// KEEP YOUR COOL
The heatwave guide for your tech
Computers cope with heat worse than we do — and they can’t open a window. The friendly guide to keeping laptops, phones, PCs, routers and servers safe when the temperature climbs: what to do, what to skip, and the myths to ignore.
Rated 4.9 on GoogleFamily-run since 1995 · real people, no call centre// HOW HOT IS TOO HOT?
Slide the temperature, see who suffers
Most everyday tech is designed for up to about 35°C ambient — and it’s in trouble well before that if it’s in the sun, in a cupboard or on a duvet. Slide to today’s temperature and see how your kit is feeling.
Rough guidance for typical consumer kit — sun through a window, a stuffy cupboard or a blocked vent can add 10°C+ to what the device actually feels.
// THE HEATWAVE CHECKLISTS
At home & at work
🏠 At home
Ten minutes of moving things around saves a summer of slowdowns.
- Laptops on hard surfaces — never duvets, sofas or laps for long sessions
- Move kit out of direct sunlight (windowsills are grills)
- Router out of the cupboard, standing up, nothing on top
- Charge overnight when it’s cooler — charging makes heat
- Heavy stuff (gaming, video editing) in the morning or evening
- Nothing electronic left in the car — ever
- Dust the vents (a photo-worthy amount lives in there)
- Phones: case off if it runs hot while charging
💼 At work
Heatwaves find the server cupboard every single year. Get ahead of it.
- Ventilate the server/comms cupboard — door vented or open, air moving
- Check on server & NAS temperatures daily (or let our monitoring do it)
- UPS in place — heatwaves strain the grid and blips follow
- Remember heat KILLS UPS batteries too — test them, don’t assume
- Blinds down on sun-facing windows near desks & kit
- Kit in lofts and portacabins (CCTV, Wi-Fi gear) checked — lofts are ovens
- Let people work from home on the worst days — remote access makes it painless
- Backups verified BEFORE the summer-storm power cuts arrive
// SPOT THE STRUGGLE
Warning signs your tech is too hot
Fans roaring
Fans at full blast for ordinary jobs means the machine can’t shed heat — check for sun, blocked vents and dust.
Suddenly sluggish
Hot processors deliberately slow down to protect themselves (‘throttling’). If it crawls on hot afternoons but flies in the morning — that’s heat.
Random shutdowns or restarts
The emergency brake. The machine hit its limit and pulled the plug on itself. Cool it down before anything else.
Battery draining fast
Heat makes batteries work worse AND age faster — a double hit. Keep devices cool while charging especially.
Hot to the touch
Warm is normal; too-hot-to-rest-your-hand isn’t. Find where the heat’s coming from and give it air.
⚠️ A swollen battery
Bulging case, lifting keyboard or screen? STOP. Power off, don’t charge it, keep it somewhere cool and non-flammable, and call us the same day.
// ALREADY TOO HOT?
Overheated? Do this
-
01
Power off & unplug
Stop making heat. Turn it off properly if you can, hold the power button if you can’t, and take it off charge.
-
02
Shade & airflow — gently
Coolest room in the house, out of the sun, case/covers off, stood so air reaches all sides. NO fridges, freezers or ice packs — condensation kills.
-
03
Wait, then check
Give it a good half hour. If it comes back happy, change whatever cooked it. If it’s still misbehaving — or this keeps happening — the cooling needs professional attention: that’s us.
// MYTH-BUSTING
Summer tech myths, gently retired
“Pop it in the fridge”
The most dangerous myth of the lot. Rapid cooling = condensation inside the device = water damage. Gradual, room-temperature cooling only.
“More charge = better”
Charging generates heat, and heat + full batteries is the ageing combo. In a heatwave, charge in the cooler hours and unplug at the top.
“It’s fine, it always feels warm”
Warm is fine. But NEW heat behaviour — louder fans, hotter case, afternoon slowdowns — is the machine telling you something changed. Usually dust.
“Screens dim because they’re broken”
Phones dim screens and pause charging deliberately in heat — it’s protection, not a fault. Shade it and it comes back.
“The internet’s always bad in summer”
Often it’s just the router cooking in a cupboard or sunny corner. Free air and shade fix a remarkable amount of ‘broadband trouble’.
“A quick hour in the car is fine”
A parked car in summer sun is a slow cooker. Batteries age, screens delaminate, adhesives soften. Take it with you — every time.
// GOOD QUESTIONS
Frequently asked
How hot is too hot for a laptop or phone?
Most consumer kit is designed for up to about 35°C ambient — but that assumes free-flowing air and no sunshine. Direct sun through a window, a stuffy cupboard or a laptop on a duvet can add 10°C+ to what the device actually feels, which is why things struggle on 30°C days.
My computer keeps switching itself off in the afternoon — why?
That’s almost certainly thermal shutdown: the machine protecting itself when it can’t shed heat fast enough. Move it out of the sun, clear and dust the vents, cool the room if you can — and if it keeps happening, the cooling system needs a look (fans and thermal paste age). That’s a job we do all the time.
Can I put my hot phone in the fridge to cool it down?
Please don’t! Rapid cooling causes condensation inside the device — and water damage doesn’t care that you meant well. Shade, case off, screen off, and let it cool gradually at room temperature.
Does heat really damage batteries?
It’s the single biggest battery-ager there is. Lithium batteries hate living hot — capacity fades faster, and in extreme cases they swell. A swollen battery (bulging case, lifting trackpad or screen) is a stop-everything moment: power off, don’t charge it, and call us.
What should businesses do differently in a heatwave?
Three things: ventilate wherever the servers and network kit live (the ‘server in a cupboard’ quietly cooks in every heatwave), expect grid wobbles — heatwaves strain the power network, so a UPS protects against the blips — and let people work from home on the worst days via proper remote access rather than cooking in the office.
Is it OK to use my laptop in the garden?
Enjoy the sunshine — but keep the laptop in the shade. Direct sun heats the case (and especially the screen) astonishingly fast, glare aside. A shaded table beats a sunny lap, and never leave it lying in the sun between uses.
Can you check my computer’s cooling is healthy?
Yes — a service includes cleaning the fans and vents and checking temperatures under load, and our monitored support plans watch for thermal trouble on business machines all year round. Book in before the next heatwave rather than during it!
// FREE TOOLS
Check your machine’s health — free
A hot summer is hard on tired machines. See how yours is really doing. See all our free tools →
Free tool
365 PC Manager app
365 PC Manager — our free little Windows app. An honest PC health check — health score, one-tap boost, no fake errors — from real local techies. Digitally signed, it installs in a couple of clicks and uninstalls just as easily.
Try it →Free tool
PC Benchmark
How fast is your computer, really? Six live tests — CPU, encryption, memory, graphics & storage — with a score you can share.
Try it →Free tool
IT Health Check Tool
Get an instant IT & security score out of 100, plus a plain-English action plan.
Try it →Beat the heat before it beats your tech
A service cleans the fans and dust that cause summer meltdowns — and our monitored plans watch business machines’ health all year round, so the server cupboard never becomes a surprise.
01202 775566 · help@365techies.co.uk · MON–FRI 9AM–5PM