The Risks of Not Cleaning Computer Fans

If you have long neglected the fans in the computers at your business, your company's data could be at risk. Dirty fans can cause components to overheat, potentially reducing productivity because overheating caused a hard drive to fail. Implementing a regular computer fan cleaning schedule at your company can keep you up and running and keep your business moving forward.

Once a computer fan begins to make strange noises, there's a good chance the fan is experiencing a problem that will cause it to fail in the near future. If the fan stops working, your computer will not be able to draw cooler air in or push hot air out of the computer case. This will result in a hot computer case that will reduce the performance of the computer, cause your computer to overheat and will likely cause your computer to reboot multiple times.

When dust builds up on the computer's fans, your computer will operate at a higher temperature and subsequently run very slowly. If the fans are not cleaned, the dust may also move into critical areas within your computer, slow your entire computer down and ultimately ruin different components. For laptops, the effect of dirty fans will be even more pronounced because of the small space inside of a laptop. Laptops should be cleaned more often than desktops to prevent degraded performance.

Over time, dust will build up on your computer's fans if you do not clean the fans. The dust can create a fire hazard if the computer is left on and unattended in a poorly ventilated area. Turn your computer off when you are leaving work for the day to prevent a fire from occurring at night. If your fan catches fire, your computer will likely not survive the incident, causing you to lose all of your data.

According to a study conducted by the Clean Production Action and the Computer TakeBack Campaign, your computer's dust may be hazardous to your health and the health of your employees. Researchers found that samples of dust contained fire retardants that are known to cause neurological and reproductive problems in lab animals. You can Ppurchase filters for your computer fans to prevent toxic air from spreading throughout your company, but the filters will impede the air flow, so you'll need to frequently check and change the filters to make sure they are clean and letting air in and out of the computer.