Gentrification and Humidification

[Tunes]

I recently updated my music room / study / man cave.

1. Pulled everything out an gave it a completely new paint job. Now a nice soft grey versus some bilous brown that for some strange reason it's been for the past several years.

2. Since I have limited floor space, added 3 wall hangers to keep guitars handy when I am playing. The electric sits in a stand most of the time, and the acoustics are tucked away in their cases, which makes it awkward to switch when playing. There's really only room for one stand now that I have a small amp in here also. Wall hangers are great.

3. Since winter is now on it's way, and our house does go down at night - I installed a small ceramic space heater on a timer. It comes on at night and keeps the man cave a nice reasonably constant temp of around 70 degrees C. I do have to turn it off when I am actually out of the house, but then the gits are in cases when that happens.

4. Since I FINALLY got a decent hygrometer, I also noted the humidity is not quite what it should be, so I also installed a nice small Honeywell humidifier - the newfangled kind that does not need filters or filter changes or chemicals. Just a little cleaning with vinegar from time to time.

I have been monitoring the humidity today and it's a nice even 48 to 50%. So my gits are now both warmed and lightly misted - gawd they get better care than I do. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I ain't coming out no matter what now...

 

[killdeer43]

Every man needs a man cave. I have mine fine-tuned right now, but I'm almost always tweaking things. I made a lot of room this morning by moving six (6) cases into the downstairs storage area.

As I've said before in another thread, I could probably get a few more guitars in here if I'd just get rid of some of these pesky...BOOKS!

Oh well, with four hangers in here and three in the next room, life is good.

Joe

 

[southernGuild]

GOOD BOOKS and GUITARS.....THATS MY kind of CAVE!!!! Just need a pot of coffee!! Enjoy! Southern :wink:

 

[killdeer43]

GOOD BOOKS and GUITARS.....THATS MY kind of CAVE!!!! Just need a pot of coffee!! Enjoy! Southern :wink:

I have an IV set-up for coffee....no pot required! Going green and saving power!! :lol:

Joe

 

[Taylor Martin Guild]

GOOD BOOKS and GUITARS.....THATS MY kind of CAVE!!!! Just need a pot of coffee!! Enjoy! Southern :wink:

I have an IV set-up for coffee....no pot required! Going green and saving power!! :lol:

Joe

Do they make that in a Diet Coke version?

 

[killdeer43]

Do they make that in a Diet Coke version?

You're able to add the fluid of your choice :wink: ....whatever floats your boat, turns you on, etc!

Joe

 

[fungusyoung]

Can you post a bit more info on that room humidifier? Sounds great if it's holding
that range. I'm moving within the next few months and a man cave/gear room is
the only thing I've requested from the migration... but humidity is a huge issue in
the Northeast. I've had to become pretty maniacal about making sure the in case
humidifiers are re-filled regularly. A room solution would be awesome.

 

[Tunes]

Can you post a bit more info on that room humidifier? Sounds great if it's holding
that range. I'm moving within the next few months and a man cave/gear room is
the only thing I've requested from the migration... but humidity is a huge issue in
the Northeast. I've had to become pretty maniacal about making sure the in case
humidifiers are re-filled regularly. A room solution would be awesome.

Glad to. It's a Honeywell "Warm Moist" Humidifier, Model HWM-2000. Reasons why this seems to be a great little device.

1. It actually heats the water and provides warm moisture. Seems to avoid the "white dust" syndrome you often see with other humidifiers.
2. As noted, it does not use any filters, and does not require chemicals in the water. Just regular household white vinegar and water to clean the base unit, and a little bleach and water mixture to rinse out the tank every week or so.
3. It is also self-regulating, and can be set to maintain a desired Humidity level in the room. The humidity has to be measured externally, but there is a moisture control setting you can dial from 1 to 7 (?), and then it automatically comes off / on when the RH drops below the desired room level.
4. It's quite small, and can fit pretty much anywhere.

The distributor is a company called kaz, website is www.kaz.com. I suspect that this is a popular brand you can buy at Walmart or similar stores. I got mine at Canadian Tire.

 

[GardMan]

I have tried a number of different humidifiers over the years, not so much for guitars, but just for comfort (RH outside can be<15% here in SLC, both summer and winter). A few comments/cautions:

Unless you use deionized (demineralized) water, ultrasonic humidifiers will coat everything with a fine white powder... the minerals in the water that were aerosolized with the water droplets by the ultrasound. Some incorporate small de-ionizing filters into the water tray... I have had a couple of this type, but they never really eliminated the white powder dusting for me... we have REALLY hard water in SLC!

As their name implies, warm mist humidifiers expel a warm air mist, generated by boiling water in a little pan in the humidifier. IF you have hard water (like we do in SLC), the boiling pan and heating element will eventually become caked with hard water deposits, which will need to be chipped or disolved off with vinegar or other weak acid. Also, if you set one of these next to a cooler wall (or guitar!) the moisture will condense on the cooler surface, which may damage the surface (I learned this when the humidifer steamed the wall paper off my wall... please be careful so you don't learn it with a Guild!). So, keep the humidifier a safe distance from your guitars (I don't know what distance is safe)!

Evaporative humidifiers are the ones with filters and fans... the tanks/filters can grow bacterial nasties... so it is a good idea to use a bacteriostat (bacterial inhibitor) made for this type of humidifier. Because the moist air being circulated is the same temp as that in the room air/objects, it should minimize any chance of condensation forming (unless walls/guitars are substantially colder, for some reason). Despite the hassle/cost of buying/changing filters (I can usually get thru the winter season with 2 filters)... I have decided that these were the least likely to have any harmful effects (white powder coating or moisture damage) on my guitars. So, I have a couple of them that I picked up from Sears... a big Kenmore unit I use for the house (near one of my furnace intakes), and a smaller (can't recall the brand) in my guitar room. Both have digital humidistats, so you set the desired humidity and the humidifier cycles on/off to maintain the setting. The one in my guitar room has a 1/2 gal tank, and needs filling only 1/week. So far, it has done a good job of keeping my room ~40% RH thru summer and winter.

 

[geezah]

Evaporative is the way to go. I've been using one in my cave and it works like a charm. I use the bacteriostat solution and change the wick annually (I don't need to run the unit in the summer).

 

[fungusyoung]

Thanks, Tunes... and to everyone else that chimes in with their room humidifier success stories!

I'll be keeping any eye on this thread until my man cave comes to fruition! :twisted: