Room Humidifier? You?

[Sapient]

I keep my guitars in cases in my bedroom and like I've said before, don't take them out much at all, unfortunately. They've all been solid body with a couple junk acoustics in the mix. One acoustic has been cracked for a while, but the solids are all fine, miraculously.

I never gave to much thought to humidity 'til I got a few Martin acoustics recently. My damn winter humidity is 15% in my room and only 20% throughout the house. The acoustics are safe since I deal with them as they should be with humidifiers, etc. But, what about the solids now? Well, a new 500 sqft job unit arrived yesterday.

FUNNY:

I had the thing running all day yesterday and the humidity never went past 15%. I was like and . So I fill it up this morning and run it again. I notice the vapor is being drawn to the box fan I like to run in my room. Every bit of vapor is pulled in the fan and is being evaporated immediately. I turned the fan off and the indicator showed 30% after about 15 minutes. Wow.

I'm gonna feel much better about my guitars now ...mainly because mine was SO low. No wonder my cheaper akaustic cracked.

Do you guys use one? Probably should. I hate filling it so I got a 90 hour 10 liter unit.

Do you use it for akaustics alone or electrics, or both?

 

[Dblgun]

Yes, where I live in the desert southwest I run a humidifier 24/7 with the exception of the summer months we have monsoon conditions. There is not doubt that where I am is drier than where the guitars originated from. My first indication is fret sprout which occurs pretty quickly here if additional humidity isn't provided.

 

[Lo-Tek]

I have never had problems with regard to house humidity. At worst fret sprout in a couple of instances. No big deal.
The furnace in this house (geo-thermal furnace) has a built in humidifier. This house stays about 30% in the winter.

I heat with wood too but the gear is at the other end of the house. The humidity stays pretty constant in that room.

As mentioned in the other thread I use in case humidifiers for acoustics but do not have a "two-way" system for acoustics.
The integrated system is a no brainer. I would not want to deal with a room unit. PITA. They can stink sometimes too.

 

[fitz]

Do you guys use one?

I don't have a whole house humidifier on my HVAC system, so yes, I use a little portable unit.
I use it when the humidity level drops below 30%.
Have to refill a couple times a day, but I don't get bent about it.
When it gets into single digit cold out (like today), it can't keep the % above about 20, but better than nothing.

 

[Edgar Frog]

Never thought about it myself. My humidity stays about 16% most of the year and raises to about 30% in the few warmer months. Living at a high altitude in the Rocky mountains it stays pretty dry. I have no AC since it's not needed and run heat in the cold months. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to have more humidity for my own health at least.

 

[Trelwheen]

In my part of Texas the average humidity is around 80% in the morning and 50% in the evening.

(It's even higher in Houston and other large cities due to the additive factor of increased Humidiocy, which is caused by stupid sweaty people.)

So anyway, no humidifiers here, since I don't want puddles forming on my Instruments O' Destruction...

 

[Sapient]

@Trelwheen: Interesting, 80% in the "dry" state. I would have expected that in the everglades.
@Edgar Frog: Yea, maybe you wanna look into some conditioning. I can feel my eyeballs are dry here.

Everyone else staying around 30 or just under isn't so bad for a humidifier to push. At 15% here it got up to 29 then went down to bounce around the low 20's. Thing seems to be a turd burglar that I will have to return.

 

[Vinsanitizer]

I post at length about this every year, and I've grown weary of it. Acoustic instruments players need a specific care guide.

 

[Sapient]

I'm returning my POS unit. It says it's for almost 600 sqft but can't get a ~200 sqft room past 20%. BS.

I just purchased a 1000 sqft unit and hope it can pick up 20% of what it claims ...

That bottle is pretty manley.

 

[Sapient]

I post at length about this every year, and I've grown weary of it. Acoustic instruments players need a specific care guide.

View attachment 101470

Actually my akaustics are fine and are dealt with separately. Naturally if I can get the room conditioned I can take them out without the humidity in the cases immediately plummeting.

That's cool that you write-up though. Thanks.

 

[StrummerJoe]

Not much need for where I'm at in western Washington.

If I had nice acoustics I'd consider it.

 

[DaDoc]

I keep a whole house humidifier in my music room, and all my guitars live in there..Acoustics and electrics.

We have really low humidity here most of the year, and it's rough on guitars, but especially rough on acoustics..Humidity should be around 45%, and if it drops below 40% it needs a boost.

I've had this one for a long time now, so I'm probably going to be buying a new one soon..Maybe even use two.

When I was living in N.C. I didn't need a humidifier, back there one needed a DE-humidifier a lot of the time.

 

[Sapient]

I keep a whole house humidifier in my music room, and all my guitars live in there..Acoustics and electrics.

We have really low humidity here most of the year, and it's rough on guitars, but especially rough on acoustics..Humidity should be around 45%, and if it drops below 40% it needs a boost.

I've had this one for a long time now, so I'm probably going to be buying a new one soon..Maybe even use two.

When I was living in N.C. I didn't need a humidifier, back there one needed a DE-humidifier a lot of the time.

Have you seen instruments exposed to no conditioning? I mean like cracked or warped? I have a Recording King acoustic that cracked twice along each side of the bridge to the bottom of the body. No biggie, but it ends there.

 

[Jethro Rocker]

Given our climate, we have a humidifier on the furnace. Runs whenever heat is on for winter ie - for abput 6 months! If it gets too high and temp outside too cold, we get frost and ice on inside windows regardless of glass type. 20° C inside and -25 or more outside will lead to condensation, period. Then the air exchanger is turned on for air flow.
Summer AC kills humidity as it can get fairly humid. Not Florida humid, but humid.
No additional humidity required.

 

[harleytech]

I had an ES-335 get a crack on one of the micky mouse ears because of no humidity. I keep two humidifiers running 24-7 and no problems anymore and all guitars sit out. around 40%-45% all winter.
FWIW...

 

[TXOldRedRocker]

I use two of these. They're great.
Use them for all guitars that are in the room because they keep the room humidified.

 

[speyfly]

When it's dry, mostly during the winter due to a gas furnace a pot of water on the stove takes care of it. Never gets too humid in Oregon, just wet .