Storing equipment in the heat?

Sayen

Active Member
The school I work at is asking for some help with their stadium sound system. The equipment is stored in a pressbox, and in Phoenix likely gets to up 175+ degrees F. in the summer, including the start of football season. During games the booth is air conditioned.

I know we don't want to operate the equipment in the heat, but how damaging is it to store it there when it's off? I realize it's not idea, but funding is tight and I'm working with them to come up with a solution that doesn't involve rewiring the stadium. The mixer, wireless receivers, mics, CD player and other FOH equipment would be stored in the pressbox, while amplifiers remain in another room that is climate controlled.

I'm drawing a little bit of a blank wondering how the electronics hold up when off and in the heat.
 
I would prechill the room before you turn anything on. If you get it down to a reasonable temp. I think as long as no power is ran to anything you should be fine.
 
If you're really curious, most, if not all product spec sheets have values for both operating and storage temperature, and the numbers for storage generally range quite a bit more than the operating.

It certainly is not ideal however, to put any equipment through swings like that. Most often, it's not the actually temperature that does the damage, it's the transitions and heat/cool cycles. All materials expand and contract, and at different rates, so it's possible you could end up with broken solder joints, etc.

See if you can convince people to air condition the space in the off time, but at a temp unreasonable for people, but more comfortable for the gear, like 100F or something. Save on electricity at least a bit.
 
See if you can convince people to air condition the space in the off time, but at a temp unreasonable for people, but more comfortable for the gear, like 100F or something. Save on electricity at least a bit.

Or even just keep the fans venting with the air conditioning turned off. Most of that heat build-up is because the press box is an enclosed space. Having the fans vent that heat is a good way to keep the temperature more friendly to your equipment in the off-hours. Also a good way to keep the press box from being a sauna every time you first walk into it.

You'll want to make sure your equipment has ample cooling once the system is turned on. Though the room may be air conditioned at those times, improper or a lack of air flow through the electronics may cause equipment to overheat. A couple good white papers on planning air flow patterns if your equipment is rack-mounted:

http://www.middleatlantic.com/~/media/MiddleAtlantic/Documents/WhitePapers/ThermalManagement.ashx
https://www.kaleidescape.com/files/documentation/Kaleidescape-Whitepaper-AV-Installation-Cooling.pdf

For whatever it's worth, most high school press boxes I've been in are using the most inexpensive equipment available on the market, which works fine for what they're doing (a couple mic's, a music input or two). Often the whole system, less the loudspeakers, was purchased for less than $1500. At some point, it's more financially practical to consider this equipment expendable than to try putting it all in a fully climate-controlled environment. If you can get 3-5 years out of a piece of equipment before having to replace it, for one reason or another, it will have earned its keep.
 
In Vegas we often had racks outdoors for a week or two no issues. I work at an outdoor venue in New York now and we keep all our racks in the elements (rainproofed) for 5 months a year minus the FOH racks and All computers which live in a climate controlled room - hard drives hate heat swings.
 
I think you will begin to have several issues over the long run. I suspect you will eventually have capacitors begin to fail as the higher temps will age them. I also think you will see certain plastic and rubber parts fail as the temperature will adversely affect them too. As stated the temperature change from hot and to cold can cause damage. I think this is likely due to condensation forming on the electronics.
 
Thanks!

Mike - that's more or less the plan. A good chunk of the gear is hand-me-downs from the performing arts world. We have the gear in a portable rack now, so I can get them to put it down out of the direct sunlight, which IS damaging and much hotter than the ambient room temperature.

Exhaust fans are a good idea, I'll pass that up the line.
 
It doesn't matter much whether the equipment is powered up, or not. Exposure to high temperatures definitely reduces the reliability and life span of the equipment.
 
I suppose I have to ask the question, although maybe impractical for the situation. If the equipment is already in a portable rack, why not have a few kids carry it up before each game? It could be designed for weight and easy plug+play speaker connections.

I suppose this doesn't fly if it will be used frequently, but a friend of mine broadcasts NFL, and they move a lot more stuff for one game than I could have imagined.
 
If it was my space or my gear, I'd do exactly that. Unlike the theater, there's no single person overseeing the stadium, and as near as I can tell no consistency in announcers either. I suggested at one point that someone in the athletic department be placed in charge, and it was as though I was speaking a foreign language.
 
As mentioned above, in pure electronics, the electrolytic capacitors will be stressed and eventually fail due to heat, even if powered down at the time. Electronics made to operate in a hot environment often is built with high-temp (105c) capacitors, but this is not the norm. Audio mixers can suffer as the lube used in the controls will dry out or migrate out of the controls. Microphone and monitor speakers will suffer due to deteriorated suspension elements. Outdoor speakers with phenolic diaphragms will be ok.
If the booth truly gets near 175f it is best to get as much as possible out of the booth. Even transistors and diodes conduct differently at that temperature, and auto-bias may be outside of its tolerance range causing thermal runaway on power up. As suggested, get things cooled down before applying power.
 

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