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Bob and all,

Please let me chime in. Using distilled water, for those in areas with hard water, is the way to go. But please remember that distilled water is not a good conductor of electricity. With each filling of the DC system, the electrolytes need to be added. They leech into the pads and need to be repenished for the system to work properly.

Many of you know that I am a DC fan. I trust what the company says about using only their additive and change the pads every six months. It really is so simple. The cost of the maintenance supplies are so minimal as to not even be considered. A stock that will last two years is less than one dinner at a good restaurant.

I also have house plants and keep them watered. I keep my piano watered, too. The great thing is that the system lets me know when it is thirsty. A drooping hibiscus has suffered damage, but, the DC will let me know before any damage has occured to my piano.

I play daily, so those little, discrete lights let me know the status of the system.

Back to the original question:

PROS: Peace of mind

CONS: None that I have found

Uh kenny.... if you want people to be able to find this thread in a search, you might want to fix the typo ("Dammpchaer") in the title of the thread...

I'd be interested to know how many (if any) members from Australia have Damppchasers (I hadn't heard of them till I came to PW). The humidity where I am hovers between 60% and 70% for much of the year, and because we don't have cold winters (not what you Northern Hemispherians would call cold, anyway) we don't generally have central heating, which I take it is the main cause of the low humidity. (There is of course a wide range of climate across Australia, but not many places regularly go too much below 0 degrees C in winter)

(spelling edited before Monica notices! shh!)

Interesting you bring that up.

Personally I use tap water for the initial fill and distilled for all the refills.
Also I use the recommended amount of dammpchaser additive each time.

I figure regular tap water has the thingies needed to conduct electricity but only H2O evaporates.
The thingies remain.

After 6 months my pads and those two steel rods on the humidifier heater bar are NOT gunked up with mineral deposits.

Thanks!

I invite you to put a dollar value on each item. Then you can fairly compare these.

Pro:
- Extends life of the piano before repairs of thousands of dollars are needed

Con:
- Cord hangs down

etc. There are certainly pros and cons, and some indoor climates are already stable, but in a challenging environment, there's no contest.

There are some situations where they don't work well, for example in schools where pianos are frequently moved, and no one takes care to make sure they're plugged back in. Churches are usually better about this.

For more info:
www.pianolifesaver.com

--Cy--

Uh kenny.... if you want people to be able to find this thread in a search, you might want to fix the typo ("Dammpchaer") in the title of the thread... ), so I think it's important that searches limited to the subject of the thread be able to pick it up. For that reason, you might want to stick in "Piano LifeSaver" in the title, too.

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I've installed hundreds of these units, probably thousands over the years. IF properly installed and this is very important, they help to stabilize the tuning and pitch tremendously.

Many years ago, many tuners would only sell the dampp chaser itself, (the heater bar) telling people to plug it in during the summer and unplug it during the winter however, I've found that most people left it plugged in all year long instead. I suspect that this could be where that one technician gets the idea that it will cause cracked sounding boards. If installed properly, this is not true. I do not recommend installing any Dampp Chaser without a humidistat.

Here is some information directly from the Dampp Chaser site.

"The Piano Life Saver System is made up of basic components which work together to control the humidity levels within your piano, maintaining the recommended relative humidity, no matter what the external conditions are.

Through a cycling action, the Humidistat is calibrated to create a separate environment within the piano, producing a narrow range of average humidity. When the Humidistat, located less than an inch from the soundboard, senses that the wood is dry, it turns the Humidifier on. Then, when the Humidifier has provided enough moisture to the soundboard, the Humidistat turns off the Humidifier and turns on the Dehumidifier. The Dehumidifier carries away moisture from the soundboard on air currents until the Humidistat senses that the soundboard is dry. The System again switches to the humidifying function. The cycle continues day after day, year after year, protecting your piano from external conditions."

Dampp Chaser has done EXTENSIVE testing on their products. Check this out for further information on it. http://www.pianolifesaver.com/pdf/ProductTesting.pdf

I'm having a BIG PROBLEM with mine at the moment.... It's keeping the piano at 60 per cent humidity. And, yes, the humidistat is right next to the water container.

Tried to contact DC for a replacement humidistat. No response.

Thank God my piano's a 50-year-old Kawai model 500, and not a Fazioli!

Still, very irksome.

JG

johngrant,

Did you try calling them? I had an odd question about a system installation, and within minutes was able to speak to one of their engineering staff. Seemed like great customer service to me.

A few corrections:

• Water is typically added twice a month, not weekly; less often in summer. If you use deionized water (39 cents a gallon here), there's no mineral buildup to clean.
• The system can safely be left plugged in when you're on vacation. The whole system shuts down if the water runs out.
• There is no drilling. A few screws are used to hold components in position, especially when a piano is moved. You could do the whole installation with tape and Velcro, but honestly that would leave a sticky mess compared to a few screw holes that are easily filled. (Imagine how many screws are already in your piano!)
  

For some pros, see my Facebook page for closeups of the humidity damage I routinely see here.

--Cy--

Hi John,

I have found the customer service from DC to be really good. You should try again. I recently had a low water sensor go bad and they sent me another right away along with return postage for the old one.

I'm curious how you know that it's keeping your piano at 60 percent? Are you using a datalogger? That is the best way to monitor the relative humidity level. Other, inexpensive hygrometers can be pretty unreliable.

All very interesting.

I figured our hummidity varies quite a bit so I asked around and found opinion strongly divided. One local dealer (the one I bought our piano from) said he thought they were a waste of time as we dont suffer from low hummidity. Another local dealer swears by them - but is the authorised distributer for DC in our area - so he would wouldnt he?....

Intrigued - I decided I'd at least get some data - and put a gauge in the room to see what hummidity range I'm dealing with. In the last 4 weeks our humidty sits mainly around 60-70% - but has peaked as high as 89% and dropped as low as 40%.

At the same time the room temperature hasnt dropped below 21C and hasnt climbed above 27C. So its fairly temperature constant but the humidity has wildly fluctuated.


Perhaps a DC *is* in order?

If your piano is being exposed to humidity fluctuations of 50%, and that only within one month, the soundboard is sure to suffer! During high humidity, the soundboard wants to expand, but as it is firmly glued all along its perimeter, it does two things: it bows upward as much as possible under the string tension, and the wood fibers are damaged and crushed. Then, when the humidity drops, the soundboard shrinks but as it is effectively smaller because of the crushed wood, it becomes more prone to cracks. This may not happen right away, but successive "deep cycling" of humidity will ensure pre-mature aging and failure.

Perhaps in your region, you don't need a full system and a dehumidifier bar with a hygrostat will do it. I would go with an undercover as well, to help maintain the micro-climate you are trying to establish.

My experience with my own piano has been very positive. The DC definitely helps keep the tuning more stable. If I accidentally let it run out of water in the winter I can tell, because the tuning goes off. When I refill the water, the tuning comes back within a few days.

Really, there are very few cons, and they are pretty trivial.

"Less expensive than controlling the humidity of the whole room, both in the cost of the equipment and in electricity"

Really? What is the price of that system?

I have a whole-room humidifier for $100 here.

I consider it a big PRO that it humidifies my whole room. The piano is not the only thing sensitive to humidity changes!

Oh and the monthly costs of my humidifier is very low, it only turns on when needed and uses a 5W motor. It's not noisy either, yes it makes a little noise but my fridge makes more noise ..

Wouter, it's a 3-year-old thread. Of course the damp-chaser discussion is still relevant. But the participants might have gone away.

1. Your humidifier will need cleaning probably weekly, or else you will get some nasty bacteria growing in the media and/or reservoir

2. The Dammp-Chaser system is just that - a complete system, that has a dehumidifier, too. We don't know where in the world you live, but most of us need both humidification and dehumidification at different times.

"Wouter, it's a 3-year-old thread."

David, you're right, I did not see. But I did not revive it, John did on the previous page

"1. Your humidifier will need cleaning probably weekly, or else you will get some nasty bacteria growing in the media and/or reservoir"

Yes. Cleaning every other week with a few drops of chlorine does that; and then some acetic to remove the chalk from the filters. That's the largest drawback for a whole room humidifier. I could use purified water if this would be a real issue but a few minutes of work each 2 weeks is ok with me.

Usually when it is humid you also turn on the heater which dries out the air. I'm doing only humidification and accept the few peaks when it is really humid outside and even turning on the heater is insufficient.