

I have a favorite tool that I use to keep an eye on internal temperatures throughout my 27-inch Retina 5K iMac - iStat Menus. One telltale sign that you might need to get the dust out of your Mac is that the internal fan will frequently spin-up, even when the computer is not under a heavy CPU load. (Temperature and fan speed readings from iStat Menus) At this time, the only Macs that can really receive a good cleaning at home or office are the Mac Pro (both pre- and post-2013 models) and the Mac mini.

iFixit, which tears down new models in order to determine repairability and components used in each Mac, gave the new MBP a 1 out of 10 score for repairability. Take one of the new 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar models, for example. Where many old Macs could be opened by loosening a few screws or opening a “hatch”, today’s designs aren’t meant to be user accessible.
#Should my mac air have a cleaner? how to#
Today we’ll look at what Macs can be cleaned and how to clean them to prevent a dust buildup, and also talk about external cleaning that can and should be done.Īpple’s Mac designs are becoming more tightly sealed and less amenable to cleaning. Macs with internal fans for cooling have a tendency to pull in tiny dust particles which can then settle on internal components, eventually creating a “blanket” that can heat up those components and cause them to fail. But there are still members of the Mac family that can be defeated by a common foe - dust. Our Macs are remarkably reliable and are evolving to be even more reliable as moving parts like fans and hard disk drives are replaced with passive cooling systems and solid state drives.
