when is it too cold?

UnkulBuck

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I have a game in a friend's unheated garage. The temp today is 52 which I believe is safe to fire it up and work on it. But what approxiamtely is the coldest a room/game should be before you fire it up?
 
Alot can depend on the overal condition of the electronics. There was a thread recently where a guy fired up a game after bringing it in the house from a garage that was in the mid 40s and he had some failurers
 
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My garage runs in the mid to upper 50's in the wintertime... no worries.

I've fired up games in the upper 40's... hell, maybe even the lower 40's... but it's a very dry climate here.
 
It's the moisture that is the problem. Colder temps are fine, but going from cold to hot and getting moisture build up, then turning them on is bad.
 
I have turned mine on at or near freezing with no problems. I live in the desert though, so moisture is not an issue. I usually try to wait until the garage is in the 40s or 50s though.
 
My rule of thumb is that if it is too cold for me in a regular long sleeve shirt, it is too cold. That puts it at a dry upper 40's or a damp mid 50's.

If you are getting much colder than that, you might want to consider storing the bezels and backglasses in the house. When it is that cold the paint on the glass becomes brittle and when the glass shrinks because of the cold the paint shrinks also, but it can begin to lose adhesion to the glass and fine cracks will appear. Heat doesn't seem to be as much of an issue as the paint is more pliable when it is warm and so it streches and maintains adhesion.

ken
 
temp

it doesnt matter if you live in a dry climate or not guys! if your games board and monitor are cold and you turn it on, electronics make heat and the heat combining with the cold tempatures will make moisture. electronics worst enemy. matt
 
The shop I used to work at was 30 degrees in the winter. There was one room with heat where I would usually move games into so I could work on them. However, I did sometimes turn on games in the main area that were quite cold. Never had any problems. I have kept games in sub freezing garages and fired them up whenever I wanted with no malfunctions.
 
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My rule is to only turn on the machines once the heaters have the garage up to at least 58. Usually I wait for it to get above 60.
 
If you run a CRT in extreme cold temperatures, you run the risk of cracking the glass in the neck of your tube. The electron guns in the neck have small heaters that help the guns be more emissive with respect to electrons. Some of this heat makes it to the nearby glass in the neck. This can lead to thermal expansion in the glass, which can cause a crack.

I have not seen this happen, but I certainly wouldn't risk it by firing up all of my games in freezing temperatures.
 
It's the moisture that is the problem. Colder temps are fine, but going from cold to hot and getting moisture build up, then turning them on is bad.

Yup, I agree. If it's really cold though, you've got to keep in mind that the monitor itself is going to create heat, which in a cold situation may create moisture.

I've fired them up in a 'dry cold' situation in the 30's with no problems before. I live in the south though so it rarely gets very cold here anyways, you'll have to talk to some guys from up north to get the real skinny.

I did have several games in an ice skating rink where I would estimate it was in the 40's in the area they were in, and never had any issues.
 
Oh, and another thing: total opposite of that, but I've actually seen believe it or not, direct sunlight crack THE FRONT of a tube in half on a game. I saw it do it to a game I had, and saw two or three other machines it had done it to that other people owned. So if you ever move a game on a really sunny day, keep the tube away from the direct sunlight.
 
My Golden Tee Fore isn't a big fan of the cold. In the 40s, I have to turn the power on, wait a few minutes for it to warm up then turn it off and on again to get it to start up. I think it may be the hard drive more than the PCB that doesn't like the cold.
 
Man i suffered with a garagecade for a few years.

down to around 50 is as far as youll want to push it.

Also keep in mind when the temperatue flucuates, the game will sweat literally like a beerccan on a humid day. NOT GOOD for the electronics or the mdf most of out beloved games are made of.

I cured the sweating by lining the whole garage in plastic and then using two space heaters on 24/7. Not the best setup but it worked. It kept it around 50-60 depending on how cold it was outside and bieng the temp was more constant the sweating stopped.

You could use a couple different type heaters mabye the oil filler radiator type or the baseboard type and have a little bit safer heat, but again it did work.
 
Oh, and another thing: total opposite of that, but I've actually seen believe it or not, direct sunlight crack THE FRONT of a tube in half on a game. .

there was a thread about that here in the last year or so.

as far as cold, i think the main things you have to worry about are a) cold solder joints, 2) moisture depending on your climate/going from cold to hot to cold, d) freezing your balls off in the garage, and 5) as others have said, art flaking due to temperatures. for all those reasons, my games are in my house.
 
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