Metro Vacuum MDV-1BA DataVac Pro 4.5-AMP Computer Vac/Blower

I was trying to decide between the Metro Vac ED-500 duster or this all-in-one duster / vacuum. I really wanted something that did both so I decided to give the DataVac Pro a try. I saw some great reviews, and some not-so-great reviews so I was a little worried. I have to say, I love this product! The vacuum part is what you would expect, and does as good of a job as a regular upright vacuum with a hose. The vacuum comes with a hose, regular sized brush, crevice tool, pinpoint cleaner, and a micro cleaning kit consisting of a micro bursh, crevice tool, and flexible (somewhat) straw attachment. Everything seems to be of good quality and is made in the U.S.A. the canister is metal and the vacuum comes with 5 extra bags + the one already installed. There is no set-up out of the box, just plug it in and go.This product seems to be geared towards people in the computer or electronics repair field. As a computer technician here are my thoughts: First , the kind of dust you find in a computer cannot be easily vacuumed up by any vacuum cleaner (except for dust bunnies). the dust is so fine and almost seems electro-statically charged to the surfaces. That said, I like to vacuum up as much as I can before I blow the rest out. the blower works by attaching the hose to the opposite end of the vacuum. I would say the blower is probably more powerful than a can of air but maybe not as powerful as the ED-500 although I don't know for sure because I've never tried the ED-500. What I can say is that the blower is *MORE* than powerful enough to get the job done. I saw some impressive videos with the ED-500 blowing literally "clouds" of dust from computers. This blower does the same. I blew out a computer I thought was pretty clean and I got the same "clouds" of dust out of it (don't do this indoors)One thing I wanted to mention: I see a lot of videos where people blow out power supplies CPU fans, etc. In these videos you can always hear the fan spinning as air is blown at it. Yes, it sounds really cool, but this is very bad for the fan. What happens is the air is strong enough to over-rev the bearings in the fan and it will lead to premature failure of the fan or even immediate failure (i.e. your fan will start making strange noises right after you are done cleaning it) The proper way to clean a cpu fan, power supply fan, or anything else with a fan is to stick a plastic zip-tie, straw, or any other straight piece of plastic in the blades to block them from spinning while you blow the fan clean. Just don't forget to remove the zip-tie when you are done and don't use any metal objects, especially in the power supply. Even with the computer unplugged there are still dangerous voltages in power supplies.

This little workhorse is just the ticket.I had been watching dust bunnies collect for quite some time - not being willing to go through all the trouble of digging into the closet and hooking up my Rainbow Vacuum Cleaner to do what I should have been doing regularly, but have been very deficient in doing.I will never get rid of my Rainbow (I used to sell them) because it is far and away the best all-around vacuum cleaner one could possess for the various jobs you need a vacuum cleaner for, but it is admittedly a lot of trouble.And, although I have long owned a Hoover upright, it is definitely "old school," and a dinosaur, and weighs a ton, and since I know about bag-type cleaners, I know that going through the motions of cleaning won't necessarily get much in the way of real cleaning done, anyway.But that still leaves me neck-deep in dust bunnies, unless I take some action to do away with them, and so I have recently taken the bull by the horns and bought not one, but two vacuum cleaners:The first is a little light, upright bagless Dirt Devil, and I must say it dispatches the dirt pretty quickly and easily (which is what we're after, after all - isn't it?)It has an attached hose, which I realize is next to totally worthless, and so I know I will never actually use it to try to clean, but it does a wonderful, quick and easy job on the floor.Then, to round out the picture - again, quickly and easily - (which is all a definite plus) I've now got this marvelous little canister, which I can hang around my neck by the carrying strap, which leaves one hand free to hold the hose and the brush, and the other to hold the machine by the handle, and walk around and dispatch dust bunnies left and right, and do the dusting, which completes the cleaning job I have been needing to do, and which I now am equipped to do on a regular basis, so as to not become waist-deep in dust bunnies ever again.Then, as if that weren't enough, all I have to do is put the hose on the other end, and put the pin-point attachment on it, and I can blow out my computer, and keep it up to snuff, all perky and quick, so that I have a very alert and responsive computer, which, again, is what we all want, right?

Other reviews say it all, its an extremely powerful little tool. Unfortunately that's also part of the issue, it can be too powerful for many tasks or even for its own good. It blows hard enough to potentially cause damage at close distances, most notably to laptop heatsinks. It also gets extremely hot extremely quickly, though you should have have time to finish a computer or two before it becomes dangerously hot.At $90 I find it hard to excuse a lack of basic features, such as 2 speeds or overheat protection. Its one thing to be capable of extremely powerful bursts before shutting down or going into a "limp mode", but its quite another to get so hot it can cause burns or damage in short order.The build quality is somewhat suspect for a $90 product. The tube shape is slightly deformed, seemingly by the motor mount being slightly too large. Much of the air leaks out the sides, which is solvable with electrical tape and massively boosts the nozzle pressure, however it also causes the motor to overheat even faster. The screw holes on the end cap also came either stripped or too large. The screws aren't quite loose enough to fall out on their out, but they wiggle around and can be pulled out with relative ease.All that said though, ultimately it's still good at what it does and I already own it, so I'll be using it for the foreseeable future. However it's a difficult product to recommend, given the alternatives.