Hey Tom, you bring some very good points to the table. I guess I have to retract my statement a bit. the institutional pianos I tune are the exception to institutional pianos! I convinced the college to spend over 1 million dollars on an automatic climate control system which keeps the humidity between 45-55%. It never seems to vary even on the driest days, or the heaviest humidity. The other college I tune for, they have the damp-chaser systems properly installed in pianos sitting beside open windows which expose the piano case to snow and rain on occasion. (I wish this were exagerated.....) those pianos are hopeless and the systems are in-effective because of the abuse. as it would be, they are considering reconstruction to include a music hall with the same climate system I convinced the other local college to install. Many of my home customers who are serious about their pianos have the moisture king system which has worked out very well for me. It uses similar low watt heat bars, but puts the moisture into the room with a humidifier. The moisture king's wife also sells these cute little russian piano toys...... something to keep in mind for Christmas. Overall I have to say for the climate I live in I have been very pleased to see these systems working well. Also, virtually all homes here in the south have central air. Thanks for the comments Mark From: tomtuner at verizon.net To: pianotech at ptg.org Date: Fri, 3 Apr 2009 07:56:20 -0400 Subject: [pianotech] Damppchaser comment was justify pitch raise Mark wrote: Subject: Re: [pianotech] justify pitch raise Hello, My name is Mark Perry, and I am an aural tuner and rebuilder. <SNIP> As for the piano life-saving system, while they work well when properly installed, I have seen them poorly installed buzzing on the soundboard, dumping massive amount of humidity into the piano soaking the felt, I have also seen them work to crack a soundboard. they MUST be installed correctly, and with the understanding that proper maintenance is a MUST. I almost never recommend the piano life-saver system in a home. It is always better to regulate the humidity in the room. The moisture king system works to do this quite well. I even have some customers who have gone to the expense of installing a humidity system into their heat pump. this is far better for every aspect of the home as well as the piano. Either way, if you install the life-saver system, be sure to do a good job for the sake of the piano. God Bless, Mark Mark, I agree about the need for correct D.C. installation. Without detail I have seen some configurations that at best are ineffective. I almost never recommend the piano life-saver system in a home. It is always better to regulate the humidity in the room. This is where I respectfully disagree.Here in New England we have humidity swings from 20% to 80% in homes without a whole house climate control system. Combined with open floor plans room humidifiers generally fight a losing battle . A large percentage of homes here have baseboard heat and no central air and are without ductwork making the installation of a humidity system too costly for most. April can be rainy and cool and I find very high humidity in homes and the people with sweaters on. They are certainly not turning on the A.C. and with a sometimes swampy early spring a piano can go 20 cents sharp in a few weeks . Throw in a cold December and the R.H.- pitch will drop in the opposite direction just as fast With a few notable exceptions my "home" clients keep their systems well maintained --I.E. fill fhe thing and add the capful of D.C. juice when the light goes on. I take care of the pads etc.It is the institutional installations that are alway's dry or unplugged in my experience. One prestigious private school here has tried the music teacher ,the custodian and even a student to be in charge of the filling without success. So my experience is the opposite .I almost never recommend a system for institutions and have a long list of stabilized pianos in home installations. Just my take--Your mileage may vary. Best wishes, Tom Driscoll I _________________________________________________________________ Quick access to your favorite MSN content and Windows Live with Internet Explorer 8. http://ie8.msn.com/microsoft/internet-explorer-8/en-us/ie8.aspx?ocid=B037MSN55C0701A -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090404/7eacb720/attachment.html>
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