Winter is coming... and along with it cold dry weather.

[elgravos]

Hi Guys,

Looking for some suggestions on dealing with humidity (or lack thereof) up in the Northeast this coming winter.

Just got myself a new place which includes a 5 x 5 cedar lined / carpeted room in the basement which has now become my dedicated guitar storage room.  I've put in a dehumidifier and have the room at a steady 45% humidity through the summer which has done wonders for my raw neck / acoustic guitars.  For the first time in years, I haven't had to tweak the truss rods every couple of weeks as they work their way from winter to summer and can keep them all outside their cases in there.  However, now that winter is coming again, I am looking to deal with the opposite problem as things are going to get very dry over here.  Anyone have any recommendations on small room humidifiers - probably looking at 180 cubic feet or so?  I'm thinking "mist" humidifiers are a bad idea as I don't want any water droplets floating around in there landing on the wood.  Probably be a mold issue as well in a small enclosed space.  Anyone have any experience with cigar humidor humidifiers?  These look like they might be the way to go but haven't heard of these being used for this purpose before.

Cheers. 

 

[Cagey]

I live in Michigan, which has some fairly variable weather. My basement remains between 45% and 50% RH year-round, which guitars consider about perfect. So, it's possible you're worrying about something you don't need to. You may want to invest in a thermometer/hygrometer to check the reality of the situation before you invest any money in trying to control it. They're usually fairly inexpensive.

 

[elgravos]

Have a couple down there already - reading a steady 45% which tells me the  dehumidifier is doing the job.  Basement will hit 65% humidity in the summer if left unchecked.  You're right that I haven't been through a winter yet in the new place so perhaps I will get lucky.  However, my previous pad dropped below 25% in winter, though the guitars were on the ground floor and heating was forced air which didn't help.  It's baseboard in the new place so perhaps I will will do better this time.

 

[sixstringsamurai]

I had a basement space for awhile in Boston, even through the winter, I had to run fans to help keep
humidity in check.
But I was also less than a quarter mile from the Charles too.

Where I am at now we have the Big ol' cast iron radiators, so the steam off from those keeps the house constant in winter months.
My issues are generally in the summer, when you'll run the AC for a week or so of hot muggy weather, and then having it cool off enough to re open the windows.

 

[musicispeace]

I live in Michigan, which has some fairly variable weather. My basement remains between 45% and 50% RH year-round, which guitars consider about perfect. So, it's possible you're worrying about something you don't need to. You may want to invest in a thermometer/hygrometer to check the reality of the situation before you invest any money in trying to control it. They're usually fairly inexpensive.

Getting one of those monitors is a good idea, thanks. I'm a couple of floors up from street level in the Pacific Northwest and have just relied on heat rising from other apartments in the winter. Baseboard heat at home and I've never once turned it on because baseboard is heinous and gets pricey if you use it much but I like to keep some decent air flow as much as I can year round. Summer can be bad though, more so than winter. I worry about guitars much more in the summer. Haven't had anything really happen so far except having to tweak the neck on my Tanglewood acoustic last summer.  Wood......ugh.

 

[Cagey]

I would think in the Pacific NW that lack of humidity would be the least of your worries. Don't you guys get some precipitation around 362 days out of the year?

I agree about the baseboard heat, though. Pricey stuff. Luckily, they usually only install that sort of heating in areas where you don't often need heating, or much of it. Here, we have to have central heating systems so you end up with a furnace of some sort that you can install a humidifier on if you'd like.

 

[Snake]

A lot of newer houses have air exchange systems so in places like Minnesota (where I lived for 29 years) I did have extremely dry basement conditions but it never seemed to bother the wenge, ziricote, bubinga, bocote or Indian rosewood necks so much as it affected the actual play-ability of each instrument in regards to needing more adjustments when extreme changes occurred (for example in March the humidtiy in the basement would shoot up from 15% to 65%-70% when the snow began melting outside).

The problem is newer houses are sealed so good these days that they need an air exchange system installed to keep fresh air coming into the house. With this comes the humidity conditions from outside as well. In places like MN where I was living we had extremely dry winters and extremely humid summers however my guitars seemed ok to me. If you are really worried about it you can buy these packs my cousin told me about to keep in the case with the guitar. I just left my guitars out on a rack though and like I said, they are all ok. I played them every day and took care of them though, so I can't say the same for someone who might actually let the guitar sit out without any maintenance over the same period of time.

 

[musicispeace]

I would think in the Pacific NW that lack of humidity would be the least of your worries. Don't you guys get some precipitation around 362 days out of the year?

I agree about the baseboard heat, though. Pricey stuff. Luckily, they usually only install that sort of heating in areas where you don't often need heating, or much of it. Here, we have to have central heating systems so you end up with a furnace of some sort that you can install a humidifier on if you'd like.

Good point about the Northwest, stays fairly within parameters most of the year. (annoying hipsters aside) 

 

[elgravos]

I've been using case humidifiers (Oasis) for the acoustics these past couple of years.  They take the biggest beating from the change of seasons.  It's just that once something is in its case, it tends not to get played all that much as it takes some extra effort to get it out and ready to go and I'm a lazy old sod... even if I still have to refill the case humidifiers once a week.  The plan now is to have everything on a rack in the gear closet and just walk in there and pick up what I need on the fly.  As Cagey said, I might get lucky over the winter.  Only way to find out is to wait a couple more months and keep an eye on the hygrometers.  With that said, it does tend to get real dry here.  If it's looking bad, I might just try one of those cigar humidifiers.  The closet is a lot bigger than the largest humidor but I only need to hit 45% where cigars apparently like 70%+.  We'll see what happens, can't be worse than last year!

 

[Strat Avenger]

Colorado is pretty dang dry in the winter time. I don't worry about my electric guitars, only my acoustic. I've had the fretboards shrink, exposing the fret ends which then needed to be filed down, but other than that, the electrics have never been harmed by the dryness.

 

[elgravos]

Mainly worried about my acoustics too, but all my raw necked electrics have sprouted fret ends in winter over the past couple of years though that's since fixed.  The necks remained all over the shop though - I was adjusting truss rods weekly through spring / early summer until I put the de-humidifer in and stabilized things.  Maybe I'll be ok from now on though.  Given that I spared them from the worst of the humidity this year, there won't be such a big swing back into the dry weather this time.  Going from 45% to 25% is probably nothing like going from 70% to 25%.

 

[dmraco]

I life in philly and usually have right around 50% humidity. 

I will however dip into the 30% range in winter when the natural gas heat is running a lot. 

I have a guitar display case with glass doors I keep my more prized instruments in.  I have small humidifier systems that I fill with water weekly to keep it near 50%.

My other guitars I leave hanging and deal with it.  Only had one(Gibson) that sprouted fret ends.  Others needed neck adjustments.  The ones with warmoth double expanding truss rods were 100% stable.  Barely have to touch them once they are set