There are people who like the smell of the sea on the beach.
There are people who like the smell of gasoline when filling up their car.
And then there are obviously people who like the smell of “exhaust fumes” from the steam deck fans. Apparently this group is so large in number that the manufacturer Valve now feels compelled to issue an official warning. No, we’re not making this up right now
Like so many things on the internet, it all started with a meme on the Steam Deck subreddit. In the months following the release of the Valve handheld, more and more users stated that they liked sniffing the console’s ventilation.
Reddit user Metapod100 is one of these olfactory enthusiasts of the Steam Deck and decided to seek advice from an official source.
In a request to Steam support, he asked how safe it was for the respective user to smell the “exhaust” of the Steam Deck.
The answer is sober: “In principle, we do not recommend breathing in the air expelled from the Steam Deck’s fan. […] We are aware that this is a meme, but stop doing it to protect your health”.
Officially, Valve wants to put a stop to all this snooping, but the comments in the corresponding Reddit thread are only partially understanding.
The reactions range from “Oh, I’ll do it anyway” to demands that Valve should release scented candles with Steam Deck scent for Christmas.
Incidentally, there seems to be a difference between the first Steam Deck version and the recently released OLED version. At least there are only a few testimonials in the respective Reddit threads that explicitly point their noses towards the newer console
Regardless of this, there seems to be something about handheld consoles that causes curious experiments with the human senses.
With the Nintendo Switch, for example, licking the game cartridges was a trend shortly after its release. No, we didn’t make that up either:
Nintendo Switch – Tens of journalists suck on Switch cartridges and complain about taste
Okay, hand on heart: how many of you have ever sniffed the Steam Deck, who is about to do so and, above all, what do you get out of it? Are there any other tech devices in your household that we should definitely put our noses to based on your experiences? Or do you just have to turn up your nose at the whole sniffing issue? Let us know in the comments
