Now that I have my empeg installed in my car I have been thinking about how well the unit will hold up against various environmental (weather) conditions. I live in New England (US) where we experience EVERY type of weather condition: everything from sub-zero winters to steamy, humid summers to damp, moist spring days (like today).

Taking this into account, should I be concerned about leaving the empeg in my car? I will usually remove the unit when I will not be driving but there will be times when I would like to leave the unit in my car (under the seat, in the glove box, etc.)

Hopefully I'm not re-posting a question asked in the past. I did a search but could not find this topic covered.



Scott (00342)

Taking this into account, should I be concerned about leaving the empeg in my car?

The only environmental concerns are those for the laptop hard drive. Elsewhere on this BBS, folks have been talking about how well they hold up to extreme temperatures, but I have no experience in this matter since I don't ever leave the unit in the car by itself.

Which brings me to my next point: Don't leave the unit in the car. Especially not under the seat or in the glove box. It really will get stolen if you do that. Get one of the Empeg carry cases, and take the thing with you all the time. Once you get into the habit of doing that, it's not a big deal and fairly easy to handle. I can't stress this point enough: Aftermarket stereos (of any kind) are simply a target. The fact that the Empeg is a full pull-out is one of its best features. Take advantage of that feature.

Even if you plan on leaving it only for a few minutes in broad daylight, try to get in the habit of bringing it with you anyhow. Both times I got my stereo stolen, I was in a situation where I thought the car would be relatively safe and it wouldn't be parked there for long. Unforseen circumstances arose and the car was left sitting there longer than expected, and I returned to find the car vandalized.

Tony Fabris
Empeg #144

Scott,
Welcome to the club!
We have players installed from Alaska to Florida (and probably even more extreme climates), and there has not been a weather-reported problem. The most weather-sensitive component would probably be the hard drive, and Empeg Ltd. uses very good quality Laptop drives, tested by the manufacturer. So, if you could run a laptop, you can run the Empeg. Also, the car it's installed in will provide SOME shelter from nature's wrath.
This has been covered before; maybe you could search on 'Alaska'...
Jason

_~= Dearing =~_
"WAY too happy about having #99."

This has been covered before; maybe you could search on 'Alaska'...

This is the second thread recently where I've seen folks unable to come up with a proper search result for information I know is on this BBS. I have a theory as to why...

The wwwthreads "search" page has poor defaults. It defaults to searching only the "Bug reports" forum instead of all forums, and only for the 1-week-prior period.

Mister Board Admin... if you're reading this, can those defaults be changed? If not, can the text at the top of the search page be edited to add a message: "WARNING: Make sure to select All Forums before searching" or something like that?

Tony Fabris
Empeg #144

Something I have noticed, as the weather has gotten warmer...

Has any extensive testing been done to simulate "sitting in direct view of the sun in a convertible with the top down on a sunny day?"

I know my unit comes out my dashboard "awful damn hot!" (to the point where it is painful to touch the handle and I'm happy to now have a carry case to put it in).

Has any extensive testing been done to simulate "sitting in direct view of the sun in a convertible with the top down on a sunny day?"

I don't think such testing is possible in England.

Tony Fabris
Empeg #144

What about being stuck in the oven.... errr car, in Phoenix during the summer? We hit over 100 twice this week so far. I think its going to be a long summer.

We have published our supported environmental tolerances on the web site (Tech page). These are essentially the stated tolerances of the hard drives.

In practice we are aware that car players are being used in far harsher conditions (both hot and cold) and we haven't yet heard of a disk (or any other) failure as a result. It seems that the product is very tolerant of such conditions, but we must advise that it is only used within the limits that we have stated.

If we were to ever get a warranty issue involving a fried disk, and the drive manufacturer post mortem indicated usage outside of tolerated environmental limits, we would certainly consider charging for the replacement part. Those post mortem tests are remarkably accurate.

Rob