Humidification.....Arghh!!

[drbluegrass]

I live in southern Iowa and I'm running TWO, count 'em, TWO whole house humidifiers and the best I can do running both humidifiers in my 30'x12' music studio is 33% humidity!! They're both running on high. I have two high end guitars (Bourgeois AT Vintage D Braz and Prewar Guitars Model D), a Gibson mandolin, and two Yates banjos in my studio. I'm about ready to purchase another whole house humidifier for a total of three whole house humidifiers in my studio. I don't like storing my instruments in cases as I do a lot of practicing and recording and I want my instruments to be tuned, accessible, and ready. I also don't trust case humidifiers. It's too difficult to truly and accurately tell how efficient they are. It's also a hassle for me to access my instruments in their cases for each instrument I use.

One humidifier is a Lasko and the other is an AirCare. They're both large as humidifiers go. They work very well until the winter temps drop to single digits. It can get very dry in Iowa in the winter. I remember one winter day a couple years ago when the high temp for the day was about +5. I forgot to turn the humidifiers on and when I checked my digital hygrometer the humidity read 17%.....Yikes!!! Anyway, I'd welcome any suggestions. I know it's a bit controversial for some but I store my instruments on wall hangers. They're just so much more convenient when switching between instruments. I've stored them for years this way and never had a problem. The humidity was running about 40% with both humidifiers on low just a couple days ago. But the temp dropped to about -4 last night and is currently about +10 degrees. Am I going to have to bite the bullet and keep all my instruments cased with case humidifiers? Is there perhaps another more efficient humidifier on the market? I'm open to suggestions. Thank you in advance.

[cmd612]

Can you put the guitars in a smaller room and supplement the whole house humidifiers with a room humidifier?
Turn down the thermostat a few degrees to raise RH?
Hang some laundry to dry?
Keep a pot of water simmering? (I remember a thread from someone here a couple of winters ago involving a crock pot with the lid partly off.)

(editing to add: If you have warmer weather on the way soon, you might not need to do anything. Your guitars should be able to handle a day or two of RH in the 30s.)

[menhir]

I like my guitars out of cases too but I gave up relying on whole house humidifiers, even those attached to my furnace, years ago. They can't always keep up.

I have a large floor humidifier on the first floor that handles things decently for personal comfort, but it can be overwhelmed during a stretch of extreme cold temperatures.

So I bought a room humidifier dedicated to the man cave/guitar room only. The guitars live in there on their stands and I keep the door closed during the nasty stretches to maintain the proper level of humid goodness.

Speaking of nasty stretches, we're about to go into one now with temps dropping to the single digits for the next several days. Fun.

[muscmp]

whatever it takes to keep you and your guitars comfortable.

we are looking at single digits too here in socal. but, ours is humidity with santa ana winds,
not temperature.

play music!

[tbeltrans]

My solution for the winter is carbon fiber guitars and wood guitars in the spring and summer.

Tony

[BradleyS]

I was considering lining a closet with cedar wood planks and replacing the door with one built with a full glass insert and placing a small humidifier in the room.
Storing the guitars inside the closet on a rack or hangers will make them easily accessible and I don't think the lower humidity level of the playing room would affect the guitars when taken from the closet to play.

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by drbluegrass

I live in southern Iowa and I'm running TWO, count 'em, TWO whole house humidifiers and the best I can do running both humidifiers in my 30'x12' music studio is 33% humidity!! They're both running on high. I have two high end guitars (Bourgeois AT Vintage D Braz and Prewar Guitars Model D), a Gibson mandolin, and two Yates banjos in my studio. I'm about ready to purchase another whole house humidifier for a total of three whole house humidifiers in my studio. I don't like storing my instruments in cases as I do a lot of practicing and recording and I want my instruments to be tuned, accessible, and ready. I also don't trust case humidifiers. It's too difficult to truly and accurately tell how efficient they are. It's also a hassle for me to access my instruments in their cases for each instrument I use.

One humidifier is a Lasko and the other is an AirCare. They're both large as humidifiers go. They work very well until the winter temps drop to single digits. It can get very dry in Iowa in the winter. I remember one winter day a couple years ago when the high temp for the day was about +5. I forgot to turn the humidifiers on and when I checked my digital hygrometer the humidity read 17%.....Yikes!!! Anyway, I'd welcome any suggestions. I know it's a bit controversial for some but I store my instruments on wall hangers. They're just so much more convenient when switching between instruments. I've stored them for years this way and never had a problem. The humidity was running about 40% with both humidifiers on low just a couple days ago. But the temp dropped to about -4 last night and is currently about +10 degrees. Am I going to have to bite the bullet and keep all my instruments cased with case humidifiers? Is there perhaps another more efficient humidifier on the market? I'm open to suggestions. Thank you in advance.

It seems like either your two whole-house humidifiers or your hygrometers aren't functioning properly.

[lowrider]

Put your guitars in cases with humidifiers in them. Problem solved.

[merlin666]

I don't know what you mean with whole house humidifiers but here in Canada many houses have forced air furnaces that also supply central air conditioning in summer. They can be fit with a simple drum humidifier that has a continuous supply of water that keeps all air that moves through the house at a set moisture level.

If you don't have a forced air system then you can also buy or build an insulated display case to put all instruments in that has a room humidifier.

[Ozark]

https://americanmusicfurniture.com/p...uitar-habitat/

The price for something like this seems considerably outrageous to me. I am a woodworker in one of my other hobbies and could make something like this for far, far cheaper. Have a local furniture maker or cabinet shop build you something like this. Keep your instruments secured, readily available and humidified.

[Imbler]

I'm in Kansas which gets to zero most winters.
I use an Aprilaire which piggybacks off the forced air furnace and will get the entire house 40 to 45 percent under any temperature. When it gets down to zero outside, I need to turn it down to the point water won't be running down the windows, but normally high 30's will work.

These are inexpensive as well. You just need to be able to tap into your hot water line, and to have a drain accessible as these trickle water over a medium in line with your furnace blower.

I have a Steinway Grand as well as 8 guitars that live out of their cases, and I have no worries.

Originally Posted by drbluegrass

I live in southern Iowa and I'm running TWO, count 'em, TWO whole house humidifiers and the best I can do running both humidifiers in my 30'x12' music studio is 33% humidity!! They're both running on high. I have two high end guitars (Bourgeois AT Vintage D Braz and Prewar Guitars Model D), a Gibson mandolin, and two Yates banjos in my studio. I'm about ready to purchase another whole house humidifier for a total of three whole house humidifiers in my studio. I don't like storing my instruments in cases as I do a lot of practicing and recording and I want my instruments to be tuned, accessible, and ready. I also don't trust case humidifiers. It's too difficult to truly and accurately tell how efficient they are. It's also a hassle for me to access my instruments in their cases for each instrument I use.

One humidifier is a Lasko and the other is an AirCare. They're both large as humidifiers go. They work very well until the winter temps drop to single digits. It can get very dry in Iowa in the winter. I remember one winter day a couple years ago when the high temp for the day was about +5. I forgot to turn the humidifiers on and when I checked my digital hygrometer the humidity read 17%.....Yikes!!! Anyway, I'd welcome any suggestions. I know it's a bit controversial for some but I store my instruments on wall hangers. They're just so much more convenient when switching between instruments. I've stored them for years this way and never had a problem. The humidity was running about 40% with both humidifiers on low just a couple days ago. But the temp dropped to about -4 last night and is currently about +10 degrees. Am I going to have to bite the bullet and keep all my instruments cased with case humidifiers? Is there perhaps another more efficient humidifier on the market? I'm open to suggestions. Thank you in advance.

[jazzguy]

To answer your question: Yes

[fazool]

Change your evaporative filters - they clog up with mineral deposits from the tap water and lose a significant amount of functionality. I can tell when mine need changing because the humidity drops.

[der Geist]

I don’t know if this will help. My aircare was struggling to keep up in a small room. I changed out the factory wick with a generic wick that i picked up at wal mart and it has no trouble now. The original wick literally fell apart after a couple of weeks.

[menhir]

In response to those who wonder why whole house or furnace humidifiers aren't doing the job for the OP...

I can't answer to his specific situation, but I guess it depends on the size of the house and maybe even it's age. My house is big, near 100 years old, and even though I don't heat all the rooms and varying degrees of insulation have been added over the years...Keeping it warm and properly humidified is a bear.

Keeping most the the house reasonably humidified with a decent floor humidifier and one guitar room definitely well humidified was an effective solution for me.

Regarding furnace humidifiers, I've had three over the years. They all failed at one point or another, the last one kicked it just past the warranty expiration.
None of them could properly handle the job and even more importantly...Sometimes I couldn't tell that they failed until the dryness effects because obvious.* I almost lost a guitar that way.

I never bothered with them anymore after the last one died.

*To be fair, I didn't have an independent hygrometer in the house then...Nowadays, I have three. I just relied on the little green light on the furnace telling me that everything was just spiffy. The furnace humidifier is long dead, but the little green light still works. Go figure.