Ionic breeze air cleaner and computer parts?

[Bires]

I was thinking about picking up the Sharper Image Ionic Breeze Quadra, but I'm a little concerned with the ionically-charged air circulating in my computer.

Does anyone have experiences with the Ionic breeze, with computers or without?

[Tommy Boomfiger]

im not sure if ionically charged air would affect anything. air isnt real conductive, but if a computer part made contact with one of the charging plates, that would probably fry it. this is all speculation as i havent had any experience with this stuff

[coleslaw]

Actually, ionized air is beneficial to electical components because the ions balance any build up of electrostatic charges. Have no fear! :)

[Markel]

Some of the early negative ion generators could lead to more electrostically charged air (and thus perhaps a greater risk of esd if you were working on your computer). But I think the later ones (probably like the ionic breeze) use pulses of ion output, then a collection cycle (to attract the stuff back onto a collector).

But as slaw said, all ionization isn't bad. I've been inside semiconductor cleanrooms where they have ion generators running.

[Bires]

Good to know. Thanks guys.

[coleslaw]

Originally posted by Markel
But as slaw said, all ionization isn't bad. I've been inside semiconductor cleanrooms where they have ion generators running. Yup, we use ionizer fans at work to cut back on ESD problems. :)