It's humidifier time in the northeast US

chazmo

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Hi LTGers and guests,

Time for the annual public service announcement, particularly if you live in the northeast US. Break out the humidifiers and keep your guitars away from heat sources in your home.

Heaters are starting to crank on... Outside air is getting drier... I was well under 40% RH yesterday...

Don't fall victim to cracked guitars. You are educated in the fine art of wood care. And, if you aren't, you have no excuse in the age of the internet. :) Bob Taylor's videos on humidity and many others should make matters crystal clear.

My cautionary tale is first-hand. I was ignorant about wood care and the two guitars that I grew up with developed large cracks because of my neglect. To this day, I have never stopped kicking myself over this. The guitars were repaired, but are permanently scarred. Don't be me!

Your humble servant. - Chazmo
 

Westerly Wood

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LOL
It is always humidifier time here in Tucson.
Tucson does not do 2 things:

1. We do not change our clocks back or forward.
2. We do not take out our guitar humidifiers in the summer.

:)
 

Quantum Strummer

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Yup, time to get my rec room humidifier ready to run. My house is still ~50% but that won't last too much longer. The full-house humidification generally keeps things at or just above 40% during winter, unless it gets really cold for extended periods, with the room gizmo adding a few % on top. Anything beyond that is a waste of effort…just keeps the windows moist. :)

-Dave-
 

chazmo

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Yeah, Woody, I'm sure this is all a no-brainer for you guys in arid climates. I don't know how familiar you are with the northeast, but we spend most of summer north of 60%RH (often quite higher, rarely lower) and then LOOK OUT when the fall/winter hits. It's a double whammy with the use of heat. I have baseboard which dries the air out even more. Dave is lucky to have full-house humidification. They didn't build 'em that way back in the early '60s when my house (and furnace) was built.
 

Charlie Bernstein

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Don't rush me!

Here in Augusta, Maine, (which is purty dern northeast) the windows are foggy and our living room hygrometer reads 71%. Our humidifier wouldn't crank it much above that!

It's been a balmy autumn - gorgeous, leafy, sunny, rainy, cloudy, windy, foggy. It's in the fifties inside and out right now, and I just worked up a sweat raking.

We'll have a cold snap eventually, of course, but for now, everything is copacabana.

Nonetheless, posting an annual reminder is a great idea. Glad someone's on top of it!
 
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Westerly Wood

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Yeah, Woody, I'm sure this is all a no-brainer for you guys in arid climates. I don't know how familiar you are with the northeast, but we spend most of summer north of 60%RH (often quite higher, rarely lower) and then LOOK OUT when the fall/winter hits. It's a double whammy with the use of heat. I have baseboard which dries the air out even more. Dave is lucky to have full-house humidification. They didn't build 'em that way back in the early '60s when my house (and furnace) was built.

grew up there. i had a nice Martin too. I used a soundhole humidifier and kept my HD-28 in its case when not being played. i do not recall what i did in the summer...

the tough thing about tucson is if you have a swamp cooler. not all homes here have A/C. swamp cooler creates a super humid environment in the home. one summer it was 60-70% humidity in my apartment. i never used humidifiers then at all in the guitar, heck, i had to protect them from getting all swampy :)
 

HeyMikey

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Thanks for the reminder. Will get everything cleaned, prepped and filled. Well it was nice while it lasted.
 

dreadnut

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Good reminder, chaz, we just kicked the furnace on last week.
 

Rich Cohen

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Thanks for the heads up Chazmo. Here in central Virginia, things do get dry around the house after the heat kicks in, which hasn't happened yet. We're still around 58% in the house. But, it does go below 40% by November.
 

Bill Ashton

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Chaz, thanks for the reminder, but a mere 15-20 miles north of you things are moist as all get out...at moment 53% in living room, haven't checked meter in guitar room, but lets just say I won't try mowing the lawn tomorrow! May be different in this house though, as we still have steam heat...its on, but SWMBO isn't letting it get very high (shudder!). Flannel shirt and wool sweater time in here...
 

davismanLV

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EXACTLY, Charlie!! Thanks for reminding everyone. My two "whole house' humidifiers (in 1600 sq ft) now have calmed down a bit because of thunderstorms and the a/c has been backing off. The other morning it was 66 (on the inside, 55 outside) in the morning. Not a problem for me but the wooden things need monitoring. Trying to keep it at 40% is a struggle. Plus using soundhole humidifiers. But NOW..... winter is on the way.... which means the heat comes on and then it's SUPER difficult to keep humidity up here in the desert. i guess I'll be on the phone to Sunbeam to see what kinda deals they have on humidifier wicks. I spend about $160 a year on those plus all the antibacterial and anti-whatever to keep them running longer. The STRUGGLE IS REAL!! Too much money invested in these silly wooden things to be careless!!! :hopelessness:
 
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The Guilds of Grot

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Yep, it's that time of year!

Filling up the ol' humidifier in the vault!

20181229_113720_zps8nazfwu3.jpg
 

davismanLV

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Kurt, that's pretty high tech there..... not sure we have that technology here in Las Vegas yet..... lmao!! Now it's 32 outside and struggles to get to 38 today for a high. And HEAT takes WAY more humidity out of the air than a/c does! So today was my annual call to Sunbeam to order the humidifier wicks and the water treatment to keep the minerals and calcification down. So i'm not far off my estimate above. They currently have a BOGO on filters, wicks, and chemicals!! So i got 24 wicks, and two bottles of water treatment for $167.00. That'll last about a year. I'm sure there are people who think I'm crazy to spend the money, but with $20K invested in guitars that i truly love, it's worth every penny. So now the two humidifiers are STRUGGLING with 40 RH and we've flipped the wicks and rinsed them in vinegar and they're doing better, but i hope the shipment gets here soon.

If you have whole house humidifiers or even just room humidifiers that require wicks or filters, Sunbeam Inc. a division of Jarden Consumer Solutions (www.holmesproducts.com) has this great BOGO deal going on now.

Of course, I forgot the model or part # that i usually get, and OF COURSE they got all new computer systems so my info wasn't readily at hand. Luckily Gladys knows what she's doing and after putting me on hold and consulting the department that retrieves information, she got my previous orders and now we see how good she is. I hope they're the right ones!!

ANYWAY, check your humidity and take care of the wooden kids...... as Charlie has said, it's an awful mistake to live with. Keep humidifying, my friends!! :encouragement:
 

chazmo

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Right on, Tom. I just had to change the filters on mine yesterday. It's been a pretty temperate winter so far this year, but the heat really does suck the humidity out of the air. I think I'll pull out the Favilla later to remind myself of my stupidity. Haven't had that guitar out of it's case since I bought the Mark, and that's just wrong.
 
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