Question Will removing dust filters affect laptop temperatures?

[BrickStation]

Greetings, I want to remove some plastic mesh on the lower cover of my Lenovo E560 that I assume are dust filters for the fan and such. I was interested in them because I'd like to gain more airflow for more cooling, but don't need to if the performance is insignificant.

Will removing the aforementioned filter have any effect on temperatures? Has anyone else tried something similar for a laptop?

If it does work, I'm only removing the filter that is directly under the blower fan so that more air can pass through unhindered. I realize that this machine is not a gaming laptop and the idea might be as silly as water-cooling your notebook's heatsink. Let me know your thoughts.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Blowing the dust out of a clogged filter will have an effect on the cooling performance. Removing the filter is not likely to have a significant effect on it, and it will probably have a negative effect on it because now you are going to see significantly more dust accumulate inside on places where that dust was unlikely to have reached before. The bottom line really is that the type of fans that are found in laptops don't move a significant enough amount of air that this type of grill or "filter" is going to actually be a restriction if it's a standard configuration.

I am however interested in seeing what you believe to be dust filters that are removable because I have yet to see removable dust filters on any laptop or netbook. Can you post a pic of what you are talking about?

How to PROPERLY post images on the Tom's hardware forum​

 

[BrickStation]

Yes, I understand. I didn't see any difference in temps when I tested my laptop upside down, and given your thoughts I suppose that removing this plastic mesh would not warrant any benefit either. Here is that photo and the position of the blower is highlighted in red:

Other vents left of the red square are exhaust, below the red square are passive vents for RAM or alternate flow for the fan.

Whatever plastic mesh is set into the paint here is probably not removable and suitably pasted in there, wouldn't stop me from trying though if it did anything. Also, I should mention that this photo is from a teardown video, I don't have my laptop broken down to reference to.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Those aren't "filters". Those are simply physical "grills" intended to make sure things that could damage the parts beneath/above, don't get in there. Removing them would be a bad idea and would be highly unlikely to offer any benefits. Better would be to just make sure you blow it out periodically with compressed air from a compressor or can. Just be sure not to "frost" components. Brief, intermittent blasts work best. Sustained compressed airflow tends to create frost, which is water, and is undesirable.

 

[BrickStation]

Yes, I agree that they are not exactly a dust filter. I don't worry too much about debris or dust, however, Thinkpads need to be able to go into any environment and keep working.

Anyway, since removing it won't provide any benefit to airflow, I think I'll just leave it alone and keep it clean. Thanks for your replies.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I can tell you that I have an HP Envy m6 and I had some thermal issues with it not long after I got it. I took it completely apart, assuming it had a bad paste job from the factory or that something was blocking airflow. Nothing was. Put new paste. No improvement. Decided to mod the chassis just like you are talking about except that the grills were part of it so used a dremel to open it up after taking it apart again. Had zero effect on cooling. It was simply a bad design from the factory and the fact is that they just don't provide sufficient cooling for some models of CPU in these tight quarters. That is all there is to it.

 

[BrickStation]

Indeed, I've already done some new paste and a recent clean, so I think removing a few millimeters of plastic isn't the best solution to my problem. I suspect I would get the same result if I tried the same thing as you've done.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I agree with you 100%.