The few times I have seen woofers stored on shelves at warehouses they have been placed with the wide square footprint of the box on the floor/shelf, never stood edgewise. (If raw, at a shop, usually face down , occasionally face up.)
Yet on some speaker dedicated forums I've run across individual posts or two/three post back and forths on storing drivers vertically (on edge) to avoid spider sag. I'd have thought that long term, you'd just be replacing spider sag with surround deformation.
How much of an issue is this?
Can any problem from long term storage be avoided / managed by occasional flipping over or turning of the box?
Yet on some speaker dedicated forums I've run across individual posts or two/three post back and forths on storing drivers vertically (on edge) to avoid spider sag. I'd have thought that long term, you'd just be replacing spider sag with surround deformation.
How much of an issue is this?
Can any problem from long term storage be avoided / managed by occasional flipping over or turning of the box?
I worked installing speakers for too long and I have never come across a speaker that was bad due to how it was stored. For the most part the cone of the speaker is relatively light and mostly held in place with the voice coil former and glue so I don't think there is a ton of lateral load on a surround or spider. If this were the case you would see lots of posts with people that were replacing surrounds or spiders, the most likely thing to fail is the surround due to it being old rather than the effects of gravity.
I agree, this isnt a common issue with a driver that is designed/built with modern, stable materials. Vintage drivers on the other hand are more prone to this issue, mainly because of older materials prone to premature deterioration and loss of flexibility. Acoustic suspension type woofers (very soft suspensions) are the most prone to this and will even have suspension sag issues even when sitting on their sides which can also affect voice coil alignment.
Thanks guys. I remember in one reference, the fellow who recommended storing on edge and rotating the driver was a very experienced dealer and tech . . . but it was in a conversation about the JBL 1500 Sub, which I think had a heavy cone for its size (looking it up it had Mms around 300 grams).
I had thought if it was a problem there should be a lot more discussion but a Google search of woofer storage only got one hit. Still, I wanted to be sure no need to worry so thanks for the confirmation.
I had thought if it was a problem there should be a lot more discussion but a Google search of woofer storage only got one hit. Still, I wanted to be sure no need to worry so thanks for the confirmation.
I’ve had it happen when a large woofer was stored face down for years. I moistened the spider lightly and held the woofer in the proper position with rolled up soft cloth and just let it air dry. When it was dry the woofer was back where it belonged. I would advise rotating the woofer every few months to even out the sag.