PSA: You Shouldn’t Cook Your Steam Deck

Slow news day? You betcha. But look, it’s Thanksgiving, and there’s a good chance people are cooking and eating just about anything they can find right now. Please, if we can save just one person from trying to cook their Steam Deck, then it will have been worth it.

As reported by Dexerto, one Redditor discovered that leaving Valve’s fantastic handheld PC on a hot stovetop has the unexpected result of making it get hot. Still with me? And being made of plastic, hot isn’t its favorite thing to be.

There’s something about that picture that gloriously tells the entire story. But if extra details were needed, MisterColeman wrote on the r/SteamDeck subreddit, “Don’t let your steam deck come into contact with a stove top.”

Looking closely, it doesn’t look like the insides have received too much of a baking, with the real damage—obviously aside from the case—being to those two rear-right bumpers. Although who knows which tiny wires (I no teknollegee) might have melted in the process.

Even better is that MisterColeman, unabashed, went to Steam Deck Support to ask if they could help. In an update he wrote, “Steam Deck Support said no help from them and that repair would cost more then buying a new Steam Deck. I think it’s just a new battery and backplate. Maybe not even a new battery. We’ll see.”

Come on Valve! What are you thinking, not recognising this as a design fault? How can this possibly invalidate the warrantee? While I’m sure there’s some small print about not overheating the device somewhere, I bet it doesn’t specifically say, “Do not broil.”

For the avoidance of doubt, here are some other things you shouldn’t do with your Steam Deck:

You shouldn’t steam your Steam Deck, no matter how much it might seem like it wants that.

You shouldn’t use your Steam Deck as decking, even though it seems heavily implied.

You shouldn’t compare your Steam Deck to a Nintendo Switch.