Wow, it's cold!

[jgreco]

I often leave certain gear like laptops and tablets in the car and lately that's meant as low as -11'F.

Pulled out the mobile hotspot on the train this morning. Wouldn't start. Yank battery and try again. Still no. Think: "wow that is really cold." warm up battery, now it works.

So I was just idly curious if anyone knew if li-ion batteries had problems with cold like this, because I know I've subjected Apple and Samsung tabs to horrible freezing conditions in the past without incident.

 

[joeschmuck]

On Myth Busters I watched them re-enact a movie scene where if you super cool a bomb it would give a 2 second delay but in reality it gave them a 15 minute delay because the battery wouldn't generate enough output when it was that cold. Once it warmed up a little then BOOM! Pretty cool. -11F is pretty cold. Maybe the battery was made with lesser quality materials than the laptop batteries too.

 

[cyberjock]

Yeah, the temperature gets so low it prevents the chemical reaction that gives you your power out.

Do keep in mind this can permanently damage batteries(especially rechargeable in computers and phones) so try to keep them from freezing.

 

[DJ9]

It's suppose to get up to a high of -12 degrees on Monday. Hopefully the guys get our new furnace in real fast.

 

[cyberjock]

STay in one room with your computer and run World Community Grid.

 

[titan_rw]

I have an old iPhone 3GS that has since been delegated to email / alarm clock, etc.

I brought it in to work to test out some exchange active sync stuff. It happened to be a cold day at the time, -20 to -25c. Being that it wasn't in a belt holder, or in my pocket, it got a chance to cool down on the drive in.

Tried to use it once I got inside, and it gave me a "your iphone is outside normal operating temperature, you need to wait for it to cool down before you can use it". I'm like WTF? It's already cold enough. How much does it have to cool down if it's already at -20?

Funny that apples 'outside of temperature range' messages automatically assumes it must be too hot.

Forcast for early next week is -30c. Not counting any wind chill.

 

[Richman]

I often leave certain gear like laptops and tablets in the car and lately that's meant as low as -11'F.

Pulled out the mobile hotspot on the train this morning. Wouldn't start. Yank battery and try again. Still no. Think: "wow that is really cold." warm up battery, now it works.

So I was just idly curious if anyone knew if li-ion batteries had problems with cold like this, because I know I've subjected Apple and Samsung tabs to horrible freezing conditions in the past without incident.

Just about all batteries regardless of chemical makeup need some kinetic energy to work properly. When the temperature drops and that energy slows down to a crawl, so does your movement and exchange of ion, namely electrons. Your liquid crystal should have been like molasses and barely moving also.

 

[jgreco]

Yes, but it's strange that it only affected one device. Most of the tech docs for li-ion suggest that there would be voltage droop around those temperatures, but I'm not using it at that temp. The car gets warmed up before I leave, then the drive to the station, then in the station, then on the warm train for a bit before I would be pulling it out. I've got devices with much larger batteries that'd be likely to stay colder longer, this is just a cellphone type battery so it ought to warm up a little more quickly. I'm sure it was below 32'F by some amount.

Get to experiment again on Monday when temps drop to -18'F.

 

[cyberjock]

You also have a protective circuit that prevents shorts and unacceptable battery conditions from damaging the battery. If I'm not mistaken, one of those conditions is temperature.

But were the innards of the battery warmed up? I know my backpack insulates my laptop and I've brought it inside for more than an hour and when I pulled it out I could breathe on the screen and see condensation. :P

 

[jgreco]

Yeah, it might have been an overenthusiastic protective circuit. The backpack sits in the front seat passenger well and other warm spots so I have to believe it was warming up.

At home, I've taken tablets out of the car, brought them inside, and seen them frost right over from similar extreme cold, hilarious as heck but they typically still power on fine. That doesn't happen on the train unless the tablet was in the trunk of the car..

 

[JohnK]

I often leave certain gear like laptops and tablets in the car and lately that's meant as low as -11'F.

Having lived in some bad areas, I've learned to leave nothing in my car! Had windows broken for old sweaters. Then again if you are a thief thieving in -11'F weather, that sweater probably worth more than a laptop.

 

[Richman]

Yeah, it might have been an overenthusiastic protective circuit. The backpack sits in the front seat passenger well and other warm spots so I have to believe it was warming up.

At home, I've taken tablets out of the car, brought them inside, and seen them frost right over from similar extreme cold, hilarious as heck but they typically still power on fine. That doesn't happen on the train unless the tablet was in the trunk of the car..

I think one of the concerns may be excessive or even ANY condensation from the air on the inside of any electronics thus shorting out something critical.]

Having lived in some bad areas, I've learned to leave nothing in my car! Had windows broken for old sweaters. Then again if you are a thief thieving in -11'F weather, that sweater probably worth more than a laptop.

Yeh, Steel a laptop, die of hypothermia. Steel the sweater, live to steel another day ....... or something. Is that the way the saying goes?:D
I am sure if he was a cold thief, both would be gone. Course thieves are not typically the sharpest tools in the shed

 

[Richman]

Funny thing is, my brother just called me minutes ago and asked me, "Does it hurt anything to keep your laptops outside in the cold" I told him how its possible to damage things, maybe not too often at around freezing, but next week its going to be -3° F here in Ohio and I told him I wouldn't bet on it 35° below freezing. He always wants to counter everything I say and said something like, "But car radios survive out side all the time. I tried to tell him that most stock stereos are not as sophisticated of electronics at some computers and small devices and Its not very common for it to get below 20° here in Ohio. I should look up some info on that. Curious.

 

[titan_rw]

Another cold snap here too. Low tonight is -28c (-18f) with windchill down to -40c (-40f).

Temperature ratings usually include operating, and storage. Storage temperatures are usually quite low. As long as the device is allowed to warm up before it's turned on, I wouldn't worry too much about leaving it outside in a car.

Note that windchill 'temperatures' are irrelevant to storage temperatures. Windchill only 'matters' if the 'thing' has heat to give off. So a laptop that's 'warm' will cool down quicker if there a high windchill, but it will never go below the true ambient temperature. A lot of people don't realize that anyway. But if it's inside a car, there's no windchill anyway. Unless the windows are left down or something, but then you probably have bigger issues.

However, if given the choice, I'd bring in stuff like laptops.

 

[Richman]

Another cold snap here too. Low tonight is -28c (-18f) with windchill down to -40c (-40f).

However, if given the choice, I'd bring in stuff like laptops.

And you Canooks are sending your weather here to Ohio on Monday since its going to be -12°F. Thanks a lot (shaking fist at titan_rw)

I just told my bro to not fire up his laptop if it was sitting in a sub zero vehicle untill it warmed up a little.

 

[cyberjock]

I'm in IL and about to run to the store for milk and bread in case this is worse than expected.. LOL

 

[rcarterii]

Same here Cyber. Tomorrow night -21F and -50 to -65F with windchill.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[cyberjock]

Shoo made it back. Has to wrestle with snow on the roads, but it wasn't too bad....yet.

 

[gpsguy]

It's -2 F (-18 C) with a windchill of -20 F (-29 C), with the temperature still falling. My garage door is frozen shut (never had that happen) with my 4x4 truck trapped inside.


Sent from my phone

 

[cyberjock]

It's -18F right now with a windchill of -42F. My sister has asked me to blow some bubbles outside because they'll freeze solid before they hit the ground. :P

I'm sure many people have heard the story about throwing boiling water in the air and it'll freeze before it hits the ground. I threw a cup of cold tap water in the air and it definitely hit the snow before freezing. So there's 1 myth that's definitely busted. ;)