I'd love to use a Sonos One in my garage where I do all kinds of stuff—the messiest being woodworking. I've got an air filter, but plenty of sawdust can settle. Assuming I don't care how gray the cloth cover looks from all the sawdust, will the Sonos One be able to have a long life in such conditions?
I'd position it high and out of the way, with mostly just the front exposed, so the dust is can be minimized. I can also clean it regularly with compressed air. Any thoughts on the One's survivability and how I could protect it more?
The only reason why I'm thinking about this is because of what I've read about the One's resistance to moisture. I figure if it can keep out moisture, it can keep out dust!
Thanks in advance!
Answered
Is the Sonos One dust-resistant enough to be used in a garage workshop?
Best answer by Ryan S
The Sonos One is humidity resistant and has some good particle resistance as well. Officially, we don't recommend this use, but I think it will be alright. I'd also suggest at least giving it a cover of some sort.
The speaker itself would hold up better to sawdust than the microphones. Just like on a phone, the holes could get plugged up and make them hard of hearing, or in the worst case, a small enough particle could get in there just in the wrong way and damage a microphone.
Very fine particles would be a concern in the long term. If you decided to try it out, don't use compressed air to clean off the top of the unit, as it could force particles into the microphones. Instead, just wipe it off with a clean dry cloth. The warranty for the player covers manufacturer defects, damage caused by dust may not be covered.
The speaker itself would hold up better to sawdust than the microphones. Just like on a phone, the holes could get plugged up and make them hard of hearing, or in the worst case, a small enough particle could get in there just in the wrong way and damage a microphone.
Very fine particles would be a concern in the long term. If you decided to try it out, don't use compressed air to clean off the top of the unit, as it could force particles into the microphones. Instead, just wipe it off with a clean dry cloth. The warranty for the player covers manufacturer defects, damage caused by dust may not be covered.
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I now know that there's no fabric covering the speakers (I can't edit my post?), but that gave me an idea to make a cloth cover for the Sonos One. Choosing the right fabric would be important, but I could see it working without muffling the sound. But I'd still like to hear from people who are more familiar with the One's build quality. Thanks.
+22I saw recently a company makes custom cloth covers for sonos speakers.
Here is one
http://www.coloryoursound.com/speakers/play1-speakers.html
Here is one
http://www.coloryoursound.com/speakers/play1-speakers.html
Cloth covers that are transparent to audio will also allow dust to pass. It will just take a little longer. A thin plastic cover would serve for dust, but it may have sound quality impacts. Easy/cheap enough to test for this though. Make sure to leave some ventilation for the heat build up to escape if it does work.
I would imagine that humidity can access more of the innards than can dust, so you should be ok, but Sonos should be the ones saying this if they do read all the posts as they claim to.
I would imagine that humidity can access more of the innards than can dust, so you should be ok, but Sonos should be the ones saying this if they do read all the posts as they claim to.
Lol—I really should have made this a discussion and not a question. Yeah, it would be great if someone from Sonos could reply. But thanks for your suggestions, Chris and Kumar. I could see making a couple of "socks" similar to those Color Your Sound, and changing them every week, or just after an especially bad day of making sawdust. I can experiment with some plastic wrap or a plastic bag, but the heat might be more dangerous than dust.
Still, here's hoping the experts at Sonos can chime in.
Still, here's hoping the experts at Sonos can chime in.
Adding another question that just came to mind: Is there any information about maximum and minimum operating temperature? I don't see anything in the specs on the product page. Would I need to bring it inside from the garage or just not use it when it got to a specific temperature?
+22I believe they are supposed to be above 30f and less than like a 100.
+26The Sonos One is humidity resistant and has some good particle resistance as well. Officially, we don't recommend this use, but I think it will be alright. I'd also suggest at least giving it a cover of some sort.
The speaker itself would hold up better to sawdust than the microphones. Just like on a phone, the holes could get plugged up and make them hard of hearing, or in the worst case, a small enough particle could get in there just in the wrong way and damage a microphone.
Very fine particles would be a concern in the long term. If you decided to try it out, don't use compressed air to clean off the top of the unit, as it could force particles into the microphones. Instead, just wipe it off with a clean dry cloth. The warranty for the player covers manufacturer defects, damage caused by dust may not be covered.
The speaker itself would hold up better to sawdust than the microphones. Just like on a phone, the holes could get plugged up and make them hard of hearing, or in the worst case, a small enough particle could get in there just in the wrong way and damage a microphone.
Very fine particles would be a concern in the long term. If you decided to try it out, don't use compressed air to clean off the top of the unit, as it could force particles into the microphones. Instead, just wipe it off with a clean dry cloth. The warranty for the player covers manufacturer defects, damage caused by dust may not be covered.
Thanks for those temps, Chris. Looks like it would be safe year 'round.
And thanks for your reply, Ryan. I understand what you mean about the compressed air. Without considering the microphone holes, I was already thinking it's probably not a good idea. I'd remove most of the dust but push some into the seals, increasing the damage over the long term.
Is it designed so that heat escapes through the holes on top? If I don't use voice commands, would there be any other reason not to "seal" just the top with a small piece of plastic wrap and a rubber band? (And then cover the whole thing with a lighter fabric sock.) I only want to use my own music collection, not any streaming services, so I'd only be using the app anyway.
And thanks for your reply, Ryan. I understand what you mean about the compressed air. Without considering the microphone holes, I was already thinking it's probably not a good idea. I'd remove most of the dust but push some into the seals, increasing the damage over the long term.
Is it designed so that heat escapes through the holes on top? If I don't use voice commands, would there be any other reason not to "seal" just the top with a small piece of plastic wrap and a rubber band? (And then cover the whole thing with a lighter fabric sock.) I only want to use my own music collection, not any streaming services, so I'd only be using the app anyway.
+26The heating shouldn't be a problem, feel free to put a bit of plastic wrap on the top. You'd want to avoid having it down to the grill, however.
Thanks again, Ryan. So is the grill attached to a heat sink or otherwise designed to carry away the heat from inside? Clever.
Anyway, this is great. I'll pick one up for my workshop ASAP.
Anyway, this is great. I'll pick one up for my workshop ASAP.
Would yoj not be better off with a Play:1 if you're not interested in voice control, plus the Play:1 has a threaded boss in the back which makes mounting more secure.
Is there another reason other than price (and the mount)? Does the Play:1 have the same TuneIn radio feature? I'm hoping "they" will make Alexa work with a user's music library one day.
+26Currently, they have the same features, aside from the microphones. That may change in the future as the Sonos One is far newer and may get features at some point that the PLAY:1 doesn't have the requirements for. There's nothing we've announced specifically on that front, but the Sonos One is more "future proof" as they say.
+15I hadn't even thought about dust - my Play5 Gen2 is in my garage.
Update: I'm using a piece of plastic wrap to cover only the top of the Sonos One, secured with a rubber band. And for now, I'm using the cloth bag the Sonos One came in as a cover. It's a little thick for the heat of summer, but fine for now. I'll pick up some more lightweight fabric and make a copy soon, but the sound is such an upgrade over what I was using before, it's not a huge problem. It's actually nice to know the sound will get even better when I do make a thinner cover for it.
Amazon has a wide selection of speaker fabric and foam that should have little impact on the sound, you may find it locally too.
Fabric: https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1
Foam: https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1
Fabric: https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1
Foam: https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1
Thank you for waking me up to the fact that (of course) there are specific fabrics for this. Will be sure to get some of that. (Those links are no good, but I got the idea!)
No idea what happened to the links, try a search for "speaker grill cloth" and "speaker grill foam" and you should get some results.
I have made a dust resistant grill for other speakers similar to Sonos 1s by making a tube of the stretchy cloth slightly smaller than the speaker with a 1/4 inch overlap over the speaker's top and bottom to hold it in place.
I have made a dust resistant grill for other speakers similar to Sonos 1s by making a tube of the stretchy cloth slightly smaller than the speaker with a 1/4 inch overlap over the speaker's top and bottom to hold it in place.
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