Helpful post! thank you
Heating Season: Humidifier/Hygrometer Recommendation
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Nov 17, 2019
0
#3
Owners of stringed musical instruments need also be concerned with humidity, temperature and storage conditions. The only reason I have a hydrometer is for my acoustic guitar.
My methodology for combating the drying effect of central heating is to dry my laundry on the radiators if the hydrometer is giving a low humidity reading.
I learned though that in a centrally heated or air conditioned environment, a hydrometer is a good device to have to combat the health issues that can arise from air that is either too damp or too dry. You don’t need to have a musical instrument or expensive chess sets to reap the benefits of a hydrometer.
My methodology for combating the drying effect of central heating is to dry my laundry on the radiators if the hydrometer is giving a low humidity reading.
I learned though that in a centrally heated or air conditioned environment, a hydrometer is a good device to have to combat the health issues that can arise from air that is either too damp or too dry. You don’t need to have a musical instrument or expensive chess sets to reap the benefits of a hydrometer.
Yes, Winter and dry air is the worst time for acoustic guitars, so it stands to reason that high quality wood sets and boards would need special care
About 1/4 cup of bleach in the water tank will kill any bacteria and will not harm the humidifier.
Some additional pieces of helpful information:
- Gravity has no real effect on boards.
- Temperature has no *direct* impact on the shape/size of wood (in other words, temperature conditions alone do not cause warping of any kind; temperature, however, does have an impact on RH (which DOES have an impact on the size/shape of wood), so temperature can have an indirect impact)
- HVAC air (both hot and cold (when fan is set to “auto”)) reduces RH; it can be helpful to control the air vents serving the room your chess pieces are in (controlled blocking in the winter, open in the summer)
- Gravity has no real effect on boards.
- Temperature has no *direct* impact on the shape/size of wood (in other words, temperature conditions alone do not cause warping of any kind; temperature, however, does have an impact on RH (which DOES have an impact on the size/shape of wood), so temperature can have an indirect impact)
- HVAC air (both hot and cold (when fan is set to “auto”)) reduces RH; it can be helpful to control the air vents serving the room your chess pieces are in (controlled blocking in the winter, open in the summer)
Mar 13, 2021
0
#8
Hmmm ...albeit I am half cut from a great night out with friends ....MCH8181’s post and photo reminds me of The Queens Gambit ...is black playing upside down in that photo... or have I consumed to many pinot’s? Sorry - nothing to do with humidifiers ... as you were.😏
MCH818 wrote:
I thought I would dig up this old thread which might be relevant to some of the discussions here at CB&E. @MGT88 suggested to me previously in a PM that I should strongly consider buying a hygrometer. He highly recommend the AcuRite 01083M Pro, but I didn't want to deal with batteries. I ended up buying the analog ones which were more trouble than they were worth due to the calibration process. I actually broke one trying to calibrate it. Recently, I finally decided to buy a bunch of digital hygrometers because of all of the discussions lately about cracked chess pieces. I bought the AcuRite 01083M as suggested by @MGT88 as well as a bunch of small digital ones. The AcuRite sits in the room where I keep the sets and then I have 1 smaller hygrometer inside each of the chess boxes. I did this so I can compare the readings between the AcuRite and the other smaller ones to understand what the RH might be in each of the chess boxes in case I came across a cracked piece in the future. So far, the room RH ranges between 40 to 50% every day. I don't check the boxes that often but so far, the RH in the boxes ranges from 45% to 48%. What is interesting is the relative humidity in the room fluctuates more than the chess boxes do.
Nice!! Yeah room humidity will definitely fluctuate more than coffer humidity; at the end of the day, humidity is basically the amount of water vapor in the air, so we would expect less fluctuation in a small enclosed space (like a coffer) which is not exchanging its air often versus a larger space (like an office) that is constantly exchanging air. To give an example, suppose a room is sitting at 45% with the door closed; you turn on a humidifier to the max setting and it begins to fill the room with vapor; the last area for the air to move into would be small closed boxes/coffers, and when the air moves into them it will be slow/less concentrated. Personally, I prefer to control the humidity in my entire home office (where I keep my chess stuff) as I can monitor/control the RH at all times, and because my boards cannot be put in coffers; if the RH in my office is poor but good in my coffers, that's great for my pieces but no so great for my boards.
Mar 13, 2021
0
#10
Powderdigit wrote:
Hmmm ...albeit I am half cut from a great night out with friends ....MCH8181’s post and photo reminds me of The Queens Gambit ...is black playing upside down in that photo... or have I consumed to many pinot’s? Sorry - nothing to do with humidifiers ... as you were.😏
Hahaha, that's great! Now if the dark pieces start moving you know you're in full!
I wouldn’t use any auto-RH options on humidifiers; humidifier hygrometers are almost always highly inaccurate, and it doesn’t take long to really crank the RH in a room up.
It's heating season; our (chess equipment collectors) least favorite time of year. It feels like a good time to recommend some humidification equipment: