Quiet air compressor for office IT

radgoos

radgoos

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 2, 2012
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140
Our IT Department is looking to buy an air compressor to dust workstations/servers. We are going though canned air like nobody's business. It has to be quiet as our IT department is in the middle of an office building.

Do you have any suggestions?
 
I would suggest a vacuum cleaner that can reverse - thus blowing air out. We use it and it works fairly well. Air compressors are quite loud, and that's just in a garage. Move it to a quiet office space and people will want to hang you.

If you must have the power of an air compressor, I'd suggest building some kind of sound insulated box or find a closet it could be put in to dampen the noise. The quietest compressors are oil lubricated.

I have this one at home which is fairly quiet - all things being relative.

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-3-ga...p-00915310000P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1

Put that thing in an open office space and it's going to be incredibly loud.
 
radgoos said:
Our IT Department is looking to buy an air compressor to dust workstations/servers. We are going though canned air like nobody's business. It has to be quiet as our IT department is in the middle of an office building.

Do you have any suggestions?
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Literally not possible if you're looking for something handheld. Get a Metro DataVac and just deal with some noise. It's not like you'll be using it all that often. And I've worked in offices - other people do annoyingly loud things WAY more often than I need to. Or if you seriously still can't do it, then fill air tanks in a spot where you can be quiet, and just bring the tank to the server rack, not the compressor.
 
radgoos said:
Our IT Department is looking to buy an air compressor to dust workstations/servers. We are going though canned air like nobody's business. It has to be quiet as our IT department is in the middle of an office building.

Do you have any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Nearly every air compressor (if we have the same idea of air compressors here :) ) are pretty much noisy as hell. If you had a specialty environment and had a significant volume of workstations to maintain everyday, then maybe you should consider one.

If you're in the conventional corporate building, no way in hell anyone is going to let you run that thing.


dandragonrage said:
Literally not possible if you're looking for something handheld. Get a Metro DataVac and just deal with some noise. It's not like you'll be using it all that often.
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This is your best bet. Less than two minutes to clean a workstation out pretty well. Noisy, but it's a lot faster (and cheaper) than compressed air.
Bought one two years ago for the office for about ~50 on Amazon. Haven't seen a can of compressed air since. :D
 
Air compressors can also compress humidity in the air, leaving water that has condensed out in the bottom of the air tank. In addition, they generate a lot of static potential in the air they release. If you do get an air compressor, I recommend getting one that is specifically built for IT, otherwise you may end up killing a lot of hardware.

I stick with canned air. I go through about 6 cans per month, but it is worth the peace of mind.
 
Dissipating any minor static is easy and so is removing moisture with an air compressor. The noise restriction is going to make it not plausible. If this were to be a permanent situation, I would find good a suitable air compressor (Quincy, IR, etc) with separators and filters installed in a mechanical room and run a couple air lines out where you could connect hoses as needed. This seems overkill to me, but I don't know the volume you're dealing with.
 
dgingeri said:
Air compressors can also compress humidity in the air, leaving water that has condensed out in the bottom of the air tank. In addition, they generate a lot of static potential in the air they release. If you do get an air compressor, I recommend getting one that is specifically built for IT, otherwise you may end up killing a lot of hardware.

I stick with canned air. I go through about 6 cans per month, but it is worth the peace of mind.
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You can get really nice air filters for compressors that filter out all the water vapor, they are used for spray paint guns.

If you need that much power, either get a portable tank and fill it up somewhere else, or pick up one of those CO2 regulators that are designed for running portable air tools.
 
The Datavac is the best suggestion so far. I have used one to blow out Cisco switches and routers and it worked like a charm. They tend to be light and easily portable as well as safe for static sensitive equipment.
 
You shouldn't be doing alot of dust removing in an office environment anyway. It's not good for peoples lungs, and can set off smoke detectors (maybe the ones we have suck)
 
Sage2k said:
You shouldn't be doing alot of dust removing in an office environment anyway. It's not good for peoples lungs, and can set off smoke detectors (maybe the ones we have suck)
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Laser printers aren't good for the lungs either. Offices should have air filters (but of course many do not).
 
I've sent about 20 datavac's out into the field and non have failed. I was concerned at first, as the body gets pretty darn hot quickly. I highly recommend them.
 
Also please avoid dusting when people are eating, it's just gross to have all these dust bunnies flying around. :D

I would ask if you could have an enclosed area to do it and bring up that it will be better health wise, especially if this is something that's done often enough.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Also please avoid dusting when people are eating, it's just gross to have all these dust bunnies flying around. :D

I would ask if you could have an enclosed area to do it and bring up that it will be better health wise, especially if this is something that's done often enough.
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If it has to be done often it makes you wonder what the air quality is like in the building to begin with...
 
wizdum said:
If it has to be done often it makes you wonder what the air quality is like in the building to begin with...
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You'd be surprised. Even in the hospital I worked in the computers were quite nasty inside. If that's the computer... imagine our lungs. :D
 
I always take machines outside when dusting, way too nasty to do it inside.
 
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