{"id":43145,"date":"2018-12-03T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2018-12-03T15:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=43145"},"modified":"2018-12-04T09:36:44","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T15:36:44","slug":"reminder-keep-your-electronics-warm-and-safe-this-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/43145-reminder-keep-your-electronics-warm-and-safe-this-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Reminder: Keep Electronics Warm and Safe This Winter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Most people are aware of hot weather being a danger to consumer electronics, but they don’t realize that the colder times of year can be just as difficult to our electronic helpers. To make sure that your devices survive the cold this winter, here are some tips to keep them safe when the weather gets brutally cold.<\/p>\n

Don’t Charge Batteries In Low Temperatures<\/strong>
\nIt may seem like a straightforward reminder, but be sure to bring your devices into a warm room and let them warm up before charging them.<\/p>\n

Why? Well, most consumer electronic devices use lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries and those batteries cannot be charged at subfreezing temperatures (below 32\u00b0F or 0\u00b0C) without causing damage. Sure, it may look like the cold battery is charging normally, but the battery anode can experience metallic lithium plating. This damage is permanent, and any batteries that are subject to plating can fail when exposed to vibration or other conditions.<\/p>\n

This is the solution – don’t charge your electronic devices in a car or unheated garage that is at a temperature below freezing.<\/p>\n

Warm Up Your Cold Gadgets<\/strong>
\nSo, you ordered a new MacBook Pro and it was delivered today…and sat in its box on your porch for hours until you got home from work. It’s been below freezing all day. Can you just bring it into the house, unpackage it, plug it in and get to work?  We’d recommend that you be patient and let the computer warm up to room temperature first. This is not just for laptops, but any consumer electronics.<\/p>\n

Although they’re becoming less common as the default drive in our new devices, H<\/a>ard Drives<\/a> (see image below) really have problems with cold temperatures. There are lubricants that keep the platters spinning freely at high speeds, and those lubricants can thicken when they’re cold. The platters may not be able to spin at their design speed when cold, so your device may not boot properly or data written to the drive when cold may be unreadable when it’s warmed up later.<\/p>\n

\"\"Solid State Drives<\/a> (SSDs) are less susceptible to cold temperatures as they have no moving parts, but manufacturers recommend that they be operated only after being warmed to a temperature of 32\u00b0F (0\u00b0C) or above.<\/p>\n

Finally, there’s one other killer for cold electronics in areas with high humidity. When devices that have been exposed to cold temperatures are brought into a warm, humid place, they can be covered with condensation as the moist air hits the cold surfaces. This happens with electronics as well — for example, bring a device into a warm and humid location when it’s been sitting in cold weather and the condensation can be bad enough to cause electrical shorts on circuitry. This isn’t as much of a problem as it used to be now that many of our devices are sealed, but it can be particularly hard on older Macs with motherboards that are exposed to the air (the Mac mini and Mac Pro in particular).<\/p>\n

Let those electronics warm up! If you’ve ordered a new hard drive from OWC<\/a> and it has been sitting outside in a box in subfreezing temperatures for a while, let it warm up before installing it. Laptops should also be given some time to warm up after a prolonged cold soak before turning them on.<\/p>\n

How Cold Is TOO Cold?<\/strong>
\nThe best way to find out if a device can be used or stored in cold temperatures is to check the manufacturer’s specifications. Most specs include maximum and minimum temperatures for use and for storage, so keep those temperatures in mind.<\/p>\n

The 2017 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar has these temperatures listed under “Tech Specs” for the laptop on Apple’s website:<\/p>\n