electronics in the cold

[knightryda01]

hey guys. I have a non insulated pole barn at the moment. i put a stereo receiver and cd player etc out there. Wondering if the cold Michigan weather would damage them in any way. Anybody have any experience with this kinda stuff. I could always bring them in the house.

 

[Sokoloff]

I've had some old equipment in my unheated airplane hangar for 20 years. No ill effects.

I probably wouldn't leave old vinyl and turntables out, but run of the mill electronics are fine IME.

 

[Cypherian]

Hey,

The only issues you might face are mice , dust and if it has an LCD screen. The mice might really like the warmth of the receiver and the dust might kill the cd player put a towel over it when not in use, if there is an lcd screen on the receiver it will turn black and be un readable when it is really cold. It doesn't do permanent damage the screen will come back when it warms up . I have a system in a normally unheated garage in Northern Eastern Maine so .. weather conditions should be comparable :}

Cypher

Cypher

 

[kwschumm]

Do their specs indicate lowest non-condensing temperature?

Condensation, of course, would be a killer.

Without condensation electronics generally do quite well in cold temperatures, heat is a much bigger issue.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

I have a laptop, stereo, and LCD tv in my garage here in NY. No problems using them through the winter. As mentioned, the biggest problem with shop electronics is usually dust.

I have heard if it's really cold, you should let your LCD tv's warm up to above 35-40 degrees before using them, but I've never had a problem with mine.

 

[matt_i]

My stereo has been mostly unheated for 6 years now. My two stereo systems seem to have no ill effects inside of there.

Even thru an incident where a hot water line burst inside of a sink-base the previous owner installed and started spraying heated water mist into an ice cold shop for the better part of a day...

 

[James-W]

The cold won't affect the electronics but if you have a CD player you may get condensation on the disc and if that happens the player won't read the disc correctly and will cause an error.

When you think about it, there is electronics in the satellites and space is pretty cold too.

 

[Pathfinders]

Heat is the killer, not the cold.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

Heat is the killer, not the cold.

^^This is absolutely true for most electronics, including LED lights.

 

[nehog]

Non-operating as long as you don't have an issue with condensing (frost) you'll be fine. Operating is an issue for moving parts such as fans and hard disk drives. The only problem I've ever had was a notebook (old IBM) that I trashed when I booted it and it was still too cold. The drive crashed. IT didn't bother to fix it, just gave me a new computer.

 

[bob15]

LCD displays might not work well until they warm up and tube type radios take a little longer to "come to life" in the cold. Other than that, you'll be fine....and remember to keep the mice away.

 

[gnpenning]

How many vehicles are left in the cold and heat every day with a large amount of electronics in them???

 

[jim]

Yep, just like a car. Jim

 

[joe_padavano]

Keep in mind that the trucks that deliver these electronics from the manufacturer to the store aren't heated either. Stop losing sleep over this.

 

[rburke65]

I be had a tv in my unheated pole barn for ever.....still ticking. Don't think the dust and mud wasps nest are doing it any good, but every one has to live some where.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

Well posting in this thread jinxed me! I went to turn on the tv in the garage today and nothing. Used the remote and button on the tv, and won't power on at all. I think it's lived its life though, it's an older 22" LCD. I remember buying it at Radioshack because Walmart didn't have a lot of LCD options, so it must've been when LCD TV's were pretty new. I've got a 32" black friday special TV from last year that's been sitting in the basement, time to make that the garage upgrade.