REVIEW – Towel-drying a truck after a wash leaves water spots everywhere. Water hides in every seam, and it runs back out of the mirrors and grille ten minutes after I put the towel away. A can of compressed air can’t touch that job. The little rechargeable dusters built for keyboards don’t help much either, since they run out of push a few feet from the nozzle. The WOLFBOX MF500PRO Air Duster is a handheld blower with an 840W motor and about 2.5 pounds (1,150 g) of thrust. Those numbers put it closer to a cordless leaf blower than a desk duster, but the whole thing weighs 3.2 pounds and I can hold it in one hand. It pushes water out of the places a towel can’t reach and clears a campsite table in a few passes. The swappable battery charges over USB-C, so it fits the truck and camp kit better than anything that needs a wall outlet. It sells for $234.99 direct from WOLFBOX.
Note: This WOLFBOX MF500PRO Air Duster was sent to me by WOLFBOX at no cost. They had no editorial input and did not see this review before it published.
Photos and video by Gregory Morley.
The Basics
The MF500PRO is the biggest air duster WOLFBOX makes. The company’s smaller models are sized for desks and cars, and this one is pitched at leaves, debris and outdoor cleanup. Air comes in through a honeycomb grille at the back of the head and out a round outlet at the front. Three different nozzles fit over the outlet when you want to shape the stream, a flat one, a long one, and a round one.
Speed is stepless from 0 to 100 percent, set with a wheel under a small display on the back of the grip. The display shows the speed and the battery level. An orange Turbo Boost button on the front of the grip jumps straight to full power. There’s also a small built-in light on the front of the grip, just under the head. The battery makes up the bottom of the handle, releases with an orange button and charges through its own USB-C port, so it can top up from a wall charger, a power bank or the truck.
I’ve owned a WOLFBOX G900 TriPro dash cam for a while, so I came in with trust in the brand, and the MF500PRO has the same solid, no-nonsense build.
What You Get
- WOLFBOX MF500PRO Air Duster with one battery
- Flat nozzle
- Long nozzle
- Round nozzle
- USB-C to USB-C charging cable
- Padded zip carrying case
- Foam earplugs
- User manual
By the Numbers
- Price: $234.99 for the Lite Pack with one battery, $349.99 for the Enduro Pack with a spare battery
- Power: 840W
- Thrust: 1,150 g (about 2.5 pounds)
- Speed control: Stepless, 0 to 100 percent, plus Turbo Boost
- Battery: Swappable, six 3,000mAh cells, 66.6Wh
- Runtime: 18 minutes at 100 percent, up to 230 minutes at 5 percent
- Charging: USB-C, on the battery
- Weight: 3.2 pounds (1.45 kg)
- Nozzles: Flat, long and round
- Warranty: 30 months
Design & Build
The MF500PRO is built like a cordless drill. The head is a gray shell with the WOLFBOX logo on the side, and the grip has a rubberized black panel with ridges that keep it from twisting in a wet hand. At 3.2 pounds it’s heavy for a duster and light for a blower, and the weight sits low in the battery, so it balances in the hand instead of tipping forward.
The speed wheel rolls smoothly, and the percentage on the display updates as it turns, so I can dial back to 20 percent for something delicate and come back to the same setting next time. Turbo sits right under my index finger.
The battery slides out of the bottom of the handle with a press of the orange release, and four blue lights on it show the charge. Charging over USB-C leaves me one less proprietary brick to keep track of. My truck already has a USB-C charger in it, and so does my camp bag.
Drying the Truck
Drying the Tacoma after a wash is the job I wanted this blower for. I start at the roof and work down. The side mirrors, door handles, badges and the grille all hold water a towel can’t reach, and at full speed the round outlet blows it out of every gap in a few seconds per spot. The wheels are the other big one, since water sits in the lug nut recesses and gaps in the rims, and the blower clears them without me crouching with a towel for ten minutes.
Eighteen minutes at full power isn’t enough to dry the whole truck in one pass, so I keep it around 60 to 70 percent for the body panels and save full power for the grille and wheels. With that mix, one battery gets the job done. WOLFBOX also sells the MF500PRO as the Enduro Pack, a $349.99 bundle that adds a second battery. With two batteries I could run it flat out the whole time or dry a second vehicle, which would require knowing a second person with a vehicle who wanted my help, or my presence, for that matter.
Inside the cab, the long nozzle blows dust and crumbs out of the seat rails, the cup holders and the dash vents, and the floor mats get shaken out and blasted clean outside the truck instead of vacuumed.
Camp and the Workbench
At camp, the MF500PRO clears pine needles and dust off the camp table and out of the tent in a couple of passes. It also gets my portable fire pit going faster than kneeling and blowing on it, as long as I keep the speed low and stand back. At full power it would scatter the kindling across the campsite.
On the workbench, it blows chips and dust off my Makera Carvera after a cut and out of the corners of my 3D printers, where a shop vac nozzle won’t fit. The flat nozzle is the one for this, since it spreads the stream into a line that sweeps across a flat surface.
It can clean a computer case or a keyboard, but it’s more blower than those jobs need. Keep it at the low end of the dial, hold the fans still so they don’t overspin, and do it outside, because whatever comes out of the case lands somewhere in the room.
What Could Be Better
Full power is loud. I wouldn’t run it at 100 percent in the parking garage early in the morning, and in an apartment it’s an outdoor tool. WOLFBOX puts a pair of foam earplugs in the case, and for a long session at full speed I’d use them.
The runtime at full power is short at 18 minutes, and the spare battery that fixes it costs $84.99 on its own, or $115 more as part of the Enduro Pack. Anyone planning to dry a truck at full speed every weekend should go straight for the Enduro Pack.
At $234.99 it’s the most expensive duster WOLFBOX sells. The smaller MF50 is $55.99, and the MF400 is $164.99. If the dust you’re after is on a desk, one of those is the better buy. The MF500PRO makes sense when the job is a truck, a campsite, or a workbench, and it’s priced like a small cordless blower.
Watch the Review
Video review coming soon. The companion video is still in edit, and it will be embedded right here as soon as it goes up.
Quick Questions
Q: How long does the battery last?
A: WOLFBOX rates it at 18 minutes at 100 percent and up to 230 minutes at 5 percent. Most real jobs land somewhere in between.
Q: Can I swap in a second battery?
A: Yes. The battery slides out of the bottom of the handle. A spare is $84.99, or you can buy the Enduro Pack with two batteries for $349.99.
Q: How does it charge?
A: Over USB-C, through a port on the battery. A wall charger, a power bank, a car charger or a computer all work.
Q: How heavy is it?
A: 3.2 pounds (1.45 kg) with the battery in.
Final Thoughts
The WOLFBOX MF500PRO Air Duster dries a truck faster than a towel, clears a campsite and a workbench in a few passes, and charges from the same USB-C cables as everything else I carry. The short runtime at full power and the price of a spare battery are the trade-offs, and it’s more blower than a desk needs. For anyone with a truck to dry and a camp kit to keep clean, it’s the right size.
Price: $234.99 (Lite Pack, one battery) or $349.99 (Enduro Pack, two batteries) direct from WOLFBOX at the time of writing
Where to buy: WOLFBOX
What I like: Strong enough to dry a truck, stepless speed with a display, swappable battery that charges over USB-C
What I don’t: Only 18 minutes at full power, the spare battery costs $84.99, loud at full speed
