Looking After Your Tech Gadgets

The latest gadgets seem to drive our society – it’s rare to watch TV without seeing an advert for the latest smartphone or laptop. However, we often don’t pay any attention to actually taking care of them. With some laptops being worth thousands of dollars, this can be an expensive mistake. To extend the life expectancy of your gadgets, implement the following advice.

Keep Away From Direct Sunlight and Hot Temperatures

It’s important to keep your gadgets running at the right temperature. For example, desktops where fans or hardware is damaged may end up running too hot. This will damage your equipment over time – invest in accurate temperature measurement to ensure everything is running as it should.

Much like your average vampire, gadgets don’t like direct sunlight. It’s guaranteed that long sun exposure will damage a gadget’s casing but it can go as far as rendering it completely unusable.

When Cool is Too Cool

While keeping your gadget away from sunlight is advised, it’s also equally important to avoid cold temperatures. If it’s anywhere near freezing outside, don’t leave your gadgets in the car, for example. You may be in for a nasty surprise otherwise.

Invest In the Right Repair Shop

Many of us are happy to invest thousands of dollars into a new gadget but baulk at repair prices that represent just a fraction of that cost. Instead, we turn to cheap and unauthorised dealers that violate the item’s warranty.

Stick to accredited or authorised dealers when you take your laptop or cell phone for repairs. If anything goes wrong, you’ll get a new one straightaway.

Watch the Battery

Batteries have an expiration date – if you start noticing strange behaviour, little juice, or anything else that’s suspicious, it’s probably time to replace your battery. If you don’t, it could end up leaking some nasty liquids into your gadgets. They only cost a fraction of the overall price of your average gadget, so it’s worth the investment.

Gadgets Don’t Mix with Food and Drink

Many of us are so addicted to our technology that we can’t even eat or drink without staying glued to our computers. We suggest ending this trend. Next time you have your lunch, read a book instead of browsing the web. Replacing a paperback is much cheaper than getting a new Macbook Pro.

Use Protective Covers

Protective covers, whether for laptops or cell phones, cost as little as $10, if not less. Yet many people carry their items worth hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars without any protection whatsoever. No wonder we see so many people with cracked cell phone screens!

Keep Your Gadgets Clean

It’s surprising how many of us do our daily routines to keep anything from clothes to furniture spotless, but we never do much of anything to ensure our gadgets are kept in tiptop condition!

It’s essential that you invest in basic gadget cleaning – it’s not too difficult and all it requires is a soft cloth and some cleaning solution. The most important one is keeping dust away. Particularly in desktop computers, it can severely hamper performance.

Gadget Insurance

Sometimes, no matter how many precautionary measures we take, it’s unavoidable that your tech gadget is damaged, lost or stolen. Considering some gadgets are worth thousands of dollars, it’s worth keeping them insured.

For a small monthly charge, you can rest easy knowing that no matter what happens, you’re covered. We still recommend you follow our previous points, however!

Ella Mason, an experienced freelance writer, wrote this article. Ella specialises in providing useful and engaging advice to small businesses. Follow her on Twitter @ellatmason