An Affordable Air Purifier For Dusty Computer Labs?

Alcimedes writes "Our lab has a serious issue with dust. I've had a number of power supplies stop working because of dust clogging up the fans, and it's getting annoying. So I'm looking into some kind of small (under $500) air filtration system, and was wondering if anyone else out there has already gone down this road. If so, what did you buy and would you buy it again? I'd prefer something where I don't have to keep buying filters, but that may just be a pipe dream." Anyone with cats knows the feeling. Can you suggest a reasonably priced answer to dust-borne failure?

Comments

Windex

[eggsurplus]

$2.99 about. Pretty cheap and effective.

First Things First

[Gefiltefish]

Since a large portion of the dust that we encounter comes from dead skin cells that are shed from our bodies, a clear solution presents itself:

Convice some of those dirty bastards using your lab to wash once in a while.

Need for air filter: GONE.

Re:First Things First

[Gefiltefish]

I'll bet it's all you. Here's the experiment to find out:

Wrap your self from head to toe in saran wrap. After a month wrapped in saran wrap, if you don't notice a drastic decrease in dust, I'll give you a dollar.

Re:First Things First

[BJH]

Or even better, wrap Roy Orbison in clingfilm!

Re:First Things First

[Poeir]

Not to mention the asphyxiation.

Who cares about dust?

[Anonymous Coward]

In a computer lab, I'm more concerned about the general flatulence and B.O. generated by most computer science majors. On a hot summer day, the smell can peel paint from the walls.

Cats

[Devil's BSD]

Anyone with cats knows the feeling. Can you suggest a reasonably priced answer to dust-borne failure?

Scissors only cost a buck at Wal-Mart... Or you could go the more expensive electric haircutter route for about $15. Or, you could actually save money by getting rid of the cats.

Re:Cats

[jokercito]

What?? Get rid of the pussy??? NEVER!

Re:Cats

[polymath69]

Yeah, can anyone suggest a cheap filter to remove cats?

grep -v -w cats ?
sed 's/cats//g' ?

See if your manager...

[Anonymous Coward]

will spring for a french maid with a short miniskirt, high heels.

Re:See if your manager...

[Alien Being]

"What the hell is interesting about that comment???"

Use your imagination!

Cats

[antiquark]

Anyone with cats knows the feeling.

Yeah, can anyone suggest a cheap filter to remove cats?

Well actually,

[labratuk]

You've stumbled across the solution yourself.

Obviously the dust is collecting in these machines. How do you 'remove' dust? You collect it.

So, all you have to do is build a bunch of redundant computers*, and design them with really bad air flow, so dust gets trapped everywhere in them. Once a month, open up these machines and turn them upside-down over a dustbin (outside). Voila.

*Imagine a Beowulf cluster.

Don't Try This Method

[handy_vandal]

I once watched a co-worker use a shop vac inside a very dusty PC. The shop vac sucked a chip out of its socket ....

Re:Don't Try This Method

[nelsonal]

I think that shop vac might be interested in the story as a potential ad.

Re:have you tried

[doormat]

Yes, and its nothing but trouble.. ;)

Re:air purifier

[NewtonsLaw]

You said:

That being said the ionic breeze uses the *best* technology for air cleaning, but the lack of a fan makes it completley useless

followed later by:

no I don't work for them, I'm just a fan

Hmmm... I see potential for a link-up here :-)

My solution

[fruity1983]

Take the fans out of your computer, it wo

Re:Sharper Image ("Wonderful Reviews"???)

[outsider007]

Just because you have had some kind of psychosematic..
if you're gonna use big words at least learn how to spell them.

cats?

[maxpublic]

Sell the cats to a Chinese restaurant. End of problem.

Max

Re:Air Filtration

[jred]

The only disadvantage to a powered electrostatic filter is the possibility of the creation of ozone.

Wait. Not to sound like a dumbass, but isn't this a *good* thing? I thought there was a shortage of ozone due to cars or cow farts or something like that...

Re:air purifier

[GnarlyNome]

I tried to ionize my principal in high school but the principle was wrong so i got detention instead

Clean Air Solution!

[pyro_peter_911]

After living in Lubbock, Texas for six years and dealing with the effects of huge volumes of blowing dust in my computers, I finally discovered a solution to all of my dust problems.

I moved to Austin.

Peter

A bong

[gregm]

I was thinking... you could blow air into the bottom of a barrel of water, let it bubble up to the top and put it back into the room. I know from a really reliable source that water bongs get much of the nasty stuff out of pot and make the smoke much smoother. Of course I've never actually tried to clean the air in a room with one but it seems like it might work.

Re:Hope you use breathing masks...

[ndogg]

Every 5 years you're required by law to have a chest x-ray to check for silicosis if you still work in the industry.

Can't you spell the word out? For Pete's sake, it's only 45 letters long:
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconios is

Re:Two points, 0.02c

[anubi]

I keep cats out of the computer room because they have an almost uncontrollable urge to pee on the monitor, keyboard, and CPU.

Cat pee is extremely corrosive. One spray sucked up by the system would probably ruin it. ( remember, the fan exhausts air, so any contaminant sprayed around the case is going to go IN. )