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+--- Thread: Protecting a laptop - moisture etc. (/thread-213.html)
Protecting a laptop - moisture etc. - jagasail - September 12, 2006
This is a bit related to my previous post. Have a new acquaintance in our marina who is a live-aboard on a small boat with a ibook. He’s concerned about how to protect his laptop when not using it, primarily from the humid conditions. Pelican case is one answer (though I find them both bulky and pricey), and a heavy duty ziploc might be another (with a silica gel packet)
I'm interested in the response as well as I'll eventually be heading out on a very extended cruise. I usually don’t leave my ibooks onboard when I’m not there, but have taken it on a multi-week trip. However the conditions on that trip we’re generally quite (unusually) dry, as is my boat in general. While onboard and not using it I kept my ibook in a neoprene slipcase and had not problems with it.
QUESTIONS:
What do others do?
Has anyone had problems with the salt air damaging or killing their laptop? Basically how reliable are the macs in a marine environment?
Scot
note - I gave him the forum address so he can eventually join us, and introduced him to MacENC.
- cyberhusky - September 13, 2006
Hello
it's true that these bulky cases ( http://www.pelican.com/ or http://www.otterbox.com/products/pda_cases/2600/ ) are bulky but do save your equipment, if weather conditions are hard and you don't use the electronic accessories.
I'm happy to have had my otterboxes (see link above) for both my Psion 5mx Pro (pocket computer) and Zaurus PDA during a storm. Because everything got thrown around in the boat and my devices did stay intact.
These hard cases are great to store away your equipement and protects them from humidity if you put some silicagel bags in the boxes.
The main problem is not humidity but humidity which comes from salted sea water: it corrodes the motherboard.
The presenter of MaxSea last year suggested to either use a marine PC, that is these small case PCs that are in some way humidity safe.
But these are expensive and aren't portable. And I haven't seen a "marine" Mac mini yet.
The other suggestion he gave was to switch on the laptop in your car or 1 hour before you enter the boat the first time.
This way the laptop is warmed up and humidity won't settle on the motherboard. During your first day on boat the air and humidity will change. Turn on the computer at least 15 minutes before you go on journey, if possible outside the boat, so that humidity won't have a chance to enter the laptop. If you don't use the laptop put it away in a hard case which protects it from shocks and humidity.
Another possibility would be to buy a low budget ibook G4 12" via ebay, just for the sailing season. This won't protect your from incidents on board, but you won't loose your expensive Mac laptop and important data it has inside.
But until now I never had real problems with my iBook G4 12" during sailing journeys.
But I know of different sailors who already killed 3 PC laptops: one was drowned by rain, another killed it's HD with a headcrash (in fact thd HD was excahnged 3 times during a world sailing tour in 3 years) and the third was corroded by salted humidity (sea water).
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Manou
Protecting a laptop - moisture etc. - adjuvantjfoster - September 14, 2006
Here is the approach that works for me: I bought a no hassle performance guarantee for my electronics stuff.
If the boat is hit by lightning, or a circuit board dies of corrosion, they will replace thekit with the equivalent available at the time of the claim.
W3 Solutions Inc is the service provider under the Mariners Product Protection extended service plan.
1455 Bellevue Avenue, West Vancouver BC, Canada v7T 1C3 1866-647-3512
They underwite the West Marine MPP plan.
The deal is this:
BEFORE your manufactuer's warrenty expires, on your iBook or Mac Mini, bring your receipt into a West Marine Store and buy a 2 year MPP plan for a bracket of dollars that covers your iBook replacement cost.
VERY IMPORTANT NEXT STEP: Register your purchase by phone with W3.
Relax and enjoy the iBook till it fails with corrosion.
Get it replaced under their warrenty terms.
This applies to any and all electronic stuff you get anywhere, not just computers.
I am not sure how this works outside North American, but W3 has a web site you could explore if you are curious
http://www.thew3solution.com/CP.aspx
- fish2live - September 16, 2006
I've been carrying mac laptops with me since 1995, and in all that time I've never been concerned with simple condensation. There have been times when I was aware of condensation throughout the boat, and I was concerned about everything, not just the laptop, molding and rotting. Fishing boats are electronics-heavy, yet I've never traced a failure to internal condensation due to humidity, with one very notable exception. I've only seen two ipods at sea. Both were affected by humidity. Both dried out and resumed working after a couple of days too.
When fishing boats began installing wheelhouse computers in droves about 10-12 years ago we did purchase and install a MarinePC, which had a supposedly marine hardened case and some special gadget that was claimed to vaporize over time and deposit some protective coating on the motherboard. It was also placed inside a cabinet with other warm electrical equipment, so condensation wasn't going to be a problem. It failed anyway, but it was the hard drive that died. I would strongly recommend that you never use a Western Digital hard drive. I've seen several of them fail, yet I've never seen any hard drive of any other brand fail. I haven't seen a MarinePC since we got rid of our old one. The people I know who run MaxSea and its processor intensive terrain builder put their money into computing power, not humidity control.
I doubt that you would ever need to worry about moisture while the computer is running, or at least being used regularly. I've spent all of my time in an extraordinarily wet and stormy environment, so I have taken all sorts of elaborate precautions when carrying the laptop, but when it is back on the boat all is fine. It will work until wave action destroys the hard drive.