Extreme heat can cause significant damage to electronics
Erika McGuire
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
With extreme temperatures expected to linger in Mid-Missouri, cellphones and other electronic devices could be at risk for serious heat damage.
If you’re not careful, that damage could leave you with a hefty repair bill — or worse, needing a full replacement. High temperatures can cause phones, tablets, and even laptops to overheat, leading to battery damage or breaking.
iBuy Phone Repair owner Russell Scott has been in the phone repair industry for nearly 17 years and said many customers come in during the summer months for heat-related issues.
“I see a lot of phones coming in with swollen batteries,, mainly held together by adhesives and glues usually when something gets hot especially with a adhesive or glue what happens it will break down so what happens is phones will separate, the screens will separate the backs with separate,”
Scott says sometimes the damage is so severe, the phone can’t be fixed.
“It can mess up the hardware, the main board itself, sometimes when the battery expands and the battery gets too hot it can damage the board as wells,” Scott said. “Definitely the battery the screen as well because sometimes when the battery swells up, it’s going to push against that screen.”
Scott said the most-common mistake people make is leaving a phone in direct sunlight like on a car dashboard or on the beach.
ABC 17 News tested how quickly a phone can overheat. An iPhone was placed on a car dashboard at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday and within five minutes the phone received a temperature notification, warning the phone needs to cool down before it could be used again.
Scott warns, to cool a phone down, do not put it in a freezer or refrigerator because it can make the damage worse by causing condensation inside the phone.
Others ways you can protect your device are:
Don’t leave electronics in a hot car;
Remove phone cases when cooling down;
Turn the phone off if it starts to overheat; and
Avoid charging in extreme heat.