What is the consensus on leaving CDs inside a car in the summer? Are they likely to be damaged by the heat of a car broiling in a hot parking lot?
If you leave them out of the case you might burn your fingers when you pick them up, but I have never heard of them melting. Just to be safe I would try and keep them out of direct sunlight if I were you.
Regular CDs are semi-fragile. Definitely keep them out of the sun and really hot cars. But more like long term effects. CDRs are fragile. A regular hot car will cause eventual damage. (I note that Robert X. Cringely, 7th par., feels that cars in the sun in cars Is Not A Good Idea.) See http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq07.html#S7-5 for info on CDR lifetimes.
So: Use your original CD in your car and risk eventual damage, or copy it and consider the CDR semi-sacrificial.
I’ve never had an actual CD melt on me but I’ve had CD Cases melt (with CDs in them.) It’s still a pain in the ass. Crack your windows.
I’ve had cd-r’s become unreadable if the write surface was exposed to direct sunlight for many days.
I had a CD-R case melt just today! And I’ve only had a CD-R get damaged (kinda burned around the edge), and I almost ALWAYS have CDs lying around in my car.
But I imagine its still not a very good thing, so at the least, keep the CDs in their case, and maybe in a box on the ground or something, away from the sunlight (not that I do this, but I’m thinking about it after today!)
Well, UV light does damage polycarbonate, which is what CD’s are made out of. So keeping them out of direct sunlight is a good plan.
On a side note, hot CDRs don’t play well in older CD players. A constant problem I have is getting into a hot car and popping a hot cd right into the player, and it doesn’t work. It will work in a few minutes when it cools down, but I want my music now, dammit!
Heat reduces the lifespan of CDs, and CDRs in particular. What is “burned” on a CDR is a layer of dye, and this layer can get slightly burned in excessive heat, I imagine.