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Comment by drgiggles | Hacker News Reader

The point of a grill is to block dust and debris, which presumably I want. Otherwise I would just not use one and my fans would be the quietest and cool most effectively. What is the trade-off between the two metrics sited and effectiveness of each type of grill at its intended purpose?

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I think the purpose of the grill on a computer is not so much about dust and smaller debris as it is about (a) protecting user fingers against fan bites, and (b) protecting the fan against bigger pokey things that could damage the fan blades or jam the fan.

In super small form factor PCs, sometimes you use a fan grille on the inside, to make sure that wires, etc on the interior don't get caught in the fan.

hmm, I always assumed there was some other benefit. I'm taking all mine off. Seems pretty easy to not ram my finger in it.

No roaming pets or children I take it :p.

Debris are usually covered by a foam filter in front of the fans (if at all). I’ll usually take that off though and just clean it every once in a while.

No, I comment on posts about pc fan grills at 6am...I'm single :)

That's exactly the kind of thing I do in the morning over coffee in those quiet few minutes before the children are up. Rest assured that you can still continue to comment on obscure tech minutiae at odd hours of the morning.

I have a large fan at home that I remove the front protector from because it gets dirty often and is quieter.

My young nephew shoves his hand it in all the time for fun with zero harm.

On the flip side, a few of my hobbies include devices where the fans are usually exposed - and I've cut myself a handful of times because of it.

It's very size/shape/rpm dependent.

"It doesn't affect me, so it cannot be an issue"

Big fans are at a relatively low RPM, and household fans might be made with kids sticking their fingers in them in mind. I've got a little noisy desk fan with metal blades in it that I would prefer not to take my chances with. I've also cut myself on my RC Plane's props a few times.

zero harm to him or to the blade?

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