Dampp-chaser observations

[Alan]

Follow-up question. I've installed a bunch of DC's and believe in them.
But has anyone ever seen a piano that cracked up in the soundboard
and/or bridges within a year of installing a DC, when there were no
cracks visible before? I have two pianos that are like that. They are
both owned by the same customer (a U.S. Army band). They are fairly
diligent about keeping the piano watered. I told the fellow in charge,
who is quite knowledgeable about pianos, that I had never heard of a DC
pushing a piano "over the edge," so to speak. But thought I'd throw the
question out here since we've got a DC thread going.

Interesting, maybe relevant, side note: The customer had these systems
on hand but not installed and had had them for awhile. They are the old
single-amber-light set-ups.

Alan R. Barnard
Salem, MO


-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Newell [mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 3:25 PM
To: pianotech@ptg.org; MPT@philbondi.com
Subject: Dampp-chaser observations


Greetings listers,
         I have recently installed a standard Dampp-Chaser ,ok,ok, Piano

Life Saver system on a small 5 foot something Petrof grand. The reason
for 
installation was to try and diminish or eliminate some compression
ridges 
in it's soundboard. After installation I asked the customer to wait a
month 
or so and call me for a tuning once it has had a chance to settle down
as 
per my normal procedure. The month came and I went out to tune and found
no 
appreciable difference in the compression ridges. The customer and I are

concerned that the system is less effective than we would like it to be.

After a couple conversations with Becky first and then Roger at the
Piano 
Life Saver Systems offices I hadn't really reached any iron clad 
conclusions but I did have more information.
         One of the observations that my customer had was that the
rearward 
mounted heating rod was getting much hotter than the long one mounted
near 
the keybed. Since I have the distinct advantage of living rather close
to 
this customer I went right over. We plugged both rods directly into an 
extension cord and then directly into the wall outlet to eliminate
anything 
weird in the control unit or the 1-3 plug adapter. The results were the 
same. The long rod was much cooler than the short rod. I looked for the 
markings on the rods and they both are 25 watt. Now that makes a little
bit 
of sense. The 25 watts will have much more of an affect on a piece of
metal 
half the size of the other one. My question to all of you who have ever 
installed or thought about installing one of these systems is; "Does
this 
not create an imbalance where the sole purpose of installing a system
such 
as this is to gain balance?". Simple logic would seem to dictate that
the 
short rod being hotter than the long one would make the tail of the
piano 
warmer and therefore dryer than the front under the belly rail.
         If my logic holds up I think that there are a few consequences 
here. First and foremost these standard systems should be discontinued
or 
changed in some way to achieve the balance that we are purchasing the 
system for in the first place. Secondly, there are quite a few systems
out 
there that probably should have a second look and a swap of heater rods.

I'm rather concerned that a first time installer expecting the stability

touted by not only the company but my many of us who have installed
systems 
in the past simply will not have that experience with the current
standard 
system. It may have some effect but certainly not what it could by my 
thinking.
         I must confess to never having given much though to the various

configurations possible with these systems. I was operating under the 
assumptions that someone else has figured out all this already and all I

need to do is follow the directions and I will be able to have the same 
success that others claim. Once the systems I've put on in the past were

installed I didn't go looking for trouble. If no one complained I
figured 
all was going as planned. I will have to rethink that strategy
obviously.
         I would encourage all of you who have any interest at all to
share 
your observations not only with this list but also with the fine folks
at 
Piano Life Saver Systems and also all of the suppliers and resellers for

these systems. I say this because I wish I had been warned and purchased
a 
system with one 2 ft. 25 watt rod and one 4 ft 50 watt rod to achieve
the 
balance I'm looking for. I personally would like to see the standard 2
ft 
25 watt and 4 ft 25 watt configuration discontinued. I'd love to know
what 
YOU think.

Greg Newell
Greg's piano Forté
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net

P.S. you should know that Becky and Roger at Piano Life Saver Systems
were 
extremely helpful and congenial as always.  

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