous use. It was very loud, loud enough to bother my 2 year old, dashing my dreams of stripping down all the electricals in the house and giving them a good clean while the little one is in bed.
Pros Vs Canned Air
There’s a lot of ways that this outshines the traditional canned air;
- The straw / nozzles are bigger so you can blast more area at once.
- The brush attachments help with the more stubborn bits like grills and grates.
- You can hold the unit in any direction without the risk of liquid spurting all over your electronics
- It doesn’t run out so you can be super thorough with your air dusting
- It doesn’t turn into an icicle in your hand, although the unit does seem to get warm.
- Cheaper in the long run, if you clean a lot of things it won’t take long to tot over the purchase price of £43 at about £2.50 per can
Cons Vs Canned Air
There are some drawbacks of using the electric air duster over canned air;
- It’s bigger than a can of air, and therefore less portable
- Wires & Electric, you have to plug this is and therefore it’s not as easy just grab and blast out some dust
- It’s Noisy! like really noisy, this can go for much longer than a can of air but you may have a headache by the time you’re finished and you can forget any idea of late night cleaning.
- Big upfront cost, although cheaper in the long run, justifying the £40+ purchase for one job over £2.50 is tough
Overall I’m very happy with this, sure it’s loud which looses it a star, but it’s very effective at the task I bought it for, which is blowing dust outta stuff, and now I have it I’m sure I’ll find a whole host of non-computer stuff I’ll also want to use it for like the dust-trap Lego models in my son’s room.
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