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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>well said Stephen, but I suspect you will need two
boxes of wicks unless you have all new systems and are lucky. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Chris Solliday</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=s.kabat@csuohio.edu href="mailto:s.kabat@csuohio.edu">Stephen E
Kabat</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=caut@ptg.org
href="mailto:caut@ptg.org">College and University Technicians</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, March 23, 2006 12:57
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [CAUT] Dampp-Chasers in
institutional setting</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT
face="Default Sans Serif,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size=2>
<DIV>Simone,</DIV>
<DIV>Where I work we have 28 Dampp-Chasers, both grand and upright, universal
tank and the older types. I spend 1-2 hours once a week, on
average, filling them, week in, week out. Probably closer to two hours/week. I
have a cart salvaged from Property Control to carry a 5 gallon
jerrycan around to the rooms from which I fill the watering cans.
Twice a year I change pads: after the school year is over in mid-May and
over the holiday break in late December/early January. Here in Cleveland that
works the best for our climate and for my schedule. The building is very
dry in the winter and is air-conditioned in the summer so I've added
wattage to the de-humidifiers which helps keep the pitch down in the
summer. So I need to budget for one package of pads, (the huge $40
box from Schaff/Pianotek), one case of humidifier treatment at least per year,
and time to fill. Let the powers that be be impressed by the fact that
anything to help increase the life of a piano is <STRONG>more
cost-effective</STRONG> than replacing pianos. Make them realize that
the issue is not about saving them money by not tuning the pianos as much
since there are DC's on the pianos; the issue is do they want an effective,
educational environment where students can want to practice and learn(and
ENROLLMENT can increase) because the physical plant of the music department is
in good repair. Beyond the budget/ bean-counting aspect, you have to
educate them and convince them that it is in their best
interest(read:ENROLLMENT) to budget for maintenance, and that maintenance is
cheaper in the long run than new equipment every 30 years. Sorry for the
prolixity; I'm getting off of my soapbox now!</DIV>
<DIV>best,</DIV>
<DIV>Steve Kabat, RPT, Cleveland State University</DIV>
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