Humidifier Up-take-- how much do yours suck up?

[man dough nollij]

Well, I've been down here for two weeks now. I have an Eastman 505 with two Oasis in-case humidifiers in place. One is in the pocket under the neck, and one is near the heel. Oasis humidifiers (I believe) are designed to humidify a whole guitar case.

I don't have stats on what the humidity is in the dorms these days, but it ran around 1% RH all last winter. The outside RH might be 30%, but when you warm that air from -10F to 70F, the RH drops dramatically.

I haven't been taking stats on how much my humidifiers have been requiring in terms of recharge water, but I'll estimate that it's near 3ml a day. (Luckily, the Oasis humidifiers use a hypodermic to refill, so the amount added is really easy to track.)

Have any of you kept track of how much water your humidifiers eat?

I know this sounds like a silly topic to those of you in the south, but it's a pretty critical deal here in places where heaters suck all the water out of the air. Yep. :disbelief:

[mandozilla]

Hey man dough nolij

Where I live, the great (HA!) Mojave Desert, the RH this time of year typicaly runs between 24% to 30%...pretty dry but a veritable tropical rain forest in comparison to where you're at. :))

You know, I never really gave any thought to the frequency of water addition or the amount...But now that you raise this question I too am curious so I'm gonna pay more attention. :confused:

If I had to guess, I'd say it's about half a cup every other day or so. I keep my instruments in my den, humidified to around 40%. It's a small room about 12' x 12'. :grin:

:mandosmiley:

[liestman]

Not trying to be a jerk, but it is probably strongly related to how often you open the case and how leaky (air-wise) your case is. On instruments that I just leave in the case, and have worked to ensure that the case seals well, they hardly take up any.

I love the Oasis humidifiers, by the way!!!

[Tom Mullen]

I am using a room humidifier and am struggling to keep it above 40 percent. I found a digital humidity/temp gage at Walmart and leave it in the middle of the room with my instruments out. I use about 1 gallon for 24 hrs, but it is a large room. I am thinking of moving it to my closet. First, I need to clean the closet out.....:grin:

[Tim2723]

It might be interesting too to track the humidity in the case. I wonder how much of that water is absorbed by the lining. Does the in-case humidity really vary as much as the water loss would suggest? Does the lining of the case become a humidifier in itself? 3 ml of water make a pretty good volume of water vapor. How much can the wood be absorbing?

[Chunky But Funky]

It might be interesting too to track the humidity in the case. I wonder how much of that water is absorbed by the lining. Does the in-case humidity really vary as much as the water loss would suggest? Does the lining of the case become a humidifier in itself?

I've wondered about this myself as I have two Oasis humidifiers in each guitar case and one in each mando case as well as a room humidifier in my instrument room. But, I think the wood of the case absorbs the moisture, not the lining. One of the reasons I have avoided taking the plunge to fiberglass cases is I think the wood in a wooden case can't help but stabilize the humidity of the instrument just as a humidor maintains proper humidification for cigars. Either way, I go through about 2 1/2 gallons of water in my room humidifier a day and fill all of my case humidifiers once a week. In 10 days, they are bone dry.

Doug

[Tim2723]

That's a very interesting idea, Doug. I'd assumed the lining absorbed the water much like a bath towel.

[allenhopkins]

When I was using case humidifiers (I haven't had the need to do this since I started keeping all my instruments in my basement), I used to get the large plastic bags in which instrument cases are shipped, from my friends at the music store. I'd put the Dampit in the instrument soundhole, put the instrument in a plastic bag, and then put the instrument in the case. The bag was a membrane between the instrument and the case, and kept the humidifier from humidifying the case as well as the instrument.

[Chunky But Funky]

I'd put the Dampit in the instrument soundhole, put the instrument in a plastic bag

That's an interesting thought! I do the reverse for my good mics. I put a silica gel pac in a plastic bag when I return them to their cases to prevent condensation on the diaphragms from heat / cold cycles. However, I have this nagging thought that plastic and / or rubber react really badly with some guitar finishes. Have you ever seen the "burns" on the guitar finish from contact points from some guitar stands? I also remember a local shop telling me that a customer sent a guitar to them with bubble wrap around headstock to prevent damage, and it trashed the finish. It almost looked as though it had melted it. I can't recall if it was varnish or not. Just a thought, if people are going to try that. You may get an instant relic job!

Doug

[man dough nollij]

Not trying to be a jerk, but it is probably strongly related to how often you open the case and how leaky (air-wise) your case is. On instruments that I just leave in the case, and have worked to ensure that the case seals well, they hardly take up any.

I love the Oasis humidifiers, by the way!!!

That's another point. When I take the mando out to play, I refill both the humidifiers and put 'em back in the case and close it. That way the air inside will stay nice and humid, and the case liner won't dry out.

According to the Taylor Guitars' web site, it takes days for an instrument to dry out (article (http://taylorguitars.com/global/pdfs/dry_guitar.pdf)). With that in mind, I don't think that taking it out and playing it for a couple of hours a day is going to have near the effect as sitting in humidified case for 22 hours.

I think if I was storing it and rarely or never playing it in an extremely dry environment, I would do the trash bag thing (put it in a trash bag inside the case), to concentrate the humidity on the wood and minimize refilling. I have it out of the case at least once a day, though, so I'm going with two humidifiers and no bag.

I can feel the ends of the frets a tiny bit, but other than that it seems okay.

BTW, here's another humidity article (http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2009/Mar/How_Humidity_Affects_Your_Guitar.aspx) by Bob Taylor in Premier Guitar magazine.

[Bob Aliano]

In Colorado the RH is very often below 20% for days on end in the winter, this year is one of the worst I've seen. I've been refilling my humidifier every other day so it's been using about 2 1/2 gals a day. Keeping the upper level of the housse with the instruments around 45%, +/-5% or so. The lower level runs around 35-37%.

[Tim2723]

I think that's yet another interesting point. Instruments take days, weeks, months, or even years to dry out before any real damage starts. There can be this antagonizing feeling that our instruments will suddenly dry out and crumble to dust like that Nazi guy in the Indiana Jones movie when actually, too much water can make them swell up like Spongebob Squarepants.

[mandroid]

Find myself thinking about ..

an in-case sponge & a siphon hose, drawing from a graduated cylinder, as a scientific answer.