Humidity Treatments for Pianos

Pianos have special humidifying needs because they aren’t stored in a case.  They’re stuck out in the open, at the mercy of your window drafts and forced air.

Ideally, you would want to keep the humidity level in your house constant, at about 40%.  (Stop smirking!)

Realistically, though, this is what you need to do:

Call your piano technician and tell him or her that you’d like to install a Dampp-Chaser in your piano. 

This is a humidity regulating system designed to fit right inside your piano.  The full system consists of a heating bar which dehumidifies during the humid summer months, and a humidifying element for the dry winter months.  The system fits inside the body of a grand, or behind the bottom front panel in an upright.

Maintenance is relatively simple:  The heating bar is self-regulating.  You just plug it in and leave it.  The humidifier requires a little more care.  There’s a reservoir you’ll need to keep filled with water.  But it’s easy to keep track of when – there’s a little light that comes on when it’s time to water your piano. 

Some people elect to skip the extra maintenance of watering and just install the heating bar.  This is much better than not having any humidity control at all because the worst damage is caused by fluctuations in humidity level.

Keeping you piano at a constant humidity level helps it keep its pitch much longer.  Plus, it prevents damage such as cracks in the soundboard or pinblock, and rattling noises caused by ill-fitting dry parts.

By the way, an extra bonus of using the Dampp-Chaser is that it costs 11 times less to operate than you would spend running the requisite humidifiers and dehumidifiers needed to keep the entire room at constant humidity.