PSA on Kmart Brand Air Duster (Fire Risk)

outlander on 07/05/2018 - 11:31

General warning to OzBee's about Kmart branded Air dusters. When I was looking to blow some dust out of my laptop to improve cooling, Kmart was the cheapest by far, at $5 a can (most places charge ~$15), but they were always out of stock

Finally by chance I managed to get some. It was only after I got home and noticed the woeful airpressure that I checked the back, and found these aren't compressed carbon dioxide. They're butane. Same thing as in lighters.

It's basically a $2 lighter refill canister with a nozzle on top. Not only is it dangerous, but it works poorly. My advice would be to leave them alone

Link

Electrical & Electronics

Related Stores

Kmart
Kmart

Comments

  • trustnoone on 07/05/2018 - 11:54

    Wait what? Am i the only one that thinks thats crazy, they're selling air duster cans with butane in it instead of compressed air?????? Plz don't use near electronics.

    • D C on 07/05/2018 - 16:12

      It's been like that forever.

      Question for today, what's a hydrocarbon?

      Most of the air dusters have flourocarbons these days (fridge gasses), still flammable though. Don't breathe them in either.

      Using nitrogen or CO2 as the propellant is a recent thing and not very widespread. The refillable cans contain air.

      The reason for using butane etc is they are liquids at higher temperatures & lower pressure compared to N / CO2 and so are a better choice in those cans. Look at how solid CO2 cartridges are by comparison. When coming out of the can they boil & expand which causes the spray.

  • cheap-andrew on 07/05/2018 - 12:04

    From memory it's not uncommon to use butane or propane as propellants in aerosol cans. But that does not mean it's safe.

    Mythbusters did an episode testing spray on sunscreen that contained one of these. It's dangerous if spayed on direct flame / sparks, but evaporates very quickly.

    I still agree with you OP, and I'm going to check my cans (different brand) ASAP.

    • outlander on 07/05/2018 - 14:06

      Yeah, that sounds about right. My fear wouldn't be so much of fire as an explosion risk that damages equipement.

      Picture this, you have an older laptop thats caked with dust, so you give it a really good spray inside. Now the internal cavity is filled with a mixture of butane and air in a confined space. You power it up, and the hard drive, which is an older mechanical drive with a faulty mechanism, tries to spin up but can't, leading to a buildup of charge in the primary inductor. The charge builds up enough to jump the gap to ground, causing a spark and BOOM! Laptop is down for the count.

      • D C on 07/05/2018 - 16:17

        Won't happen.

        The amount of butane will be low and dissipates fast, hard drives are sealed units, and inductors (voice coils for drives) don't really spark like that.

        Batteries or that $3 PSU you got will blow up before that.

  • theHMASfriendship on 07/05/2018 - 13:45

    The vast majority of aerosol sprays use propane/butane as a propellant. Including things like deodorant.

  • tomclancy on 07/05/2018 - 13:47

    Thanks for the heads up OP. I had no idea. From the description:

    • Do not use on live electrical equipment.
    • Warning: extremely flammable. Keep out of reach of children.
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