Electronics in Freezer - Safe?


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Is it safe to put any electronic in freezer? Lets say a water resistant phone put in a air tight bag and then thrown in freezer. Would it be safe?

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I would say no, because water vapor exists everywhere (including tight spaces in your electronics and an air-tight bag) and will freeze and expand, possibly causing damage.

 

If it doesn't, then the un-thawing process will certainly introduce water into places it really shouldn't be, even on a water-resistant phone.

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Condensation is bad.

It could/should be fine though, as long as you give it enough time to come back up to room temperature, and let any moisture evaporate.

Can I ask why you're asking?

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Without knowing the reason behind the inquiry, as a general rule...not a good idea. If you are testing thermal snags, a gradual controlled cooling is always better as condensation is an issue. Design parameters for electronics are only as good as the weakest component in the design. The operating parameters for the device should be listed such as temperature extremes but ambient temperature for the device is for expected performance. Plain answer is moisture and electronics, not good... :)

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Why would you put electronics into the freezer to begin with?

What I'd like to know too.

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Is it safe to put any electronic in freezer?

No.

Lets say a water resistant phone put in a air tight bag and then thrown in freezer. Would it be safe?

Yes. Household freezers don't get cold.
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Why would you put electronics into the freezer to begin with?

 

I have my PC in the freezer so I can overclock it more.

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I have my PC in the freezer so I can overclock it more.

Go all out and use liquid Helium as coolant.
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I wouldn't recommend it, but think about car electronics. They have stereos, LCD displays, computers, etc and they sit out in the freezing cold all the time. It was 20 below zero here for a few nights this past winter but it didn't hurt anything. Still seems like an odd thing to do though, why do you want to put them in the freezer?

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I wouldn't recommend it, but think about car electronics. They have stereos, LCD displays, computers, etc and they sit out in the freezing cold all the time. It was 20 below zero here for a few nights this past winter but it didn't hurt anything. Still seems like an odd thing to do though, why do you want to put them in the freezer?

Different specs, a car radio would be using industrial parts, -40c to 100c, phones would be using the cheaper commercial parts with a temperature range of 0c to 85c.

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My quantum computer only works in a freezer.  Bringing it just above absolute zero is the only way I can catch those little suckers !
Like herding cats.  Nobody ever told me how hard it was to do this whole quantum state entanglement thing - I tried using salad tongs, tweezers, even my hand - but keep coming up short... besides, its a bit cold, but dont know another way to slow it down.  Maybe time travel - special relativity suggest I can slow it down... I'll try that.

The lengths one will go to just to play a darned game.

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OK Why?

 

I remember in the 90s I think people found you could reset car stereos if you put them in a freezer. I knew someone who did that. 

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OK Why?

 

I remember in the 90s I think people found you could reset car stereos if you put them in a freezer. I knew someone who did that. 

I think that's an urban myth personally. The key code will be stored in an EEPROM somewhere, which is more than capable of being stored at a low temperature, and the 'has key been entered?' config will be in SRAM, once you disconnect the power the SRAM contents are lost and it's all random and jumbled, putting it into a freezer isn't likely to do much other than jumble up the random memory contents more.

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Putting a broken hard drive in the freezer is usually good for getting a few more hours useful life out of it (enough time to get important information off of it)

But that's about it. 

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lol this is the strangest topic I've seen in a while.

 

That being said, depending on what caused it to die ive been able to bring hdds back from the dead long enough to get data off them, by freezing them.

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lol this is the strangest topic I've seen in a while.

 

That being said, depending on what caused it to die ive been able to bring hdds back from the dead long enough to get data off them, by freezing them.

 

I agree it's strange. And, I didn't know about this.

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Is it safe to put any electronic in freezer? Lets say a water resistant phone put in a air tight bag and then thrown in freezer. Would it be safe?

i speculate you are trying to fix an wifi antenna issue on an iPhone? I wouldn't do the freezer thing, but the hair dryer method works... sometimes for while, some times only for a day.

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I am trying to track down an entangled qubit - I put it in the freezer, and it disappeared.  If anyone finds it, please keep it in its q state - and return it promptly - thanks

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I am trying to track down an entangled qubit - I put it in the freezer, and it disappeared.  If anyone finds it, please keep it in its q state - and return it promptly - thanks

Wasn't that how you 'lost it' to begin with? :p

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Putting a broken hard drive in the freezer is usually good for getting a few more hours useful life out of it (enough time to get important information off of it)

But that's about it. 

I've heard that too, personally it didn't work for me, but still...

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