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Humidity
Hello everyone,
I have my DS Crescendo since last summer, also started playing the harp that time. Meanwhile I realized, that the humidity in my Appartement is too low. Right now around 28% with open windows. The problem is, that there is open wood everywhere: ceiling, furniture, floor. And a staircase combines 3 floors. So everything is open. I tried everything to raise the humidity. But it didn’t work out, unless it’s raining outside for days. That’s very seldom. The maximum humidity was once 40%, in days of rain outside.
Perhaps I should buy a humidifier (for 2-3 levels?!?).
Do you have any ideas or experience???
Hope to hear from you
Sabine
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9 Replies
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I think the most important thing is that humidity is stable. It depends on the harp you have, but 28% might be a bit low. Humidifier is a good investment and cheaper than buying a new harp or reparation costs. 🙂 I have one at home and manage to keep the humidity around 38%.
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Thank you Sara, that sounds good!
Could you tell me, which type of humidifier do you use?
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My house has an open-plan ground floor area with no doors between kitchen, hallway, living room and the stairway to the upper floor, so one humidifier is not enough to raise the humidity in the living room, where my instruments live ?
During the winter, when it’s below freezing outside and humidity is low, we’ve been keeping three evaporative humidifiers running almost 24/7 to keep the humidity above 40%.
I’ve heard that evaporative humidifiers with filters are the best, because they won’t leave a film on objects near the humidifier, which can happen with other kinds. (I don’t remember what kind of a humidifier the first one we got was, but we threw it out after it left a strange calcified film on our smooth tiles in the kitchen. We had to dissolve it with vinegar before we could get the tiles clean again.)
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I think you probably do need to run a humidifier. Harps crack if they dry out. The bit of the house my harp is in was around 33% RH, so I’ve bought a humidifier and it’s now got it up to the 50% I wanted.
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My first floor is an open floor plan and humidity was running under 20% in the winter (gasp!). I purchased an evaporative humidifier from Amazon for around $100, I fill it many times a day, but my humidity is now in a more reasonable range. i have gotten in the habit of filling before bed, as the coffee brews in the am and once during the day and that seems to be enough now that I have gotten the humidity up.
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Thank you for your answers!
Meanwhile I bought a humidifier, pretty expensive. But it does its work. It runs 24h each day and I have a humidity between 40 – 50%. It’s in the middle of 3 floors, combined with an open staircase. But it still works. I felt the higher humidity directly with my harp!!! It’s much easier tuning it. 🤩
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Isn’t it amazing the difference you can tell when running the humidifier? We had a lot of rain last week so the house was between 40-50% and I had not refilled the humidifier. I went to play this morning before it was up and running and boy was there a difference!
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Dear Sabine
I uploaded a table with different string materials and their behavior to humidity. As you can see real gut has a very bad behavior. Nylgut or Silkgut has a very good one. My harp has this kind of strings for the lower strings and humidity changes was never a problem. If the sound is the same compared to real gut is discussed and can not be answered in general.
Best wishes
Markus
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Hallo. There is a long articel about humidity in the dusty spring website. I don’t know how to put the link in but I found it by searching for humidity harps. They mension the posibility of a humidifier in the harp case. This might be easier for you.
Good lock!
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