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My pain cave is an unheated garage in the north of Scotland and is regularly below freezing in winter. I’m using an 11 year old Tacx Sirius dumb trainer at the moment and am fed up with the limited power range using virtual power, so I’m looking to upgrade to a smart trainer.
I’m concerned about using a smart trainer at temperatures as low as -5c, having heard of issues with calibration and power drift as the trainer warms up etc?
not had any issues i'm aware of with my Kickr Snap.
Just recalibrate after your warm up and you'll be fine.
Most trainers should be calibrated after they have been warmed up (10-20 mins of usage). Some (kickr V5) auto calibrate.
There was a thread about the exact same thing not so long ago and a few people said they used smart trainers in their garages/shed all year round etc and had no issues
Mines been in the garage for years. No issues.
Our garage is cold and damp, had an original Kickr in there for a few winters before it went kaput, can't honestly say if it's demise was down to the conditions.
It did seem to suffer a little from temperature drift on the really cold nights, noticeable tracking it against my Powermeter and overlaying the two using DCR's analyzer.
I have an '18 version in there now which seems solid.
I picked up a smart trainer few months ago, from the double digit temps when in my unheated single skin detached garage to the recent zero or below temps I didn't notice any difference in power outout readings
Thanks for the feedback everyone, reassuring to know they survive. My wife has offered to buy me a smart trainer for Christmas but were a bit concerned about effect freezing temps might have on the electronics, because they're the suspected cause of death of 2 PSUs on the desktop PC that I was using to run the Sufferfest.
Haze, did you you get your Kickr replaced under warranty or did you have to fork out for a replacement yourself? My dumb trainer is nearly 12 years old and I couldn't afford to be replacing it every 2 years when it cost as much as my bike.
@ballsofcottonwool It was well outside of warranty, should probably have added I picked it up second hand so it was already a couple of years old.
After trying a few things via Wahoo support they eventually offered a 2018 refurb for £800 (about £50 under list price IIRC)
I tried to blag some of the ridiculously overpriced Axis feet but they weren't playing.
My previous trainer (Tacx Flow) was in the garage for around 3 years & didn't seem to suffer any ill effects. That was a wheel on though & I felt it definitely suffered with calibration issues when cold. That is understandable though as calibration is closely matched to the tyre, so cold weather (lower tyre pressure) and harder rubber probably had an affect.
My current Direto I have had since around Feb/March I think & it is also fine in the garage. I haven't noticed any calibration/power drift when cold, but there probably is a very minor effect.
No issues with my kickr core for the last 3 years.
How ever ..... My TV on the other hand doesn't like to turn on much below zero.