Will it damage my MacBook if I put it in the fridge to cool it down?

Question

I've a got longstanding problem with laptops overheating (MacBook Air/Pro) and it's not only related to one machine. The laptops are overheating especially during hot days (summer).

I've found that keeping them in the fridge for half an hour makes a dramatic difference in their performance. However I am afraid of the side effects and that the laptop may stop working, because of water coming into the internal parts of the laptop.

How safe is it to keep a laptop in the fridge?

Does keeping it in a laptop sleeve case or in a plastic bag protect the laptop enough? Do the temperature and time also matter (like half an hour is the optimal time)? Or is it a bad idea at all and can it damage the laptop very quickly (assuming it's in Sleep mode, so it's basically turned off)?

Solution 1

The concern isn't really when it's in the fridge but when you take it out. The cold laptop/parts will pull the water out of the air AFTER it's taken out of the fridge, even if it was in a plastic bag. Think of a glass of water, it doesn't 'sweat' when it's in the fridge but you take it out on a hot day and it does.

The other concern is, depending on the temperature difference you are creating, there will be some extra wear on the components from expanding/contracting of parts.

The only thing I can think of to recommend is getting one of the laptop 'docks' with a couple fans in it to help move the air around the laptop.

Solution 2

As you suspect, it is not a very good idea. The cooler air inside the fridge can quickly condense the vapor normally found in the air, producing little droplets of water on the coolest parts (such as the motherboard).

Even if you find it effective, it may result in damage to your computer. I simply suggest you not do it.

Read USGS website for more insight in the condensation process (it is mainly about cloud formation, so please focus on the "Condensation in the air" section).

Solution 3

As others already said, you're killing your laptop with the condensation. The water will usually not lead to a short circuit immediately, but instead lead to rust buildup first before the final shutdown after a couple times in the freezer.

Better solutions:

• You say the laptop is still under warranty: Use the warranty.
• Bottled air to clean the fans without opening the laptop /voiding the warranty.
• Laptop cooling pad. The ones with larger fans make less noise.

Solution 4

I have a similar overheating problem with my MacBook. The fan was always spinning away.

My solution was to freeze an ice pack (I think that's what they're called). Wrap it in a tea towel (to absorb moisture) and sit my MacBook on that.

After a few minutes or so, the fan stopped and my MacBook was happily cooled.

Solution 5

The condensation that could form when you remove the laptop from the fridge would make me worry enough to not to do it at all.

I have seen people that have drilled holes in the body for cooling and other crazy things like that in the past.

Maybe it's time to upgrade the machine?

EDIT from comments: Stop using Google Chrome for Mac. It seems to consume far too much rescource for my liking. There are plenty of other free browsers that do that job as well, arguably better than Chrome.

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Comments

[Mazura]

Will cold weather break my laptop?

[Isura Nirmal]

I've used many a Macbook Pro, I'm writing this on a 13" early 2011 model, and I don't have overheating problems unless the CPU is working hard. If all your laptops tend to overheat you might have a runaway process from some piece of software you use on all of them. Check with Activity Monitor. One candidate is a browser with a lot of tabs open.

[Maxpm]

I used to hold my laptop up to the air conditioner when it overheated. It worked surprisingly well.

[Dennis]

You might want to check if your machine is one of the ones with a video card issue that causes overheating: apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues . If it is, you can have it repaired/replaced by Apple for free -- that's what I did.

[Marc.2377]

+1 - I've been doing this to modems/routers for ages and always wondered the same thing.

[Insane]

Funny how my edit to change from 'keep' to 'put' was rejected yet (as I was expecting) someone with 2k+ edited it!

[Insane]

How could anyone think 'keep' sounded good in the context of just putting it in to cool off for 30 minutes

[Andiana]

Except the electric devices with Aqua/Water Resistant label, you should NEVER put any electric device on wet environment.

[Seldom 'Where's Monica' Needy]

Doing this is bad for the battery at the very least.

[MonkeyZeus]

This question is so suspicious that I would almost be willing to bet you are connected to the people that created the "Waterproof software update" advert, lol

[svidgen]

Followup question: "How do I get the garlic smell off my MacBook after keeping it in the fridge?"

[Oberst]

Linus (from LinusTechTips) actually did a video almost about this same thing (he used a desktop instead). Bottom line: It works, but highly not recommended. youtube.com/watch?v=B8bhGw4vUFE

[Rick Henderson]

"Sleep" isn't "Off".

[Daniel R Hicks]

If you tightly seal the unit in a plastic bag when you take it out and then let it warm to room temperature before opening the bag (or attempting to power on the unit) then no significant condensation will occur.

[Blaine]

note: sleep is very different from off which is very different from off with battery removed

[Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen]

First you need to identify why the machine gets so warm, or even hot. Gaming requiring the GPU to work? Insufficient air circulation? Animated webpages/flash? Use Activity Monitor to identify what happens, and add details about how you work.

[kenorb]

Update: I've given MBP to Apple for repair, as too many things were going on. My other problems included high kernel usage and memory, keyboard eating letters, Chrome not able to deal with many tabs and kernel crashes (with negative shutdown reasons). They'll replace the logic board, because they couldn't even run the diagnostic test.

[kenorb]

It's not so old, it happens with the latest machines also, so there is no any better upgrade from MBP (in terms of the family of laptops). I think they're just bad by design and they're more for the graphic designers, not for heavy developers.

[kenorb]

I'm in very large office space, I'm not blocking fans, I'm using hard wood-like surface. The sun isn't the case also, I'm exposed to artificial light.

[Todd Wilcox]

@kenorb Plenty of developers use MBPs. Something else is going on.

[kenorb]

@ToddWilcox I'm working with 20-30 devs in a team most of them using MBPs, and mainly I've got the problem when using VMs via vagrant (Linux in VM is taking CPU all the time, even when VM is doing nothing, so I need to suspend the machine every time). So I blame mainly Chrome (hundred of tabs - but these are must for me), VMs, local LAMP and heavy Drupal CMS, but these are my mandatory apps. Also this is not the first Mac machine which is doing that, it happens on my another Air (when just only browsing web), and on my previous 2 MBPs, before I killed my first M.Air and switched to Pros line.

[Alan Campbell]

If it's still under warranty, try getting Apple to do this first. Tell them it's overheating.

[Carey Gregory]

Foods hotter than a MacBook are put into refrigerators all the time. As long as the fridge is working properly, it's no problem at all.

[kenorb]

Great suggesting. I've tried, even I had special ice packs which may also bend (not solid as on your pic) with some special liquid inside and it actually worked for few hours, the only problem was that they were difficult to place under the laptop when in frozen state and not always I had enough space in my freezer, secondly at work usually there is no freezer (only fridge for milk), and fridge is not enough to freeze it, so you may end up with lot of water on your desk.

[kenorb]

@AlanCampbell Apple won't do much. They only run their diagnostic tests in special network drive which is available at the store, when all pass - go home. They only take laptop for repair when the tests fail or they'll freeze the system. Before they changed my logic board, the system was crashing all the time on these tests, only then they reacted. Otherwise they'll ask me to remove any non-Apple kernel extensions and apps, or re-install the system, but I need virtualbox extension for my work.

[Agent_L]

@CareyGregory Strange, my fridge manual explicitly forbids putting things hotter than room temp.

[Agent_L]

Computer in a fridge is a completely different issue. It's all about average fridge not having enough continuous cooling power to drain the generated heat. Server room is basically a room-sized fridge and they DO work perfectly. OP's problem is exposing cold machine to hot and humid air, pretty much same thing as bringing machine from outside in winter (eg delivery) and running it without allowing it to warm up.

[Kusalananda]

Doesn't this have the same issue as the fridge "solution"? Cold metal parts will start taking on moisture from the air.

[Carey Gregory]

@Agent_L Then food safety experts wouldn't like your fridge much because leaving foods out until they've cooled to room temperature is a good way to experience food poisoning.

[Agent_L]

@CareyGregory I'm sure yours says it too.

[kenorb]

@DanHigginson All the leading browser are based on chromium engine anyway and they're slow. I've 10 browsers installed locally, tried all of them, but Chrome is still most efficient for me (because of features and stability). Using VM is the requirement of my project (all provisioning scripts are relying on vagrant) and usually you can't virtualize the environment on another VPS, however provisioning it to another provider may work, but I'll have to update the provisioning scripts and would be complex solution to support two providers at the same time (I did some work already on that).

[Dan Higginson]

@kenorb Most of the other browsers don't make the laptop work overtime in my experience. But if you have a need to use Chrome beyond simple preference then changing browsers isn't an option. Does the overheating stop if you close Chrome? At least identifying whether or not it's a big contributor to your issue would be a good start.

[TMN]

Also be sure to keep the laptop open when in use. I had a laptop that I used in a dock with external keyboard and monitor, it would overheat if I kept the lid closed. If I kept it open, I had no problems. I would imagine a fair amount of heat can escape through the speaker grilles, and probably around the keys too (even though there isn't a lot of space around them).

[kenorb]

Checking number of syscalls per process (sudo syscallbyproc.d) gives a standard expected list like: Chrome, VBox (if running), WindowServer, Terminal, hidd, X11.bin, sysmond, some helpers and other common services, so nothing suspicious. I've similar problem every few years after purchasing new Macbooks, so it could be just bad by hardware design (which nobody is aware of, and the problem obviously is not advertised publicly). It may also the case that my SSD storage reached is lifetime (around 2PB written after 3 years?) causing I/O bottleneck, but I'll investigate this separately.

[Viktor Toth]

The number of syscalls does not necessarily reflect CPU usage. A program may be running CPU intensive loops in multiple threads without doing any syscalls. Also, while an aging SSD might be a problem on its own right, I cannot think of any mechanism that would make it lead to excessive CPU usage and overheating. SSD age does not mean an I/O bottleneck, just an increased chance of an irrecoverable error.

[kenorb]

So I'll blame Chrome then by processing a lot of things in the background (JS&ads), other browser are doing the same thing by design. And VirtualBox, probably after Apple introduced some rootless features, or I'll try the suggestion from here, but it's topic for another question.

[Viktor Toth]

For what it's worth, Chrome on my (Windows) desktop does sometimes, ahem, use the CPU a little too liberally. So it might be worthwhile to check to see if shutting down chrome leads to a noticeable change in thermal behavior.

[Transistor]

Probably not. The metal parts won't be cold they'll be hot because the computer is running.

[mycowan]

@kenord, Kusalananda - be like Ford Perfect and always have a towel. It'll absorb the water. If one ice pack means the lap top is not balanced well, try using two packs side by side. As for the ice packs slowly melting, buy a half dozen, freeze them at night in your home freezer and take them to work in a cooler. transistor, actually it does work. Not right away. Where I live summers are hot 35C+ and I don't run the A/C, but using ice packs will have the fan on my 8 year old Mac stopped in about 20 minutes. I'd like a cooling fan, but I'm terribly underpaid.

[user2428118]

@Agent_L Related answer about letting food cool down before putting it in the fridge over at Cooking.SE: cooking.stackexchange.com/a/29857/23515

[Todd Wilcox]

@Kromster Chrome is absolutely a huge memory hog. This is the core "feature" of Chrome - it "speeds up" the Internet by preloading and caching in memory the most likely pages you are going to browse to next. It works even better if you log onto your Google account with it, since then it can make better personalized predictions. This applies to both Windows and OS X (aka macOS). The question is, does memory usage lead to hotter running? I'd be surprised if it did by itself, but if it leads to more paging then it could be a factor.

[Agent_L]

@user2428118 I never said anything about letting warm food to sit in warmth for hours. I said it's not safe for the fridge to put something hot in it. Besides, tap-water bath cools food down MUCH faster than fridge air at 4deg, so it's the safest solution from food safety point of view too. My fridge has glass shelves and plastic interior, I doubt any of those could withstand contact with a hot pot.

[Jeffiekins]

My MBP only (barely) cools OK when I put it on a stand (from the dollar store, no fan) that keeps it an inch or so above the surface. I'm sure a fan would help more. Moving a lot of air would probably make no difference, but moving some will. The biggest cooling area of the MBP is the bottom, so getting it some air is a huge help. Also, keep it open so the small strip between keyboard and screen gets air. (That's the other major cooling area.) You could even position a USB fan to blow on it. And, or course, check your software: I had a much worse problem before changing anti-virus.

[Cand3r]

If any part of these are touching the laptop i.e. the laptop is resting on them(gel packs are still going to condense water out of the air and 'sweat'), you will still get water inside the laptop as they cool the case, especially in your hot environment. This could also cause more of a problem with the expanding and contracting of parts since the parts closest to the gel pack will be much colder(contracted) than those with some distance(expanded), and for a long period of time.

[Ángel]

He is asking about having the laptop in the fridge while switched off, not about operating it while it's in the fridge.

[blaughw]

OP specifically mentions Sleep mode, which is Not Off. Hibernate would be closer to Off, and I'm not sure Apple even allows S4 state natively. Regardless, I also don't mention using the laptop in the fridge. The implication is that the components are cooled below the operating range, and then used while still below the operating temperature.

[milesrf]

Most laptops have two batteries - a main one for supplying power when not plugged in, and a small one for keeping the laptop's clock from losing the correct time when the laptop is turned off. Also, motherboards usually have several electrolytic capacitors. Batteries and electrolytics have liquids inside - usually partly water. These liquids can often stand temperatures below the freezing point of pure water, but still lower temperatures will freeze them which may burst the batteries and electrolytics. Temperatures below the operating range not recommended even if turned off.

[Dan Higginson]

@ToddWilcox Exactly! If I open Chrome on my top spec MBPr I hear the fans in the laptop go crazy, if and browse to google maps it sounds like it's going to take off imminently. Then they stop when I close Chrome. Although, I also use a Windows machine at work and that seems to be much happier with Google's browser.

[Crowley]

The cold part in this case is the icepack - and water wil condense/sublime here. The cold air is then aimed on hot computer parts. Another approach is that cold air cannot hold same ammount of water vapour than hot air while maintaining same relative humidity. Thus the air is dryer for colder icepack. And I doubt you will cool the laptop below the dew point while using it...

[Crowley]

Then, well, buy Dell Latitude. I had bought one and when DVD-RW died they sent me new one and "Replace it yourself; it is easy to do". And so it was.

[Alan Campbell]

If Apple won't fix it, the warranty is worthless. Disassemble and clean.

[wizzwizz4]

@kenorb "All the leading browsers are based on the Chromium engine anyway..." No they're not. They are really, really not. Have you heard of Firefox? Safari? I̶n̶t̶e̶r̶n̶e̶t̶ ̶E̶x̶p̶l̶o̶r̶e̶r Actually, that one's not good on a Mac. But you get my point.

[Sergio Tulentsev]

My macbook drives two external displays, so the discreet graphic card is always on. Dock with fans doesn't cut it anymore. What does work is putting it onto one of those cold accumulators from the picnic fridge bag. This solves the overheating problem entirely. And I don't have to interrupt my work by putting the computer away for half an hour. :)

[Sergio Tulentsev]

That's what I do. Only I don't bother with the towel. The bottom part is solid sheet of aluminium, no water is getting through that.

[John U]

I'd echo one point raised in Superbest's answer: Thermal cycling (temperature swings) is BAD for electrical equipment - it causes boards & components to expand & contract and can crack solder joints and cause premature component failure. It's also not great for batteries. Running at a stable temperature (even a relatively high one) is far better than lots of hot/cold cycles.

[hmijail mourns resignees]

2-year old MBP 13" user here. Firefox with >500 tabs open right now, BOINC running continuously in the background (but set to only use 40% of CPU time, no GPU), 28 deg C room temp (window open), developing in Eclipse. I can only hear the computer's fan if I really try.

[hmijail mourns resignees]

Also, you say you're using a Linux VM with vagrant, and that it takes CPU even when doing nothing?? I don't know what you're doing, but my VMs (Linux and Windows) do stay close enough to 0% CPU that I have forgotten to close them for hours.

[hmijail mourns resignees]

By the way: second monitor attached.

[hmijail mourns resignees]

"Blowing CO2" can get freezing cold, blowing hot air (with a hairdryer for example) can get deceptively hot. Go from one to the other and I'll be interested to see if you cause those hairline cracks yourself.

[DrZoo]

@SergioTulentsev it's not worrying about whether the water will soak through the surface or not. If the inside surface gets too cool and meets the warm humid air, it will create condensation. In my opinion, the towel acts more like a barrier for the cold air. Just think of it like you're holding ice in your hand. You'll be able to hold onto the ice longer if you had a towel in your hand because it would help insulate your hands from directly being exposed to the cold.

[coburne]

I also read a couple weeks ago on this board that submerging in distilled water is aces for a quick and efficient cool down.

[Sergio Tulentsev]

@DrZoo: yeah, but also it's much less efficient cooling. As mentioned in the comments, there's no way a macbook under load gets so cold that condensation is a problem. Mine is still very warm to the touch.

[Samin yeasir]

I can speak from experience that OP's idea is awful and dangerous. I once tried the claim that you could cool a failing hard disk this way to recover data from it. Of course it ended up covered in condensation and the PCB on it caught fire while powering it up and trying to access it.

[Bradley Ross]

They were only applying the hot or cold gas for a second or two.

[Euri Pinhollow]

@coburne: post a link please. Distilled water may sure be distilled but may become consideably less distilled if it contacts with something dissolvable and it is almost guaranteed that the laptop parts have something on them. The effect of water on mechanics is another problem which I cannot comprehend about though.

[Admin]

Vagrant uses VirtualBox in most conditions, whether you see it running or not. I wouldn't surprised at all if you have many machines taking up RAM on your MBP utilizing lots of resources doing nothing. Try to suspend some vagrant boxes, or open up VirtualBox and see what kind of behemoth you have in there which you can suspend, remove, or shutdown (in the case of vagrant, some shutdowns don't seem to work well, and stay out in limbo on VirtualBox until you remove them manually).

[Admin]

Also, check out the energy tab on Activity Monitor (if using a newer OS) and that will show you what app is most likely causing the heating issue with most energy consumption.

[user1751825]

I don't think this will work at all. The best idea is just to keep the laptop away from the fridge. There is no way to prevent condensation in the internal parts, and it will eventually ruin the laptop.

[user1751825]

Fans are the only effective and safe way to keep a laptop cool. Anything else will cause condensation.

[mycowan]

"Bottled air to clean the fans without opening the laptop /voiding the warranty." Nooooooo~ On a laptop, the blast of air will push the dust bunnies back into the fan blades causing them to stop spinning. The temperature will quickly spike. <said in voice of recent experience> Take the panel(s) off. Take the fan out (if you can) and then give it a blast of canned air away from the rest of the machine. If it's under warranty take it in and ask them to find out why it is running so hot.