Can electronics freeze?

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I’m currently cold-weather camping, and I’m worried my phone will freeze.

EDIT: Felt like I needed to clarify this, it’s about 35° F, or 1.6° C.

In: 3

15 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Yes/No.

Electronics like a computer chip won’t be much affected but battery life can be severely reduced in cold weather, expect your charges to die quickly and be prepared for that. As the “L” in LCD screen is “liquid” that can freeze as well.

Long story short, depending on how cold your cold is going to be, I might leave my devices at home. I would potentially plan on no cell phone, ipad or laptop, but something like a 2-way radio might be OK, but again, expect problems with screens and batteries.

EDIT: For what’s it’s worth, if you’re asking this kind of question I would personally be concerned about cold weather camping for you. I’m a somewhat experienced camper and anything below 40F request special gear and experience. My sub-40F gear cost me roughly $1,000 and is a completely separate set of gear than I’d carry for a normal hiking trip. Even then, I’d only trust that gear for a somewhat uncomfortable 25-40F trip, I wouldn’t go south of that. Even if your gear is advertised as being rated for those ranges, that’s typically for “survival”, you don’t want to be pushing the survivability limit on your gear for a recreational trip.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Yes/No.

Electronics like a computer chip won’t be much affected but battery life can be severely reduced in cold weather, expect your charges to die quickly and be prepared for that. As the “L” in LCD screen is “liquid” that can freeze as well.

Long story short, depending on how cold your cold is going to be, I might leave my devices at home. I would potentially plan on no cell phone, ipad or laptop, but something like a 2-way radio might be OK, but again, expect problems with screens and batteries.

EDIT: For what’s it’s worth, if you’re asking this kind of question I would personally be concerned about cold weather camping for you. I’m a somewhat experienced camper and anything below 40F request special gear and experience. My sub-40F gear cost me roughly $1,000 and is a completely separate set of gear than I’d carry for a normal hiking trip. Even then, I’d only trust that gear for a somewhat uncomfortable 25-40F trip, I wouldn’t go south of that. Even if your gear is advertised as being rated for those ranges, that’s typically for “survival”, you don’t want to be pushing the survivability limit on your gear for a recreational trip.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Yes/No.

Electronics like a computer chip won’t be much affected but battery life can be severely reduced in cold weather, expect your charges to die quickly and be prepared for that. As the “L” in LCD screen is “liquid” that can freeze as well.

Long story short, depending on how cold your cold is going to be, I might leave my devices at home. I would potentially plan on no cell phone, ipad or laptop, but something like a 2-way radio might be OK, but again, expect problems with screens and batteries.

EDIT: For what’s it’s worth, if you’re asking this kind of question I would personally be concerned about cold weather camping for you. I’m a somewhat experienced camper and anything below 40F request special gear and experience. My sub-40F gear cost me roughly $1,000 and is a completely separate set of gear than I’d carry for a normal hiking trip. Even then, I’d only trust that gear for a somewhat uncomfortable 25-40F trip, I wouldn’t go south of that. Even if your gear is advertised as being rated for those ranges, that’s typically for “survival”, you don’t want to be pushing the survivability limit on your gear for a recreational trip.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Your human body will break due to cold weather long before your phone does. The only difference is that your lithium battery will last much less, chemistry and all.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Your human body will break due to cold weather long before your phone does. The only difference is that your lithium battery will last much less, chemistry and all.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Your human body will break due to cold weather long before your phone does. The only difference is that your lithium battery will last much less, chemistry and all.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Kind of.

The battery will be the first to die in cold weather. The chemistry in batteries does not like cold weather.

Depending on how cold we’re talking your camera may fail. Specifically any shutters/focussing mechanisms it has. They can be mechanical and can freeze.

Actual electronics will not be impacted too much. Older screen technology would play up a bit, but I doubt it bothers new ones. If you get super, super cold then the electronics will perform unusually which would likely cause it to be non functional, but those kind of temperatures would probably kill you first!

Anonymous 0 Comments

Kind of.

The battery will be the first to die in cold weather. The chemistry in batteries does not like cold weather.

Depending on how cold we’re talking your camera may fail. Specifically any shutters/focussing mechanisms it has. They can be mechanical and can freeze.

Actual electronics will not be impacted too much. Older screen technology would play up a bit, but I doubt it bothers new ones. If you get super, super cold then the electronics will perform unusually which would likely cause it to be non functional, but those kind of temperatures would probably kill you first!

Anonymous 0 Comments

Kind of.

The battery will be the first to die in cold weather. The chemistry in batteries does not like cold weather.

Depending on how cold we’re talking your camera may fail. Specifically any shutters/focussing mechanisms it has. They can be mechanical and can freeze.

Actual electronics will not be impacted too much. Older screen technology would play up a bit, but I doubt it bothers new ones. If you get super, super cold then the electronics will perform unusually which would likely cause it to be non functional, but those kind of temperatures would probably kill you first!

Anonymous 0 Comments

Batteries and electrolytic capacitors might be the most vulnerable things, followed by anything mechanical that could go out of tolerances from thermal contraction. In some cases, solder joints can also break from mechanical stress from thermal expansion/contraction. Anything that could be exposed to moisture may also present problems, but that’s due to icing and water expanding as it freezes. The rest probably has much less issues.

It’s one of those things where it falls into “It depends…”