Lcd's And Low Temps

[Mikaila31]

The stereo in my car has a little 3" LCD touch screen that I got this summer. I live in Wisconsin and it was about 20*F this morning when I was driving to school. I noticed the screen was slow, it was doing the same thing my cellphone does if I leave it in the car during winter. I'm guessing this is something I should try to avoid? How cold can you let LCD screens get before they start getting damaged? The face of the stereo comes off, as a anti-theft device. Bringing the face in at night won't be a problem. I could probably find a hard case to put it in and keep it in my backpack during the day.

The thing is, it gets really cold here in Wisconsin and its not uncommon for it stay below or close to zero for days at a time. When its this cold I give my car extra time to warm up, cuz if I have issues with it if I don't. (Learned the hard way when I just hopped in and took off when it was -18*F last year. I was only going 5 miles . I didn't even make 2 miles, then my clutch went out and I had to crawl back home in 1st gear.) But anyway my car is no where near warm when I start driving in the morning. I'm worried the screen might get too cold, before I get enough heat to warm up the inside of my car. Is there a way to tell if its getting to cold, besides it just being slow?

Also I'm guessing the unit itself has a little hard drive in it. Can the unit be damaged by operating it while its too cold. Are there certain features I shouldn't use? I normally just listen to music off my thumb drive, which sticks into the face. But its also got radio, disc(dvd or cd), SD card and blue tooth. Can the cold effect any of these functions? Also what about the tiny remote?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mikaila31

 

[keenonfish]

did you not get instructions with the head unit? Should list the recommended environment... I would say your greatest problem is a sudden change in temperature such that condensation is allowed to build up internally so basically when you turn your heater on full whack is where problems are most likely to start, but car stereos are quite tough in general
Regarding the display yes LCD's are quite sluggish when cold (they are *almost* mechanical in operation after all!) perfectly normal and I am not aware of any possible damage but maybe contact the manufacturer for advice.

 

[alchemist]

A standard LCD should store ok down to -20 'c and operate from -10 'c and up - just let it warm up a little before use.

Condensation is probably a bigger issue and also hard drive, rapid temperature change is not good for a hard drive.

 

[Mikaila31]

did you not get instructions with the head unit? Should list the recommended environment... I would say your greatest problem is a sudden change in temperature such that condensation is allowed to build up internally so basically when you turn your heater on full whack is where problems are most likely to start, but car stereos are quite tough in general
Regarding the display yes LCD's are quite sluggish when cold (they are *almost* mechanical in operation after all!) perfectly normal and I am not aware of any possible damage but maybe contact the manufacturer for advice.

They do mention the condensation in the manual. "If using in-car heat make sure to wipe any condensation off the disc before operating the unit. It may take the unit a few hours before it will operate."

The manual isn't very good from what I've found. The unit works OK, except for some getting some clicking in the audio on certain settings. I notice on one screen that two words, suppose to be "song" and "artist" are in Chinese or something instead of in English .