Another thought... since your current situation is temporary, and since the dampp chaser is so expensive, and since your next home may have a nice piano room you can enclose and control the environment... if you find you can get by with cheapo vaporizers this winter... may be worth putting off buying the dampp chaser a bit longer. until you know what your new house setup is going to be.

the cold snap we are having will be ending in another day or two, and then you should be able to continue as you have... until the next cold snap.

quote:

since your current situation is temporary

This is what’s really hard to know… if we don’t move before summer, then I definitely want the DC. But even if we do move, I don’t know what situation in the new house will be yet, so it’s an unknown.

Although, in our house hunting so far, I’ve not really seen good options with a space that could a closed-off piano room, so maybe it makes sense to go ahead and get the DC…

It’s n to thst we can’t afford it, but since we are planning to move (whether this spring or within the next 1.5 years), and chunk of money like that always looks like money I’d rather save for moving expenses.

Harrumph.

I really feel like a dampp chaser is a good investment for the long haul even if you plan to move. I personally know that I would not have the patience to deal with filling humidifier buckets in the winter and emptyhing dehumidifier buckets in the summer -- I can barely remember to water the plants in that room! Plus the space, the appearance, and the noise from those large units in my living room with my nice piano and fancy furniture??? I would not enjoy that.

The dampp chaser does the job completely silently and almost invisibly (there's a power cord from the piano to the wall and a tiny blinking light panel on the front of the piano). And I don't have to think about it ever - it blinks when it wants water, I give it water, and I'm done. If I know I haven't watered it in a while and I'm going away for a week, I give it like a half fill and it's good while I'm gone. I can't imagine trying to find someone to come fill my humidifiers on the daily. Plus the dampp chaser adjusts to the seasons - it humidifies when I need it and dehumidifies when I need it and it doesn't care (up until this month, we've had a very wet rainy winter -- it's been dampish in the house and I've hardly had to fill the water at all, which makes me suspect it's been dehumidifying this whole time.) It just does what the humidity level calls for in the moment. And it's kept my 1926 piano completely stable for years now. It is true that it only humidifies the inside - the case and legs and keys are on their own, but I haven't had any issues with those (or any of my other furniture). I will say we do have a/c that we run in the summer - in my last house (with a different piano that also had a dampp chaser) there was no a/c and in the thickest muggiest part of the summer, sometimes the keys would swell and get sticky but that house was 200 years old, used to be a grist mill, and had a stream running through the basement (no, I am not kidding) so that was probably a special level of humid that normal houses could never reach.

Also, I know it's a bummer drilling holes in the piano (but truly it is all very discretely done - you'll be surprised). And if it's any consolation, the museum where I work is pretty uptight about keeping pieces in their original condition. They purchased Keith Emerson's 9 ft Steinway D piano for 6 figures and the first thing they did was put a dampp chaser on it....they swear by them too. Good luck!

Also, I must have somehow missed exactly where you moved to - I knew you were leaving your old place in the south but I don't know where you ended up. Just wondering if you are close by!

I always tell clients that are considering room humidifiers to watch the windows, if they are getting condensation, that's too much - even if the room readings on a little hygrometer are still low.

I like the Govee brand - many of those are also data loggers that you can see graphs of temp/humidity on your phone. I also use the calibration bags to check/reset them once or twice a year.

Haha — back in the day I bought an expensive Hygrotherm mechanical hygrometer, a dial instrument in a brass case. It always registered differently from the cheap digital one that came with an old Kenmore humidifier. These days the Hygrotherm can’t be recalibrated, as the “wet towel” technique never brings the reading to 100%. So I rely on the cheap Kenmore thingy.

Technology may have advanced beyond both of those…

Lisa, thanks for those comments!

I'm pretty much decided I want a dc, I just don't want to pay so I'm trying to decide whether to get it installed asap or wait time next month or something....

quote:

Also, I must have somehow missed exactly where you moved to - I knew you were leaving your old place in the south but I don't know where you ended up. Just wondering if you are close by!

Not close to you unfortunately! We're in the southern-ish midwest now.

In addition to it being a different climate here, I don't have my piano contacts that I had in our previous area.

quote:

piano contacts

Speaking of which, now I need to choose who to contract for the install. As I said, I don’t have any piano contacts here and the main local piano tech has just had surgery and is not working during recovery. Although he was kind enough to answer the phone and recommend someone! So here are the two options I’ve identified. Both of these people are in towns about an hour away from here, and listed on the PLS (dc company) website. Both quoted me about the same amount.

1. Super busy tech who comes into town regularly to work on pianos at the univeristy. She was recommended by the local guy. Some online reviews, all 5.0 and very positive, none mention dc. She’s in the bigger city to my east and it seems like she might be a good connection for the future bc there are piano stores there etc. She’s busy enough that I’m not sure how soon she can get me in, but probably within a month.

2. Super nice guy who spent probably 30 minutes on the phone talking with me about various things to do for humidity mitigation/augmentation. Some online reviews, all 5.0 and very positive, none mention dc. He said on the phone that most of his dc installations are for churches. He’s in a smaller city to my west, no piano stores there. He can probably get in me a little sooner but has to order the device first.

I liked #2, he was just very helpful and generous with his time, but I feel like #1 is maybe the better choice, and she was recommended to me by the local piano tuner, which is saying something…

Anything else I might consider in choosing one of these folks?

I think since they’re both mentioned by the DC company, you’re probably fine with either one (about getting the job done). So make your choice based on how you weight those other factors you mentioned.

Yeah, I’m now at the stage of decision paralysis.

methinks your are in the overthink stage.

quote:

overthink

That’s pretty much my standard operating mode.

Personally I would go with #2. Anyone who would spend that amount of time consulting on the phone with you is clearly someone who cares about both pianos and his customers. That type of person will take the time to answer your questions throughout your relationship and I appreciate that. And if you ever had a true piano emergency (stuck key, broken pedal, whatever) I suspect he'd make the time to get out there quickly, while the super busy person might not be able to. I'm sure they'd both be fine but I always try to go with my gut and it seems just by your post that you like #2 better.

If it's any consolation, I personally tried some of the super busy "prestigious"-reputation techs around here and was not impressed. They were definitely competent but also a little condescending and they clearly didn't remember anything about me or my piano from tuning to tuning. My current piano tech has been tuning for me for at least 15 years and he could tell you the history of my piano better than I can. I really value that sort of personal relationship and it sounds like that is what you would get from #2.

thanks Lisa, this was the push I needed!!

BTW, someone posted this at PW and I think it's very helpful read.

tl;dr part that was sort of new to me and that I want to think about more: dampp chasers can be helpful, but their humidifying properties don't take care of the pinblock (on a grand).

I'm moving forward with getting one install, but it's clear that preventing over-drying will continue to be necessary....

You didn't post a link, but my piano tech was just here Thursday and I was talking to him about what parts are protected by the dampp chaser. He said that pretty much all the internals are -- again, maybe that is because I keep my piano closed and have everything sandwiched between the undercover and the string cover but he said it is like creating a little humidor inside the piano belly. It isn't helping the keys or legs or outer wood, but I haven't had any problems with those. I can't see how it wouldn't be keeping the humidity level steady for the pinblock though....that is definitely in the "sandwich of protection" zone LOL!