Using Kindle on a cold weather backpacking trip ?

[arooni]

Plannings on doing a 4 day 3 night backpacking trip in Yosemite later this month. Temperature range could be anywhere from 10F at night perhaps down to 5 at worst case and 50s during the day.

I've been reading about temperature ranges of storage down to 15F and operation at 32F and up. It's the latest generation Paperwhite. I would put it in my sleeping bag at night. But would also like to read it at night before going to sleep.

1) am I at risk of permanently damaging my Kindle doing this ?
2) would I need to take any precautions other than having it in a case and in my bag at night?
3) could I read outside my bag at night if it were below freezing or should huddle it into the bag at night and read it there ?
4) any warning signs to look out for ? I.e. slow refresh time on page turns etc.

Thanks in advance!!

PS: unrelated but should I try to keep my Kindle charged up or wait till it completely discharges to charge it again in terms of optimizing the battery life

[barryem]

Originally Posted by arooni

should I try to keep my Kindle charged up or wait till it completely discharges to charge it again in terms of optimizing the battery life

Batteryuniversity.com, at the link below, says it's best not to fully discharge lithium ion batteries, which the Kindles have. It doesn't make a lot of difference but they're longevity is somewhat improved if you keep them around 60%, if I recall. It's been a while since I read it so I'm not sure of the exact number now.

In the days of NiCad batteries experts advised that batteries be discharged all the way a good percentage of the time to keep them from developing a "memory" effect. That isn't a concern with lithium based batteries.

Battery University has been around for decades and has earned a good reputation and they're worth reading. Some of their writing gets very technical but if you read past the parts you don't understand you end up with information you can use.

https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/...ased_batteries

Barry

[NiLuJe]

Battery might drain faster, screen will be more sluggish, but I have used eInk devices in below zero (C°) weather with no adverse effects . (That said, weather was fairly mild, and I'm guessing temperature inside my pack was also not that low).

I'd imagine you should probably avoid sharp deltas to avoid any risk of condensation, though?

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Battery might drain faster, screen will be more sluggish, but I have used eInk devices in below zero (C°) weather with no adverse effects . (That said, weather was fairly mild, and I'm guessing temperature inside my pack was also not that low).

I'd imagine you should probably avoid sharp deltas to avoid any risk of condensation, though?

I suspect if the screen froze very bad things would happen, depending on the amount of water in the tiny bubbles of ink etc. Probably best not to risk the screen itself going below freezing. Of course, what the freezing point of the screen actually *is* is another matter: it's likely below 0C, since the ink bubbles are obviously not pure water but allegedly something like titanium dioxide floating in a hydrocarbon or something. There are lots of wildly varying suggestions for freezing point on the net, with a mean guess around -5C. It will definitely freeze long before oil canisters do, so take care.

[NiLuJe]

@NullNix: IIRC, over in the Dev subforum, we have been known to put Kindles in freezers for significant periods of time, and those hover a bit above -20°C.

(Which is probably what was at the back of my mind when the idea of bringing a brand-new Forma to the top of a mountain came to me without sounding too alarming ^^).

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@NullNix: IIRC, over in the Dev subforum, we have been known to put Kindles in freezers for significant periods of time, and those hover a bit above -20°C.

(Which is probably what was at the back of my mind when the idea of bringing a brand-new Forma to the top of a mountain came to me without sounding too alarming ^^).

It survives -20C?! Wow! I wonder what the hell is happening to the microstructure of those screens when you do that? A bit hard to tell unless you a) don't mind breaking a lot of Kindles b) have an electron microscope c) don't mind preparing slides at -20C

[Tarana]

My sister was able to use her Kindle Touch (when it was fairly new) on a winter camping trip when the temps were hovering between -5F and 0F. She kept it in her jacket pocket and apparently that keeps it warm enough to operate. On another occasion, she unintentionally left it overnight in her car where it got down to -15F (-26C). She let it completely warm up before turning on and it worked fine. It still works today, however, I would imagine it wouldn't survive repeated freezings.

[arooni]

my takeaway from all this is to not bring the kindle in cases where it could be freezing. better to just avoid the possibility and check out the books i'm reading from the library instead.