MacBook – Is putting the computer to sleep while it’s in a hot car a bad idea

batterymacbook pro

I know that keeping the battery of a MacBook Air in a hot environment is a bad idea. But sometimes I have to leave it in a hot car. Are there any recommendations as to what to do in this kind of scenario?

I'll usually close the lid, which puts it into sleep mode, but I just realized that the battery is probably still being used in that case; and using a battery while it's hot is worse than storing the battery in a hot environment. Is this right? And would the recommendation then be to shut off the computer? What other things are recommended?

According to Apple's webpage:

Hot Tip
If you use your iPod, iPhone, iPad, or notebook in temperatures higher than 95° F (or 35° C), you may permanently damage your battery’s capacity. That is, your battery won’t power your device as long on any given charge. You may damage it even more if you charge the device in these temperatures. Even storing a battery in a hot environment can damage it irreversibly.

Notice the relationship for bad things to do with a hot battery:

Storing < Using < Charging

In other words, the worst thing to do is to charge the device at a hot temperature. Then comes using it, followed by storing it (i.e. storing the battery is the least damaging thing you can do).

So the question is when the device is sleeping in a hot car, is the battery usage (i.e. to keep the RAM data) significant enough that I should be shutting down the computer rather than sleeping it?

Best Answer

Putting a computer in a hot car is a bad idea. The additional heat, generated by a sleeping MacBook is almost zero.

If you have to leave your computer in the car, and temperatures are (or will reach) near the storage limits (45°C/113°F) you should leave it in an thicker or insulated bag, that will protect the computer from the heat. Avoid direct sunlight at all cost.

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