filling Dampp-Chasers

[Keith McGavern]

At 7:01 PM -0500 8/19/03, Mark Cramer wrote:
>...Anyone progress with ideas for porting the water from room to room?

Here's what I've been doing for years:

This involves 27 Sohmer Studios *without* fill tubes. I go down the 
hall to each room, turn on the light and remove the lower front 
boards.

I then access a water faucet in the custodian's closet on each of the 
three floors with a 3' black rubber hose fitted with a connection 
device for the faucet. From that I fill two gallon plastic jugs that 
I walk to the pianos. The tanks are hung low enough to pour the water 
in the humidity tanks. . When the jugs become empth, I refill. I do 
add Humidity Treatment to the jugs each fill-up.

During the filling of the humidity tanks, I check the rods to make 
sure the units are operating and check the pads for crust. This 
process takes between 45-60 minutes depending on how empty the tanks 
are.

I have a notice sign on each piano asking for the users of the rooms 
to call when they notice a Low Water Light blinking.

If just one call comes in, I go and do all the tanks. I do reschedule 
in conjunction on the chance of not receiving a call. This maximizes 
the effective purpose of the DP systems. I now can float the pitch on 
each piano and seldom do pitch changes on these pianos.

I have found no quicker, reliable or efficient way for me to do this task.

Keith McGavern
Registered Piano Technician
Oklahoma Chapter 731
Piano Technicians Guild
USA