Storage and Analog gear

E

EDAN

New member
Hi everyone, it's been a while.

We sold our house and our new home won't be finished until middle of summer. We will be staying with relatives until then and will have most of our stuff in storage. Problem is I cannot find any climate controlled storage units close by and was wondering if I'm asking for trouble storing my recording gear in a typical storage unit. I live in the Northeast and it's gets fairly cold during the winter, expecting single digits next week, though typically it doesn't get that cold but for a few days a year. Will the cold affect my gear? Reel to reels, analog mixers, digital effects, all kinds of microphones, etc, etc, etc.

Thanks,
EDAN
 
If it were hot, I might be concerned for the belts; but even commercial-grade electronic components like ICs are rated for operation down to freezing, and storage much, much colder than that. Even electrolytic capacitors-- I just looked up several commercial-grade types, and all of them were rated for operation at least down to -25 deg C, which is -13 deg F. It won't hurt most of these parts to try to operate them below these temperatures, but they are not guaranteed to meet the specifications down there.

Some things can be damaged by going too cold, like LCDs, whose fluid freezes at something like -40. I did however test one down to -55 deg C for one of our aircraft products I was designing (imagine light aircraft snowed in in Alaska all winter) and found that although it became unusable below about -20 deg C, the LCD was not damaged at -55C, and was fine again when I brought the temperature back up.

I doubt that even your rubber parts would be damaged though, because one of our tooling suppliers said he can even machine rubber. (Custom-made pinch rollers, anyone?) When I asked how that was possible, he said you can freeze it and machine it, and when it thaws, it will be back to normal.
 
EDAN said:
Hi everyone, it's been a while.

We sold our house and our new home won't be finished until middle of summer. We will be staying with relatives until then and will have most of our stuff in storage. Problem is I cannot find any climate controlled storage units close by and was wondering if I'm asking for trouble storing my recording gear in a typical storage unit. I live in the Northeast and it's gets fairly cold during the winter, expecting single digits next week, though typically it doesn't get that cold but for a few days a year. Will the cold affect my gear? Reel to reels, analog mixers, digital effects, all kinds of microphones, etc, etc, etc.

Thanks,
EDAN
Click to expand...

Only Tape and guitars (or anything made of thin wood).

Just make sure the moisture in the air is not real bad (like a concrete garage)
 
Put your gear inside plastic bags, like the garbage or mattress variety. Double bag if neccessary. Make sure the bags are tightly sealed, with no holes nor large pockets of air inside. Try to let out as much air as possible. Throw in a handful of dry sillica packets in each bag with the gear.

I'd also cover the gear with some thick blankets or material.

The above protects against moisture and extremes of environment.
 
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