Smoking Near Apple Computers Creates Biohazard, Voids Warranty

[douglas9]

Unless you've just arrived in 2009 on a time machine, you know that smoking isn't good for you. Did you know, that smoking isn't good for your computer, either? It's true, at least according to Apple. Two readers in different parts of the country claim that their Applecare warranties were voided due to secondhand smoke. Both readers appealed their cases up to the office of God Steve Jobs himself. Both lost.

Back in April, Derek copied us on his e-mail to Jobs:

I took my mid 2007 apple macbook (black) into the Jordan Creek Apple Store in West Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, April 25th, because I had been experiencing some issues with it overheating, and figured the fan was bad. After some initial testing, they took the computer in for work under my Applecare plan, which has over a year remaining on it.

Today, April, 28, 2008, the Apple store called and informed me that due to the computer having been used in a house where there was smoking, that has voided the warranty and they refuse to work on the machine, due to "health risks of second hand smoke".

Not only is this faulty science, attributing non smoking residue to second hand smoke, on Chad's part, no where in your applecare terms of service can I find anything mentioning being used in a smoking environment as voiding the warranty.

http://consumerist.com/5408885/smoking-near-apple-computers-creates-biohazard-voids-warranty

[napi21]

1. See if you can get this story covered by TV News. I know

CNN, MSNBC, and many times your local news channel will cover consumer interest stories. My guess is the Jobs won't be thrilled with the adverse publicity!

[invictus]

10. Apple is a trend setter. It is more likely other computer manufacturers will immitate Apple once ...

... they find out about this story.

[napi21]

14. That may be true, but if it's NOT specified in the warranty then

it can't be enforced now! If the rest of the co's want to align with Apple, that's fine, then they ALL must put it in their warranty as an exclusion!

[invictus]

15. It IS specified in the warranty.

"1 b (ii). Damage to the Covered Equipment caused by accident, abuse, neglect, misuse (including faulty installation, repair, or maintenance by anyone other than Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider), unauthorized modification, extreme environment (including extreme temperature or humidity)... "

Abuse, neglect, extreme environment, etc.

[Toucano]

17. I think a reasonable person would not conclude that smoking in the presence of a computer

is negligent, abusive or creates an "extreme" environment.


They should probably state it explicitly.

[napi21]

23. What is a reasonable person? You're wrong on this one!

There are lots of people complaining about the HC bill being so long. Now you know why! If something is not explicitly stated, it's not enforcable! Same applies here. Where I worked we had computers on the mfg. floor, in the shipping dept. and on the docks. There was never any problems with them functioning just fine for a very long time!

[Toucano]

25. You should probably reread my post.

More carefully than you might read, oh I don't know, a computer warranty.

:)

[napi21]

20. BS! That's not extreme anything or neglect! I;d love to see this baby go to court!

If you ever worked in a geek shop, you'd know smoking is NOT a rarity! Unfortunately there's not enough $$ involved in individual cases to make it worth an attorney. If it becomes a lot of people, I'm seeing class action.

[HopeHoops]

2. I don't agree with the warranty thing, but there is some validity to the issue.

In the early 80's I was a geek at a contracting firm. The word processing pool used the recently released IBM PC. Pretty much all of the women in the word processing pool smoked heavily. Yes, I said "women" because the company was run by assholes and women were either secretaries or word processing slaves.

I was asked to add memory to one of the machines that had been in use for a while. This was before the mouse, so where one would normally set a mouse there was an ashtray. The IBM PC had an exhaust fan and air intakes on the sides. The smoke entered the air intakes, worked its way over the numerous cards in the machine, and left via the fan. It was disgusting in there.

You could see the tar traces on the cover where the smoke went over the cards. The motherboard was covered in sticky goo with dust attached to it. There was no way I was going to put $800 worth of chips into those nasty sockets. They wouldn't have worked and would never be able to be used in another machine after being coated with that goo.

Unfortunately, reporting this to management resulted in a ban on smoking in the word processing pool. Curiously, we geeks were allowed to smoke in our terminal rooms, but we were all guys and as I stated, the owners were assholes.

[Toucano]

16. I really enjoy this part of your story.

"This was before the mouse, so where one would normally set a mouse there was an ashtray."

It's so vivid. :)

I think the mouse caused a lot of us to evolve into left-handed smokers!

[lapfog_1]

3. In days of yore...

smoking would be fatal to an old mainframe. But that was before Winchester technology disk drives (sealed units).

A particle of smoke would be many times larger than the gap between a disk read head and the disk surface. Such a particle would cause a "head crash" and often result in the surface of the disk to become scratched beyond repair.

But that would have been in the late seventies / early eighties.

These days, smoke and dust and other particulates are only hazardous to computers because of their ability to coat a surface and insulate it, thus causing heat build up. If you smoke while using your computer, you could cause it to "burn up". While I don't smoke, I live in rural Arizona, where there is often a large amount of dust in the air. When I lived in the SF Bay Area, I would clean out (using compressed air) my systems every 6 months to a year. Here in Arizona, it's once a month.

For laptops, I usually "blow out" the fan area and the intakes, remove the cover for the CPU and memory and dust them off as well. Much less often I take it apart and clean it. For deskside, it's much easier to do a complete cleaning by popping the side panel off and blowing out everything, especially the power supply.

If I was a smoker, I'd do the same as living in a very dusty environment. Meaning here in AZ, I would clean out all my computers every two weeks or so.

The thermal buildup can greatly reduce the life of the electronic components, especially those that run "hot" like CPUs, GPUs, and "bridge chips" (north or south). These often have dedicated heat sinks and/or fans, but dust and smoke could collect on the heat sink.

I can't say for certain that your computer had a problem with smoke residue, but it is possible.

[Dreamer Tatum]

4. Apple gets into your business SO much better than Windows.

"Hi, I'm a Mac, and there is no smoking near our computers."

[ddeclue]

5. Smoking IS bad for electronic and mechanical things

but I don't know if it goes so far as to void a warranty on a consumer product. You may need a lawyer to file a class action law suit. You may want to go to the media with it.

[anonymous171]

6. Only the worthy can have their machines repaired. nt

[frylock]

7. fucking weak..

really, steve? really?!!

[metapunditedgy]

8. Because Jobs certainly never smoked pot around a computer.

I can't believe this is true. If so, Apple will lose, as Microsoft did with their faulty Xboxes.

[intheflow]

24. Big difference between tobacco smoke and pot smoke.

In the first place, tobacco is rife with chemicals and tars not present in pot. And in the second place, people don't smoke weed in the same quantities that they do tobacco, so the build-up of any smoke particles is not as pervasive and quickly accumulating.

[invictus]

9. Smoking near electronics will destroy it. The smoke covers the circuits with tar and nicotine stains

... just like it does to smokers' lungs. Apple is right to void the warranty.

[Hannah Bell]

11. bullshit.

[invictus]

13. Real classy. You must be a smoker.

Bullshit is what you put in your lungs every day.

[anigbrowl]

18. no, it's true.

As a matter of fact, if you look at music studio electronics on eBay you'll frequently see mention of 'used in a smoke free studio', because many musicians smoke but they would also prefer not to buy used equipment covered in tobacco gunk, due to the maintenance issues. If you're a smoker and smoke next to your computer, try opening it up and rubbing some smooth surface like the inside of the case with a tissue. It'll turn up brown, just like a cigarette filter.

[backscatter712]

19. I can confirm this.

Generally, it takes a significant amount of cigarette smoke to do this, but I've seen the insides of some machines that were just fucking disgusting. Coated with tar and smoke residue. BLECCH!!!! :puke:

I'd say the guys getting their MacBooks repaired were probably smoking like chimneys around them.

[frustrated_lefty]

12. Thus, second hand smoke voids any warranty.

[NJCher]

21. second hand smoke in humans

What happens when that smoke enters the human lung is that it beats down the cilia with its stickiness. That's one reason smokers get respiratory diseases so much more than nonsmokers.

The cilia are like a field of grass, with each tip of grass attracting particulate matter and impurities. Cigarette smoke prevents the cilia from performing their function.

I used to be a smoking cessation facilitator. A week or so after smokers quit, the cilia would start lifting their little heads and saying, hey, time to get rid of this junk. Smokers who maintained their freedom from the cigarette would be astonished and disgusted at what they were coughing up.

I'll stop here, just like I would when they would when they would initiate these discussions with me.

So computer cards don't have cilia. That stuff just stays stuck, and it would be impossible to clean it off some of the microcircuitry. I think, therefore, that Apple is probably right to void the warranty in this case.


Cher

[mrbarber]

22. Well, what about all the gamers who like to smoke while playing?

Oh wait..nevermind.

[tandot]

26. Here is a link with pics showing what it can look like:

http://www.squidoo.com/cigarette-smoke-computer-damage

Here is part:

"At this time, may I add, that it is a very stinky job to clean this stuff off. I am not a smoker, so I hate it all the more. I will explain some cleaning techniques later in this lens.

A major problem with cigarette smoke, is that it creates a layer of soot on the motherboard (gummy and sticky.) When this happens, there is a high probability that a short circuit will happen. The computer these pictures came from, this happened."