The general consensus seems to be that you don't take a vacuum cleaner to your laptop vents and fans (or any PC components) because of static electricity. But how true this actually is? and how does that actually work?
 
My knowledge of how static electricity works is pretty basic so please forgive my ignorance. Some mention static build up on the nozzle which if you touch pc components it may shock said component. So does that mean if I keep my distance and make sure to never touch anything with the nozzle I should be good. Or does the vacuum cleaner somehow shoot out electrical charges in the air while sucking that may build up on your components and maybe cause a short? Can you ground the tip of the nozzle somehow like placing a metal piece near the end of the nozzle and ground it to get rid of static electricity and make it safe?
 
I know these may seem like silly questions to some but where I'm currently located it's pretty dusty and I wanna clean my laptop heatsinks/vents without opening the laptop. Compressed air doesn't seem like a great option inside a closed chassis cause it'll only move dust deep inside and around, so vacuuming makes the most sense to me if I wanna get the dust in-between the heatsink fins and inside the fans.

It would be better to simply use canned air to blow out the dust.  Just make sure the laptop is off when you do it.
 
That said, I have used a vacuum cleaner, but your mileage may vary.  If you are in a cool dry environment, the risk of static buildup is high.  But if your environment has high humidity, you have less chance for static buildup.  The main thing is to keep it a few inches away to keep the static away.  Also keep the laptop plugged in so that if there is a discharge, it is more likely to hit the ground plane and be conducted safely away to ground.
 
Also, although it makes a cool sound, avoid the temptation to cause the fans to spin at high speed while vacuuming / blowing.  Its not good for the fans.

I just got a gaming laptop for work and have the fans running maxed out about every night while I sleep as I have it folding. So I probably need to get it on some kind of dust cleaning routine but I also have seen a ton of conflicting info on how to do this. I just vacuum out my ps5 and go on about my day and laptops/pc's have to be high maintenance lol. 

Red_Infern013
I'm in a similar situation. I got an MSI GP66 with an rtx 3070 a few months ago and I need to clean those heatsinks (the cpu back heatsink blows considerablely less air than the other three so definitely needs a cleaning). I have no qualms with opening laptops, done it to my old one a dozen times to clean and change thermal paste and pads, but looking at the teardowns of the GP66 there's a very good chance that I'm breaking one or more of the plastic tabs while taking mine apart. 
 
If a vacuum is safe for a PS5 I don't see why it wouldn't for a laptop, maybe that's 1 point for the "it's ok to vacuum laptop" camp? :)

Haha while I agree, I believe the Ps5 has special dust sucking ports that I think are specifically isolated or grounded for this reason. That being said, I vacuumed out every port/gap/section I could find not just the special ones and nothing happened so as the kids say, yolo! Haha

I use one of these. Way better than canned air because it never runs out. https://www.amazon.com/Co...90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

I had a nasty experience this January around my birthday.
 
A dedusting was long due and decided to use the help of the vacuum as I did it a few times before.
 
I was thorough and after I was done, I powered my PC, ran for about 10-15 minutes in RDR2 and after that, it completely shut down, and I could not manage to power it back on.
 
With some troubleshooting I came to the conclusion that the Motherboard and CPU were both out of commission.
 
A few friends who have some advance computer knowledge than I do, say that it was unrelated to the dedusting, but I cant believe it was just a coincidence.
 
Anyway,  I will soon receive an order for this product: https://www.amazon.com/XPOWER-Airrow-Multi-Use-Electric-Computer/dp/B01BI4UQK0/ref=ex_alt_wg_d?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01BI4UQK0&psc=1&pd_rd_w=DDgzr&pf_rd_p=4e1b46a8-daf9-4433-b97e-d6df97cf3699&pf_rd_r=XBKWGNS9X40SW3Q61YNT&pd_rd_r=5b5b8cde-e48c-47b3-99d4-723224a9985d&pd_rd_wg=eTvzW but from Amazon DE
 
I found great reviews on it and its perfectly suited to my needs, it has a good blowing pressure on two steps of intensity.
 
Perhaps I can provide some feedback after I will use it.
 
As far as I know, its safer and more efficient using a blower instead of a vacuum.
 
 

Those amazon links sure have a lot of extra hex info
 
I just rub my cat on the plastic font panel and the dust just jump off  :-)
 

A vacuum cleaner can produce a lot of static, best not to risk it. Always blow, never suck.

I have the metrovac duster and its awesome, definitely worth the purchase to get a nice deep clean on just about anything.

I bought one of those blowers too, good investment. And I've looked inside the intake from
the bottom of a laptop or where ever it's located and on a couple of occasions have sniped
the plastic mesh and reache din with tweezers or forceps and just pulled the blockage out.
*cough cheat cough* then wack it with air funny thing when you get in a hurry and wth is a
good glue for anyway 
PS: Hold the fan when you blow it out don't want to damage it from high rpm

i uss the vaccum cleaner to clean the air filter on the computer case only
if you have a good air filter on your computer case, you dont have to worry the hardware inside your computer case