Summer, heat, electronics - how to save gadgets from high temperatures

Hello.

Every year there are topics that can conditionally be called eternal, for example, the onset of hot days and

increased load on our electronics.Last year I wrote a text that has not lost its relevance today, but I thought that it could be expanded. Therefore, before you is an updated version of the material, which was published about a year ago. I hope that it will be useful for you.

The summer has come, which will be remembered hightemperatures, the thermometer in Moscow has exceeded 34 degrees, you don’t want to get out from under the air conditioner. In the center, you can move in short dashes between shops and cafes, where there is air conditioning. Hot air melts brains, and yet it also affects electronics, primarily smartphones that we use all the time, literally do not let go. You can follow the harmful advice of Roskachestvo, who rave about explosions of batteries and power supplies, believe that computers with SSDs are prone to overheating, or you can reasonably approach this issue, understand what is harmful on such days and what does not play any role. Let's try together to characterize the problems that electronics can face and understand how to avoid them.

Most electronics manufacturers createtheir solutions for the moderate temperature range. If you look into the instructions for almost any smartphone, it turns out that the operating temperature range is from 0 to 25 degrees Celsius. Sometimes this range differs, but almost never takes into account sub-zero temperatures, as well as summer heat.

The first thing that comes to mind is overheating.battery, because when the ambient temperature is high, its temperature rises, as a result, the performance of the device decreases. The processor cannot run at a high frequency, as this leads to heat. Plus, if you are charging your device, the high temperature can damage the battery, so charging is disabled until the device cools down.

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Where in the summer you can get a high temperature,which will negatively affect your device? It makes me want to say anywhere. But the most typical places are not so diverse for different people, let's list the main ones:

Car, navigation on the dashboard;
Beach, entertainment while you sunbathe;
Normal summer day and direct sunlight;
Window at home and phone charging.

Usually in the car, people put their smartphone ondashboard, buy a special holder. Sometimes the holder is mounted on the grille of the air conditioning system or nearby, it turns out that the air conditioner cools the phone. On the one hand, it is heated by the sun's rays, it is often plugged into the charger, on the other hand, there is external cooling. This is a typical, but not a good situation, since both heating and cooling occur simultaneously, and both processes are uneven. If at the same time the smartphone is working, for example, navigation is running, then something bad can happen, but this is not an explosion at all. To make your phone explode, you need to take a nail and a hammer, pierce the case and the battery, but even in this case, a flash will occur, but not an explosion. An explosion is an extraordinary situation, and it is associated in most cases with the use of non-original chargers that burn the battery controller. Electronics has become smart and can turn off charging when overheated so that nothing bad happens. Non-original chargers, under certain circumstances, can burn both the controller and the brains of your device (this also applies to laptops, on the same MacBook, SSD memory also fails). To literally burn the device, you need to try, usually this does not happen, you need to be lucky with a minus sign. But this is not at all a reason to save on normal chargers from the manufacturer and use the devil.

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In a car with a temperature difference, you are unlikely toencounter a battery failure, the protection of the smartphone from water will most likely be damaged, of course, if it was originally present. Modern smartphones have protection against water in the form of gluing parts of the case, in order to disassemble the device, it is heated in a service center with a hairdryer to a temperature of 50-55 degrees. In the car, this temperature is easily reached if it is 33-36 degrees outside, and the smartphone is in direct sunlight. Usually these are phones that are forgotten in the holder, they melt in the sun. There is a chance that you will arrive at the moment when the hull partes a little. A typical situation for southern countries, where such a temperature is the norm in summer, in Russia this does not happen as often as in Dubai, where in the shade the temperature reaches 50 degrees, and these are not very comfortable living conditions for both electronics and people. But even in such conditions, nothing threatens the battery, it will not swell, will not squeeze out the walls of the device.

A rule that will help you cope with anyproblem, sounds trivially simple. Electronics easily tolerates the same temperatures that are comfortable for you, we do not take into account extreme people. If the car resembles a red-hot stove, then putting the phone on the dashboard of the car is not the best idea, it will be bad for him there. Just try with your hand, feel the heat of this place.

Now a few tips for charging, as sheincreases the temperature of the battery and the device, this always happens, such is the physics of the process. If you know that your smartphone is hot (a laptop can hardly be warmed up to similar temperatures), then you do not need to charge it immediately, it will still charge slowly. Let the device cool down, ideally turn it off, wait twenty minutes and then start charging. Even if the battery suddenly heats up, the device will turn off charging, it is smart enough for this. The faster the charging, the worse it is for the device in such conditions, fast charging will still turn off due to heating. This does not mean at all that you need to take a slow charge, even a fast charger will work with a lower voltage / current strength, your smartphone will tell it about this. And it avoids overheating.

Wireless charging in summer is badidea, since it heats up the device and creates an elevated temperature, try not to use such a charger at temperatures above 27 degrees in the room. As well as in the car, turn on the air conditioner, avoid direct sunlight.

High temperatures are not only bad forbattery (although this factor should not be discounted), how much for OLED screens, the integrity of the case. For example, a conventional OLED screen is protected from pixel burn-in when an image from an application is printed on the screen, for example, a status bar or a line from a navigation program. In the same Samsung smartphones, there is a separate processor that monitors the temperature of the screen, changes the picture so that burn-in does not occur. But such technologies are powerless against the user. If you put the phone in the car under the direct rays of the sun, it constantly heats up, then at some point the screen temperature will reach 60 degrees, a couple of minutes is enough for the degradation of the OLED screen to begin, it begins to collapse. Under normal conditions, this is several thousand hours of MTBF at the highest screen brightness, but when heated in the summer, it is only a few minutes. I emphasize that even such situations are extremely rare, they can occur, but they cannot be called massive, for all the time I have not had an OLED matrix burn out on any smartphone, although I use them all the time. But I know those who use such devices in a car or taxi, they may have burnt out zones on their screens. This is the result of high temperatures, and they could be such for a short time. The usual burnout scenario here is as follows: the smartphone remains in the holder, the person goes to lunch, spends 30-40 minutes or even more there, then gets into the car and turns on the navigation. The smartphone did not have time to cool down, and it takes 5-10 minutes to kill the screen. Therefore, if you have an OLED (AMOLED) screen, then do not be lazy, take out your smartphone and take it with you, do not leave it in direct sunlight.

On the net, I came across advice a couple of times about whatthe heated device can and should be placed in the refrigerator, sometimes in the freezer, and it will quickly cool down there. Do not do this! A rapid temperature drop negatively affects the case, violates its tightness, and leads to the formation of moisture. This is all harmful to electronics, do not do this ever.

A few words about relaxing on the beach, letMost of this advice is irrelevant. On the beach, the temperature will easily reach 40 degrees, a working smartphone will warm up to 50-55 degrees. You can calculate the temperature like this: an air temperature of 30 degrees means 40 degrees in direct sunlight, a working smartphone gives at least another 10 degrees, a total of 50 degrees for the device. Holding the device in your hands will not be very comfortable. If your smartphone is in a case, then you may not feel how warm it is, which is bad. In case of overheating, it is always worth removing the cover, this will allow the cooling system to work much more efficiently.

Surprisingly, the fact is that most of the negativescenarios in real life are unattainable, smartphones survive in the most unpleasant conditions, you just don’t need to forget them in cars, leave them on windowsills under the hot sun or on a beach towel. The rule is simple: where you feel comfortable, your electronics are also good there. I can not advise anything else, just try to keep your devices in the same temperature conditions that are pleasant to you, and you will never see any problems. But if you think that a smartphone should work non-stop in the desert, record 4K video for half an hour and still be charged from an external battery, then I have bad news for you, it should not behave like this. Make no mistake, but rather open the instructions for your gadget and read what is written there and what temperature range is given for operation. Believe me, you will be surprised.

High temperature means increased wearbattery. I think that you did not know, but at a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius, the battery capacity increases by about 5%. At sub-zero temperatures, the rated capacitance, on the contrary, decreases, and the voltage drops. The difference is not very fundamental, but what matters here is that the number of charge-discharge cycles is drastically reduced when you do this at a high temperature. On average, a conventional battery maintains 500 cycles without loss of capacity. In practice, taking into account fast charging, the possible use of wireless charging, high external temperatures at 500 cycles, on average, a modern smartphone loses up to 10% of its capacity. And the total number of cycles is also falling, and what was theoretically achievable on push-button phones is unrealistic today. I think that on smartphones you will not keep track of when you charge your devices, but with a laptop you can easily wait for the evening when the temperature drops and the heating is not so high. But it’s definitely not worth focusing on this, you just need to remember that in some extreme conditions, charging the device is not a good idea.

Usually modern smartphones themselves undertakea number of steps to lower the temperature - lower the screen brightness, stop using the cameras, reduce the frequency of the processor. And these steps are enough for the device to cool down.

One of the worst use casessmartphones are summer walks in the sun, when the external battery is constantly plugged in, charging is in progress. Please note that not only the smartphone is heated, but also the battery itself, so often the charging time increases significantly, protection is triggered. Playing a heavy toy on your smartphone while it's plugged in is another scenario for heat and increased battery wear.

Surprisingly, many people do not realize thatdata transfer warms up the smartphone. For example, if you turn on the download of movies from somewhere, for example, use a torrent, then the device will quickly warm up and discharge. Perhaps it is better to leave the download of large files to a place where it is not so hot, but cool.

With accessories, exactly the same stories, it’s not worth itleave your headphones in direct sunlight, and for hours they are not very useful. Worst of all, the Apple Watch reacts to the sun, some models lose their tightness, the screen starts to fall out. This is usually a gradual process, it takes some time. Conclusion? Do not forget your watch in the sun, and on the beach try to hide it from direct sunlight, do not be in it under the sun all day long.

I hope that these trite tips will help you notget into trouble with your electronics. I think that you already know all this, but it was useful to repeat these tips and examples, because it is 34 degrees outside the window and brains are melting without air conditioning. Have a nice summer.

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