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Do Magnets Affect TV Remotes? (Read This First)

Having a bad tv remote can be frustrating, especially when you’ve to tune to your favorite channel. Many issues can affect your tv remote and make it misbehave.

Users usually experience issues with slow responsiveness, physical damage, or buttons not working.

While this may look like the only challenge you face, there are still many.

In this article, I’ll be telling you more about whether or not magnets can also affect your tv remote. 

Magnets can affect your tv remote control if placed next to a permanent magnet. Tv remotes consist of circuit boards, diodes, and other components such as LEDs. Magnetic fields can affect these components, making your remote control misbehave. Magnets of 200 mT flux density can be the reason why your control is disrupted.

Can a Magnet Disrupt a TV Remote Control?

Do Magnets Affect TV Remotes

The tv remote control can be disrupted when attached to a magnet.

This magnet tends to make your tv remote control malfunction, thereby tuning to a different channel.

A small magnet would not disrupt your tv remote control, but a permanent magnet would cause damage.

Permanent magnets also have different flux densities you should consider.

However, a permanent magnet of 10 to 120 mT would not affect your remote control.

But that of 120 to 200 mT will disrupt your remote control and contribute to the following:

  • Distorted signal
  • Reduced remote reach
  • Collapse bidirectional link

To avoid issues with your tv remote control, keep your remote control from any magnet.

Tv remote controls are different types, and each can withstand magnetic fields.

Now that you know that magnets can affect tv remote control, let’s see some pros and cons of permanent magnets.

ProsCons
No power supply needed Direct field only
Cling to vertical surfaces Deteriorate with wear
Inexpensive No control over field strength 

Can a Magnet Damage a Remote Control?

Magnets can damage a remote control, but this happens if it’s placed by a permanent magnet.

Small magnets don’t easily find their way to damaging a remote control even if placed near them.

On the other hand, remote controls that get damaged when close to a magnet use Hall-effect switches.

If a remote of such should be placed near a magnet, it should follow;

  • The remote control system requires a two-switch operation to produce machine movement. 
  • In this two-switch operation, one of the switches must be a mechanical switch. 
  • The inactivity of both switches for 5 seconds should require a new sequential operation.
  • An example would be a mechanical tram enable switch with a Hall-effect tram switch.
  • The remote control enclosure is designed so that a magnet placed anywhere on the outside surface of the enclosure will not affect the operation of the Hall-effect switch.

How Big Can a Magnet Affect a TV Remote?

Not all magnets can affect remote control because the tv remote has a shell that protects its components. If any magnet should affect a tv remote control, that should be strong.

IR tv remotes which we use for our tv, home theatres, and DVD, consists of circuit boards that can be affected by magnets. 

The bigger the magnet, the higher the chance of spoiling your control. Permanent magnets of 200 mT can destroy your magnet forever by affecting your circuit board.

Do Magnets Affect Electronic Devices?

Magnets affect electronic devices. These magnets pose a great threat to your electronics and could render them useless if not handled properly.

Strong electromagnets can affect the electronic components of any electronics by removing the programming. 

In recent discoveries, tech gurus have advised that your room key card should not be placed together with your phone.

The electromagnetic field transmitted in your phone tends to wipe away the programming on your mag strip.

With so much revolving around electronics, the risk of losing your data due to magnetic fields is frustrating.

Let’s look at electronics that magnets can destroy.

Electronic Devices That Gets Easily Affected By Magnets

Earlier, I explained that magnets affect electronics, and looking for such would be important.

However, not all electronics can be affected; the ones that can be affected are:

#1. Pacemakers or Heart Defibrillators 

People with heart rhythm disturbances have this heart defibrillator or pacemaker implanted.

This device is implanted near the heart or under the skin. This machine produces electrical impulses to regulate the heart’s activity.

If the patient’s heart can’t produce impulses, this machine works perfectly to help with cardiac arrest.

Magnets can easily make such devices malfunction and further increase their frequency.

The heart defibrillator can switch between special modes which manufacturers program.

On the other hand, a doctor might initiate a special mode with strong permanent magnets.

This helps control the defibrillator to a certain frequency or disables some functions.

So taking that machine close to a magnet can pose a risk to your device and make your magnet read over. 

To avoid such occurrences, you should not take such electronic devices near another magnet, small or big.

#2. Watches

A strong magnetic field magnetizes mechanical watches through their spiral spring.

The other part can become slow or fast depending on how the watch reacts to the magnet.

Recent standard watches are now made by the ISO 764 standard, which implies they are non-magnetic watches.

Watches of this kind are made to resist a magnetic field of  6 mT.

This result means that the watches can set off at 30 seconds when exposed to a field of this strength.

Some watches can stand up to 100 mT and are designed to be non-magnetic.

To avoid issues that can affect your watches, then it’s good you keep them away from magnets.

While doing this, note that the earth’s magnetic field is 0.05 mT strong.

Millitesla (mT) is the unit of measurement of magnetic flux density in a region or any device.

This information is for people who might be confused about what (mT) stands for.

If you need to demagnetize your watch, a watchmaker can help fix it with a special device. It helps in creating alternating magnetic fields.

Watches like Quartz and other analog watches can be readjusted by removing the magnet. After this is done, the analog watch will start working again.

#3. Hearing Aids

Some sections in a hearing aid can react to magnetic fields. Hearing aids are made of static magnets that can affect their functionality when close to another magnet, either lower or higher.

Magnets affect coils for wireless communication, disrupt the speakers of such devices, and distort acoustic signals. 

It also faces issues like reducing remote control reach and collapsing its bidirectional radio reach. 

A magnet of 200 mT causes permanent damage, while 20-200 mT causes temporary malfunction.

#4. Hard Drives

Hard drives also get affected when a large magnet is placed next to them. To avoid such issues from occurring, you should leave your drive unscrewed.

The issue faced when a magnet is next to your hard drive is that it damages your mechanical components.

And not only that,  this leads to blockage of the motor of the reading head.

Conclusion

Now that you know how a magnet can affect your electronic devices, it’s good you keep magnets far from them.

Permanent magnets are mostly the cause of magnet-related issues.

This event happens because a permanent magnet has a high flux density which could trigger the frequency of a heart defibrillator. Whatever size of magnets should be far from your electronics.

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