be careful with your humidifiers!

[Adam Tracksler]

I just got a dampit, since this us a super dry and cold winter in Maine. It dripped a bunch of water when i put it in my mando and made some of the ink run. Not a huge deal for me, since I'm sure I can get John to send me a new label, and I'm never getting rid of this mandolin, but something to be aware of...

-ad

[John Flynn]

Good lesson, though, and one of the hazards of dampits IMHO. You have to really squeeze the water out of them or they drip, which is especially hazardous to bare wood. But then if you squeeze them out, they don't hold much water. They are not my favorite humidifier, although I still have a couple I use.

[man dough nollij]

I brought my Weber custom Gallatin into the Weber factory a few weeks ago to have a finish ding looked at.

I had a DampIt in one of the F-holes. Bruce Weber warned that they can be hazardous. Not just the dripping-- they can also bust your F-holes out if they get shut in the case just wrong, or bumped.

I just picked up a couple of Oasis humidifiers-- they seem like the best design to me.

[Tom Mullen]

Are room humidifiers recommended? If so, what humidity reading is best?
Tulsa is dry in the winter and fall, but humid in the summer. I have a separate room for my instruments

[sweaterpoorlyknit]

I live in a partially underground apartment,so half of the rooms in my house are very damp, and thingsmold easily, the other part of my house is pretty dry. What do you guys suggest?

[Shelby Eicher]

Tom,
I've got my humidity at 50% right now. I like to keep it between 40-45% ideally. Once it gets under 40% it affects my action. Taking instruments on gigs all the time reduces their humidity level dramatically. I always try to get them out of the case when I get them home.
See you at the Moon some Sunday.
Shelby

[Tim2723]

I live in a partially underground apartment,so half of the rooms in my house are very damp, and thingsmold easily, the other part of my house is pretty dry. What do you guys suggest?

Circulating fans to even out the environment.

[Keith Newell]

Live in Western Oregon....problem solved.
Keith :)

[DeamhanFola]

Are room humidifiers recommended? If so, what humidity reading is best?
Tulsa is dry in the winter and fall, but humid in the summer. I have a separate room for my instruments

I'll never go back to in-case humidifiers again (except when visiting others without humidity control in the winter). Whole room humidifiers/ de-humidifiers are the way to go, and can be had relatively cheaply. I've got both along with a good hygrometer in my instrument room/ office/ man-cave. You're sure of the humidity level that way, don't have to open the cases to check it, and can humidify/ dehumidify multiple instruments simultaneously.

[LKN2MYIS]

Too much of a battle to control the humidifiers in a case.

I humidify the room my instruments are in (and they are in their cases).

I use a BIONAIRE I bought at Sears. Digital reading, many setting. I keep it at 45%. But since digital hygrometers are notoriously inaccurate, I keep a 'hair' hygrometer above the instrument cases. That reads at about 52%. I'm in the Northeast, and I have to refill it once every few days.

Some of my cases have built in hygrometers, and those read at about 45%.

I long ago gave up trying to keep humidifiers in each case. Too much fussing and worrying.

[KanMando]

To supplement my furnace humidifier, I've tried three different types of room humidifiers so far this winter. Of the three, only one is acceptable, and it has its drawbacks.

1. Forced air through a saturated sponge: Was only capable of raising room humidity from 30% to 36 or 37%. The fan was noisy. The filter was supposed to last one month, but was totally clogged (from minerals in the water) after two weeks. New filter is about $6.

2. Warm vapor: Raised humidity in the room very quickly and was quiet, required no filter, but needed to be cleaned after only two days (unit shuts itself off). According to the owner's manual, it should need cleaning once a week. Minerals build up on the heater surface. Again, according to the manual can be cleaned with vinegar. No way - didn't affect it in the least.

3. Ultrasonic: Uses a high frequency transducer to vaporize water. Requires a filter that costs about $7. It's quiet and does a good job of raising the room humidity. The filter is good for about 30 days. The drawback is that the filter does not remove all the minerals in the water, so everything in the vicinity of the unit gets a coating of fine white dust after a while.

So, if you live in an area with hard water, there's no perfect solution, except perhaps using softened or distilled water in the humidifier.

Bob

[Greg H.]

One option, (if you, or someone in your family, has a green thumb) is LOTS of plants. My wife has enough in our house that the humidity has never dropped more than about 45% or 50% during the winter! Of course it gets a lot higher during the summer (around 75% to 80%) but I've never had a problem with it.

[pops1]

To supplement my furnace humidifier, I've tried three different types of room humidifiers so far this winter. Of the three, only one is acceptable, and it has its drawbacks.

1. Forced air through a saturated sponge: Was only capable of raising room humidity from 30% to 36 or 37%. The fan was noisy. The filter was supposed to last one month, but was totally clogged (from minerals in the water) after two weeks. New filter is about $6.

2. Warm vapor: Raised humidity in the room very quickly and was quiet, required no filter, but needed to be cleaned after only two days (unit shuts itself off). According to the owner's manual, it should need cleaning once a week. Minerals build up on the heater surface. Again, according to the manual can be cleaned with vinegar. No way - didn't affect it in the least.

3. Ultrasonic: Uses a high frequency transducer to vaporize water. Requires a filter that costs about $7. It's quiet and does a good job of raising the room humidity. The filter is good for about 30 days. The drawback is that the filter does not remove all the minerals in the water, so everything in the vicinity of the unit gets a coating of fine white dust after a while.

So, if you live in an area with hard water, there's no perfect solution, except perhaps using softened or distilled water in the humidifier.

Bob

You can add an additive to the water and it will neutralize the hard water problems. We have hard water and i use a humidifier that has a paper wick and a fan blows thru the wick. works great lasts a year if i don't use additive and two if i do.

[Paul Hostetter]

If you use the simplest steam vaporizer, it only emits pure water. The minerals and all the other stuff stay in the tank. Eventually the crust ruins the device, but they are dirt cheap to replace. This is the only kind of humidifier to use. The ultrasonic jobs leave the same powder in your lungs and sinuses that they leave on surfaces. They are really a bad idea.

Sorry about the Dampit problem. They are a stopgap at best, and they come with directions that specifically warn you against that sort of problem.

Case humidifiers are another stopgap, and have the potential for causing a lot of damage. Much better to humidify the entire environment you and the instrument inhabit.

[ApK]

Case humidifiers are another stopgap, and have the potential for causing a lot of damage. Much better to humidify the entire environment you and the instrument inhabit.

Unless and you instruments get out of the house a fair amount.

Is that a proven thing with the steam vaporizer? Cuz I already HAVE one of those, and that would be a nice solution! Hum-a-diddy is down to 25% in my music room right now. The fiddle and the better guitar have case humidifers of a sort, the rest is all lam or solidbody and I figure they can take it. Except the mando...I keep forgetting that it has a solid top...I should check on it....

[Tom C]

Quote:Too much of a battle to control the humidifiers in a case. I humidify the room my instruments are in (and they are in their cases).

I disagree unless your room/house is always humidified. Once you turn off the room humidifier, the humidity will drop back down in minutes.

As far as the room humidifiers, I dislike the cold vapor one because it gives off a clammy feeling. I like the warm mist ones, but do not like leaving appliances with heating elements on when I am not home. Humidity(or lack of) never affected any of my mandos. Lucky I guess.


For your case I would find a film container(do they still make film?) punch holes in it and put a damp sponge in it. leave in in the case.

[ApK]

For your case I would find a film container(do they still make film?) punch holes in it and put a damp sponge in it. leave in in the case.

Various kinds of candy or mint containers serve this function well, plus they come with candy. This is pretty much what I use in my cases.

[Paul Hostetter]

Humidifying at home is completely worth it, even if you take the instruments out a fair amount. This assumes they spend more time at home than on tour, of course. Taking a guitar out means it will lose moisture gradually. If it's out for more than a day or two I'd go to a safe case humidifier.

If you're on the road a lot, you have a problem.

A good emergency case humidifier is a cut up potato. Doesn't get moldy, just lets out moisture. It's an emergency road snack as well.

[steve V. johnson]

I've used Dampits for years, and they do require some special attention.

I humidify the house, sometimes room by room when it's really cold/dry (it's seldom hot/dry here) and I use the Dampits when I'm carrying the instruments to / from home.

As mentioned by others above, I soak 'em and then squeeze out the excess into a towel before
putting them into the instruments. After a while I think one can figure out how much water can
be left in 'em to be effective but not leak into the instrument.

I immediately took off all the strings, pen-type clips and stuff from the Dampits and yeah, if they're not placed well in a case, they can go wrong.

I feel fine about using them for transit, from across town to three hours in the car. I remove 'em and put them in a (pub pint) glass of water fifteen minutes before I need to leave to go back out in the cold, towel 'em off again and back in they go.

A good, cheap short-term solution. Nowhere near having house humidity control, tho.

stv

[Yooper-Al]

If you use the simplest steam vaporizer, it only emits pure water. The minerals and all the other stuff stay in the tank. Eventually the crust ruins the device, but they are dirt cheap to replace. This is the only kind of humidifier to use. The ultrasonic jobs leave the same powder in your lungs and sinuses that they leave on surfaces. They are really a bad idea.

Sorry about the Dampit problem. They are a stopgap at best, and they come with directions that specifically warn you against that sort of problem.

Case humidifiers are another stopgap, and have the potential for causing a lot of damage. Much better to humidify the entire environment you and the instrument inhabit.


I raise the humidity in a small room by simmering tap water in an old crock pot. I buy an old one at a garage sale for $1, use it until its so choked-up with minerals from my water that I can't stand it anymore, then throw it away and buy another one. Just keep it somewhere where you won't get burned or knock it over. No filters to buy. Then, I wonder what my innards look like when I look at the crud in the crock pot. But, that's why whiskey was invented!

Yooper-Al

[LKN2MYIS]

Stays on, regulated to 45%. You set the desired humidity level and it automatically comes on and shuts off when it is reached.

Always humidified in the winter. Doesn't feel clammy at all because of the heat from the home heating system, which is why I need the added humidity.

In the summer, the dehumidifier comes out.

I live on Long Island, New York. Humid summers, dry winters. Where you live is going to have an effect on if you have to humidify or not, obviously.

Never had any kind of instrument problem with the room humidifier. I don't think it's a good idea, no matter how controlled it seems to be, to put water inside an instrument. Just seems too risky to me. You need to control the amount of water (not too much, not too little), and you need to check it just about every day. Plus, it can leak and not be noticed until you check it.

The room humidifier needs to be filled about 1 - 2 times a week. That's it.

Perhaps I'm overly cautious, but it seems easier and safer just to humidify the
room.


Quote:Too much of a battle to control the humidifiers in a case. I humidify the room my instruments are in (and they are in their cases).

I disagree unless your room/house is always humidified. Once you turn off the room humidifier, the humidity will drop back down in minutes.

As far as the room humidifiers, I dislike the cold vapor one because it gives off a clammy feeling. I like the warm mist ones, but do not like leaving appliances with heating elements on when I am not home. Humidity(or lack of) never affected any of my mandos. Lucky I guess.

A drop (literally} of an anti-bacterial liquid goes into the humidifier so there isn't any type of build-up of any type. Put in a new filter once a year (I think the filters are $4 each.


For your case I would find a film container(do they still make film?) punch holes in it and put a damp sponge in it. leave in in the case.

[Frank Russell]

I've had good luck with the "clay in the film cannister" types of case humidifiers. The clay seems to let the moisture out more slowly and more evenly than the sponge. You don't have to re-wet it as often, there's no mildew ever, and it doesn't smell funky like sponges can after a while. Elderly used to sell them for cheap in a big size, my friend showed me his trick of breaking them down and making two or three for mando-sized cases. Frank

[EggyToast]

There's nothing wrong with humidifying, although the thing that kills instruments is a rapid change in humidity. In some cases, if you're moving your instruments around and they hit the outdoors or a "different" environment, it can actually be worse if your house is humidified simply because your instruments will never "flex" -- they'll always stay at 45% or whatever. Then if you play somewhere in the wintertime and the humidity is 10%, and the gig is somewhere where it's only 25%, your instruments are pissed off!

Right now my room is 28%. It's fluctuated up to 30% lately but not below 27%, but it is slowly starting to creep up. In the summer, it can get up to 48%, but it's a gradual rise over a couple months, and then it stays up there and gradually comes down in the fall. I have central AC in the house so it doesn't go up to 80 or 90% during summer thunderstorms, thankfully, but yeah. I know for double bass, it seems like the killer number is 15% -- if it jumps greater than that, you should expect cracks.

Right now, the most I have to deal with is my instruments gradually going sharp. That's both double bass and mandolin.

[Michael Gowell]

I was sitting with Mike Compton at MCN last weekend when he gave his Gilchrist a shake and said "I wonder how my snake is doing." I said "Snake rattles?" and he just held his mando with the f holes facing the floor and shook it. Sure enough, the green end of a violin dampit appeared.

He told a story of casing his mando and putting it in the car trunk someplace up North and driving 7 or 8 hours to someplace down South. When he opened the case the Gilchrist had separated at the seams front and back.

Interestingly, he took it to Gruhn's for repair (expedited service for working musicians?) and Mike said it took 3 tries of putting the instrument in a plastic bag with a damp towel before the mando had rehumidified enough to glue.

I related this story to the luthier who was servicing instruments at MCN and he said "Yeah, the really good ones are carved thin."

YMMV. For what it's worth, Mike Compton is one pro who depends on a dampit. Admittedly he is constantly on the go to different climates and has limited options, but his continuous use (and probably daily checking) of the dampit says something good about them.

[Youda]

I use just a warm mist humidifier for the room where the mando stays, the kind you use when the kids have a cold...you can get them at Walmart and similar stores for about $15-20. It holds a gallon, and that will run for about 8-9 hours. Then there's the redneck humidifier that I use if the hydrometer says it's getting too dry...wet towels over the furnace registers...forced air furnace so there's no fire danger. And, then there's another redneck humdifier...detach the hose leading to the outside vent from the clothes dryer so that the moist air blows into the house instead of outside...put a women's hosiery at the end so the lint doesn't blow all over. Leave the bathroom door open when you take a shower so the moist air goes into the house instead of up the blower. Etc. Not fancy...just cheap ways to protect your instruments. Then you can be a redneck...but definitely invest in a hydrometer...Radio Shack $20.

[Paul Hostetter]

Good thoughts in both the last posts. Apartment dwellers can also help their home scene immensely with a bit of indoor jungle: plants are great for holding and dispersing humidity if you have enough of them. And my emergency redneck road humidifier is a potato, a very worthy substitute for a Dampit when cut into pieces and distributed throughout a case. And after use, it can also serve as a nutritional supplement in a pinch.

[Keith Erickson]

:confused:

I know I have to get a humidifer for my mandolin and mandocello but it's experiences like these which make me a little gun shy on the subject. I brought my Madiera Guild Mandocello (formerly a 12 string guitar) from New Jersey to El Paso, Texas (across country in the back of a pick up truck). I haven't done anything special other than change the strings and keep after the neck and it's still in great shape.

....and on the other hand, I have a new mando arriving in '09 and I want to make sure that my investment stays in good shape for a long time.

Normally outside humidity is around 5%-15% (maybe 20%) where I live.

I'm still confused on this subject :confused:

[Paul Hostetter]

The Madeira has laminated back and sides, which is always helpful in humidity-challenged situations. 5-20% humidity is quite low, but if your instrument has been gently adapted to it, and stays there, it'll be fine. If your new mandolin is coming from (meaning: made in) a dry place, or a carefully climate-controlled place, it'll be fine where you are. If it's made in a garage in Honolulu, you might have to take some steps to make it happy where you are before it shrivels. It's quick humidity changes that are problematic, such as flying from Miami to Denver and taking no steps to help the instrument adjust.

[EggyToast]

That's also why cases are so important, even non-humidified ones. Taking any string instrument from a warm interior space to, say, 32F/0C outside is a good way to get a crack or bust a string. The heat and humidity retention of a padded case can be a lifesaver.

[Andy B]

I've tried humidifiers on the furnace and various room humidifiers. I found they created more problems than they solved. I've also tried just about every case humidifier out there. I used dampits for a long time, but I had to wring them out so much to keep them from dripping that they dried out really quickly and required constant rewetting. Other humidifiers got moldy or presented the danger of leaking. Lately I've been using Oasis guitar humidifiers. They seem to work well--RH of about 50% inside my Calton in the dead of winter when the RH in the house is in the teens. They only require refilling about once a week, or less, and in my experience, they don't leak or get moldy. Although they are made to hang in the soundhole of a guitar, I just lay one in the case next to the body of the mandolin. I'm very pleased with them.

Andy