I just bought a glass-door humidor for my flutes and whistles and was wondering what folks out there use for the humidity portion.
I assume water works, and one of the reasons for the humidor constructed from a breathing wood like cedar inside is to prevent mold and mildew build up. Will the heavily chlorinated tap water from my home do or should I buy a jug of distilled water?
The humdior company also sells a chemical humidity solution to put into the humidifier instead of water, supposedly designed to aid in mildew/mold prevention. Are those chemical solutions safe for wooden instruments?
A damp sponge seems to do the trick. At the moment
the humidity here is more than high enough for flutes.
The winters are different. I mostly use an air humidifier
then. Sometimes a plastic drawer and a damp sponge. Best
that chemical solution (called “activator solution”) is supposed to keep the humidity around 70%, which is considered ideal for cigars. In other words, the chemical will absorb water when the RH is abover 70% and release it otherwise. So it helps prevent the RH going to 100% and reduces the danger of mildew.
Try http://www.cheaphumidors.com
They sell the solution and the humidifiers that take it, but they also sell something much more convenient, tubes filled with crystalls that you can “load” with tap water. There’s also a “cigar oasis” which is an electronic humidifier, seems to be very nice.
Check the FAQs in cheaphumidors to learn about the chemical composition of the activator solution.
Im my home, i have trouble getting the humidity inside the humidor to be 70%, but it usually stays around 55-60%. Instead of worrying about it, i just decided it was good enough.
The damp sponge is usually fine, as long as you open the box from time to time and watch for mildew. I got mildew once, and it’s not pleasant. Ugh!
I guess I should have worded my question more specifically:
if I use water, should it be distilled; also, is the chemical solution (to go into the humidifier) safe for wooden instruments (and for silver, for that matter).
I would error on the side of caution and use distilled water. I have very hard water in my neighborhood so I use either filtered or distilled water.
I have a rather large crate that I bought on sale at a chain art supply store, can’t think of the name. I use a sponge sitting in a tupperware container and a hydrometer from a cigar store to keep the humidity up and monitor it.
One good secondary effect of this is that I’m careful to actually put my flutes away when I’m done with them. Reduces the chance of sitting on them. Except the Seery, which I think could almost withstand my sitting on it.
Re. FHS definitely. Someone else from C&F mentioned it to me however I’ve lost her message. Send me a note if you’re still out there!
I humidify when necessary – even with the AC on, my house tends to be around 60% in the summer (I hate AC so I don’t use it as much as the mid-Atlantic natives). I can keep the music room up to 50% in the winter with a room humidifier, which is probably okay, but store the flutes and wooden whistles in humidified tupperwares just in case.
TommyK, if you use a cigar humidifier (one of the gel ones that keep a reasonably constant humidity), definitely spring for distilled water. I ruined my first one putting tap water in it.
One quick word of warning if using sealed containers. You need some way of keeping the humidity DOWN. Use an indicator for sure and a constant RH solution or some such. If you just use a sponge, make sure there is some ventilation.
This is the voice of experience…flutes will crack from too high a humidity as well as too low.
Its the change that does it (Note added in proof…preferably 80)
A parallel discussion on the woodenflute list suggests that a good way to keep your flute happy is to store it in a tupperware box. It is recommended that humidity be around 50%, consistent with what has been said here. Brad Hurley mentioned he has a digital humidity meter in the box with the flute so he can keep track of things. This seems like a great idea. I found one at a good price at an allergy supply outlet. Has anyone tried this?
Acu-Rite Digital Humidity Monitor & Thermometer http://tinyurl.com/2n2d3
from National Allergy Supply Inc
The tupperware thing works, but just be careful you don’t drive the humidity to 100% for more than a couple of days, or you will mildew, and believe me, you don’t want that.
At the Weather channel website (www.weather.com, I believe), they have an interesting function.
For your zip code, you can figure your indoor humidity. The site provides the current outdoor temperature (83 degrees in my case), and the current outdoor humidity (74% here). You then enter your current thermostat setting (76 degrees), and check whether or not your AC is on. This formula produced a 30-50% indoor humidity reading for me. (If I didn’t have my AC on, it would be 90% humidity and wet.) So, with 30-50% humidity, I guess I still need to humidify somewhat?
I wouldn’t really trust the info from the weather channel site. I live in Mesa Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. When I ran this tool for my area, I got an indoor relative humidity of 30-50% too. I have an accurate guage at home, and it ranges from about 25% to “L” meaning lower than 20% depending on the time of day.
That’s really interesting; I’ll give it a try and see how it compares to the RH reading from the hygrometer in the music room. Especially in light of my recent A/C scare – turned it on for the first time one day last week, and that night opened the Hammy’s case to discover it COMPLETELY BEADED with moisture, inside and out. Then I pulled out the Murray, and ditto. I’d just oiled both the night before, and we’d had a whole week of hard rain (not to mention the fact that I live in a 175-y.o. farmhouse with a sluicepit for a cellar), but wow. I’d never seen anything like that before. Scared the bejeezus out of me –
So I guess the A/C had something to do with it? (The hygrometer reading was 67% at that point)
I can’t help but ask myself why I never had all this angst with the Ormiston.
Anyway, thanks again for the tip. Maybe the hygrometer’s whacked, I don’t know. It all gives me a headache.
I had a friend that used an ammo box (tank rounds) for a humidor. It made him look classy.
One thing about Tap, I know for fish tanks you want the tap water to sit for a day or two before giving it to the tank. The reason I was told is to off gas the chlorine. Do not think that chlorine would be kind on the keys or silver. If using tap I would let it sit for a day before putting it in the box.
A fresh cigar may help keep the humidity up if replaced daily, but it may not help your playing.
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I can’t help but ask myself why I never had all this angst with the Ormiston.