How Often Should You Clean Your Laptop?

Web developers, video editors, graphics designers, and other professionals who spend hours on their projects often wonder, “How often should I clean my laptop?” In this detailed guide, we will provide a comprehensive answer to this question and demonstrate the importance of keeping your equipment immaculate to save money on maintenance and avoid pricey replacements. Read on to discover how to keep air vents, heatsinks, and fans free of dust to prevent device malfunction and ensure your laptop delivers powerful performance. 

Main Reasons to Clean a Laptop

Even though the frame of your laptop may seem virtually unchanged, its surface will collect dirt that will be barely noticeable at first. You might avoid cleaning the laptop and believe that it’s in a pristine state. However, a failure to clean it internally and externally may result in hardware malfunction. Here are the main reasons to keep your laptop perfectly clean:

• Optimized performance: Dirt and debris affect a laptop’s components and result in frequent malfunctioning. This might disrupt your routine operations and make it impossible to complete a project within a set deadline.
• Prolonged lifespan: Cleaning a laptop regularly is the only way to prevent significant damage and avoid frequent replacements that might put a strain on your budget.
• Improved hygiene: A user must clean the keyboard and touchpad regularly to prevent germs and bacteria from building up. This helps achieve better health outcomes.
• Better battery life: When using a laptop at its maximum capacity, it may be challenging to keep its hardware cool, which can lead to a quick battery drain. However, keeping fans clean can improve a battery’s life.

A clean laptop delivers faster performance and does not have any stuck keys. Maintaining it immaculate could save a person a lot of money in refurbishments. Another reason to clean a laptop is to give it a professional feel and make the typing experience more enjoyable.

How Often Should I Thoroughly Clean My Laptop?

Professionals who provide maintenance and repair services emphasize that specialists who use their laptops for long hours must keep the laptop’s exterior perfectly clean all the time. However, this task might be challenging to achieve unless a person remains in a sterile environment. Today, many experts from various spheres use a computer. Whether you need to solve coding, photo editing, and UX design tasks, you will have to spend hours in front of your laptop trying to achieve the set objectives.

When working from home, many specialists may be tempted to have a coffee or lunch without interrupting their routine. It may result in unfortunate accidents and spills that inevitably make your laptop look dirty. However, even if you exhibit extreme caution, protecting the internal components and exterior from getting soiled is impossible.

A general recommendation is to clean a laptop once a quarter. Nonetheless, you must perform this task more regularly to avoid malfunction and potential damage. While many people can disassemble a laptop, it may be safer to outsource this task to experienced professionals.

By cleaning your laptop thoroughly, you can improve its performance and lifespan. Moreover, this will allow you to remove bacteria and fungi contaminating its surface. This way, you can avoid exposing your health to potential risks and prevent performance issues from disrupting your processes and causing delays.

Establishing a cleaning routine is the smartest thing to do. It will help you spend less valuable resources on cleaning and make it easier to maintain your laptop in a well-functioning state. The first thing you should do is to learn what steps to take to clean the inside and outside of your laptop carefully.

How Often Is It Necessary to Clean the Inside of a Laptop?

A laptop owner should consider the environment where a laptop is used when choosing the right maintenance strategy and right accessories. If you use a laptop in a room with a carpeted floor, you might start hearing some noise due to the issues with its fans as it will accumulate a lot of dirt. Similarly, those who prefer to use a laptop outdoors will have to adopt a responsible approach to cleaning it every 30 days or so.

Users who smoke a lot may be surprised to discover that the inside of their laptop has become sticky. In this case, they may need to take extra steps to keep the laptop clean. However, if the room is regularly aired out and the laptop is on a table, it will not require frequent maintenance.

Maintaining the right temperature requires changing the thermal compounds of basic setups at least once a year. However, if you have a powerful gaming laptop, it’s recommended that you perform this task every 6 months to ensure the seamless functioning of the whole system.

Casual users do not need to put a lot of thought into regular maintenance. They can also save money on repairs, as their laptops are likely to serve them for a long time. However, those who write program code or edit pro-grade video content must take the required steps to ensure that their laptop’s CPU remains well-functioning. 

It’s advisable to make it a habit to clean a laptop at the beginning of every season. This strategy allows users to remember when a maintenance session is due.

How Often Should You Clean the Outside of Your Laptop?

Canyon has a series of sprays, wipes for laptops, computers and screens

Creative professionals and gamers who often use their laptops must clean the outside surfaces regularly. Otherwise, they may collect a lot of bacteria and viruses. While surface contamination is typically difficult to notice, it might have severe consequences for a person’s health.

Failing to clean the outside surface thoroughly annually might worsen a laptop’s condition and affect its owner’s physical well-being. To prevent it from happening, you should clean the surfaces you touch every day. It’s especially important for those who stay in environments that aren’t sufficiently clean. In some cases, it could be a smart idea to clean a laptop every quarter to prevent the spread of viruses and bacteria.

What Do I Need to Clean My Laptop?

Those who ask, “How often should you clean your laptop?” should understand that the answer often depends on how they use it. If they utilize a laptop regularly, it’s necessary to prepare themselves thoroughly for the cleaning procedure. There is no need to purchase any costly equipment and materials to perform routine cleaning. However, it’s highly recommended to buy the following things to streamline the process and achieve better results:

• A can of compressed air;
• Isopropyl alcohol;
• A piece of lint-free microfiber cloth.

Cleaning inside the laptop is a more challenging task. It necessitates purchasing special tools or contacting a team of professionals specializing in disassembling and cleaning laptops. Unless you already have some prior experience, it’s better not to take your laptop apart without any supervision. If you accidentally damage it, you won’t be able to avoid costly replacements.

Those who want to disassemble a laptop by themselves will need to purchase a tool kit and watch video tutorials to discover more about their model and gain some confidence before trying to perform the task. As every model is different, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for cleaning its interior. However, one might need to follow some useful tips to achieve better results:

• Use a can of compressed air to perform maintenance. You don’t need to wipe every surface; spraying air into vents for a few seconds will suffice to clean them and remove debris. Avoid using a vacuum, as it may damage your laptop.
• Take notes when watching deep clean tutorials: Preparing sufficiently will help you disassemble your laptop without any issues to reach the motherboard, fans, and heatsinks without damaging them.
• Use alcohol and a microfiber cloth: It’s hardly a smart idea to use paper towels, as you won’t be able to avoid lint. After moistening the cloth, wipe the keyboard to remove bacterial contamination. Do not use too strong alcohol, as it might damage the keycaps, and you will need to replace them. If you have an LCD screen, use water instead of alcohol.
• Clean the screen only after wiping down the laptop: This will allow you to spend less time on cleaning. You may need to use a paintbrush to remove dirt from the corners.

If you aren’t sure your skills are up to the task, find an electronics shop or a repair service nearby. Such businesses often charge an affordable fee, which allows their clients to avoid risks.

Remember that when the cooling mechanism of your laptop gets damaged, it might cause overheating and result in performance issues. This is why it’s crucial to clean laptop fan and other components to prolong a model’s lifespan.

Final Thoughts

Those who ask, “How often should I clean my laptop?” should consider how often they use their model and whether their environment is sufficiently sterile. People who use laptops for job-related tasks spend hours in front of the screen and use their keyboards regularly. Gamers should also be aware of possible bacteria contamination and malfunctioning issues caused by dirt. This is why every person who utilizes a laptop regularly should clean it thoroughly every quarter or two. By establishing a cleaning schedule, you can extend your laptop’s lifespan and enhance its performance. As replacing a laptop is costly and time-consuming, it’s better to use the newly acquired knowledge to clean your laptop and ensure it serves you longer.