Can I leave discs outside?

[genefish]

I'm wondering if I can leave a discs outside. Or will they warp in the sun?

I have an outdoor basket and I'd love to just leave 10-15 discs in the basket. (not worried about theft). I learned the hard way leaving them in my car in the summer is not a good idea.

Thank you!!

 

[ChrisWoj]

I'm wondering if I can leave a discs outside. Or will they warp in the sun?

I have an outdoor basket and I'd love to just leave 10-15 discs in the basket. (not worried about theft). I learned the hard way leaving them in my car in the summer is not a good idea.

Thank you!!

I haven't had issues with it. I've got a handful of practice discs I leave in my backyard. The plastic will degrade faster than normal, but thats in terms of years not months or weeks. I haven't noticed any difference in like 3-4 years with the same discs sitting out there.

The one thing I'd worry about though is bird ****. Birds tend to land on the basket when I'm not using it, and **** on the discs sitting in the basket below. Its rare but it happens. I keep the discs on a shelf on my porch now, to avoid that.

 

[Three Putt]

I have a stack of putters that sit outside, but they live on a flat surface that is shaded most of the time, and they are neatly stacked so nothing is really sitting at an angle where they would warp. They seem fine like that.

With them just tossed in a basket sitting in the sun, they could sit at weird angles that might make them warp a little. The good news with that is that if you catch it quickly, in my experience you just set them on a flat surface in the sunlight and they generally go back into shape. I found a G* TeeBird3 wrapped in a drainage ditch like a taco once; set it out in the sunlight for a few days and it flattened back out.

The reason I try to keep mine shaded is that I like stiff puffers, and the sun will soften the plastic. In the short term it's like "Oh, this disc feels hot and it's softer" but when it cools off, it's back to normal. I left a couple of Aviars out in the backyard for a whole summer and those just became permanently softer. Since I don't want that, I keep them up where they are in the shade most of the time.

 

[Countchunkula]

It depends on the type of plastic. I have a couple of R-Pro Aviars that are falling apart after being out in the backyard for the past 3 years.

 

[ThrowaEnvy]

Yeah I have definitely had some plastic degrade, especially when I leave it all summer. I try to hide my discs in the shade this time of year. It fades then it takes a tree hit and cracks.

I will second the bird crap as well haha.

 

[2naphish]

all the discs i have left outside (shade or sun) break right across the flight plate the first time i throw them and they even glance off a tree. i would suggest a box,bag or anything else you can easily carry outside use to carry out for use and bring back in . no sense contributing to the plastic crisis unecessarily .

 

[Hampstead]

Someone here claimed they threw new Wizards on their roof early spring and got them down to use later in the year after being well seasoned. I wouldn't do it. But we've all got different preferences.

 

[hendryxdisc]

I leave a practice stack outside but tend to cycle the discs when one cracks, certain plastics have held up better but haven't had issues wi5 warping. The stack now is mostly super firm flexes like Gateway Soft/KC Pro.

 

[txmxer]

Sunlight (UV) is bad for plastic over time.

How long it takes varies, but plastic ages and UV accelerates aging.

There are UV resistant plastics (via additives), but that delays the effect. Doesn't mean it won't happen. I doubt disc makers are using UV resistant plastics.

 

[chevis]

i have a red z flick that was stupid stable (like tilt); when i got it i felt it was useless & threw it on the roof of my house. occasionally the wind would bring it down & i would throw it to determine if flew better. after about 5 years of living on the roof the plastic had degraded to give it a good grip & decent flight (still overstable); unfortunately the color faded into a brownish red that is pretty hard to see in most settings

 

[Three Putt]

Someone here claimed they threw new Wizards on their roof early spring and got them down to use later in the year after being well seasoned. I wouldn't do it. But we've all got different preferences.

The story over beers at the picnic table at White Birch was that back when he was Gateway-sponsored, George Smith wanted a softer putter plastic so Davey Mac (who had like a dozen baskets in his yard when I knew him) threw some Wizards out in a basket that got direct sun and left them until the sun broke the plastic down. Then George went on tour with them and other people contacted Dave wanting the "soft Wizard"; since leaving product out in the yard seemed like a bad business decision, he started tinkering with the plastic mix and that's where the "20,000 different putter plastic softness-types" Gateway thing got started.

 

[Blobfish]

Someone here claimed they threw new Wizards on their roof early spring and got them down to use later in the year after being well seasoned. I wouldn't do it. But we've all got different preferences.

Incidentally, I threw an Ace Race 2018 Sol onto a roof in mid march. I remember it was mild but I didn't get it down for a couple weeks because the ground was too soggy and muddy for my ladder. This is March in Pittsburgh, so we had a couple days that hit the 60s maybe even 70 on one day. It was sunny and the disc was exposed to the sun whenever the sun was out on an asphalt shingled roof.
I retrieved it about two weeks later on March 20. This is what it looked like compared to an identical one:

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Someone here claimed they threw new Wizards on their roof early spring and got them down to use later in the year after being well seasoned. I wouldn't do it. But we've all got different preferences.

Sun dried tomatoes are pretty tasty
Sun dried grapes = raisins.
Sun dried chiles are the bomb.

So I can see sun dried Wizards being a thing. :|

The story over beers at the picnic table at White Birch was that back when he was Gateway-sponsored, George Smith wanted a softer putter plastic so Davey Mac (who had like a dozen baskets in his yard when I knew him) threw some Wizards out in a basket that got direct sun and left them until the sun broke the plastic down. Then George went on tour with them and other people contacted Dave wanting the "soft Wizard"; since leaving product out in the yard seemed like a bad business decision, he started tinkering with the plastic mix and that's where the "20,000 different putter plastic softness-types" Gateway thing got started.

DGCR's resident librarian of disc history keeping us in the know!

 

[Dingus]

The best way to season a putter is to let it lie on the ground. The dirt will grind down the plastic like sand paper. Over a couple rains, your disc may even get covered, speeding up the process.

 

[ru4por]

Only if they misbehave during a round or tournament. A well behaved putter can make it all the way into the bedroom for a bit of pampering and slumber.

 

[txmxer]

One of my wizards was left on top of my shop building for about three months. It was a creamy yellow, now it is a pale yellow. Other than that, I don't notice a difference.

 

[itsRudy]

I'm wondering if I can leave a discs outside. Or will they warp in the sun?

I haven't had warping yet but they definitely get brittle in the UV after a while and crack much more easily.

Some discs are also fluorescent, meaning they react to invisible UV light of the sun and emit a visible light of their own. These will appear brighter than the average disc and help you find them. You can take a blacklight and see which of your discs strongly fluoresce in the dark to see what I mean - even the same two colors can react differently.

Normal play won't do anything in any normal span but leaving these type out in the sun day in and day out will tends to kill that property rather quickly and fade them. It will fade normal discs as well. Making them harder to find in normal play.

It's okay to keep discs outside, but just find a opaque plastic box to take the environmental damage to store them in - preferably keeping the box in shadow too. It's far cheaper in the long run.

 

[LTDriver]

This is great advice - I'd always wondered what would happen to mine when I leave them outside for a few days/weeks and forget to bring them inside.

 

[Smigles]

I only store discs in small horizontal piles inside where they never see the sun. I wouldnt even leave my precious in the car overnight.

In the cold, the discs actually get cold and stiff and feel all different when i try to put with them. In the heat the discs change color and get too flabby. If stored at any other angle than horizontal on a flat surface, the plastic will bend. Who wants oval putters? Nobody, exactly.

Yes i am pretty anal about it, and i like how my discs still are throwable after a couple years of storing, so i ll keep doing it that way.

 

[biscoe]

Unless it is hot enough to warp a disc I don't really pay attention to it at all. I leave a bunch of putters outside year round in whatever the conditions may be. My golf bag tends to live on my carport as well so those discs get exposed to cold but not to the worst heat of being shut in a hot truck.