extreme winter weather/DC effectiveness

[Dean May]

I sometimes tape big notes on the fallboard reminding the pianist to check
to make sure the piano is plugged in and full of water. I've also taped a
notes to the legs or truck in positions where they are visible to anyone
bending down to unplug the piano, "Leave Piano Plugged In!!" It helps a
little, and with some churches you need all the help you can get. 

Another tactic is to talk directly to the maintenance people. If you can get
the maintenance people to shoulder the responsibility of taking care of the
DC, they are usually very willing to do it if they know how and much better
about it than the parade of different pianists. 

Dean

Dean May             cell 812.239.3359 

PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272 

Terre Haute IN  47802


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Hank Lea
Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2007 7:58 PM
To: Pianotech List; piano57 at insightbb.com
Subject: Re: extreme winter weather/DC effectiveness

Hi Barb,
    Out here in Colorado it is always very dry. Most of the churches I 
tune for are in the teens and low 20's. Then you add all the lights on 
stage during a service and "wham'o" toast!!  I have _never_ found a DC 
to work well in this climate. I have 2 large churches that use their 
piano's a lot. One being a 9' Yamaha and the other a M&H model "A" from 
the Aeolian era. 1970's I believe.  Both of these piano's have a 900sq' 
humidifier under it with a skirt completely around the instrument. I set 
the unit to cycle on and off @35-40%. When the piano is not in use, the 
lid is closed and a padded cover is covering it. Both of these 
humidifiers have humidistat's for cycling on and off automatically. I 
have a small digital hygrometer mounted inside the case to monitor the 
humidity. These are the small digital hygrometers that Pianotek sells. I 
find that they are the most accurate when I check them with my expensive 
digital hygrometer.  This may send shivers up your spine, but the 
piano's are _never_ too humid.  The problem I have is that the units 
need to be turned off during services and turned back on when they close 
up the piano. Sometimes they don't get turned back on. The other problem 
I run into is that the unit runs dry and the churches don't change the 
wick when it no longer can wick up the water. I try to educate the 
maintenance people to keep checking it but sometimes I see they haven't. 
So I end up checking it every time I tune and let the proper person know 
what I found. I have done this for years and the piano's hold much 
better.  I even gave these churches a typed sheet on how to maintain 
their humidifier for optimal performance for winter and summer. Usually 
it is off in the summer.  I tune one of these piano's every month and 
the other every 9 weeks.
PS. The church with the 9' Yamaha had to replace a 9' Kawai because they 
dried it out so badly. They haven't had that problem since. Good luck.

Hank Lea


John Formsma wrote:
> Do they keep the lid closed except during worship times? That makes a 
> big difference.
>
> How far is the humidistat from the tank? Should be 12" or so.
>
> I'm finding a lot of pianos with loose tuning pins, but none with the 
> DC systems. Loose pins are normal with a really dry winter. And my 
> hygrometer stops registering below 24%. It's happened several times 
> already this year.
>
> If the lid is closed and the stat is in the right place, it might be 
> so dry the system can't keep up. I do have a system with an undercover 
> in a Yamaha C3. It has similar problems even with the DC system. But 
> 14 cents seems a bit much of a drop from Christmas. This piano had an 
> older system before, and it dropped that much with it. It seems to be 
> better with a newer system, although it hasn't been on long enough to 
> tell for sure.
>
> JF
>
>
>
>
>
> On 2/16/07, *Barbara Richmond* <piano57 at insightbb.com 
> <mailto:piano57 at insightbb.com>> wrote:
>
>     Howdy,
>      
>     Hope you're all nice and cozy, it's been dang cold here.  I've got
>     a question for you DC experts, I would have called DC themselves,
>     but I didn't get home in time this afternoon. 
>      
>     Early this past fall I regulated a 1920s S&S A and installed a
>     full DC system--but no undercover.  The piano is kept closed
>     and covered when not in use.  The church has AC, though to me it
>     felt humid  (for some reason I didn't have my hygrometer with
>     me).   Anyway, before Christmas I tuned the piano again and it was
>     17 cents low.   Today I tuned it again and it was 14 cents
>     low. Yikes.  The weather here lately has been extremely cold (OK,
>     you nanooks of the north can laugh) and the church was incredibly
>     dry--it didn't register on my not very good hygrometer.  A couple
>     weeks ago, the music director called to tell me that tuning pins
>     were slipping like crazy on the harpsichord I worked on last
>     December.  I thought today that the tuning pins on the piano felt
>     looser than in the past (or was it my imagination?).  AND I
>     noticed that the regulation was off, too.  Geeze.  Apparently the
>     heat is always on in the church--not one of those where it gets
>     turned off and on, and it has felt warm to me the times I've been
>     in there.
>      
>     So...you get the picture that the place is dry.  Here is the
>     question--how good a job should the DC system be doing in these
>     circumstances?  Is anybody else experiencing this?  The music
>     director said he is filling the DC tank at least once a week.  I
>     even took a look to see if I had plugged things in the wrong
>     place.  Is there anything else I can do, besides put an undercover
>     on?  Can undercovers make a huge difference in a situation where
>     there isn't significant air movement, etc? 
>      
>     I thought about recommending that the church look into a big
>     April-Aire system.
>      
>     Any suggestions are welcome.
>      
>     Thanks.
>      
>     Barbara Richmond, RPT
>     near Peoria, Illinois 
>
>