[InterfaceGuy]

I bought a printer for my parents for Christmas and left it in my car for about 36 hours. It didn't hit my until now that it could hurt it since the ink could freeze up, so I brought it in. How long should I let it sit at room temperature before attempting to use it? Could I have permantely damaged anything by letting it be in freezing temps so long?

[d4nth3m4n]

wait at least a couple hours. start drinking or something, you'll be golden. well, at least you won't have to worry about the ink being frozen.

[MaxPower2k3]

The only thing i'd be worried about is if the inks are water based, they'll expand when they freeze and possibly crack the cartridges. If this happens, you're out $40 for a couple of new cartridges, but they're sealed and outside of the printer in the packaging (assuming the thing is still in the original box) so I think the printer itself will be fine.

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

Originally posted by MaxPower2k3:
The only thing i'd be worried about is if the inks are water based, they'll expand when they freeze and possibly crack the cartridges. If this happens, you're out $40 for a couple of new cartridges, but they're sealed and outside of the printer in the packaging (assuming the thing is still in the original box) so I think the printer itself will be fine.

I don't think those things are ever filled to the rim anyway. just leave it in a warm room for a few hours out of the box.

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally posted by InterfaceGuy:
I bought a printer for my parents for Christmas and left it in my car for about 36 hours. It didn't hit my until now that it could hurt it since the ink could freeze up, so I brought it in. How long should I let it sit at room temperature before attempting to use it? Could I have permantely damaged anything by letting it be in freezing temps so long?

You need more than a couple hours, but yeah, if you just leave it alone it will warm up, and dry out, on its own. That last bit is the real kicker, more so for computers than printers, though.

But if it was out in the cold any moisture in the unit would freeze and as it warms up it turns into condensation. So, it needs to evaporate that moisture or else you could damage the electronics by starting it up. Since Christmas isn't until tomorrow just leave it someplace warm and dry and it will be fine. Besides, you get to earn good son points tomorrow if you both give them a printer AND set it up for them.

Merry Christmas!

[selowitch]

The other day, my UPS driver left my new HP LaserJet 1160 out in the snow for half the day until I got home from work. I just went ahead and opened it up and it was just fine. Granted, that was only a few hours, but at least it shows that in my case, no great harm seems to have been done.

[InterfaceGuy]

The printer works fine. I was only able to test the copy function though because there isn't a free USB port on the computer, and even if there was the cable I bought isn't long enough. Guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get a hub. Merry Christmas!