When it is cold out, it is very easy to break/fatigue equipment by heating it up too fast while other components are still cold.

My question is: When it is cold, can I play my stereo at a low volume or should I not play it at all until the car is warmed up?

Can I start off at a low volume, and gradually increase the power as the equipment warms up (regardless of the car's temperature)?

 

I'm sure it really won't do much damage if you run it loud when it's cold (correct me if I'm wrong), but I have always just turn off my subwoofer preout and run at lower volumes until it's toasty in my car.

Car stereo equipment is built to take a lot of abuse...I have had speakers absolutely drenched and then freeze (damn crappy weatherstripping) after they warmed up and dried off a bit, they worked like they were new.

[ October 22, 2003, 02:28 PM: Message edited by: chaos ]

 

What I do (right, wrong, whatever) is just play the radio at moderate volume until the car is warm, then slide in a cd.

My g/f never listens to the radio in her car, fires up a cd right away. Hasn't caused any problems to date. [img]graemlins/dunno.gif[/img]

Gene.

 

How come I never think of these things? I pop in a CD and there is nothing to apparently worry about. [img]graemlins/dunno.gif[/img]

 

This question comes up every winter.
The general consenses has been....no damaged will be caused.

Your friendly neighborhood search function...use it or lose it!!!

 

Yes I started a thread like this last year. Had about 25+ replies adding opinions to it. I guess in that thread, it was concluded that letting things warm up for a few minutes might be a good idea, but there was no proof that using a cd player right away would cause any damage. However it was mentioned that heating your amp up or cooling it down too fast may cause condensation on the inside of the amp and possibly damage it, when it's like 20 below out! I think everyone pretty much agreed that you should let the cabin warm up a bit before you start running things.

 

In fact here is the thread!

http://www.canadiancaraudio.com/cgi/...=005366#000000

 

I put my subs in my room for the winter but thats just me, I guess.

 

what i usually do is lety it play at a lower level for 5 - 10 minutes till th voice coils warm-up