Nord User Forum

Hi,

I know this is obviously not a best practice. I am obsessive about taking good care of my equipment and would never do this normally. But I have really long day and an important gig later. Packing it up now and leaving it in the car all day will save me 90 minutes of driving and would allow for some much-needed rest.

What would you do?

We don't know where exactly you live.

According to a YT video ("Nord factory tour"), every instrument suffers a 48h stress test with 40° C - called the "sauna" session. Which means 40° C are already stress for the instrument. No idea what the key lubricant does if it gets warmer.

If ever I left my Nord in a car, I'd make sure that the car wouldn't be directly exposed to the sun - because that easily produces 50~70° C inside the car. Which will probably be too much. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any specification for tolerable temperature or humidity ranges in the manual.

40 only?? Wtf?? When i set up a gig with my company and my employees at summer in greece we start at morning lets say for example 11 o clock at 15:00 is the hottest part of the day which can have 45 C and around 40 under a tree shadow…all the mixers speakers keyboards drums are on stage usually covered with their flight cases or dust covers.. but when we wait at 17:00 the band and singers for soundcheck all these must be on and play… i remember my self i couldnt touch the soundcraft si mixer i had my hand burn.. also my ipad closed cause of heat..

After all i never had any problem with all the equipment.. everything still works in order..

But i dont know if i would take out my nord in this situation.. only if i had some umbrellas for it

I once had my Stage 2 at an outside gig. It was about 95F, so I thought I would cover it with the soft case. Bad idea, when we went to play, the organ section wouldn't work and the machine was doing things on its own. After things cooled down, the instrument went back to normal.

I wouldn't do it. I would drop it off at a friend, business or anywhere else. Inside of a car can get extremely hot in an hour, let alone a day-

-dj

I don't know where you live, but my main concern about leaving a multi-thousand dollar instrument in the car all day, would definitely NOT be the heat.

95 °F is 35 °C, which is a very normal temperature for the European summer, on average, and it could even be considered "chilly" for some part of the world. There's no way such a temperature can damage a computer-like device, which is what an electronic keyboard is.

FZiegler: I can't find the YT video now, but I remember the temperature was higher than 40 °C, perhaps 46 °C or so, which is a big difference (incidentally, 40 °C is also very different than 35). But such temperature is "already a stress" for the instrument *if the instrument is powered on and operating*. The CPU gets much warmer than the ambient temperature when it's on.

That said I would be a bit cautious leaving a keyboard or a computer in a car all day in summer (temperatures can go way much higher than 40 °C), but I doubt that even doing so would cause any damage. We all have CD (and now MP3) players in our cars. How many of them did ever fail on us because of the heat? Not to mention they often are exposed to the direct sunlight as well. The same goes for cellphones. We are surrounded by computers all around all the time, and I don't think computers in Africa have a higher rate of failure than the ones in Alaska...

40°C according to this video.

I approached the question from the specs side. We discussed that 40° C item before (couldn't find the thread for the moment) where it was considered quite low from some before. I'll concede immediately that there might be a safety zone for real life, but I keep claiming that the heat in a car already after one hour in the sun might be too high even if only stored, not played. I don't think it needs to be a problem for the electronics, though. My concern is on the mechanical side, and on the long run.

Hey thanks for all these tips. I decided against it. Did the extra driving. It was not worth the risk. Love my board too much.

Off to the gig.

All of the electronics components are rated to OPERATE normally at 70°C or less (circuit boards, resistors, capacitors, connectors are more heat tolerant but may not be rated higher). All of the plastics in our keyboards can be withstand higher temperatures than 70° C. Rated STORAGE temperatures are typically higher and often include cycles (repeated changes in temperature extremes - usually stated as X thousands of cycles) as part of the rating. In the US southwestern city of Phoenix, closed cars in the the summer sun can reach about 160° F - approximately 70° C. Of course these engineering ratings include "pad" to reduce risk.

Bottom line: I think the risk of damage to a modern keyboard instrument due to temperature on one summer, sunny day in a closed car in one of the hottest climates in the US is lower than the risk of someone breaking a window and stealing it. Maybe lower than the risk of the car (and keyboard) being stolen...

To answer the OP's comment/question, here is what I would have done to get some needed sleep with minimum worries:

• Put the keyboard in the trunk or otherwise hide/cover it.

• If the keyboard is in the passenger compartment, slightly open windows on opposite sides to allow air flow without making it easy for an amateur their unlock the doors from the outside. A pro thief will have the right tools (or a heavy object) needed to get in anyway.

• Park the vehicle in the shade, if possible.

• Insure my equipment against loss and theft.

• Keep my old keyboard as a backup.