Leaving accordion in your car trunk on a hot day

[breezybellows]

Have you ever wondered why the insides of a parked car get hotter than the temperature outside the car? what about the law of conservation of energy?

You should never leave your accordion in the trunk of your car (or inside the car) on a hot day. do all trunks get hot the same way? Watch to find out.

 

[debra]

When you leave the accordion in the trunk of your car around here there is maybe a 1% risk that it may suffer damage from the heat (because the wax melts) and a 99% risk that the car will be broken into and the accordion stolen (before it can overheat).
And if you don't have something quite so valuable inside the car they will take your mirrors, headlights, catalytic convertor or anything else that might have value...

 

[debra]

Here is what a fellow accordion repairer found...

 

[Tom]

When you leave the accordion in the trunk of your car around here there is maybe a 1% risk that it may suffer damage from the heat (because the wax melts) and a 99% risk that the car will be broken into and the accordion stolen (before it can overheat).
And if you don't have something quite so valuable inside the car they will take your mirrors, headlights, catalytic convertor or anything else that might have value...

Sorry to hear that. Around here, locking the trunk only REDUCES the chances you won't find three more accordions when you get home.

 

[breezybellows]

When you leave the accordion in the trunk of your car around here there is maybe a 1% risk that it may suffer damage from the heat (because the wax melts) and a 99% risk that the car will be broken into and the accordion stolen (before it can overheat).
And if you don't have something quite so valuable inside the car they will take your mirrors, headlights, catalytic convertor or anything else that might have value...

This is Belgium right? Didn't know there was so much crime there. San Francisco is like that. Smash and grab is very common there. Advice is to leave the car unlocked so that they don't have to smash your windows to get in.

 

[debra]

This is Belgium right? Didn't know there was so much crime there. San Francisco is like that. Smash and grab is very common there. Advice is to leave the car unlocked so that they don't have to smash your windows to get in.

It's the Netherlands. Not sure whether Belgium is equally bad or not, but probably close.
"Smash and grab" is a good term for what happens here, mostly in parking garages. Thieves just take whatever they find and only check later whether what they stole has any use or value to them. I read a sad story about a professional (convertor) accordion stolen from a car, along with a laptop. The thieves were on a moped or motorbike and quickly got tired of carrying the heavy accordion. They threw it in the ditch (which was filled with water) and continued on their way with just the laptop. They obviously didn't know the accordion was worth an order of magnitude more than the laptop. (Was, because after the accordion was found and retrieved it was completely soaked and a total loss.
The other problem with cars is mostly when parked on the street or on people's driveway. High-end mirrors (with cameras and motors) and headlights (each worth several thousand) are commonly stolen (carefully removed and not smashed) and catalytic convertors are removed using an angle grinder. They are worth a lot because of the platinum they contain.
Accordions are also stolen on trains, on the platform (of a station), and before or after concerts.

 

[breezybellows]

It's the Netherlands. Not sure whether Belgium is equally bad or not, but probably close.
"Smash and grab" is a good term for what happens here, mostly in parking garages. Thieves just take whatever they find and only check later whether what they stole has any use or value to them. I read a sad story about a professional (convertor) accordion stolen from a car, along with a laptop. The thieves were on a moped or motorbike and quickly got tired of carrying the heavy accordion. They threw it in the ditch (which was filled with water) and continued on their way with just the laptop. They obviously didn't know the accordion was worth an order of magnitude more than the laptop. (Was, because after the accordion was found and retrieved it was completely soaked and a total loss.
The other problem with cars is mostly when parked on the street or on people's driveway. High-end mirrors (with cameras and motors) and headlights (each worth several thousand) are commonly stolen (carefully removed and not smashed) and catalytic convertors are removed using an angle grinder. They are worth a lot because of the platinum they contain.
Accordions are also stolen on trains, on the platform (of a station), and before or after concerts.

That was so sad. Catalytic converter theft is very common here.

 

[pentaprism]

I heard in San Francisco, car break-in was so bad that if you left 2 accordions in your car, the next morning you would find 4

Last year, a friend of my daughter left his paragliding gears in the trunk of his car because he would be flying the next morning and was too lazy to unload the car. The next morning he found the gears, which cost about 6000 USD, disappear. The night before, he had forgotten to turn off the GPS tracking device (a safety measure when paragliding so that if he had to land somewhere in an emergency, people could find him) so he was able to track it down to a person. He then called the police but the police refused to intervene, saying it was between him and the other person. He ended up paying 1500 USD as ransom to get his gears back.

Yes, this was in San Francisco. I met the man when I accompanied my daughter as a videographer for her team on a paragliding training class.

 

[tcabot]

A "heat wave" in Scotland is when the temperature reaches a scorching 20C.

 

[Ventura]

that accounts for the radical musette tuning

the further the frequencies the greater the friction = heat

 

[tcabot]

Close, but no cigar.
The 25c detuned sound waves heat surfaces up when they bounce off them - same principle as the microwave.

 

[Dingo40]

Breezybellows,
"do all trunks get hot the same way?"
Well , we have a lot of hot weather over here, annually.
I too have noticed that the inside of the car (cabin) gets much hotter than the inside of the trunk (boot).
So, if leaving your accordion in your car, the trunk is better for it than the cabin.
On the other hand, if actually travelling with the air conditioning on, having your accordion strapped in with the safety belt and sitting on the back seat may be better (due to the cushioning against road shocks).

 

[Wheezer]

Sorry to hear that. Around here, locking the trunk only REDUCES the chances you won't find three more accordions when you get home.

yeah, assuming that your wife has the keys to the trunk!

 

[JerryPH]

Breezybellows,
"do all trunks get hot the same way?"
On the other hand, if actually travelling with the air conditioning on, having your accordion strapped in with the safety belt and sitting on the back seat may be better (due to the cushioning against road shocks).

That is actually the ONLY way that I travel with my accordion. Thank goodness that crime levels are usually very low in places that I travel. The fact that my car looks like a police ghost cruiser also never hurts… lol

 

[breezybellows]

That is actually the ONLY way that I travel with my accordion. Thank goodness that crime levels are usually very low in places that I travel. The fact that my car looks like a police ghost cruiser also never hurts… lol

Does it not get hot? I used to do that with my Tesla where I can keep the air-conditioning on even when I leave the car and lock it. But it will still be nerve wracking and I'll have to check my app every ten minutes to see whether the A/C is still running. I sold the Tesla and got a older Mercedes. The trunk doesn't have any windows to let the light in. The trunk was relatively cold even when the outside was around 80 degrees. I'll do some more tests when we get heatwaves before I think about storing an accordion in it.

 

[Siegmund]

Good old-fashioned insulation works, too.

Just wrapping a thick blanket around something like a box of chocolates will buy you a few hours of time before the chocolate melts in a hot car. It will similarly let a laptop survive a 10 or 20°F night in your car without having the crystals in the screen ruined by freezing.

I suspect that wrapping a blanket around an accordion case, or placing the case inside one of those cartons lined with a few inches of styrofoam like is sometimes used to ship computers (or accordions!), would let it survive most of a day in your trunk.

Mind you, I'd test it by wrapping up an old junk accordion with a recording thermometer inside of it, before I'd risk a five-figure accordion.

 

[JerryPH]

Does it not get hot?

Nope. It's the same temperature as the inside of the car... in fact, after being in there a whole 7+ hours driving on a 90-degree day, after taking it out, the accordion was cool to the touch. Now, I would not leave it there over the day without A/C, thats the kiss of death, IMHO, but an hour or so it would survive.

When I was living in Dallas Texas it was SO HOT one day that after making a quick run to a local Walmart, my car at the time sank a good 1-1.5 inches in the hot asphalt... I literally left 4 holes and it was so surprising I though for a second that someone had cut the tires, the jarring effect of the car bouncing out f the hole had me stopping real fast to take a look... I could not believe it. That would have been enough to completely kill an accordion in 30-60 minutes without A/C!

 

[Ffingers]

The answer to the problem maybe the same one as I used to keep my cameras cool in Australian summers - a very large 'Esky'/chilly bin/icebox or whatever you care to call it.
One that is big enough to accommodate the instrument in its case.
Taping a "BIOHAZARD" label or a "Caution, live venomous spiders" sign might deter theives who notice it sitting securely restrained on the back seat.