Should I be storing my accelerometer magnets with the flat washers attached? If so what is the reason for this?

The first time you get your finger pinched/crushed by an accelerometer magnet moving toward a metal surface; you will understand the value of Safely storing a high strength rare earth magnet!

Walt

Thanks, so there is no "Technical" reason to do so? Other than to insure the safety of your flesh.

Ihave always been told to use a keeper washer across the poles when not in use.I hear it will become demagnetized.
here is a link that says that to
http://www.magnetsales.com/Design/FAQs_frames/FAQs_3.htm

Yes; they will loose strength.

Sam,
Nice to heard ,May i know theory behind that Phenomena.

One other issue. Where do you take your data collector and your powerful magnet back to after you have your data? To your computer, where you set it down......on the desk.......next to the MONITOR!!!!!!
Many a computer monitor has bit the big one because of this.
The keeper should be sufficiently thick so that when you place the magnet with its keeper next to metal, there is NO attraction. That way, you contain all the lines of flux in the magnet and keeper and it will not lose strength, and also you don't have to worry about stray lines affecting equipment that doesn't like them.
A funny story. In college, I had a magnet out of a radar system. This baby could hold a pinball machine ball through the glass and a one inch gap!!! A good friend of mine borrowed it and was sitting in his apartment watching TV, playing with the magnet and he had the keeper off. He finally realized that as he turned the magnet over in his hands, his TV picture was bending! And he was sitting 4 feet away! And, you want to talk about making sure your fingers were clear of the keeper when you put that one on.

Ron, that sounds like an interesting and potentially destructive toy.
I stick my accelerometers on a filing cabinet behind my desk. It is a handy place to store them, but the thin metal is probably not as good as using the washers.

We attach 2" heavy steel washers with nylon ty-wraps to our data collectors' straps. Attaching the magnet to the washer when not collecting data allows us to have both hands free when moving through the facility, climbing stairs & ladders, et al. The sensor & magnets are left there when the "box" is not in use.