Smoke's effect on hardware

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generalchaos316

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I live in an apartment and don't really have the opportunity (yet) to record a full band on my premises due to the noise issue. As a result, I have had to limit my recordings to offsite projects and most recently, I am trying to get into live recordings at venues (i.e. bars). However, I am not sure if I want to take my expensive (to me) equipment there due to the smoke.

Pretty much every piece of used studio gear always seems to tell whether it was used in a smoke free environment or not, letting the potential buyer know what kind of quality the guts are in. I have been building and repairing computers for almost 10 years now and definitely know the role dust and other airborne elements can cause on a PC's health. Smokers' computers were always the worst because some of their parts literally turned yellow from the chemicals that got into them.

It got me wondering though...with proper maintenance cleanings (openeing it up and blowing the crap out) of equipment that was taken to such a harsh environment, would that reduce the weathering on the gear? What is it about the smoke that causes such a problem with the circuitry? And finally, while opinions based on experiences are usually pretty well founded, is there any "hard facts" from studies done on the matter?
 
But for serious, I haven't had personal experience with it actually messing anything up, but it does make things smell skanky, feel icky, and if you bring something that's smoked up into a smoke free environment, you WILL notice it.

Hmm, I just now realized since smoking's been banned in bars, I didn't smell like shit when I left. What is the world coming to? I don't even smoke and it's just wrong not to smell skanky when I get done kicking out the jams at some hole in the wall. :(
 
Sloan said:
Smoke's natural tar coating enhances mojo and tone.
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yeah, and that naturally sticky loveliness is like a drop zone for dust and the like. the surface gets sticky from the particulate, then crap sticks to it. then more tars, and more crap. repeating over and over. not long aog, i completely disassembled my mackie fr-m800 amp to clean it, which had spent a lot of its life in smoky smelly environments, mostly in bars and clubs. it has a fairly hi-flow fan right in the middle that pulls air in the front, over the heat sinks, and out the back and sides. it was gunked to the point that compressed air alone wasnt enough to get it all. cleaning the fan blades (with an alcohol soaked q-tip) produced a dark brown resinous substance that looked like something in between the scuz that gets on ceiling fans and a brown hash ball. how could this be anything but bad? not only is it bound to be an insulator (heat), but you know that it sticks to everything, including electrical contacts.

if youve frequently played in these smaller and smoke filled places, you will remember what all of your gear smelled like in your bands trailer or in your living room. it can be overpowering. when i was playing 3-4 nights a week, my whole life kind of started to smell like that. didnt help that the majority of the band members not only smoked, but smoked true stinkers, like newports (and weed, but that is another story). to this day, i can pick out mentholated smoke from throwing distance. blech.

a
 
Soon the Smoking Police will ban smoking everywhere so you won't need to worry much longer. But if you are overweight beware as the Obesity Police are not far behind them......:):D
 
Well ... most of my rack gear is in these in these things called cases.

They're really neat. The way it works is that there's this metal casing that surrounds all of the electronics.

I can go and play tackle football with just about any one of my mic pres or compressors ... and they'll probably get pretty messed up, but no sweat or dirt actually gets on the electonic components. It's really neat how that all works. :D

If you are currently exposing all of your electronics to the air, then I would highly recommend that you, too, get some of these revolutionary metal cases!

You'll thank me for it later.
 
ido1957 said:
Soon the Smoking Police will ban smoking everywhere so you won't need to worry much longer. But if you are overweight beware as the Obesity Police are not far behind them......:):D
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Well, sorry you're taking it badly. The fact is, tobacco smoke is bad for your lungs AND bad for your gear. Your lungs are your business, but my gear is MY business. NOBODY smokes in my studio. Sorry, but whatever pleasure you get from smoking does not recompense me for damage to delicate electronics.

I'm an ex-smoker, myself. In 1970 I did the math and dropped it, and haven't smoked since. Do yourself a favor and quit.

Somebody mentioned tobacco smell...I bought a lovely cotton tweed case for my '50s Precison bass. Then I found out it soaks up smoke at gigs like a sponge. Every night when I drove home my car smelled like an ashtray. Yuck.
 
Daisy said:
Well ... most of my rack gear is in these in these things called cases.

They're really neat. The way it works is that there's this metal casing that surrounds all of the electronics.

I can go and play tackle football with just about any one of my mic pres or compressors ... and they'll probably get pretty messed up, but no sweat or dirt actually gets on the electonic components. It's really neat how that all works. :D

If you are currently exposing all of your electronics to the air, then I would highly recommend that you, too, get some of these revolutionary metal cases!

You'll thank me for it later.
Click to expand...

HOLY tar and nicotine Batman!! I have to get some of these revolutionary metal cases that I can access the front and back of during a live gig when my equipment is exposed to all that smoke and it not get in the equipment. What will they think of next? A case that I can play a guitar in so my Paul doesn't end up smelling like smoke too.:D
 
Daisy said:
Well ... most of my rack gear is in these in these things called cases.

They're really neat. The way it works is that there's this metal casing that surrounds all of the electronics.

I can go and play tackle football with just about any one of my mic pres or compressors ... and they'll probably get pretty messed up, but no sweat or dirt actually gets on the electonic components. It's really neat how that all works. :D

If you are currently exposing all of your electronics to the air, then I would highly recommend that you, too, get some of these revolutionary metal cases!

You'll thank me for it later.
Click to expand...

wow daisy, how do your power amps fare with no ventilation? or should "fare" be changed to "fire"? if you honestly think a rack case is going to keep the smoke-laden air out of something that requires forced-air cooling, then you really should re-evaluate your beliefs and information, or you should open your cases before something else opens, like your output section.

a
 
toobalicious said:
wow daisy, how do your power amps fare with no ventilation? or should "fare" be changed to "fire"? if you honestly think a rack case is going to keep the smoke-laden air out of something that requires forced-air cooling, then you really should re-evaluate your beliefs and information, or you should open your cases before something else opens, like your output section.
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I don't need a power amp for my recording gear.

Let the FOH guys worry about all that live sound stuff.

Not part of my world.

:D
 
Aside from smelling bad (well documented in previous posts), and leaving a yellow layer of tar on the surface of the exposed electronics... It would appear as though the damage is limited to just that...

There doesn't appear to be any documented evidence of cigarette smoke containing caustics strong enough to actually break down discrete components... but it can interfere with mechanical contacts... any components with an air gap between. Hard drives, DVDs (lazer), pots, relays, etc, but this would be after substantial repeated exposure.

An occasional club gig would be insignificant...

I wouldn't worry about it...
 
MOFO Pro said:
... any components with an air gap between. Hard drives, DVDs (lazer), pots, relays, etc, but this would be after substantial repeated exposure.
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Good point except for hard drives. They are factory seal air tight in an environment cleaner than a operating room.:)
 
MOFO Pro said:
I wouldn't worry about it...
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I don't worry about it, I just forbid smoking in my studio. Unfortunately, one side effect is that the parking looks like an ashtray, because the smokers all go outside and dump their crap all over when they're through.
 
Smoke going into gear is not a problem - it's the smoke that comes out that destroys it.
 
During my live gigging days, every bar we played in (and that was lots of 'em) was thick with cigarette smoke. We never noticed any equipment problems because of it.

I would think that the equipment most susceptible would be things with fans that pull air over the components, and even this shoudn't be an issue as long as there is a filter installed.
 
Soon the Smoking Police will ban smoking everywhere so you won't need to worry much longer
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damn right they will...i know all the smokers out there think it's their god-given "right" to light up wherever they want...but guess what? nobody else wants to smell your disgusting habit.

imagine that every time you went out, all the people around you were really big into pulling a lump of shit out of their pocket every 20 minutes and waving it around for everyone to smell...if you were 1 of the people who weren't so much into having a shit log wafting into your nostrils, you'd be all for a ban on turds in enclosed buildings.

last, the smoking bans in bars/restaurants/etc. are meant more for the employees than they are for the non-smoking patrons...i know the whole second-hand smoke thing comes off as pretty silly, but imagine being 1 of the people who has to work in a smoke-filled hole for 40+ hours/week...it's been shown that people who work in smoky environments have smoking-related health issues, even if they don't smoke themselves.

and in regards to the original topic...i can't imagine smoking being good for any gear, but when you realize how much gear lived for years in smoky studios, i think most stuff would work just fine, as long as it's cleaned/dusted semi-regularly. 1 thing to remember is that not only does the smoke give everything that gooey tar-coating, but that there's tons of extra dust created by the little bits of ash that float around. in the end, i guess as long as you keep the shit away from your mics, you should be alright.
 
solo2racr said:
Good point except for hard drives. They are factory seal air tight in an environment cleaner than a operating room.:)
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They aren't airtight I'm sorry to say. They have a small hole in the case somewhere usually with a filter installed. Tear one apart, you'll see.
 
Short exposure isn't going to harm any electronics. If you park you gear in permanent install in a Texas roadhouse, you might want to clean it once a year.
 
HangDawg said:
They aren't airtight I'm sorry to say. They have a small hole in the case somewhere usually with a filter installed. Tear one apart, you'll see.
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Yeah... that's where you oil it... proper maintenance requires a drop of light weight machine oil every one billion revolutions or so, keeps that platters spinning freely...







...but please don't try this at home... EVER
 
Smoke gets into the gear and gunks up the switches and pots. Don't think that because the gear has a metal case that the smoke isn't getting inside--it is.
 
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