Computers problems due to wood stove smoke and ash?

We have five Macs, two or more of them running quite a bit. We have three wood-burning stoves. We do get a lot of dust, though how much of it is from stoves and how much from six golden retrievers and the windy dusty area in which we live, I don't know.

I keep the computers covered with thin plastic sheeting that I drape across the desk when not in use. I blow out all computer stuff, keyboards, monitors, etc., everything, now and then. We also have three air cleaners running 24/7. As I said, though, even without the stoves, we have a major dust problem.

I can point to no computer/electronics problems caused by dust. This is over maybe 25 years.

So, while caution and attention is certainly called for, we have not experienced any problems. Dogs give off spectacular amounts of dust, witness one shaking or scratching in a beam of sunlight coming in the window, clouds of dust come off their coats. Just part of having dogs..... A friend of ours in this area who has no animals and no wood stoves has a serious dust "problem" in her house, too. Not quite as serious as ours, but the winds and dry [20% humidity] typical here lead to dusty environment.

obie1kanobe said:

Several years ago I heard that an indoor wood stove can cause computer breakdowns. Something to do with acidic smoke and ash causing corrosion of socketed parts. I can't find anything on the topic which leads me to believe it's not a real problem.
Has anyone had computer hardware problems that have been reasonably blamed on a wood stove or fireplace?
Thanks

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I'd worry more about acidic smoke and ash being a health problem... ta he!! with the 'puter.

Have you tried looking for something that says it IS a real problem with computers? I could be wrong but most people heating with wood have a little extra dust to deal with. To me that just means ya go after the computer with the vacuum a little more often.

nO we havn"t had an y problems yet...

Dakotas Dad said:

nO we havn"t had an y problems yet...

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Smart aleck. :lol:

Lots of dust in this house, but I think it's more caused by all the dogs bringing in stuff from outside (Well, me and the wife too).
I'm sure there's a lot of crud built up inside the computer (I've seen it, not pretty), so I just clean out every once in a while.
My nephew called a couple days ago saying his laptop had been shutting down randomly and more frequently lately. I told him to check the underside for clogged air ducts. Blow some compressed air, and call me back if it doesn't help. No calls since then.
It was an overheating situation, almost guaranteed. Nothing a little maintenance won't take care of.
By the time you have a major problem, it'll be obsolete anyway.

BeGreen said:

If this was true, how would we all be hanging out here on hearth.com?

I have to vacuum out dust and cat hairs, but never related to anything from the stove. If I was getting that degree of ash and smoke in the house, I'd be more concerned about my personal health than the computer's.

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Totally agree Green. I know my stove produces some airborn ash when the doors open but I have never seen anything that serious that it would affect my PC.

Welcome to the forum obie1kanobe. You probably by now have gotten the idea that we are not concerned about the computers and wood stoves. I sit right now less than 10' from the stove and love the heat.

I used to work as a computer technician.

I once received a laptop that was not working properly. I opened it up to see that is was COMPLETELY FULL OF ASH. Every single component was covered. The owner used to have his ashtray right beside the air intake for the cooling fan and smoked like a chimney. He had not cleaned it out with compressed air in approximately 3 years.

The technical issues he was having were unrelated corrosion of components: it was due to the lack of air circulating which kept the items cool.

With my little experience, I believe this myth is busted.

Andrew

EatenByLimestone said:

If you find an issue, open it up and use compressed air to clean it off.

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Please don't use compressed air - that just blows particles deeper into the crevices. Use a vacuum. I use a fine-bristled paintbrush to loosen up material that the vac doesn't take up by itself.

New Mexico has more airborn dust than most places, so I have to do this twice a year to keep things running smoothly. When any of my systems start acting up, vac'ing them out solves the problem 99% of the time.

Just thought I'd mention that smoke rises.

Yeah, but smoke isn't the problem...