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safe distance from vent? (rr)

ketanketan Warmly booming riffs 3,170 Posts
edited April 2014 in Strut Central
eldest daughter is moving into the plushest room of the house now that a new girl has arrived, so my records got the boot. sigh. life in the basement ain't so bad, but i have a heating/cooling vent to deal with on one wall.



our thermostat is usually set to 21 Celsius... how close is too close? are the records above and beside safe in the winter? is it crazy to put more records directly in front of the vent? do 7"s fare better with direct sort-of heat than 12"s?

any advice appreciated!

  Comments

  • Controller_7Controller_7 4,052 Posts
    You could get crafty and build an insulated box, something that looks nice on the shelf and protects the records. Simple straight cuts of wood with some sort of insulation in between.

    Build a rectangle, find some thin insulation to line the inside, build a slightly smaller rectangle to go inside. To cover up the insulation in between the boxes, just get some sort of plain molding to cover it. Did any of that make sense?

    Then you've got an insulated pass through. I'd draw a picture, but I'm on a phone. The double box might even be good enough without any insulation. Just line it up with the vent and have it shoot through.
  • Controller_7Controller_7 4,052 Posts
    Looking at the pic again, maybe just some boards screwed together would work. Make one rectangle and paint it one color. On the left side, add another board and paint it another color. Add another in a different color. Do the same on the top. You'd have an interesting looking thing on the shelf and it would probably drastically cut down on the heat getting near the records.

    Or...

    Do it out of recycled books. Screw them together to make it sturdy. You can probably make quite a few things that would look good on the shelf and would act as a simple pass through
  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    Our old oil furnace put out air at a higher temp than the gas furnace. I doubt either temps would hurt your records. But the dried forced air isn't going to help them any either.

    b/w

    What C7 said.
  • volumenvolumen 2,532 Posts
    I would just leave it as is. You don't want your records in front of it and covering it is bad for the circulation. If you want some fancy pass thorough box just for looks then that's another thing.
  • ketanketan Warmly booming riffs 3,170 Posts
    Thanks for all the feedback. Definitely don't want to cover it as it's one of the few sources of heat down there.

    LaserWolf said:
    But the dried forced air isn't going to help them any either.

    Just out of curiosity, what effect do you think that would have? Warpage of le records or making the sleeves more brittle or something aesthetic like that?

    I was planning on building some matching boxes for 45s this summer, so I might use that space to have some slide-out boxes that have an insulated back wall, while still allowing air to flow around the individual boxes.

    (Actually, I might just throw some chud there now and see what it's like in a month!)
  • Controller_7Controller_7 4,052 Posts
    Not sure if I was clear, but I didn't mean to block it. It's an open ended box, like a tunnel.
  • ketanketan Warmly booming riffs 3,170 Posts
    No, I got that - thanks.
  • HorseleechHorseleech 3,830 Posts
    You can just buy a section of vent the size/shape for your needs and extend the opening into your room.

    Cheaper and easier than fabricating something yourself.
  • 4YearGraduate4YearGraduate 2,945 Posts
    Direct sunlight is more of a danger to vinyl lps than ambient heat. Your gonna need consistent temps of around 110 degrees to start breaking them down. On the contrary, a vinyl lp in direct sunlight can warp on a 60 dgree day, if that makes sense.
  • ketanketan Warmly booming riffs 3,170 Posts
    110 degrees does not compute with this Canadian. Okay, thanks Google: 44 C. Yeah, so I don't think the vent is going to put anywhere near that, even inconsistently, even in the winter. And it's a nice shady spot, so not direct sunlight on top of the vent.

    I'm more confident about putting records there (short ones, so that air can still flow over), but I'm going to test out some chud and make sure.
  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    ketan said:


    LaserWolf said:
    But the dried forced air isn't going to help them any either.

    Just out of curiosity, what effect do you think that would have? Warpage of le records or making the sleeves more brittle or something aesthetic like that?

    Like the man said, direct sunlight is what causes warpage.

    Heard someone say this weekend, "records should live where you live".
    I was thinking of long term effect of extreme low humidity, over time the sleeves might get more brittle.

    Since this is a basement room I would be more concerned about general dampness than dryness.
    A backed up drain pipe can cause a basement to flood, so no quality records on the bottom shelf.
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