Damp Chaser in old upright

[Farrell]

I have never seen nor installed the humidifier portion of the Damp-Chaser
system here in Florida. Dehumidifier only.

Most installations I see are improper, with the older silver 25W rods and no
humidistat. Damage - fry piano interior - apparently premature glue failure,
toasted plastic elbows (all the elbows directly above the rod crumble, the
end ones are still plastic).

I have yet to see a vertical piano humidistat properly installed. The few
that have a humidistat - it is always hanging from the heater rod.
Damp-Chaser specifically instructs that if a humidifier is not used, the
humidistat should be mounted above the rod somewhere on the side of the
case. The humidistat needs to be in a place where it can react to the
changing RH in the interior of the piano - in an area ideally where the RH
is most representative of the average RH in the piano. I have not seen any
damage that I can clearly attribute to an improperly installed humidistat -
but hey, when theory dictates otherwise, and nothing else suggests the
theory may be wrong, go with the theory!

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
From: <kam544@flash.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2001 10:35 AM
Subject: Re: Damp Chaser in old upright


> >... I will say, however, that pianos have been damaged by incorrectly
> >installed systems...
> >Clyde Hollinger
>
> Clyde, List,
>
> Are you referring to *complete* Dampp-Chaser systems installed
incorrectly,
> Clyde, and if so, in what way were they installed incorrectly enough to
> damage these pianos you mention, and what damage was done to these pianos?
>
> Keith McGavern
> Registered Piano Technician
> Oklahoma Chapter 731
> Piano Technicians Guild
> USA
>
>