How will cold weather affect my wearable electronic devices?

November 6, 2008 10:34 AM

How will cold weather affect my wearable electronic devices?

I love running and I always have a few gadgets with me when I'm out and about. I have just gotten a new handsfree to my Sony Ericsson mobile phone and I would like to carry it outside my jacket when running in winter (phone in my pocket). This particular handsfree has a remote unit on the cord with an OLED display. Is there any possibility that the cold weather (around 23F/ -5C) will ruin the remote unit and the display? And how does cold weather generally impact electronics in winter if worn outdoors?

posted by evercool to technology (8 comments total)

Your manual should tell you the recommended lower temperature limit for storage and operation. Exceeding this limit increases the risk of at least a couple failure modes: differential thermal contraction of the plastic, ceramic, and metal parts leading to an open circuit; and increasing brittleness of the components, solder connections, and seals.
posted by Mapes at 10:49 AM on November 6, 2008

I know for an iPod. . .very cold weather will drain the battery very fast. (at least a non-flash iPod).

I would suspect that this could be true for other devices with the same battery chemisty.
posted by Danf at 10:52 AM on November 6, 2008

I don't know that -5C will really affect it much, even if worn on the outside. I agree with Mapes, check the temperature limits with the product. From personal experience, I used to live in the arctic (so, say, -35C was a normal daily temperature) and would regulary walk around with my digital camera exposed for up to an hour or more and never ran into a problem with it. As for an ipod, I always just had it tucked inside my jacket so it was warm enough.
posted by impactorange at 11:01 AM on November 6, 2008

Very few electronics are rated for functionality below 60F, and most have a tolerance level between 65F and 85F.

What you really have to worry about though is humidity, crystallization of moisture, etc. I mean, if you think about it, when you ship items they sit on below freezing UPS trucks or cargo holds many times. So the items can SURVIVE the cold, but not well.

The trick is that you're supposed to let electronics warm up to room temperature and then some before turning them on. The recommended time is about 4 hours. The reason for this is that when you take a warm item into cold air moisture can create condensation on the item. This water can cause a short in the electronics. In below freezing weather that condensation can then freeze, so when you bring an item in from freezing cold you need to give the condensation time to melt and then evaporate before turning on the item.

So if you go from your house outside to 23F with your phone condensation can form. If you remain outside while running that condensation can freeze (although if in a pocket near your body your body heat may keep it somewhat warm). This can theoretically short out your electronic items.

Plus as stated above, battery life is virtually nothing in sub 50 degree F temps

As for the LCDs, most car radios use LCD displays and they survive just fine in the freezing cold; however for black-on-gray LCDs I have seen them become very feint and hard to read in the cold.

Remember though that if you're carrying an item in your hand your body heat will provide some protection.
posted by arniec at 11:07 AM on November 6, 2008

I've used all sorts of electronics outdoors in -30C weather, and it doesn't do any lasting harm. Expect your batteries to die very very quickly, and LCD displays to be incredibly slow and show a lot of ghosting while they're cold. Once the device warms up again, you'll be ok.

If the electronic device is attached to you or next to your skin, your body heat will probably keep it warm, and it should be fine.

Ditto on the moisture condesation on electronics when bringing them into a warm environment, just like on eye glasses.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:03 PM on November 6, 2008

The typical rated temperature range for commercial grade electronic components is around 0C to 70C (with industrial (-25 – 85) and military (-55 – 125) grades available at a price). I wouldn't expect any permanent damage to your handsfree from going a bit out of that range, and odds are it won't even malfunction, though it's probably outside the operating temperature range the back of the manual will give you.

Other than that, what everyone else said: battery capacity will be greatly reduced, LCDs will respond slowly and poorly (but OLEDs are totally different, so who knows), and quick temperature changes could cause mechanical stress or condensation both of which are bad.

(Writing to flash memory gets difficult at low temperatures: it's slower and it wears out the flash faster. But flash wear isn't usually a problem for consumer electronics and I wouldn't expect your handsfree to be writing to any flash memory in typical use anyway....?)
posted by hattifattener at 1:04 PM on November 6, 2008

I used to walk with my tape walkman in upstate New York between -25F and -15F.
After a while the batteries wouldn't work anymore and the lcd screen wouldn't update until they both heated up.

It didn't seem to do any long lasting damage to the unit, though I would wonder more about an ipod, which seems more delicate.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 3:21 PM on November 6, 2008

My husband had a hard drive failure (PowerBook but I have heard of others who had similar problems with other hard drive devices) right after he got back from the south pole. However, we suspected it might have been the change in humidity that really confused the poor hard drive.
posted by crinklebat at 8:45 PM on November 9, 2008