Safely storing your electronic items

Safely storing your electronic items

Electronic equipment needs to carefully stored to ensure that it is kept in the best possible condition in storage – and to make sure that it still works properly when you bring it back out of storage again!

If you are looking to store anything electronic, make sure you have a look at our storage tips below…

First things first

If you are planning to store any electronic equipment which has any kind of data stored on it, the very first consideration should be to create a back-up and store that back-up either online or on an external storage device and for that to be kept safe, away from your chosen storage. Whilst it should be possible for you to store your items without experiencing data loss, creating a back-up is always a sensible precaution.

Cables and accessories

Gather up any cables or other accessories which need to be stored along with your electronic items to make sure that everything stays together. Cables should be loosely coiled and secured ready to be labelled and stored with the device they belong to.

Clean and dust

Before wrapping and packing your electronic items, you should give them a thorough clean and dust. Use a compressed air spray to chase the dust out from vents, keyboards and any other nooks and crannies and clean the exterior using a suitable cleaning product to remove dust, grease and dirt.

Remove batteries

You should never store your items with the batteries still connected. Leaving batteries in electronic items whilst they are stored is absolutely asking for trouble. Over time the casing of batteries can become damaged and can leak battery acid inside your electronics. As well as ruining your device, battery acid is corrosive to skin and could be dangerous. For items with removeable or rechargeable batteries, these should be disconnected from the device before it is packaged.

Avoid moisture

Moisture and electronics are not a good combination. Ideally, using plastic crates to hold your items whilst they are in storage will keep them protected from moisture. A word of caution though – as good as plastic crates are for keeping moisture out, they will also trap it in if there is any environmental moisture in your appliance. Use sachets of silica gel of some other kind of dessicant to ensure that any moisture is absorbed rather than risk damaging your equipment.

For storing electrical items, we would always recommend that you opt for climate controlled, internal storage. Whilst this is more expensive than renting an externally stored metal container, the fluctuations in temperature which that kind of storage are subject to make it unsuitable for long term storage of electricals

Package carefully

If you happen to have kept the original packaging for your device or appliance, this would be the perfect way to package it up for storage. The original packaging would usually come with packing material designed to exactly fit the appliance which is being stored so if this is available, so much the better.

If you don’t have the original packaging, chose boxes which are not too big and use extra paper or cardboard to stuff the gaps and prevent too much in the way of movement of the items inside the box.

Keep accurate records

As ever, it is important to make sure that you have an accurate and up to date replacement cost of the electronic items you are storing for the purposes of insurance. You should always set this at a level which takes into account the new replacement value, rather than the cost of the item when it was purchased. For older electronic items, get an up to date figure for an equivalent if the item is now no longer available.

Finally, don’t forget to check your stored items regularly for any signs of moisture or damage, especially if you are storing them in colder weather.

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Patrick Pellens

Author: Patrick Pellens

I started in the insurance industry in 2003 specialising in Personal Insurances such as Motor Bike, Car and Home Insurance.