Should I Get a Dampp-Chaser for My Piano?

When you invest in an acoustic upright or grand piano, you want to do everything possible to ensure that it continues to bring you pleasure for as long as possible. Part of caring for your piano means keeping it in a stable environment, away from temperature and humidity extremes or fluctuations, or using a humidifier, dehumidifier or Dampp-Chaser Piano Life Saver humidity control system.

Your piano is made from various porous materials, including wood, leather and felt. These can quickly absorb excess moisture in the air or dry out, causing unwelcome changes to your piano's tone and touch. It is essential to monitor your instrument's environment to maintain optimum humidity levels.

Why Does Humidity Control Matter?

If you live in the Northeast or other places with changing seasons, you probably notice that your windows and doors tend to stick during the warmer months and glide smoothly during the colder month. These changes happen because the wood in your home absorbs moisture in the air, causing it to swell during the more humid summer season, but that moisture evaporates as the weather gets colder, causing the wood to contract. Eventually, this constant swelling and contracting causes stress cracks. The same thing can happen to your piano.

Why Do a Piano's Parts Need Protection From Humidity Changes?

Your piano's soundboard is one of its most significant wooden parts and serves as the sound amplifier and the base over which the strings pass. It consists of many individual thin planks of spruce that are glued together to create one large piece. This piece is carefully cut to the exact dimensions of the piano's rim. Changes in humidity can cause the soundboard to press into the rim or pull away from it, leading to a domino effect of other changes. It can also cause the planks to come apart, leading to cracks in the soundboard.

Humidity extremes can lead to sluggish and sticking keys and cause hammer felts to absorb moisture or dry out. The resulting changes to key weight affect the amount of force needed to strike the strings. When high and low humidity affects the pin block, the piano will become challenging to tune if the tuning pins become too tight to turn or too loose to hold in place.

The solution to preventing these problems is to avoid sudden humidity changes by practicing proper humidity control. This may consist of setting a humidifier during the winter and a dehumidifier during the summer to maintain a consistent humidity level. Doing this requires daily vigilance and which is not always possible; therefore, we recommend installing a Dampp-Chaser self-regulating system.

How Does The Piano Life Saver Dampp-Chaser System Work?

We strongly recommend this system comprised of an advanced electronic humidistat to monitor the air's humidity levels inside your piano. When the humidity level drops below a healthy level, a humidification system automatically activates, and when the humidity is too high, a dehumidification system automatically activates. The system keeps the humidity levels near the piano consistent; thereby protecting the piano in various ways, including:

• Preserving the soundboard

• Preventing a sluggish action

• Preventing rusty strings

• Maintaining tunings, pitch and key regulation for more extended periods

• Reducing buzzing and rattling sounds

• Out of sight

What Are the Benefits?

We recommend the system for extending the life of your piano's soundboard, bridge, and action parts. Benefits to using this system include:

• It is not noisy.

• It will not wear out because it has no moving parts.

• It requires minimal maintenance.

• It is easy to use.

The system is easy to use with a light that activates to tell you when you need to fill the attached tank with water through a hose with the included pitcher. When the humidity rises above an optimum level, the system draws water into the tank and activates a light telling you when to drain it.

You may need to supplement your Piano Life Saver system with a room unit or your HVAC system in some regions of the country.

Protect Your Piano

A trained and certified technician should install your piano's Dampp-Chaser system to ensure that it works properly. Contact us anytime to understand everything you can do to ensure adequate humidity control to extend the life of your newly restored Steinway piano.