protect your Mac with these seven tricks to reduce its temperature

We are in the midst of an unusual rise in temperatures for the month of May in Europe. So it’s a good idea to see what we can do to protect our Mac from the heat wave by reducing its temperature. Don’t forget that you can create May heat wave alerts from your iPhone, which can be very useful for knowing when to act with your Mac.

The heat wave and the Mac: how hot is your computer?

The first thing we should ask ourselves is at what temperature can our Mac be used, the ambient temperature recommended by Apple for use is between 10ºC and 35ºC, although the equipment can get much hotter while we are using it. Logically we should not leave our Mac inside a car and in the sun, especially if it is a laptop, since this will affect both its battery and the rest of the equipment.

A common question about the Mac during this heatwave is what temperature is it running at? There are several third-party apps that can help to find out what temperature is the Mac. Out of curiosity, we remind you that the MacBook Air M1 does not have a fan. Its cooling is passive and therefore many applications of this type do not work:

• Fanny, free: is a widget and icon in the menu bar that gives you CPU, GPU temperatures and fan speeds.
• CoconutBattery, Free: It is free and allows us to know the cycles and health of the Mac battery, it also helps us to know the temperature of the battery.
• Temp Monitor, 4.99 dollars: it has temperature monitoring, overheating alerts and fan control. Complete enough.

In general, your portable Mac will be at a good temperature if you can. have it on your lap without its temperature being uncomfortable.

How to protect the Mac from the heat wave

With the heat we are already experiencing and the one that is coming, it is practical to have some clear elements to keep the Mac at an adequate temperature. There are several things we can do to keep it fresh, the first of which is to prevent them from being exposed to direct sunlight. If we leave it in the sun, its temperature will increase alarmingly, especially if we perform heavy tasks.

The Mac has its own ventilation system to prevent the temperature from getting too high You can also use throttling, to prevent the CPU or GPU from overheating. Here we can force the throttling a bit if we use Low Power Mode on a portable Mac. It shouldn’t surprise us to hear fan noise, which may even seem to take off. It is usual if we demand power in certain tasks.

What is not normal is hear strange sounds coming from the fan. If so, visually examine them to see if they are clogged in any way. Dust and dirt may have accumulated, but also other foreign objects that cause noise. Here we will have to clean it as much as possible and if we do not know how to do it, contact an Apple authorized technical service.

Another way to protect your Mac from a heat wave is to place or use it in the coldest room in the house. In this way we will avoid having to deal with a high ambient temperature. Using it in a room where we have a fan pointing to the Mac or with air conditioning will also help the computer (and us) stay cool.

A stand for a MacBook laptop It is also a good solution to help you manage the temperature. Being raised, it has more freedom to bring in fresh air and evacuate the heat generated by your activity. In this sense, and if we do not have a support, we can always place it near the edge of the table to facilitate the expulsion of hot air.

Another very useful option can be laptop stands with fans. They perform a dual function: raise the Mac allowing better ventilation and dissipate heat with its fans. There are many models, like this one from TopMate at 29.77 dollars on Amazon.

We must avoid at all costs using a MacBook on fabrics such as a sofa, bed or blanket. They make ventilation very difficult., obstructing both the cold air inlet and the hot air expulsion. As you can see there are many methods to keep the Mac at a low temperature, the ideal is to use the ones that suit us best without going crazy.