Question about smoking cigarettes in next room over from equipment.

G

gene12586

Member
Hi all,

I live in an apartment and I have all my recording equipment and instruments set up in my bedroom (iMac, audio interface, electronic keyboard, dynamic and condenser mics, guitar amplifier, guitars, etc...). I'm a one night a week cigarette smoker, and the winters get very cold where I am. My bathroom is the next room over from my bedroom, several feet away. If I were to have some cigarettes one night a week in the bathroom with the window open and do my best to blow out the window, and have both the bathroom and bedroom doors closed, what do ya'll think the odds are that my equipment will degrade or get damaged from the smoke?? The only way for the smoke to travel to my bedroom from the bathroom would be through the cracks in both doors.
I've heard that cigarette smoke can damage electronics, so I thought I'd ask what everyone thinks.

Thanks,

G
 
Smoke does damage equipment, but it happens over time and usually in an environment with a decent amount of smoke. I don't think you have much to worry about.
 
gene12586 said:
Hi all,

I live in an apartment and I have all my recording equipment and instruments set up in my bedroom (iMac, audio interface, electronic keyboard, dynamic and condenser mics, guitar amplifier, guitars, etc...). I'm a one night a week cigarette smoker, and the winters get very cold where I am. My bathroom is the next room over from my bedroom, several feet away. If I were to have some cigarettes one night a week in the bathroom with the window open and do my best to blow out the window, and have both the bathroom and bedroom doors closed, what do ya'll think the odds are that my equipment will degrade or get damaged from the smoke?? The only way for the smoke to travel to my bedroom from the bathroom would be through the cracks in both doors.
I've heard that cigarette smoke can damage electronics, so I thought I'd ask what everyone thinks.
Click to expand...
It's not ever going to happen - you would have to blow smoke into the room 8 hours a day for years for the effect to happen.
 
Blow bong hits into your amp to help it resinate with the room?

The resin film acts as an insulator. Protecting the circuit from moisture.
 
'One night a week'?? Grow some balls and just quit. I quit 20 years ago, look at all the money I saved on tobacco and spent on music equipment instead!
 
mjbphotos said:
'One night a week'?? Grow some balls and just quit. I quit 20 years ago, look at all the money I saved on tobacco and spent on music equipment instead!
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There are studies that suggest that smoking one night per week (and no more and no less) is associated with a 3-fold increase in testicular expansion. I can't argue with science.
 
It will damage your lungs far quicker than the equipment. Loads of old 70s gear comes on ebay that works fine and reeks of smoke so badly it's disgusting and so difficult to get rid of.
 
Does it? I might try it on one old synth I have that still stinks when you get close. Do you just put it in the box with the chips. Cedar isn't that common timber here, but I might be able to finds some?
 
I was fixing radios and TVs etc from the late 60s for over 20 years and of course almost everyone smoked everywhere. There were gas fires and even a few open coal fires in homes then. The gear that came in WAS filthy but it was mostly dust. I used to use a compressor in a garage back of the workshop to blow it clean. If tobacco smoke stuck I did not see any faults because of it.

Dave.
 
rob aylestone said:
Does it? I might try it on one old synth I have that still stinks when you get close. Do you just put it in the box with the chips. Cedar isn't that common timber here, but I might be able to finds some?
Click to expand...
They sell cedar shavings at pet stores. Used for animal cages. Use the cedar material like packing peanuts in a box, use judgement. Close the lid and leave for a week or two and check it.
 
I'll have to see what is available. Does cedar have a particular property? Smell or 'soakupability' - here pet shops use pine shavings - which we have in plentiful supply.
 
Gee, I didn't think anyone ever smoked in a recording studio in the old days, what with musicians being such a health conscious bunch as a rule. 🚬
 
Seriously, ALL the broadcasters and big studios over the years dealt with smoke. Apart from the stink, smoke doesn't do much really. As I do loads of live work, I've used nice mics in haze filled spaces and never thought about it - and stages get slimy as the oil in the haze eventually lands on the floor and other surfaces. You touch things that have a light film of slippery gunge on it, and haze is much. much more horrible than nicotine and burnt paper in the air from smokers.
 
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