Think of all the gear you've got stashed in and around your home theater: a cable box, XBOX, Wii, DVR, surround sound, DVD player. It all makes for one heck of a movie night, but all of that gear can get overheated fast. Here's a cheap secret to keeping your home theater gear in great shape.
A cookie cooling rack!
After some late-night cookie baking, you might plop your sweet chocolatey cookies down on an elevated wire grid, like the ones in the photos below, to cool them down enough to spare the roof of your mouth from third degree burns. It works because you get cool air moving all around.
You can use the same cooling rack to keep your home theater components cool, too. Just place a small cooling rack under each box or console on the shelf. They can be had for just a few bucks a piece, and come in so many sizes that you're sure to find one that fits your shelf and can hide under your components to maintain a clean look.
Cookie cooling racks also work great for those nights you want to watch a movie on your laptop in bed. Putting your laptop right on the covers is a sure way to get it to overheat, but placing a cooling rack underneath can help keep air circulating and keep your machine at a good temp.
(Images: 1. Shutterstock, 2. composite [Idealo, iweb.cooking.com], 3. time2saveworkshops.com)
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A cookie cooling rack is a poor, temporary solution. Better to invest in a proper USB cooling pad for your laptop, they are generally under $20.
The cookie rack is a great idea! Perfect for under the DVD player.
For my laptop I use a book (usually an old yearbook), positioned to not obscure the fan. It's free, and doesn't use up one of my baking racks.
For other electronics we prop the feet up with tiny cardboard squares, cut from the original packing, to give them an extra bit of lift.
Just use these heat resistant trivet dots from Sur La Table. Small, easy, makes room.
http://www.surlatable.com/product/PRO-958165/Tovolo-Tumble-Trivet
All right, Island_Monkey, don't read this - it will offend/upset you. I have my XBox up on candle "risers" - four lidded candle jars that I didn't burn anymore. The stupid thing overheats like crazy, even with the door open to the tv console. So it's propped up and a point a fan at it for long gaming days. My re-extended warranty from the Red Ring repair is expired, so he's got to keep limping along for a while!
@minuet42-
Something like this should be easy to hack into the back of your console --
http://www.amazon.com/Stinger-SGJ78-8-25-Inch-Cross-Flow-Fan/dp/B001HHSPYI/
You want it to exhaust out the back, not push air in.
[I have no connection to the product or seller.]
I'll admit, I've done this. With a big BluIce pack underneath to help things along even further, though I make sure it never actually *touches* the bottom of the laptop.
a usb cooling stand is great, but things still get hot. so, positioning a floor fan near it also does wonders
Cooling racks can scratch laptops. I don't like scuffed toys, so I say nay to the laptop cooler suggestion. I just grab a thick book and put my laptop on that. When it gets warm, swap out for another book. As for the electronics, get a good shelf or follow EBarrett3's repurposing cardboard idea.
I stick a stack of post-it notes under each of the four corners of my laptop and that works great.
@pandamonium54 - you're worried about....some scratches on the bottom of your laptop??? Oookay... I think I'd be more concerned about melting the expensive inner workings than worried about a tiny mark on a part of the electronics that NO ONE WILL EVER SEE, but to each their own.