Dampp-Chaser: Piano Humidity Control, Weather Protection

Changes in humidity challenge pianos.

In our New England climate, where we have warm humid summers and cold dry winters, seasonal changes in humidity alternately swell then shrink the wood used to build your piano. This swelling and shrinkage presents a challenge to your piano soundboard and pin block.

As the wood swells it expands. In the case of the soundboard, this swelling is considerable. In winter, when it dries again, it shrinks. When a soundboard expands, its woods fibers crush, and then, as it dries in winter, those crushed fibers are pulled apart as the wood shrinks. This swelling and shrinking action, year after year, weakens, and destroys both the wood and the glue joints.

A major symptom of humidity induced cycling is reduced tuning stability. Pianos simply don’t maintain their tunings well when subjected to uncontrolled humidity cycling.

If left unchecked this cycling will destroy the soundboard and pinblock.

I recommend Dampp-Chaser humidity control systems as an effective way to control the destructive effects of humidity swings.

A Dampp-Chaser system automatically controls a piano’s micro-climate. The controlled micro-climate stabilizes pitch and significantly reduces soundboard and pin block dimensional change.

The systems are useful in both home and conservatory pianos.

The Dampp-Chaser contains a self-contained, automatically controlled humidifier and dehumidifier. Its purpose is to keep the micro-climate inside the piano steady at 42% relative humidity. Dampp-Chaser’s effectiveness has a decades long successful track record.

With a Dampp-Chaser installed, regular twice-a-year tunings are still recommended. However, the piano will be far more likely to sound nice in between tunings, rather than sounding painfully sour before each tuning.

We would be happy to quote you a full installed price for a Dampp-Chaser system.

Call 978-305-4692 today
to protect your piano with a Dampp-Chaser system.