Vaping and computer damage?

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hiram13pm

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Can't imagine how it could be worse.

Airborne fats (think the hood over your stove) and smoke are terrible for electronics. I work on PC-based cash registers, and believe me, chicken joints are the worst.

For grocery stores or other places without such sources of airborne gunk, oddly enough, the cleaner the place the worse the innards of their computers, and vice-versa. Constant dusting and cleaning stirs dust up in the air, and it gets sucked in by the cooling fans. Ergo, if you're a clean freak, twice a year you should power it down, unplug it, open up the PC case and blow it out.
 

NCC

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I've heard for years that cigarette smoke is hazardous to computers. And, for decades I smoked like a chimney around mine with no apparent ill effects. Go figure.

We have computers all over my extremely dusty workplace (paper dust and corn starch) ... the same PCs running for years without failure. I occasionally open the case to blow them out, and they need it too! But, not an operational problem as of yet.

I just can't imagine vaping is going to be a problem. And, since I didn't worry about cigarette smoke, I'm not gonna worry about vaping, LOL. YMMV
 

Dirgon

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Smoking damages computers in the same way it damages walls, ceilings, teeth, etc.

Cigarette smoke sticks like glue to a lot of things, computers included. Fans get gummed up, causing an increase in dust accumulation on the fan blades, causing increased heat inside the system, causing system failure due to heat.

I've replaced 3 PSUs* in our house because my parent's smoking upstairs has killed them, and they died relatively fast, faster than they should have, at least.

Vaping, however, doesn't seem to accumulate a film of crap like smoking does. Or so I've been told, I'll let you know in a few years. >_>;

*PSU = Power Supply Unit, the main box that supplies power to the rest of the computer's components.
 

NCC

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@Dirgon:
I replaced a single power supply in the past quarter century, since the advent of Win95.
What you say is true about cigarette smoke depositing a sticky film on everything (inside car windshield for another example). But, it clearly isn't as lethal to PCs as it is made out to be.

I wasn't just lucky.

Although I didn't clean mine out as frequently as WomanOfHeart did, I did routine maintanence which included cleaning. And, as she stated, the job is MUCH easier without cigarette smoke in the equation.


Vape On!
 

Zal42

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I've heard for years that cigarette smoke is hazardous to computers. And, for decades I smoked like a chimney around mine with no apparent ill effects.

Yeah, me too. I've been a software engineer for 25+ years, a hobbyist for years prior to that, and until I quit smoking, i smoked like a fiend around all my computers, often in small, hot, stuffy rooms where the smoke got so thick I could see it layer in the air between my face and the computer screen. I almost never clean any of my computer's innards.

I've never had a computer fail because of it. I've never lost a power supply or had any overheating problems.
 
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