Should I filter the fan air going into iMac?

[Mork]

I have a 2019 iMac and AFAIK, Apple does not have any kind of screen to filter out particulate matter.

I'm therefore wondering if it's a good idea to maybe take a piece of something like cheese cloth and attach it over the fan intake vents with some scotch tape.

Anyone worried about this issue?

Suggestions welcome of course! 🙂

Thanks,

 

[RickGrimes]

Wow Just when you think you’ve heard it all.

 

[MacDawg]

If it makes you feel better, then do it
However, putting anything over the air intake will inhibit the air flow (even if slightly) and could cause your fans to be less effective

 

[Mork]

I just remember reading something about this a while back and wanted to see what people thought. If the intake air isn't filtered, conductive dust and other airborne particulates could accumulate on the motherboard and, over time, cause problems. I'm not saying it's a huge deal. In fact, I'm not asserting anything. Just interested to hear what others have to say.

Thanks.

 

[Moonjumper]

The dust is potentially an issue, I have certainly encountered it on desktop towers. But a sealed iMac means you cannot check, but you cannot do anything about it, so prevention would be ideal. However, any filtering will have a significant effect on cooling, which is much more likely to lead to problems.

 

[DeltaMac]

This question has come up before, and in fact, there is a class action lawsuit about that.
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/11/28/apple-macbook-imac-dust-filter-lawsuit/
You would need to discover if that is relevant to you...

I do agree that you would more likely cause problems with a make-shift air "filter" by impeding air flow.
(Less air, so the MacBook Pro fan runs faster (gets hotter, more quickly), so tries to pull more air in, so more dust accumulates than without the airflow restriction. It's a vicious circle then.

You have a cooling vent on the back of the iMac. Check that once or twice a year. It can accumulate pet hair, other kinds of "fluff". A couple of brushes from the outside, or even a squirt or two from a can-o-air will clear out that entrance. No real need for full time filtration. If you know that your area is pretty dusty (and I have seen some of those), you would just check those air intakes more often.

 

[Mork]

The dust is potentially an issue, I have certainly encountered it on desktop towers. But a sealed iMac means you cannot check, but you cannot do anything about it, so prevention would be ideal. However, any filtering will have a significant effect on cooling, which is much more likely to lead to problems.

Yes, that's a good point. Thanks,
[doublepost=1561216469][/doublepost]

This question has come up before, and in fact, there is a class action lawsuit about that.
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/11/28/apple-macbook-imac-dust-filter-lawsuit/
You would need to discover if that is relevant to you...

I do agree that you would more likely cause problems with a make-shift air "filter" by impeding air flow.
(Less air, so the MacBook Pro fan runs faster (gets hotter, more quickly), so tries to pull more air in, so more dust accumulates than without the airflow restriction. It's a vicious circle then.

You have a cooling vent on the back of the iMac. Check that once or twice a year. It can accumulate pet hair, other kinds of "fluff". A couple of brushes from the outside, or even a squirt or two from a can-o-air will clear out that entrance. No real need for full time filtration. If you know that your area is pretty dusty (and I have seen some of those), you would just check those air intakes more often.

Thanks. Yes, that was the article I read. I appreciate you finding and posting a link to it. 🙂

Based on your informative reply, I just set a twice-a-year reminder to check the fan intake as, yes, my cat likes to sleep on my desk when I'm working sometimes...

Appreciate the good info.

Thank you.

 

[mrvo]

Get a roll of DustEnd G1 or similar low resistance mesh material, cut to a long strip the width of the bottom air vents, get a few tiny magnets to attach the filter to the bottom of the iMac.

DustEnd G1 has adhesive, but the iMac is so thin, I doubt it’d adhere well.

Btw the rear is exhaust, the bottom is intake.

 

[Mork]

Get a roll of DustEnd G1 or similar low resistance mesh material, cut to a long strip the width of the bottom air vents, get a few tiny magnets to attach the filter to the bottom of the iMac.

DustEnd G1 has adhesive, but the iMac is so thin, I doubt it’d adhere well.

Btw the rear is exhaust, the bottom is intake.

Great idea. Thanks!

 

[mrvo]

Great idea. Thanks!

I honestly can see how simple it is for Apple to design like a similar slide in and out tray as part of the iMac industrial design, but oh well, thinness it is. It doesn’t hurt the down firing speakers anyway.

 

[Luis Ortega]

I just remember reading something about this a while back and wanted to see what people thought. If the intake air isn't filtered, conductive dust and other airborne particulates could accumulate on the motherboard and, over time, cause problems. I'm not saying it's a huge deal. In fact, I'm not asserting anything. Just interested to hear what others have to say.

Thanks.

Actually, if you've ever opened a pc case after a year of use, you will find it encrusted with dust everywhere, so it is a huge deal, and it is good housekeeping practice to periodically remove the accumulated dust from inside any working computer.
I can only imagine how clogged up a sealed imac will get over time, but covering the air intakes with filters is not the solution since it reduces the overall cooling airflow.
Maybe get a room air filter and place it near the imac so that it can intake cleaner air.

 

[mikehalloran]

I can only imagine how clogged up a sealed imac will get over time,

Not very. I’ve taken apart many over the years. You’d be surprised but this isn’t a problem.

OTOH, the cooling fins over the CPU in a Mac Pro get clogged and that causes major headaches in dusty climates.

but covering the air intakes with filters is not the solution since it reduces the overall cooling airflow.
Maybe get a room air filter and place it near the imac so that it can intake cleaner air.

That.

 

[mrvo]

I think those compact air purifiers like the the Philips gopure and Xiaomi car purifier don’t look too bad on the desk.

 

[ZipZap]

Wow Just when you think you’ve heard it all.

Why?

Its a known issue that causes screen discoloration. I can see that dust crap through the glass on my 2014 iMac and it pisses me off.

While cheese cloth is not attractive, filtering those vents is a good idea if it could be done.

 

[dimme]

I think ant type of filter over the vents is a no no. I did read on another post that in addition to occasionally vacuuming the vents on your iMac. Running your fans at the highest RPM's once in a while will also help to keep the inside clean. Sounds too easy!

 

[mmomega]

Don't and won't have a filter on any computer intake.

Tried them when it began becoming a thing several years ago and it was a no for me personally.

 

[BRXQP]

Been running thin foam filthers for years. Both with towers and my old DC7600. You can easily see when they are covered with dust and brush/vacuum them off. Just takes seconds.Therefore they don’t clog. Several times I opened them up after a year or more and there was only a very light coating of dust in side. I monitored the temperatures too and they never got too hot. Can’t recall the numbers anymore. I put filthers over every opening - not just the main intake. My main test of an air filter is to breath gently thru it and if no resistance it’s good to go. I taped them on.

 

[BRXQP]

I’d like to add something. Nothing I’ve ever read really delves into the actual cooling mechanism within the computer. The air flows over the components which are cooled by convection. There is a convective heat transfer coefficient between the components and the air.

So with no filter the components get coated by dust etc and that coefficient decreases hence the cooling decreases. Also the fans blades get coated and move the air less efficiently (slower). So the overall cooling efficiency is further diminished.

With an external filter the air is restricted some but it is clean air, the components do not get coated and the cooling efficiency decreases somewhat because there might be a tad less air flow but the cooling coefficient between the components and the air stays high and probably unchanged and the fan efficiency also stays high and so, therefore, does the overall cooling efficiency

As stated in my last post I’ve seen a year or more (with filthers) where the internal dust is negligible. So I conclude that an external filther does more good than harm or computing without a filther is potentially more harmful than with.

Next the internal fans especially in the power supply have struts and/or protective grills that are anything but aerodynamically clean. They interfere with the flow and create noise. I’ve removed those grills and struts (where possible) with no worse problem than the noise is decreased. I’ve also put rheostats on the fans to slow them down to a lower noise level. Ahhhhhhh. 🙂

Neither external filthers, removal of fan struts nor slowing the fans down has ever created a heating problem. I did monitor the heating.

I now have an iMac all-in-one and have only an external filther. I don’t dare open that puppy.

 

[sublunar]

There's no filter in the Mac Pro or the MacBook Pro either but the difference is it's possible to open them to clean the insides. The iMac is understandably different because they choose a PSU with exposed components - presumably in an effort to keep it thinner.

The Mac Pro from what I've seen may have more issues with noise than

I'd have liked the Mac mini - if it's meant to be a more professional product - to have been more accessible for adding RAM. I can live with sealed down internal storage and CPU but it doesn't appear to be that big of a deal to add RAM and do a spring clean. It's just that in that kind of a form factor the ability to unlock and slide out the motherboard out the back would have been great for dust removal and RAM access - particularly if you have a lot of them to do at once...

 

[mantler]

How about just keeping things clean in the area around where your computer lives (if that's an option?)
Where I used to work fixing macs, of our customers that brought in computers, you could tell a lot about their lifestyle based on what was inside their computer (pet hair, weed bits, dirt, etc.) I've probably opened over a thousand of them over the years, and the worst ones were those that spent time around:
People who smoked
Dirty work environments (like a bakery where the insides of the machine were literally choked with flour)
Otherwise a little bit of dust was normal and not much to be concerned about.

 

[mindquest]

Wha

I’d like to add something. Nothing I’ve ever read really delves into the actual cooling mechanism within the computer. The air flows over the components which are cooled by convection. There is a convective heat transfer coefficient between the components and the air.

So with no filter the components get coated by dust etc and that coefficient decreases hence the cooling decreases. Also the fans blades get coated and move the air less efficiently (slower). So the overall cooling efficiency is further diminished.

With an external filter the air is restricted some but it is clean air, the components do not get coated and the cooling efficiency decreases somewhat because there might be a tad less air flow but the cooling coefficient between the components and the air stays high and probably unchanged and the fan efficiency also stays high and so, therefore, does the overall cooling efficiency

As stated in my last post I’ve seen a year or more (with filthers) where the internal dust is negligible. So I conclude that an external filther does more good than harm or computing without a filther is potentially more harmful than with.

Next the internal fans especially in the power supply have struts and/or protective grills that are anything but aerodynamically clean. They interfere with the flow and create noise. I’ve removed those grills and struts (where possible) with no worse problem than the noise is decreased. I’ve also put rheostats on the fans to slow them down to a lower noise level. Ahhhhhhh. 🙂

Neither external filthers, removal of fan struts nor slowing the fans down has ever created a heating problem. I did monitor the heating.

I now have an iMac all-in-one and have only an external filther. I don’t dare open that puppy.

What type and brand of filter are you using? And how did you attach it? Do you have a pic to share?

 

[mindquest]

I have a 2019 iMac and AFAIK, Apple does not have any kind of screen to filter out particulate matter.

I'm therefore wondering if it's a good idea to maybe take a piece of something like cheese cloth and attach it over the fan intake vents with some scotch tape.

Anyone worried about this issue?

Suggestions welcome of course! 🙂

Thanks,

Did you ever put a filter on your iMac? Wondering how it worked out.

 

[mindquest]

If you are planning on keeping your iMac a long time I could see potential need for adding a filter. There are so many pros and cons but having looked inside my older iMacs over time the dust will accumulate.

Is anyone current adding a filter to the air intake?

 

[mbosse]

I have opened something like north of 15 of the slim 27" iMacs, some of them from 2012, and I am always amazed how clean they are inside compared to the 2009 - 2011 designs.

Magnus

 

[Gmouse]

I'm concerned about this, too, as I have a 2014 5K iMac, and...back in 2014 the average fan speed was ~900-1100 rpm, but today it's ~2900 rpm. I've seen pictures of disassembled iMacs showing the fan and other cooling components coated with thick dust and debris, so suspect the problem is real.

Is the air flow specifically from the bottom vents through the fan then out the back vent--or does air come in all vents? If the back vent is an outie...seems it wouldn't do much good to clean it to keep the inside clean.

Perhaps a thin strip of A/C vent foam filter across the bottom vents, cleaned weekly/monthly, not a bad thought?