Members the_tonto Posted October 23, 2005 Members Share Posted October 23, 2005 I'm wondering what to watch out for as far as cold weather affecting music equipment for the worse since its getting colder now and the new room I've been in since mid summer isn't insulated too well. First of all, for reference, I'm in central Pennsylvania and it gets pretty cold in the middle of winter (its not too bad now). I have all my equipment in a fairly large room (well at least much larger than any typical room in a house, i think its roughly 16' wide, about 30' deep and 11' high minus one corner that sticks out about 4' wide and 6' deep.) and yes i know those are strange dimensions but the place is really old and actually used to be a general store back in the 50's and quite possibly way before that. the room I'm in was the stock room/meat cutting room and its not insulated at all. the rest of the place is remodled as an apartment. It gets pretty cold in the back because the walls are fairly thin and I don't believe there is much if any insulation above the ceiling in the rafter space (its a long a-frame type building). anyway, I don't know how much money I'll have to insulate before the dead of winter if any, and I'm wondering how worried i should be about keeping my equipment back there. I've decided to kind of close off the place so that the bedroom adjecent to the room used for recording is heating the that room and the back room with the equipment (there are no heat registers in the back). I'm sure space heaters will be needed for back there before sessions, and it will definitely suck until I can get things insulated and get heat back there but what I'm worried about is the effect on the equipment until then. I have a computer, a digital mixer/interface board, guitars, basses, amps, turntables, a couple keyboards, and a bunch of mics back there and also an old wurlizter (sweet). I know of the effects of the cold on the guitars, but i'm wondering how much I have to worry about with everything else. I really don't want to have to move everything out until the spring, but I definitely don't what to {censored} anything up. especially mic's and electronics. any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AudioMaverick Posted October 23, 2005 Members Share Posted October 23, 2005 I've been wodering that, too. So, BUMP... Big Bear mountain is about to be covered in snow. This is my second winter season here. Last year, it snowed while my microphones were still in the garage. I moved the storage conatainer into the house and didn't open it for two days, too make sure they came up to room temperature slowly. I have used a few of them, recently. And, they seem OK. But, I have been curious how their performance may be affected while they are cold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted October 23, 2005 Members Share Posted October 23, 2005 Would it be better to leave the equipment running if it's that cold? Just a guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members where02190 Posted October 24, 2005 Members Share Posted October 24, 2005 Indeed leave the gear running. Condensation and cold go hand in hand, and enough could build up to do damage during powerup. Leaving the gear running will prevent that, and, unless you have a massive pile of tube gear, will draw negligable power, a few pennies a day at ilde. The most damaging thing you can do to electronics is power them on. Leaving the gear in is the recommended method by any electronics expert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members valkyriesound Posted October 24, 2005 Members Share Posted October 24, 2005 Hmm... cold weather... equipment... Yeah... I've done that (see my website). Depends on the equipment but I've seen LCDs crack if it gets below freezing. You can leave the equipment on... but even that will not help if it gets too cold. I have one of those oil heaters that stays on in my studio all day and night. Of course, I'm in LA so it's not that cold. Do you know how cold in really gets down there? Valky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CN Fletcher Posted October 24, 2005 Members Share Posted October 24, 2005 You don't want to run this stuff in temperatures that are uncomfortable for humans... in other words, too hot or too cold are both bad. Using the equipment as a heater is expensive [very inefficient electric heat], but as long as the room stays at between like 60' F and 75' F [15-24' C] you should be OK. The only rule of thumb I would suggest is that if it's too cold to play while wearing a light sweatshirt, or too warm to play while just wearing a T-shirt... then it's not good for the hardware. You want the gear, especially microphones to come up to "room temperature" for a couple of hours before you run them. However, things like consoles and disc drives aren't all that happy with condensation or temperature extremes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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