Raspberry Pi Forums

I own a raspberry pi 4 and i use it to do some simple server operations. I haven't bought a case for it as i decided the best way to stop the rasberry pi from overheating is to not trap it in a case. However, I have left it running for a few weeks now and have noticed quite a bit of dust settling on the pi.
Does dust kill the pi? Does it short anything out?
Should I worry about this problem as im too scared to clean it because of the risk of damageing it by accident.
Thanks in advance.

No, dust won;t harm it. Just blow the dust off if you are worried about cleaning it. To clean use isopropyl alcohol or similar, just wipe it over gently.

jamesh wrote: ↑

Tue May 26, 2020 9:03 pm

No, dust won;t harm it. Just blow the dust off if you are worried about cleaning it. To clean use isopropyl alcohol or similar, just wipe it over gently.

...with the power off and unplugged.

It also depends on what kind of "dust". Dust that is a good conductor (e.g. metal dust) might very well be a serious problem. Common household dust, probably not, so long as it is dry.

Canned air should also take care of most dust, and is easier than using a solvent to get in all the nooks and crannies.

It might attract less dust if placed on edge - which also improves the convection cooling.

(saw) Dust has failed to kill the computer that is essentially buried in it at my place of work. That's not an exaggeration by the way, seven years of neglect has left it a few inches deep in dust and its used 12 hours a day, every day.
The dust ranges from rough particulate to fine powder.

The Pi is made of the same bits and pieces, so I expect identical behaviour from it.

This biggest problem I've found with dust is it makes heatsinks and fans less efficient, can form a duvet over chips making them run hotter. A gentle brushing with an unused household paint brush usually clears enough off to get things back to normal.

Imperf3kt wrote: ↑

Tue May 26, 2020 11:37 pm

(saw) Dust has failed to kill the computer that is essentially buried in it at my place of work. That's not an exaggeration by the way, seven years of neglect has left it a few inches deep in dust and its used 12 hours a day, every day.
The dust ranges from rough particulate to fine powder.

The Pi is made of the same bits and pieces, so I expect identical behaviour from it.

Dust in a grain elevator can cause an explosion. I've never heard about the same happening with a computer. However, I worked one place where they sent a crew to all the offices once a year with a vacuum cleaner. At the time there was a Sun IPC sitting on my desk.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARCstation_IPC

It unfortunately survived the cleaning.

My experience is the dust accumulates faster with more fans. That makes most Pi computers relatively dust free.

Dust on electronics is a fire risk.

Even harmless looking electronics like the Pi. Having seen an SD card smoke itself myself I'm very wary of this. Others have reported similar events here too.

Running a Pi under saw dust in a work place is reckless responsibility.

Heater wrote: ↑

Wed May 27, 2020 3:19 am

Running a Pi under saw dust in a work place is reckless responsibility.

In case it wasn't obvious, I wasn't condoning it, just pointing out some anecdotal evidence.

Dust explosions are a thing, and can happen in grain refineries with nothing more than flour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_explosion
But hardly something somebody with a raspberry Pi will ever experience

While it's not strictly a matter of dust, something should be mentioned about the care and feeding of hazards to electronic equipment generally, and not often thought about.

Specifically, dry chemical fire extinguishers.

The problem is that the fine powder they distribute is (a) attracted to charged surfaces electrostatically, (b) is hygroscopic (it absorbs water out of the air), and (c) when wet it is strongly acidic. There have been cases of someone putting out a small wastebasket fire with the end result of the effective destruction of an adjacent $50,000 copier.

If you feel the need to keep a fire extinguisher anywhere there are electronic devices, your best choices are carbon dioxide and halon. Even water/acid is better than dry chemical in terms of collateral damage.

metallic dust are a known killer of powered bare electronics if accumulated to provide an electrical shorting path.
as well as ordinary household dust that have become damp...

for blowing off dust from un-powered electronics, I mostly use my bicycle air pump (with a nozzle attachment usually used for inflatable rafts).
and/or camera lens hand blower...



.

I'd ask Philip Pullman about this. (Sorry, couldn't resist )