3M 497AJM 120V Portable Electronic Vacuum Cleaner

If you're looking at this, you already know that compressed air just moves dust around. You want something that removes it from your computers and other electronics.For the past 10 years, I've been using whatever I had around to vacuum PC cases. Small car vacuums, the hose attachment on my Dyson ball, etc. To me, it was hard to justify spending hundreds of dollars on a regular vacuum for my house. So when I saw this product on Amazon, I skipped right past it. ~$200 for a vacuum that I'll only use on electronics?But the cheaper alternatives on Amazon had pretty bad reviews. So they didn't seem like an improvement over what I was currently doing.So I took the chance and bought the 3M. When it first arrived, I opened the case and thought "Oh no." I had the vacuum, but no hose, power plug, or attachments. For $200 I shouldn't have to buy these extra!But it turns out, it's not really advertised in any of the pictures I see posted (so I'll post one of my own after this review), that the lid of the case, when it opens, contains a door that's held shut by a small strip of velcro. You remove the slip, the door opens, and everything's there. This alone is starting to make the $200 worth it for me -- the convenience of the design. When closed, the vacuum is basically a closed toolbox with a handle on top. Everything you need is contained in there -- nothing can be forgotten, fall out, etc. This makes it great for transporting it in your car, or carrying it around your building. There's actually a little extra room in the top lid so you can stash a philips screwdriver in there too, or any other small items you feel you might need when using this.I plug it in and start cleaning, and I'm able to get every single bit of dust out of this computer. When using my other makeshift electronic vacuums, they had no problem getting the big chunks of dust that are highly visible and accessible. Vents, edges of the case, etc. were no problem. But they often left behind surface dust, so they still looked dirty. And some areas I couldn't get at all. The attachments you get on car vacuums and floor vacuums are meant to get in the corners of your house and car... but not in the corners of a small case.But this 3M vacuum has a flexible enough hose and plenty of attachments to not only get the stuff you originally got in there to get, but also all of the surface dust. It makes things look brand new when you're done with them. You can get in-between PCI cards and RAM modules, get the dust within the individual fins of heatsinks, off the blades of fans, etc. If you can see it, you can get it. About the noise... it's about the same as the vacuums I've used before. It's not something I'd use at night when people are sleeping, and the pets still run when I turn it on... but it's about as loud as a vacuum is expected to be and nothing more.I've only used it once, and that was my experience. Down the road I may update this review as I use it more often but it seems perfect. The only thing I'd change is to make the manual slightly thinner so it fits up in the lid instead of on the top of the white plastic box. It's not like I opened it before I started cleaning or anything, though. You can probably leave that out of the case if it bothers you too much.UPDATE: 5 years later, still 5 stars. I’m still using the original canister too. I used it maybe 10 times on other people’s computers while performing software diagnostics, and as a courtesy I always open them up and clean out the dust. No surprise to anyone, the people who typically pay to have a virus removed or their computer “tuned up” never (ever!) clean out their PC so the internals are often very nasty. But between cleaning their PC’s and my own (which doesn’t get too crazy as I keep it off the floor), this vacuum is still going strong after 5 years and I didn’t even replace the canister yet. If it died today I’d still re-purchase it but it gives no sign of giving up or getting remotely full.

I had the sweeper now, well over five years, and it has performed marvelously. Initially, I ordered a standard 3M sweeper, but the warehouse at Amazon sent me a forensic grade 3M sweeper. They called me about it the following day when I received it, and apologized, and was wondering if I still wanted the product at the other products price. I said yes. This was not a good deal, but rather, this was an excellent deal. Thank you, Amazon, I appreciate the quality of the service that was given to me in that a little mix up. But this sweeper has served distinctively and with distinction in taking care of chemistry analyzers at hospitals. Couldn't do my job without it. Thank you!

This is a workhorse electronics vacuum cleaner. I have had this for about 6 years now and no issues to report.

Nice and compact vacuum and the tools make it perfect for getting the fine dust out of your computer. Yes, it's noisy but so is every other vacuum.

Been wanting to get computer vacuum for my shop for some time but resisted do to the perceived static electricity risks. This vacuum addresses that area and has plenty of suction and attachments. This vacuum combined with a dust buster blower are the ideal computer chassis cleaning combination. I can only speculate on the savings we will accumulate by reducing the overheating issues causing failed mother boards, power supplies and memory as a result of clogged ventilation ducts on our computer chassis. Not to mention we will never have to purchase another singe can of compressed air. That in itself is a HUGE savings.Thanks for the great product, on time delivery and a price we could afford.

Don't buy this for use on furniture, the suction is too gentle. It's well reviewed for electronics, and probably is great for that.

The only reason I chose to buy this at this price was being backed up by a brand like 3M from which we have 4 more service vacuum machines working flawlessly for years. The received ones look similar but they are NOT 3M. They are branded SCS.Update 08/04/2020Turns out, SCS 479 Vacuum Cleaner is also being sold thru Amazon at 239 USD each. We got scammed 100 USD per unit.

I have a lot of stereo, video and computer equipment that collects a lot of dust. This vacuum is strong and the attachments, especially the hose are made out of material that is easy to use. What I mean by that is the hose is very flexible and stretches with ease. Not cheap plastic that will break and get hard over time. I am very pleased with the unit and I just wish I had purchased it sooner. As far as the noise level, you can't move air without making noise. If there was no noise, there would not be any movement of air. No air movement means no vacuum for sucking to clean.