Is vacuuming Imac safe

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Level 1

12 points

Is vacuuming Imac safe

So the fans in my imac are beginning to get dust and i was going to vacuum the main ones (in the back, near the ram cards). When i asked one of the people at the apple store they told me that vacuuming would create static and that i should use something to blow air at it instead? This seems odd to me bc i think it would just blow the dust into the imac. As long as my imac is off and unplugged is genially vacuuming the fans safe?
Thanks!
Bryan

Imac, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Dec 16, 2010 10:23 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

WZZZ

Level 6

13,238 points

Dec 16, 2010 2:38 PM in response to IBryan4423

den.thed is the vacuuming guru around here.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12612558&#12612558

+Hi _ j+

+I suggest shutting down and vacuuming out the bottom grill work and small intake port under the stand on a regular bases. Dust build up will vary depending on the environment, if a small amount of dust is noticed after a couple of months then perhaps a quarterly vacuuming is in order.+

+My Intel iMac will be 5 years this next January and I have faithfully vacuumed out the air intakes every few months sense the day it was new. After 3 years of running, in Jan of 09 I opened her up to upgrade the Hard Drive and there was almost no dust build up on the fan blades or anywhere inside of the iMac.+

+Caution: do not disturb the dust with the iMac on (fans running) or blow with compressed air, that will do nothing except to blow what little dust is collected on the air intakes deeper into the iMac.+

Dennis

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Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,494 points

Dec 16, 2010 10:58 AM in response to IBryan4423

I wouldn't take my machine apart to vacuum it however if you already have taken it apart vacuuming carefully would be fine as long as you use reasonable precaution. As a general rule of thumb about the only internal cleaning your iMac needs is remove the RAM cover plate on the bottom of your iMac about once a year and vacuum out any dust bunnies that have accumulated. I just did mine after 3 years of use and was surprised how little dust there was however currently I have no pets and live in an area where dust isn't a real problem. How much dust your computer is exposed to is going to vary from user to user, if you live in a particularly dusty area and/or have pets vacuum the bottom more frequently than 1x a year.

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,494 points

Dec 16, 2010 12:55 PM in response to IBryan4423

IBryan4423 wrote:
I didn't take it apart, I just noticed there was dust visible on the fan grid in the back and along the bottom and i was going to hold a vacuum up to it to get that dust out. They told me it might create static tho and advised me not to do it. Do you think this is okay to do tho? Just to vacuum around the outside of the imac where the fan intakes are?

I think that's fine.

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Answer 4

den.thed

Level 10

91,534 points

Dec 16, 2010 5:57 PM in response to WZZZ

I just upgraded the RAM in my neighbors Mid 07 iMac, man oh man you wouldn't believe how badly caked the RAM compartment and bottom grill was? Gees' if someone would have blown all that dust up into the empty ram slot, the new module would have never made a connection. Like wise blowing the left intake, surely would have killed more than a few dust bunnies when they crashed into the CPU fan.

An ugly sight for sure!

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Answer 5

IBryan4423 Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 16, 2010 12:46 PM in response to rkaufmann87

I didn't take it apart, I just noticed there was dust visible on the fan grid in the back and along the bottom and i was going to hold a vacuum up to it to get that dust out. They told me it might create static tho and advised me not to do it. Do you think this is okay to do tho? Just to vacuum around the outside of the imac where the fan intakes are?
Thanks

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Answer 6

IBryan4423 Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 24, 2010 11:24 AM in response to IBryan4423

Thanks!

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Answer 7

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,494 points

Dec 24, 2010 11:27 AM in response to IBryan4423

Your welcome.

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