AirDuster vs DustOff 400ml Cans of Air -BlowOff

Many of us use cans of air, be it to dust off areas of the workbench, or desk, clean out computers, laptops, especially those fans, but more importantly as a watchmaker, one is quite dependant on the stuff. Cleaning out watch cases, dusting off dials, ensuring a watch is completely dust free before re-casing the movement.

It starts to get expensive too, here in Finland, its almost €15 euros a can of this 400ml DustOff, and as you can imagine, getting through 30+ per year, the costs stack up. This is the sole reason I will be going the diver scuba tank route, the test oxygen tanks can be found around on eBay etc, and a full tank will last around 18 months, with refills only €17 euros per year, yes, I found an actual dive shop in Kuopio, Finland. Run a pressure gauge, and level gauge, and you are all set. Of course with a pipe and trigger for your actual use too.

Anyhow, back to the purpose of my post, I have been using the 400ml DustOff for the last couple of years now, and as mentioned I will be going the Scuba tank route later this year, but in the meantime, I searched for a viable alternative until then, and found an eBay seller selling 6 x 400ml cans of air, brand new for the same it costs me for just one can, this price with DHL shipping came to €30 euros, bargain right?

Well, er, nope, the first thing I noticed was when the actual DHL package arrived today, I thought to myself, this is a bit light, and then when I proceeded to open the box, although there were indeed six of these 400ml cans of air, each one felt half empty, so decided to actually weigh, and compare one of these 400ml AirDuster cans against a new full can of 400ml DustOff.

First up, the 400ml AirDuster, weighing in at just 288.3grams

Onto the 400ml DustOff, which was indeed heavier at 548.3grams, 50% heavier than the AirDuster.

So what does this exactly mean? I am not one for assumption, we all know that the mother of all *** ups is based on this, but in this case, I can only imagine, someone is skimming profits off the top of these somewhere down the line. The eBay seller may well be innocent in all this, or they could of purchased in bulk, unfinished/processed cans of air at a major discount. Who knows. Certainly begs the question, and I will certainly not be buying anymore of these AirDuster cans, thats for sure.