Deep Cleaning the air assist fan

While I’ve always given the air assist fan a good cleaning frequently, it didn’t seem to be blowing as well as it used to, so I thought I’d given it a thorough going over. Here are the steps for doing it your self.

  1. Remove the print head from the GF in the usual way.

  2. Unscrew the scoop from the fan head. This takes the usual 2mm hex allen key

The scoop itself is in two parts, so separate them out to clean as well

What I found on mine though was a lot of compacted gunk caught between the fan and the scoop. This need a dental tool to break down, then did a clean with pipe cleaner and simply green.

After I had scrubbed it out dry first, this was the pile of gunk that I got out.

You can imagine how compacted it was in there.

I don’t normally use simply green, but the whole thing looked really clogged and scraping it and brushing it wasn’t really doing the job. I’m a bit wary about putting water based things on an electric fan but it was all I had that would work. I dried it quickly and then gave it a really good squirt of electric contact cleaner and lubricant.

Finally, screw the scoop back on again, making sure you put it and the fan on the right way round (not that I have ever put it on backwards or anything).

The fan goes on so the label of the fan is against the scoop.

Then do the bloody knuckles and 25 minutes of swearing getting the print head cable back on the machine again.

Hope this helps

Edited to correct name of fan from Print Head to Air Assist

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Would it have been worth $20-ish to you not to have to do all that?

Replace the fan, tahdah.

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Took about 10 minutes tops to do the full fan clean.

UK price for the fan you suggest is £60 - about $75!

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Oh nice, didn’t know Amazon had the replacement for air assist. Saved this.

Nice job!

I bought one if these but the connector is the wrong size/. I am going to hold on to it just in case I get in an emergency. I can always clip the wires and solder in The old connector, but not ready to do that yet. Has anyone found one with the right size 4 prong connector?

You could also de-pin the old connector and swap it onto the new fan…