Electric air dusters vs cans of compressed air

Have you thought of using a tyre inflator which has a rechargeable battery (from a car 12V supply). Something like :

Use the ball inflator "needle" to supply a jet of air. Amazon seems to have a vast number of identical devices for sale, most of which are probably junk (no reviews). The one above seems to get good reviews. Note that these inflators can be very noisy when inflating tyres, but are less so when inflating low pressure objects such as balls, etc.

They are more high volume low pressure that actual compressed air - but are still pretty good at dusting and clearing sawdust etc. (the cans are ok but only have limited puff and lifetime)

Don't knock 'em until you've tried them; yes canned-air can give a sharp blast because it only has a 1-2mm straw, but you can't fit a wider nozzle. Take a look at Torque Test Channel's various match-ups of blowers (Or Project Farm if you can stand the commentary style).

Probably not with modern batteries.

It would be handy to have a controllable option - suitable both for the insides of a camera, and for blasting decades of electronic dust out of the mechnanical crannies of an old tape recorder.

Daniele

There are advantages to the canned air for things like cameras, since the air will be very clean an dry.

Things like the cordless blow guns (e.g. Makita DAS180) have a variable speed trigger and 4 stage air volume control that you can set based on application. Good for general purpose dusting and cleaning.

A blow gun on a proper compressor is great for workshop cleaning, moving swarf, sawdust etc, but could do damage to delicate stuff depending on what pressure you are running the regulated output on the compressor at.

Depending on your device "control" might be how far away you hold it from the source of air!

I am not sure about comparisons, but we seem to be assuming that these cans of compressed air are just ... air - I am not so sure.

Also to note a 'proper compressor' may include a fine spray of compressor oil in the output. Some are 'oil-less' types which don't do that.

Not sure what category the battery powered tyre inflators fall into, but I suspect they don't take oil?

Theo

They have hydroflurocarbons like many other aerosols, maybe they have some compressed air too?

No, they're no use for optical surfaces, which then need cleaning.

You used to be able to get aerosol cans of some sort of camera / lens cleaner - its possible that Jessops had their own brand at one time ?

No idea what was in them

Yes, they're OK for front element dusting, the particles are small and not in a focal plane, but directly on a tube or CCD faceplate, they leave visible blobs. Worst of all are microscope cameras, as the light arriving at the eyepiece is parallel in order to be able to change objectives without refocussing the eyepiece, and anything much larger than a water molecule will show up.

I spotted

Daniele

"Low decibel noise"

I think that implies weak airflow ...

It is pretty hard to get a powerful jet of air without some kind of compressors - simple fans stall at quite low air back pressures.

Vacuums are designed for large volume small pressure differential. A jet of air requires small volume high pressure

Most high pressure compressors use a vane or lobe type compressor