Keeping your tower fan clean is vital if you want it to work well and to last for a long time but knowing how to clean tower fans doesn’t seem very straightforward at first. Fortunately, the whole process is not too complicated and every modern tower fan is an easy to clean tower fan if you do it often enough and don’t let it gather too much dust and debris.
So, here’s how to clean a tower fan without taking it apart every time:
- Turn off and unplug the fan. Even if you’re only going to clean the exterior of the fan doesn’t only prevent accidents it also stops the fan from sucking in any more dust while you work.
- Use a dust brush or a vacuum brush attachment to clean the fan’s grill. Pay extra attention to the vents as that’s where the air enters and exits the fan. Whatever tool you use, make sure it’s soft-bristled as you don’t want to scratch the vents or surface of the fan.
- Blow compressed into the fan. You can get a compressed air blower from any office supply or home improvement store. All you need to do is aim the nozzle into the fan through any of its vents.
- Turn the fan back on to blow away any of the leftover dust that’s been dislodged but is still inside the fan. You can use a vacuum over the exit vents of your fan while it works to collect the dust that’s coming out of it.
- After that, just clean the exterior of the fan with a damp cloth.
If your fan still isn’t working properly after this routine cleaning or is still making a noise, you’ll have to open it up. Here’s a quick rundown for how to do that:
- Turn off and unplug the fan.
- Remove the screws that hold the fan’s casting in place. These will be 2 or 4 and will usually be above the vents.
- Use a flat-head screwdriver to separate the casting’s two halves. If you’ve removed all the screws this shouldn’t require too much strength but be careful not to scratch the casting.
- Slid the front panel up and away from the body of the fan.
- Spray compressed air directly into the now exposed fan blades to dislodge any dirt, dust, and debris. You don’t need to remove the blades themselves but it will likely be easier if you lay the tower fan laying to its side.
- Run the blades with a vacuum brush too.
- Use the vacuum’s hose attachment to collect any loose dust.
- Spray a lubricant or WD-40 on the fan’s bearings – the silver or black rings on the ends of the fan blade column. If your fan was too noisy, they were likely the reason.
- Reinstall all of the fan’s components in the correct order and plug it back in. If it’s still out of order you’ve either skipped something or you’ll need to get the fan to a technician.
