Casebuy are a Taiwanese company normally associated with computer casing so when they recently contacted me asking if i wished to review any of their new products you can imagine my surprise when this arrived at my door.

Yes, you arent mistaken, Casebuy have developed a new mini USB Vacuum cleaner for all of you with dirty and unhygienic keyboards in need of a good clean ! Quite an unusual little device and worth a look.

 

The front of the cleaner has interchangeable heads, two of which are supplied, one in the shape of a wide nozzle in soft plastic (keyboard attachment rubber) and the other consisting of a brush head with three nozzles on the underside.

Changing the heads is easy enough and Casebuy recommend the keyboard rubber attachment to be used when you have heavier dirt and dust trapped between your keys. This head slides between the keys to get better suction. For general use and dirt the brush head should be used.

As the dirt is sucked into the device it is trapped by a filter mechanism in the body of the unit, this can be cleaned out by unscrewing and detaching the upper part.

Operation of the unit is exceptionally straightforward, after plugging into your USB port at the rear of the unit is a sliding switch giving the three settings which you can see in the picture below. The vents around the lower part of the unit expel air, forcing the "vacuum".

The switch and the three settings: far left - off, middle - light on, right - light and vacuum on. Yes, there is also a light under the unit! for darker conditions or when you need to see between your keys to get at the dirt.

When first using the device I found the suction was quite poor and wasn't shifting enough dirt on the board, looking under the cleaner there is however a button named "high power" ...

The high power setting gives the cleaner enough "oomph" to lift the dirt that had ground its way into the side of the keys on my board, its just unfortunate they didn't build the unit so the button could be toggled on and off instead of having to keep it pressed down with your finger or thumb. Casebuy state "High power button should not be pressed while the vacuum motor is being switched on to keep the voltage jump within USB limits (500mA) during motor start up." so this is more than likely why they don't give the option to leave high power mode on permanently. Still its a shame as normal mode is quite weak. Noise levels arent too bad, but its certainly noticeable especially in high power mode.

Its not often we review cool gadgets on DriverHeaven and this device certainly falls into that category, as for availability and pricing ive been informed by Casebuy that these aren't yet available but will be in early 2005, I also have yet to receive pricing information so its hard to give a verdict as to whether its good value for money but it certainly is a handy little tool to have in your household and will ensure your keyboard remains clean.

For more information regarding availability and pricing when its available visit their home site.

 

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