On Dec 1, 11:19*pm, "Doug" wrote:
On Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:13:54 -0600, wrote:
On Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:47:42 -0600, "Doug"
wrote:

I have a house that came with a outside water softener that has
digital controls. * It's located just west of Houston, Texas. * One
water softener guy told me to cover the controls with plastic for
freezing weather in winter. *Normally we get a few days below freezing
or otherwise 35 F *or so in winter. * I know gas stations have digital
controls and they don't bother to cover them in winter so I'm
wondering if it's really necessary? * The old owner never mention this
to me either. * He said just add salt and let it do it's thing when I
bought the home in early summer. *Advice ???

That's a stupid place to put it. *You would not be able to do that in
the north. *Either move it indoors, or build a small box or shed
around it and when the temps drop below freezing, turn on a heat lamp
or electric space heater in there.

I would have preferred in the garage if I had my choice (tho this
isn't heated but does offer some protection) but I guess for whatever
reason, they assumed Houston temperatures weren't as extreme or as
long as up north so outside was okay. *It has survived about 4 years
so far but I just don't know if the old owner covered it in winter as
I just did. *BTW, I used to live in NY so I remember the winters well.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

As others have said, I'd be more worried about the tank
and pipes freezing and bursting than the display. I don't
know how cold it get there, but I'd look at some weather
records going back 100 years. Then decide the chances
and how lucky you feel. I guess as long as someone
will be available to cover it at the last minute, if necessary, you
could rely on that.

As for the LCD display, I would not be worried about that.
There are lots of them exposed to temps far lower than
you are considering. For example, I have a pool heater
that sits outside in single digits and nothing has happened
to it. You might not be able to read it if it gets too cold, but
I doubt that's a concern. Also consider all the notebook
PCs, cell phones and similar widgets. Plenty of them have
been left in cars overnight in some very cold places and
survived.

I would think the bigger problem with the LCS display would
be that being exposed to the elements the typical plastic
covering will take a beating, get cloudy, cracked, etc.
But since it's survived 14 years, I guess it's pretty durable.
More durable than the pool heater display, as that is about
7 years old and it's cloudy and cracking.