When my smartphone overheats, I like to cool it down by holding it right up to the air conditioning vent of my car, and let the cold air drop it down from 99 F down to 84 F straightaway. But does this risk condensation moisture forming in the phone itself? I believe the air coming out of the AV vent is only around 40-50 F?
Seems unlikely.
The air coming out of the AC as already had most of it’s moisture removed, and the phone is warmer, so that isn’t going to be a source of condensation. The air in the phone may have some moisture, but the volume is so tiny that it can’t amount to very much.
If you are just holding it up to the vent temporarily for a brief cool down it’s not a problem. On the other hand I have a phone holder that attaches directly to the vent so cold air is constantly cooling my phone and it gets quite cold on a drive of 30 minutes or so. I haven’t noticed any condensation when I remove the phone and get out of the car, but I live in an arid area. I wonder how much that would change if I lived in a high humidity area. But I would think any condensation would be on the outside of the phone.
I’ve been doing it for two years. I have a homebuilt mount for my phone that keeps it in front of the vent. Nothing has happened.
I do have a case over the phone at all times though.
In my experience (travel to Singapore) the time when condensation can be a problem is when you move from a cold, low humidity area to a warm, high humidity area. If the phone is reasonably sealed it shouldn’t be a problem but I wouldn’t be changing batteries or SIM cards outside on a cool phone.
It has moisture removed, but not relative humidity. The air coming out of an air conditioner is always saturated at 100% relative humidity. Plus there is condensate from the coils mixed in the air stream. That’s the way it works - by lowering the air temperature until the moisture condenses. Sometimes you can actually see fog streaming out of the vents if the coil temperature is a bit too low. It’s only when the cool wet air warms up that its (relative) humidity plummets.
Dennis
Typically the air coming out of a car AC has been warmed slightly to reduce the RH below 100%. But a warm phone placed in the path of noncondensing humidity isn’t likely to pick up condensation.
My brother, SiL, and I have owned iPhones for several years and, though obscenely expensive, they have proven to be stellar in mechanical reliability. I’ve never had condensation under any circumstances. My brother once had to admonish SiL after she took her phone into the steam-room with her but, fortunately, the experience didn’t affect the phone one iota. LoL
I have never seen fog coming out of the vents. The opposite happens. If you have fog on the inside of the windshield and turn on the AC even without heat fog will be removed from the window. The only time you should be able to see fog coming out of the vents would be if the AC is on full cooling and the car inside temp is below the temp of the air coming out of the vents.
As to causing moisture in the phone if the air coming out of the vents is at 40 degrees 100% humidity it will mix with car air increasing the temp some and decreasing the humidity and should not be a problem. And unless the air in the phone has a high humidity collilng it a few degrees should not cause condensation.
The only way you’d get condensation on or in the phone is if it was cooled below the dew point of the ambient air around it. With the phone turned on, that’s unlikely since internal components remain relatively warm. Even so, inside an air conditioned car, the dew point is probably below 60F. If the phone was idle or off, sitting in front of a vent blasting cold air for 10+ minutes, then you immediately took it outside on a very hot and humid day (think 90F with a 70F+ dew point) then you could be looking at some condensation.
As for fog coming out of the vents, that would happen occasionally in my dad’s '89 Cadillac. It was even mentioned in the owner’s manual. I think what happened is that after the temperature was brought down to the set point, the system would switch from recirculating mode to fresh air mode, even if only briefly. That surge of hot moist air would be too much to condense away and some would stay in the air stream. It’s also possible that the compressor would shut off from time to time to ensure the evaporator coil wouldn’t freeze over (this was in the days of R-12 refrigerant which generally ran colder and used a smaller evaporator), and while melting the ice it would generate some fog.
I’ve seen it a few times. The conditions have to be just right. A Google search will turn up a surprisingly large number of cases. Unfortunately, the people answering the question are pretty much just guessing. The defroster air will clear a fogged windshield because the cool saturated air is rapidly mixed with ambient air as it sweeps up the windshield. But look right where the air stream hits the base of the window, you will sometimes see a damp patch even if the rest of the window is clearing.
Here is a video of a rather extreme case and it is even fogging up the windshield as well. That I have not seen.
I have spent lots of time with multiple temperature sensors checking out older A/C units trying to keep classic cars cool with older R12 systems.Dennis
[quote=“mixdenny, post:11, topic:814093”]
Here is a video of a rather extreme case and it is even fogging up the windshield as well. That I have not seen.
[/QUOTE]That looks like a blown heater core to me.