I will jump back in because I deal with the issue all the time . I had a client here that received a piano from her old teacher in Arizona. It had lived there all its life and was perfect in every way. i saw it when it came off the truck . It was an excellent Baldwin grand from mid 1920's. I told her to put a full system in it to counter the stresses it would get from our weather. They put it off for 6 months and when i went there to "tune" it the piano was a disaster- pins coming out of the block; bass end so flat it went down chromatically as you played up; tuning pins looking like barber pole stripes, cracks in the soundboard. The first few weeks it drank water continuously and eventually it stabilized. Also put an undercover on it to make the system work better. After a period of time it needed water about every 2 weeks- hardly a reason to unplug it. They moved to Florida and the tech only put the dehumidifier bars on. They started to have problems and found another tech who put the tank on. Problems went away.
I am in SC and have my weather radio on 24 x 7. It has an indoor rh /temp and outdoor sensor. I noticed that the temp in side was 72 but the rh was in the high 60's - actually 69.
So---- I went over to my Yamaha G2 and checked the dehumidifer bars and sue enough they were hot and doing their job. It feels comfortable and I have a geo-thermal system in my home however we have extremely wet conditions outside and the excess moisture creeps in. Whole house systems are only going to do part of the job. Think of the piano as a plant - it is alive and needs care to keep it that way.
Original Message:
Sent: 10-05-2015 08:58
From: Charles Rempel
Subject: Removing climate control system
I'll wade in on this one. Even though I now live in NC, I lived for many years in the desert southwest. I would absolutely discourage her from doing this. I'm sure that she views the Piano Life Saver System (PLSS) through her high humidity San Francisco goggles, and now that she is in the high desert, it makes sense to her that the reasons for needing the PLSS in the first place no longer exist. And she is certainly right about that. However, while one problem has been mitigated, she has a new, and more dire one. I won't list all of the possible problems she could encounter due to the change in climate and just overall dryness because I think we are all aware of what these are. It sounds like an excellent opportunity for you to educate her a bit as to why she has the PLSS. With regards to "tired of maintaining it", I am always a little surprised that this is such a big deal for some people. The PLSS needs 1 minute of maintenance (watering) every 1-2 weeks.
My oldest and closest friend runs a large mechanical contracting firm in a large high desert city. He says that they will not even tackle humidity control in a building unless it's a hospital (where it's a must) because it's nearly impossible to make work properly and the customer doesn't want to pay what it will cost. Hospitals have the deepest pockets. When they do install it in a hospital, he says their job is never finished. For as long as the building is standing they will be going back to work on the system.
In the theoretical sense, I totally agree with the premise that total environmental control is best for the piano. That is Steinway's official position too, BTW. However, this is almost never doable, so the PLSS exists. I would recommend keeping the PLSS going for at least a year while you monitor the conditions that it is subjected to in the home. Possibly leave a data-logger behind, somewhere in the room that the piano lives in, and dump the data and analyse it later to see what is happening. If after a year, the system in the house maintains a relatively stable and appropriate level of RH, then i think it would be safe to discontinue use of the PLSS.
If anyone has further questions about this, including the piano owner, please feel free to contact me or post more comments here.
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Charles Rempel
Sales & Marketing Director
Dampp-Chaser Corp.
HENDERSONVILLE NC
828-692-8271
800-438-1524
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-04-2015 13:40
From: James Kelly
Subject: Removing climate control system
How old is the system ? It sounds like a full system with both humidifier and de-humidifier and maybe she is referring to the need to add water to the tank. If so how often has that been ? Perhaps changing the humidistat model is a better solutionj . New house or not whole house systems may not do the job that the piano needs them to do. I had a million dollar home client with a great Mason & Hamlin rebuild. The minute I walked in the door I sensed high humidity in the "piano room". Cant be they told me" it is a state of the art whole house system with whole house dehumidification/humidification." Long story short the entire system had to be ripped out and redesigned. Since then they have had about 3 major ac failures. She needs to think about it more - when the ac goes down the piano is dead in the water from any protection it may give. A good idea is to get a wollen string cover to protect the top side strings. You should also talk to Dampp Chaser to see what they say but weaning the piano off the system may not be a great idea. Whatever you do document it that it was the customers choice or you will be blamed . Not to be paranoid but you may want her to sign a written statement that it is her decision to pull the plug.
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James Kelly
Pawleys Island SC
843-325-4357
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-04-2015 12:57
From: Robert Callaghan
Subject: Removing climate control system
I have a client who wants to remove (or at least turn off) her climate control system from her Steinway M. She moved here from San Francisco (humid) to Reno (dry). We installed the CCS to buffer the humidity change. Her house is new construction with climate controls built into the heat and A/C. Now that is has been here a few years she is tired of maintaining it and wants to turn it off. I haven't done it yet, and am hesitant. But I said I would ask about it. So, is there a safe way to wean the piano off the CCS?
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Robert Callaghan
Reno NV
775-287-2140
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