Connect gets pretty warm on top

NO! Leave it be, very warm but not so it cannot be touched is normal. Make sure the unit has enough place above it for heat to radiate away from the top surface.
It stays warmish even when not playing music.

[quote='cisco]Has anyone took their Connect apart to drill some vent holes for better ventilation on the top? Any ideas and suggestions would be appreciated. TIA[/quote]


I heartily recommend it. A fine mist of cooling water would also ensure the temperature stayed within safe limits.

(In case of doubt the above post is heavily ironic).Follow the instructions in the user manual and ensure the ambient conditions are within operating parameters. Do NOT open it up and drill holes in it. That would be irresponsible, dangerous and invalidate your warranty.

Make sure its also located in an open space in other words not in a rack, cupboard but an open shelf is ideal. All mine have been warm to touch even when idle but never hot .

Thanks for the replys guys....I thought I would throw that question out there to see if other people have similar issues.
My Connect is located on the top shelve so it has plenty of space around and above it for proper ventilation.

I've had my Connect for over 8 1/2 years so it's out of warranty already.... it's been a "Great" piece of gear that I've owned.

I was feeling silly one day and set an old CPU heatsink on one of my antique Zone Player 80s. It cooled the ZP off a few degrees and didn't seem to impact anything else. Going back and wiping the dust off the top of the ZP and the heatsink helped a couple degrees more.

Lol. That won't go down well with the better half! But I understand that the heat is radiated away in any case, so this ought not be necessary.

Mine is out of sight behind a TV set so appearance is not an issue and the junk box refugee is fine. If yours is visible then spousal approval could be sought for a prettier heat sink, maybe a chrome and copper one. You could go all-out and add one with a fan too.

We are in the Phoenix, Arizona metro area and normally keep it about 80 inside, when we are away we set the AC even higher to reduce the cooling bill so I figured a bit of extra heat dissipation couldn't hurt. If you keep your place in the low 70s or lower then I'd not bother.

I agree. Ambient temperature has a very large effect on how hot the surface gets.

Stanley_4 wrote:

when we are away we set the AC even higher to reduce the cooling bill

When you're away -- assuming it's for a few days or more -- why on earth would you leave Sonos powered anyway?

BTW unless that ZP80 is the only wired device, and needs to support wireless peers, you could turn its radio off. You'd have less heat dissipation. Google it.

ratty wrote:

Stanley_4 wrote:

when we are away we set the AC even higher to reduce the cooling bill

When you're away -- assuming it's for a few days or more -- why on earth would you leave Sonos powered anyway?

BTW unless that ZP80 is the only wired device, and needs to support wireless peers, you could turn its radio off. You'd have less heat dissipation. Google it.

Actually, if we away for only a few hours that is long enough to save some air conditioning money here. Phoenix is one of the markets where you can have your power billed at different rates for different times of the day. Shutting down or reducing the AC for a few hours mid-day at the highest rate period can save a decent amount of money each month. Managing big power users like the AC, a pool pump or the clothes dryer makes sense, fiddling with small power users a couple times a day is usually not worth the effort though.

We do shut down most everything when we are gone for a few days but since that rarely happens it isn't enough of an aggravation to do much to make it easier. For most of my Sonos units I just pull the wall plug, a couple are on power strips that can be switched off.

I do have the radios turned off in both my ZP-80s, didn't make a big difference in temp or power use but did cut down on issues from them being too close to other WiFi devices. I'd not recommend turning the radios off to most folks as the Sonos folks seem to take a dim view of doing that.

The heat sinks are a cheap / free option and haven't generated any comments from Sonos so I'm happy to suggest it to others.

I am a little surprised to hear that it works as well as you describe. I would have thought that the Connect plastic to the metal heat sink contact would not conduct much heat to the sink and would actually reduct the Connect surface available for heat radiation for an overall adverse impact.

But your measurements are proof to the contrary.

I have some really old ZP-80s, they have what looks like a metal Sonos badge inlay on the top but it might well be silver plastic.

I took my IR thermometer out when I saw this post, just as I removed the heat sink the ZP-80 was 87 degrees at the center of the badge area. After a half hour I checked it again and it was 93 so there is some difference from the heat sink, 6 degrees isn't much.

This is in an 80 degree room, old ZP, not playing music and the WiFi radio disabled. If it is playing, has the radio on or the room is warmer the heat sink may make a bigger difference.

Either way the ZP is not in danger of overheating.

As long as it is wired, I suggest you try disabling the wi-fi on your Connect, details in this link:

http://bsteiner.info/articles/disabling-sonos-wifi

You will find that the heat output from the Connect reduces dramatically, and it will also use half the power that it otherwise would. It worked for me.

For anybody confused, there isn't a problem in this thread. There is no issue with the Connect running hot.