Valve has asked Steam Deck owners to stop sniffing the fumes which come out of the handheld’s vents.
Smelling the fumes has become something of a meme on the Steam Deck subreddit, for apparently smelling quite nice. If you search “smell” over there, you’ll find a whole range of posts from people discovering the vents smell “bloody delightful”, asking how to return their Steam Deck once the fan stopped smelling, and pleas for Valve to release a Steam Deck cologne or scented candle.
If Valve wasn’t aware of this habit before, it definitely is now thanks to Metapod100 on Reddit, who shared a screenshot of a reply they received from Steam Support. Their support ticket? “Is it safe to inhale the exhaust fumes from the top of the Steam Deck Vent?”
It’s somewhat of a meme to enjoy the fumes but I think I kinda… like it?” they added for context. The response from Sandler at Steam Support revealed “there are no safety concerns with general usage” of Steam Deck, but “directly inhaling the device’s vent fumes should be avoided”. Sandler cited general recommendations given for all electronics that you shouldn’t inhale exhaust fumes from devices.