Perils of leaving your cue in the car?

I don't have any "real world experience" with this issue because I never leave my cues in my car other than driving them to and from the pool hall. However, McDermott offers a lifetime warentee on their cues, which also covers warpage, should you have to leave your cues in your car and they bend.
 
A Nice Warm Arizona July Day of 115 Degrees does wonderfult thing to Wood. Leave your Pool Cue in the Trunk of your Car, and you get,
Wood_warping.png
 
Again...I would take mine into work with me. They all knew I played, and played a lot. Yeah, I got a weird look the first time, but after that, no problem.

I think leaving the keys to your car in the case pocket is a brilliant idea, actually...or your cell phone. Those are the two items everyone seems to miss immediately.

If your cue gets too cold, and then you go into a warm environment like a tavern or poolhall...you're not likely going to wait the time it takes for them to come to temperature naturally. This can cause warpage, or even cracks in the finish, particularly around say any metal rings.

Too hot can cause the finish to cloud or become gummy, depending on the type of finish...and again, warpage.

Lastly, many folks have lost their cues due to either their vehicles getting broken into, or the whole car stolen. If you insist upon leaving a cue in a car, get a cheapo Walmart cue...at least there is not big investment in danger.

Lisa
 
lights_out said:
I don't have any "real world experience" with this issue because I never leave my cues in my car other than driving them to and from the pool hall. However, McDermott offers a lifetime warentee on their cues, which also covers warpage, should you have to leave your cues in your car and they bend.
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Hold the phone. Their guarantee will not cover against abuse, and leaving your cue in the car can be considered abuse. Their warpage guarantee is for natural warpage that may occur from the wood moving on it's own...not through the help of temperature variances such as that found from storing in a car. And if you think they couldn't tell the difference, think again.

Lisa
 
I have done this in MT during the ice cold winter and in hot weather also, and have never had a problem, but it is not a good idea, so I avoid it now. I have been lucky.

Besides, who wants to turn a nice $500 cue to a $.02 pretzel because we were too lazy to put in our work locker?:thumbup:
 
8-ball Rat said:
Forget about the temperature variances part.

You have kids? Leave the cue(s) in your car for as long as you would leave your kids in the car. :) ;)
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...and don't forget to crack the window :).

Do you play in the same room each time? If so, maybe they have cue lockers you could rent then you wouldn't have to worry about all of the above.

dave
 
justadub said:
Hey gang, looking for real-world advice.

My 1st nice cue is due to arrive in a few days, and I want to make sure that I'm taking care of it as best possible. (Nuthin fancy by forum standards, but a couple-hundred dollar McDermott that I'm pretty excited to get. That's a big deal in my world!) My problem is that I work 35 miles away from home, and often have to go wherever I'm going to play, without the time to go home to pick up my cue. Thus I need to leave it in my car. I'd really rather not have to take it into work with me, and risk forgetting to take it with me when I leave.

Understand, I fully realize that temperature extremes are bad for cues. I get it. What I'd like to ask everyone here is what their real-world experience is with leaving their cues in their cars.

I live in Maine. It gets pretty cold in the winter, and for a couple of months in the summer it can get quite hot and humid as well. I guess I want to know how cold is too cold? 50 degress? freezing? Zero?

Similarly, how hot is too hot? 70 degrees? 80? 90? When it gets hot here, it is usually quite humid, not that fabled "dry heat" I hear about... :D

Have folks wrapped their cue case in a blanket and avoided trouble? Is there a style of case that is designed for these issues? Or perhaps an insulated box to put the case in?

I'm just a newbie in this pool world, hoping to tap the collective brilliance of the forum and maybe learn something, without having to learn it the hard way. :p Thanks in advance.
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I don't have real world experience because I would not leave my cues in the car for more than an hour or so. However, I do have a couple of suggestions:

1. As many have mentioned, taking them with you into work is a good option.

2. I am not sure if you play in a pool hall or a bar as your home location. However, A lot of pool halls have lockers that you can rent and keep your cue there. Although you would have to go and pick it up if you are in another location, it would be a good option because I am sure it is relatively close to where you would be playing.

3. Ask one of you teamates that lives closer to keep your cue for you and bring it on league night. I actually did this for the SBE so I don't have to fly with my cue. I left it with my best friend who drives there. Of course, it is a secondary cue; however, it is still a very nice cue.

Just some other suggestions that I did not see already.
 
> I typically tell people that are getting a decent cue for the first time that the rule is don't leave your cue anywhere you wouldn't post up and sleep for 8 hours ;).

Esp here in Tennessee where it's day after day of 95+ and 99% humidity in the summer.

I've watched an ivory ferrule shatter after being left in a cold car for just 2 hours...Tommy D.
 
My experience

Well, I certainly believe that its best not to leave your cues in the car. But I will say that i left mine in the car quite often while I was in college in Phoenix. although pretty dry the temps were plenty hot. I still have that cue and it is still straight as an arrow. Now some of the rings have raised up. But I am not sure I can attribute it to that or not, as the cue is now 15 years old. I guess what i am saying is do your best not to, but if you must or you do it by accident. don't lose sleep over it.

Michael
 
Thanks for the replies, folks. I was pretty sure what kind of responses I would get from my questions, but I thought I might find something new to consider. I must say I am a bit surprised at the cut and dried nature of the resposnes. I've read many threads that go into all kinds of technical and scientific detail (and not just the CTE threads :D) on all kinds of subjects, and I didn't get that sort of response, regarding at what point the wood is more likely to become damaged. No big deal. As I said, I pretty much expected the response, and it is a good confirmation of what I guess I already knew.

To answer a couple of the earlier posters, the main room that I play in does have lockers to rent, but I don't go there everytime I play. I have considered it in the past but the inconvenience factor puts me off at this time. Perhaps when I get my "next" nice cue I'll leave one there and take another with me. That won't be anytime soon, so I'll need to work this out, probably as suggested. The car-keys-in-the-case might work in my situation. Hadn't thought of that one, cool idea. of course that leads to needing a bigger case, and so on, and so on... :)

Thanks again, everyone. I'm just glad to get the new cue!
 
I would think that the most significant factors would be:

Any storage case or position that would allow a non-uniform force being applied to the wood.

Humidity: It's wood, pretty straight forward. Swell / Shrink factor.

Brutal cold or heat: The materials of the cue will react at different rates. This can lead to damage of the unit. The expansion cycles will eventually damage the inlays, joints, and glue lines on a very small level. It won't pop apart in your hands, but the small effects wouldn't be good for the strength of the cue.
 
My first cue, I never worred about it because nobody ever told me different....owned it for years, left it in the truck many a day, in Texas summers and winters....never had an issue....

Second cue, took great care of it, never left it in the truck....well, one thursday I went out with some buds......we closed down the pool hall.....got home late, forgot my cues in my black truck in Florida in August....my favorite cue had a nice wobble in the shaft after that day....

You never know....better safe than sorry....
 
justadub said:
I must say I am a bit surprised at the cut and dried nature of the resposnes. I've read many threads that go into all kinds of technical and scientific detail (and not just the CTE threads :D) on all kinds of subjects, and I didn't get that sort of response, regarding at what point the wood is more likely to become damaged.
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I don't know if any specific testing has been done on cues to see what temperature variances would cause permanent damage, but as my rule-of-thumb, if you step outside and it feels excessively hot/cold to you, then it's too hot/cold to leave the cues in the car. On days that are considered nice enough to leave them in the car, I would make sure the windows are cracked, and I wouldn't leave them in the trunk under ANY circumstances.

As for the McDermott warranty, Lisa had it right. It doesn't cover abuse. There was a thread about a year or so ago by an AZb member that had a helluva time gettin' McDermott to honor their warranty on a cue that warped or broke (I don't remember the specifics). A warranty sometimes ain't all that it's talked-up to be.

Not to harp on about it, but if it were my cue, I'd take it in to work with me. I mean, a 1x1 or a 2x2 case ain't gonna take up that much space nor be too imposing to carry around with you. Why chance it???

Maniac
 
I take my cues to work a few times a week. I stash them in the corner and put my keys in the pocket so even if I do make it to my car w/out my cues I cant go anywhere.
 
justadub said:
Hey gang, looking for real-world advice.

My 1st nice cue is due to arrive in a few days, and I want to make sure that I'm taking care of it as best possible. (Nuthin fancy by forum standards, but a couple-hundred dollar McDermott that I'm pretty excited to get. That's a big deal in my world!) My problem is that I work 35 miles away from home, and often have to go wherever I'm going to play, without the time to go home to pick up my cue. Thus I need to leave it in my car. I'd really rather not have to take it into work with me, and risk forgetting to take it with me when I leave.

Understand, I fully realize that temperature extremes are bad for cues. I get it. What I'd like to ask everyone here is what their real-world experience is with leaving their cues in their cars.

I live in Maine. It gets pretty cold in the winter, and for a couple of months in the summer it can get quite hot and humid as well. I guess I want to know how cold is too cold? 50 degress? freezing? Zero?

Similarly, how hot is too hot? 70 degrees? 80? 90? When it gets hot here, it is usually quite humid, not that fabled "dry heat" I hear about... :D

Have folks wrapped their cue case in a blanket and avoided trouble? Is there a style of case that is designed for these issues? Or perhaps an insulated box to put the case in?

I'm just a newbie in this pool world, hoping to tap the collective brilliance of the forum and maybe learn something, without having to learn it the hard way. :p Thanks in advance.
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you can do alot of damage to a cue in a car, But its 100% avoidable read-on. the change in temp is the biggest problem. Its ok if your cue gets real hot or cold if it happens sloooowly-that mitagates the damage or perhaps no damage at all from 30-120 degrees I say any well built cue can handle if the temp change happens slowly. Its when it happens fast you dont want your cue going from 60 to 125 degrees in a hour in the sun inside your car with all the windows rolled up. The worst possible thing is if there is such a drastic temp change you get condensation on your cue when it warms up-thats real bad because the wood your cue is made of is kiln dried and if your cue gets condensation on it that can cause the wood to start moving and the cue can warp, if it happens once your fine, but if that is a regular thing you will have troubles. Keep your cue dry and the same temp an it will be fine is the rules.:) That can cause all sorts of things to happen you dont want-I didnt read this thread, I'm sure they have been mentioned. The adheasives(glue, expoxy, etc) can take the heat but where they bond with the wood is the weak link and movement there is bad-radical temp changes can cause that to happen, there in lies the danger of fast temp changes.

Solution: Take your cue inside.

2nd best solution(what I did for 2 years-with a McDermott as well) I lived in Stockton Ca and it would get to 100 there in the summer, I was in school and had to leave the cue in the car all day, I wasnt going to drive 30 minutes back home to get my cue-so I had to invent a solution to keep my cue protected from the heat and cold for 2 years. I bought a case that was made of styrofoam(it wasnt 100% stytofoam but it had some and insulated as best I could), I had 3 or 4 beach towels big ones, and I wrapped them around the case losely so there were lots of air pockets between layers to the towels, The outside towel was white to keep it cool, then I got best idea, I bought one of those silver windshield inside the car things to block the sun from the dash. I dont know what they are called, but they are silver and reflect the heat. I chopped it up and transformed it into a shape that fit over my beach towel cocoon with the styro case in the middle. I could be parked in the sun from 8 AM until 4 or 5 and the cue would still be cool from the morning, it might have raised 10 degrees, I did this for 2 years. Never had a problem. Same in the winter cue would stay warm. I built a way to slow the temp change-thats about the best you can do in a car. And its enough, I would put any cue in that enviorment and not worry, thats how confident I am with it.

I live in Vegas half the time and the dry air there is hell on cues too. The car thing works fine in Vegas too. If you build something lik I described you'll be fine.
 
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Fatboy said:
2nd best solution(what I did for 2 years-with a McDermott as well) I lived in Stockton Ca and it would get to 100 there in the summer, I was in school and had to leave the cue in the car all day, I wasnt going to drive 30 minutes back home to get my cue-so I had to invent a solution to keep my cue protected from the heat and cold for 2 years. I bought a case that was made of styrofoam(it wasnt 100% stytofoam but it had some and insulated as best I could), I had 3 or 4 beach towels big ones, and I wrapped them around the case losely so there were lots of air pockets between layers to the towels, The outside towel was white to keep it cool, then I got best idea, I bought one of those silver windshield inside the car things to block the sun from the dash. I dont know what they are called, but they are silver and reflect the heat. I chopped it up and transformed it into a shape that fit over my beach towel cocoon with the styro case in the middle. I could be parked in the sun from 8 AM until 4 or 5 and the cue would still be cool from the morning, it might have raised 10 degrees, I did this for 2 years. Never had a problem. Same in the winter cue would stay warm. I built a way to slow the temp change-thats about the best you can do in a car. And its enough, I would put any cue in that enviorment and not worry, thats how confident I am with it.
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Now we're talking! Someone that actually has tried an insulated storage method. Interesting.
Thanks, Eric.

BTW, everyone can stop with the McDermott warranty issue. I deal with manufacturers warranties all day, every day. I know "abuse" won't be covered, I wasn't even thinking in that direction. Just looking for ways to handle the situation, the safest and most convenient. Which just may be mutually exclusive...:rolleyes:

This has been quite helpful folks. Thanks again, to everyone.
 
I'm in PA and over the years there's been plenty of times I left many different cues in my car in the summer and the winter. They only thing that's ever happened was ring pop - where the finish around the silver rings pushes out slightly and you could feel it with your finger. I attribute that to the metal growing a .001" or so in the warm temperature and then returning to normal once it cools off. And shrinking a .001" or so in the cold weather and then returning to normal once it warms up.

Oh, and one time, when I had a Suzuki Samurai convertible, somebody at a busy nightclub highjacked a Meucci Special Edition along with my Ted Nugent, Pat Benatar and Aldo Nova cassettes. I blame it on the Benatar cassette - I had no business owning that in the first place. I learned my lesson - my cues only see the backseat on the way to and from the poolroom. And if I have to take them into work it's a pain in the ass because I have an OnQ 3 x 6 case that is pretty big and draws attention. But it's worth it.

Ron F
 
First, McDermotts are guaranteed for life so no worries there.

I leave my Fury in the car inside my GTF case all the time. No problems with it.

When I lived in the USA I used to leave my cues in the car in my Instroke cases all the time. Same when I lived in Germany.

Summer, winter, rain, shine, doesn't matter my cues live in my car. If a cue is going to warp then it's going to warp no matter what. If it's properly seasoned then then it's going to take an awful lot of abuse to get it to warp.

I never kept my cues in the trunk. My cues were kept in the cabin but my cars tend to be hatchbacks.

Some high end cue dealers travel the country with their trunks packed full of high end cues. THE TRUNK. And they have done so for 20 years.

So I am one who votes for leaving the cue in the car as I have never had a problem.

HOWEVER, when I got my first Schon I brought it in the house every night and cleaned the shaft and the ferrule and dressed the tip and held it lovingly while dreaming of the great shots we made together. I think leaving the cue in the car is reserved for when the honeymoon phase with a new cue is over and you can trust it in the car alone.

I would however like to take this opportunity to suggest some nice padded cases for your consideration. While your cue may be greatly resistant to temperature change it might not like being bounced around as you drive. Try these www.jbcases.com and these www.sterlingcuecases.com
 
JB Cases said:
when I got my first Schon I brought it in the house every night and cleaned the shaft and the ferrule and dressed the tip and held it lovingly while dreaming of the great shots we made together.
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LOL...
I dunno, I'm afraid of theft...so the only time my cue/s are in the car is if I'm stopping for lunch or dinner on the way to the billiard hall...Other than that, it's in the safety of my house...
 
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