Soundboard Damage above humidifier

[Gayle Mair]

Dear Rob;

There has to be reasonable air flow around the humidifier, and the baffle
has to be
positioned properly over the humidifier.  If not, in some rare situations,
condensate may
form on the underside of the sound board at the end of the baffle.

Reasonable air flow is obtained by having several inches clearance between
the beams and
the humidifier tank.  If you have used a standard size grand tank (63/4"
wide by 17" long),
and put it into very cramped quarters, the likelihood of producing
condensate sufficient to
reach the sound board is higher than if there had been reasonable air flow.

We produced the short tank (33/4" wide by 13" long), at Bob Ousley's
suggestion, to go
into pianos where the fit was tight, or impossible with the standard tank.
I'd use this tank
in the future where there was any question about fit.  You are right, the
longer hanger
brackets came about to produce better air flow in every installation,
including tight fitting
installations.

The longer hanger brackets have been supplied as a standard part of the
system for two
years, so my inclination is that those rare cases where there was an air
flow problem, you
would have seen evidence of condensate by now.  The point is, if you
haven't' already seen
it, I don't think you are going to.

Rob, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times this has
come up in my 13
year association with Dampp-Chaser, but the fact that it came up one time
meant that we
should do something about it.  The above is what we did.

I hope this helps a bit.

Best Regards,

Bob Mair


-----Original Message-----
From: Rob & Karen Loomis <rkloomis@shaysnet.com>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Tuesday, June 23, 1998 10:48 AM
Subject: Soundboard Damage above humidifier


>Hi-
>
>Unfortunately I've had my first bad experience with a Humidifier control
>sytem [out of hundreds]. Unfortunately it is in a rather valuable [fully
>restored] grand. Above one corner of the humidifier, water condensed on
>the sound boardf and rib, whitening the shellac and causing a large
>crack in the board above it. This humidifier had the older style shorter
>hangers and I'm suspecting that perhaps others havc had this experience,
>causing you to lengthen them. Is there anything else that can be done to
>avoid this situation? Why did it happen. I'd appreciate any help you can
>give me in damage control.  I've sworn by your systems and I need to
>defend the continued use of humidity control as well as find a way to
>fix this sound board in a spot that is under both bass and treble
>strings.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Rob Loomis
>