Worried about my computer / monitor being in the heat in my car while traveling

Kasyn

So I'm in the process of moving and will be stopping in a few different places along the way for work. Should be about 4 days of travel. Meanwhile I'm bringing up another wave of items, my desktop and monitor finally included.

My worry is that I'm in California and even outside of SoCal it's getting pretty goddamn hot. Is my computer and/or monitor in danger being left in my car during the day? Anything I can do to protect it, besides parking in the shade and keeping them covered?

useless4

Figure the internal heat of your computer when running is quite hot you should be ok. Obviously let it cool down some before powering it up though.

Athenor

The heat that you'd run a CPU core at is a lot higher than the heat you'd allow your case to get to. Plus, cars are ovens - they retain heat like nobody's business. The last thing you want is your various components expanding beyond tolerances, especially something like your hard disks or the solder on your motherboard. And this is before you even consider your monitor, which has glass and other components in it that don't exactly like heat.

I think you're probably going to aim for your car to be 110-120 at the max inside.

Keeping in mind that I've never actually done anything like you are doing, here are my recommendations:

1) If you feel safe doing it, crack your windows a little to vent hot air. This will drastically drop the internal temperature, as the air will keep circulating.

2) Do not have your components any place where light will directly hit them. The sun's heat is a radiant source, obviously, so direct impact with rays will be much hotter than in a cranny somewhere. Also, most PCs/Monitors these days are black, which will absorb that radiation and retain it for a long time. Keep in mind that something like a blanket or other items will go a long way to blocking out that radiant heat, and it'll also act as insulation. Even better if you get the AC going and build up some coldness in the insulation (before opening your windows to vent it, of course. )

3) Those reflectors for the windshield actually do their jobs.

Kasyn

Great, this has put my mind at ease a bit. Mostly stuff I was planning on doing anyhow.

Thanks!

Pirusu

I just did this. It's by no means GOOD for your components, but I moved from North Carolina to Texas, and my computer case, monitors, AVR, and consoles, were all sitting in my car in the gross Houston heat for days before I pulled them inside. Nothing was hit by direct sunlight, most of it was in the trunk, so following Athenor's advice should do you great.

Everything still worked when I finally got it all inside.

wonderpug

Precautions are a good idea, since why not? But I think you're going to be just fine. People order computers and monitors over the internet all the time, and it's not like cargo planes and semi trucks are nice and cool.

Beazle

Keep the parts below 190F and you will be fine. You are more likely to hurt the computer from vibrating something loose than from heat.

Bowen

Yup. The heat of a car is pretty low compared to internal PC heat, obviously cool it with an AC while you're driving and park in the shade/get window reflectors. Don't leave a computer chilling in a car for 12 hours at a time in 110+ heat.

ZYI

We moved from Texas to Washington state a few years ago it was 115 degrees when we left Texas. Our computers were stored in the back of a 16' truck for the entire trip. They did just fine. If you are truly worried then you can always place your computer inside of a cooler, it will be insulated and will protect your components, just be sure not to open the cooler for the trip. But to be honest I believe that some blankets and the floorboard will be fine especially if you have air conditioning in your car. You wouldn't believe the conditions they ship your parts/computers in to your home/store.