Phonoland

I recently purchased an AMI ROWE CD jukebox. My plans are to keep it in my garage and listen to it while doing garage work or work out in the yard. Well, with winter approaching, I can be found working in the garage with the temps down around 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Is this a problem for this machine? Will I risk hurting the amplifier or any of the other electronics? If so, I'll let it hibernate under a cover until Spring when it's warm again. What say you guys?

The cd player absolutely does not like cold temperatures.

Temperature extremes are not friendly to electronics.
Extreme cold freezes LCD panels and mechanical assemblies, causing malfunctioning or even damage.
Heat also kills electronics and warps plastic parts and gears.

During the winter months, I've told my customers who pick up their VCRs or tape decks to allow them to come up to room temp before inserting any tapes.
Just powering them up and waiting an hour or so is all it needs.
The reason being, during the trip home in frigid weather, the tape heads become chilled, and when brought inside, condensation happens on the head surfaces.
If a tape comes into contact with that, it will "stick" and ruin the heads and/or tape.
With CD mechanisms, a "frost" of condensation happens on the "eye" lens, causing malfunctioning.
Any minute "dust" kicked up by the spinning disk can stick & lodge on the moist lens, causing skipping.

In addition to what Matt pointed out regarding dew on cd players, in the case of a jukebox I have two suggestions. if possible, leave the interior light on 24/7 during the coldest months or, better yet, move the juke into your home and get a CD-WB (wallbox) for the workspace. Decent specimens are not available for under $100 via E-bay. Since a lot of operators are not doing diner any more a local op may have some for sale -cheap.

Rob/NYC

Correction to the above: I meant to write that good CD-WBs are _now_ available for under $100.

Gents,
One caution on having a lamp inside--do not place that lamp anywhere the heat can cause damage--and you MUST be SURE, the vent screens, both top and bottom are OPEN ! Ron Rich

This is an interesting thread to me as I've recently had a high quality T&G shed assembled in my garden. I'll be boarding, insulating with Celotex board, installing laminate flooring and a moderate electrical hookup.

I plan to kit it out as a Pub (bar) and put my Juke in there. I think I'll be keeping a low level heater running during the winter months and an automatic dehumidifier to ensure moisture levels remain fairly low.

Rob's suggestions an interesting one, I guess with the right extension leads and a step down transformer (for us Brits!), its quite possible to have just the tubes on without the PSU and Amp etc. The ballasts and tubes would provide some nice ambient warmth for the machine

I would think--depending on which CD model you have, and on how cold it gets--yes, you can split off at least one tube and run it for the winter--If using only one, I would think the lowest one should do it--?? Ron Rich