REVIEW: DataVac Bests Compressed Air, Hurricane in Cleaning PC Dust

Last year, I wrote about my pleasant experiences with the Hurricane canned air replacement. I gave it a fair 3 of 5 star rating for a valiant effort, but it came up short in the form of having a non-replaceable battery and a rather small “effective blowing” timespan of about 10 minutes. As a mobile product you can easily place into your toolbag, it’s a great item.

But shortly after I did the review, my colleague Ted asked me to give another alternative a try: the DataVac ED500 by MetroVac. The first thing you will notice about this device is that it is fully corded. No, it does not offer the flexibility of being uncorded and reliant on an internal battery like the Hurricane. And yes, it definitely carries a larger footprint as well as weight.

Yet for these two natural shortcomings (which don’t bother me much, as I’ll describe) the unit makes up for its heft in raw blowing power and effectiveness. The official website doesn’t list out what the mph windpower equivalent for the DataVac is, but if the Hurricane I reviewed is rated at about 200mph (at peak battery life, mind you) I am going to put a rough guess that the DataVac is pumping out about a 230-250mph wind gust.

It may be higher, as my guess is not very scientific, but I will put it this way: this sucker can definitely pump some air. The Hurricane and the DataVac may seem to be similar in wind power at face value, but keep in mind that the DataVac is corded to a wall outlet and therefore has a constant airflow concentration that the Hurricane doesn’t compare with.

I know this very well, as we keep a Hurricane in our office for one-off cleanings still, but the bulk of our PC cleaning is done by DataVacs in the field now. I will be very honest and say that we have purchased one DataVac for each full time tech on our staff, and I am close to purchasing an office DataVac so we can replace the Hurricane (as it doesn’t see much usage, as we have been spoiled by the DataVac as of late).

The DataVac in action on a customer PC at our office. It does have a cord which reduces mobility, but makes up for this limitation by providing a much shorter, and more powerful, cleaning experience compared to compressed air.

The device comes with a few different nozzle options, but to be honest, the one we use nearly weekly in the field is the cone with the thicker neck. This seems to be the perfect nozzle for clearing large amounts of computer dust out of systems in a fast manner. We don’t even take it off when it goes into our toolbags; we leave the nozzle on, and merely use a cable tie or rubber band to keep the cord tidy.

There is a power button the DataVac which controls operation, either on or off, with no other options. Very simple but it doesn’t need anything more. The DataVac also has nice rubber feet you can stand it on, which is better than placing its otherwise full-metal body onto wood furniture or flooring at customer sites.

One thing you should know is that the intake area of the DataVac at the bottom of the unit WILL get full of dust, and to a greater extent the more you are dusting in tight areas with poor ventilation. This is because you guessed it: that same dust you are blowing out of machines is just being sucked back into the unit. I was worried that this was a bad thing at first, but there is a very nice dust filter that covers the intake which you merely need to clean on a consistent basis. I tend to check it before any dusting I handle, and for bad dustings, tend to wipe it clean every 2-3 minutes.

The unit works off wall power which means it doesn’t have to be shut off to recharge, and it has a consistent strong airflow. We can usually dust out a full PC in perhaps 30-45 seconds, and servers with more intricate crevices in about 1-2 minutes. The device works wonders on dusty routers, network gear, racks, and many other IT items too.

I’m so darn impressed by the device that we even gave the unit a public recommendation to residential clients who visited us for a local library training covering basic computer maintenance in the home. Is it likely that every home client should buy a DataVac or even needs one? Wishful thinking, but a technician can only hope.

This unit has two downsides as I mentioned earlier, but they are more symptoms of the benefits than pure negatives. The unit does have some heft compared to a Hurricane, as it is built near fully out of metal except for a plastic handle and rubber feet. And second, having to find a place to plug in for power can be a challenge sometimes. But the cord is long enough where you can usually plug into a wall outlet and get some decent extension to where your equipment sits.

If that fails, carrying a short extension cord isn’t a bad idea for situations where you know power may be a problem.

Is there anything about the DataVac which would lead me to not recommend it? Absolutely not. While I wouldn’t give it a perfect rating, as I feel the handle on the device could be slightly more comfortable when used for long periods of time (my hand hurts for some reason; not sure why that is) but otherwise, it’s a dream come true.

The above PC was downright filthy when we got it into the office. This photo shows just how clean the DataVac got it – to the point where the original stickers inside the case shimmer.

Life after canned air? It does exist, and it’s called a DataVac. You can check out the near 1250 reviews on Amazon giving the product an average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5. And that’s the exact rating I would give this puppy. If it were only for a more comfortable handle, it would have zero complaints from me. But for what it’s built to do, it does darn well.

We purchased all of our DataVacs outright on the web, so do not think for a moment that this review was influenced by the manufacturer of the product. My colleague Ted (shown in the above photo actually) turned me onto the product, and we haven’t looked back since. I wanted to share our thoughts about this excellent product since I know many computer repair techs are STILL shelling out money on wasteful canned air. Stop the insanity and grab yourself a DataVac.

Do you use a DataVac? What do you like or dislike about it? Let us know in the comments area below! It would be nice to hear from other technicians about their choices of cleaning products, whether it be DataVac or Hurricane or something else.