Hey y'all, my dampp chaser was installed in Feb. 2024, so about a year ago. We haven't done anything other than the standard watering (with treatment) and I was just thinking, maybe it's time for replacement humidifier pads.... Well, I just checked the Dmapp Chaser website, and it says you're supposed to change them twice a year!! Oh no!! If I knew that, I had forgotten. Also, I changed tuners, so my current tuner is not the person who installed the DC.

So, what happens if you don't change them? šŸ˜… Is this an emergency so I need to order from Amazon (i.e., getting them in a day or two), or can I order from the Dampp Chaser website (which will take longer)?
Also, is this a diy job? If I'm remembering right, my husband reinstalled the DC after our move, so I think he knows how to access it and all that. All you do is drape the pads over the rod, right?

TIA for any advice!!!

    P. S. For the record, the ā€œpadā€ light is not on, fortunately.

    My technician is the one who changes the pads. He comes twice a year but Iā€™m pretty sure he doesnā€™t need to change them every time, but he does check them. One of the lights on the Dampp chaser panel is an indicator light for the pads ā€” Iā€™d say if it hasnā€™t turned on, I really wouldnā€™t worry about this and would just ask your tech about it the next time he/she is servicing your piano.

    P.S. I have never had the pad light turn on.

    I donā€™t want to ask my tech if I can avoid it. Heā€™s a semi-retired older gentleman and I donā€™t want to make him crawl under the piano!

    • MRC

    • Post #5

    ShiroKuro All you do is drape the pads over the rod, right?

    Yes, that's basically it. The technician who installed the system on my piano left me some extra pads, which I have already installed myself. It's not hard at all. Just make sure the floor is protected in case you spill some water.

    It's certainly not an emergency. Over time the pads get caked up; I think this happens faster if the piano is in a dry environment so the system is diffusing a lot of water in a short time. But even if they're quite caked up they still function.

    In my case, the house is usually too humid. The heating bars that dry the air are almost constantly warm, and I think the system only rarely goes into humidifying mode. I change the pads about once a year.

    Here are full instructions for changing the pads:

    https://www.howardpianoindustries.com/content/DC%20Pad%20Replacement%20Instructions.pdf

      Thanks for that link @MRC ! I was googling around yesterday but didnā€™t come across that one. I just showed Mr SK, he said the ā€œuniversalā€ is the one we had, and he can do it. Good, that way I wonā€™t have to make my tuner crawl under there!

        ShiroKuro I'm waiting for my piano to come back from the rebuilders and I decided to have them install a Dampp Chaser since I spent so much having it rebuilt. The air is not super humid where I live in California but I've been monitoring the humidity levels in the house using two different hygrometers. It's been a little erratic over December and January - sometimes going from 38 to 47 overnight. Generally, it never goes below 36% and i've only seen it at 61-62% a couple of times during the past year. So I wanted to ask you, have you monitored the RH since you've had the Dampp Chaser and does it really make a measurable difference? Do you use a piano cover and a string cover? I have two Tonkinese cats that love to explore and I don't want them getting into the piano because of the fur and oils, which my rebuilder told me was bad for my piano. All these added costs are building up, but I do want to protect my piano and don't want to be silly about a few extra bucks if it will really help preserve the piano.

            danno858 have you monitored the RH since you've had the Dampp Chaser and does it really make a measurable difference?

            I do indeed monitor the RH in my piano room, but please note that have a DC does not impact the room climate. But since I installed the DC, I notice that it definitely makes a difference, in terms of the piano's consistency in tuning. So in that regard, I believe it's worth it!

            This winter, when the RH in the piano room got down to 30%, I plugged in an evaporative humidifier in the piano room as well. I have this model:
            www.amazon.com/dp/B00B5PKHLG?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1

            Do you use a piano cover and a string cover?

            I do not use a cover on the piano or the strings. I do keep the lid and fallboard closed when I'm not playing, but otherwise no. (No pets or children either). It would probably be better to have a cover, but my piano is so stable, I don't worry about it.

                ShiroKuro Thanks for sharing your experience with it. I used to keep one hygrometer inside the piano and one underneath it - so it really only measured around where the piano sat. But because the piano has been out of the house since late November, I just keep them both near where the piano would sit. I don't really know what the RH levels are throughout the house but as long as the Dampp Chaser will keep the RH as close to mid 40s as possible around the soundboard area I will be happy. My piano's tuning was fairly stable, but I would notice a change in mid winter and again mid spring. I used to have it tuned twice a year. It needed new hammers and strings and a new action and a host of other things so I just decided to go for broke and do the whole thing.

                Thanks again for the info.

                    danno858 My piano's tuning was fairly stable, but I would notice a change in mid winter and again mid spring. I used to have it tuned twice a year.

                    To me, this sounds about right, and about the same as my piano. I guess the question would be, when you noticed the change, how much of a change was it. When you get your piano back from being rebuilt, you will have a period of adjustment because the strings will be new so it will probably be a while before you can figure out how much humidity changes impact the tuning stability.

                    Iā€™ve had my grand since 2019 (purchased used, itā€™s a 2000 Yamaha C2) and it has been very stable throughout. When tuning time rolls around, the tuners have always said ā€œitā€™s only barely moved.ā€ I installed the damp chaser not because it was unstable, but because we moved north and our new state gets a lot colder in the winter, and cold (indoors and out) means low humidity. But I do think the damp chaser helps the piano in a general sense, in terms of tuning stability and in terms of protecting it.

                    I canā€™t remember if I posted about this in this thread, but I had my piano tuned in June 2023, and then when my tuner came back on Dec 30th, we were in the middle of a really bad cold snap and I think the RH was like barely 25% in the piano room. My piano sounded a littleā€¦ hard, I think just from the general impact of the low humidity. But the tuning was pretty good and it really wasnā€™t out of tune. My tuner told me he could tune it if I wanted him to, but it really didnā€™t need it, and he recommended against tuning it until the cold snap passed. So he ended up leaving that day without doing anything and now heā€™s coming back next week (yay!)

                    Oh and it was that week that I decided to get out the humidifier, which I hadnā€™t done since the previous winter prior to that cold snap, which started just a few days before the tuner was scheduled. The RH in the room hasnā€™t increased significantly with the humidifier, but it didnā€™t drop below 25% even as the cold snap worsened and continued. And the evaporative humidifiers are kind of ā€œgentleā€ in their humidifying, they say that the actual percentage doesnā€™t increase a lot because things like furniture in the room and curtains soak up the humidity, which is what we want for the piano, so I think itā€™s ok.

                    Now the weather is more normal for this time of year, and the RH in the piano room is around 35%, sometimes a little higher.

                    Also once the humidity got back up to 35%, the intense ā€œhardnessā€ that I noticed mellowed out. And now it sounds like the tuning has shifted a bit and I think it needs to be tuned, but itā€™s not horribly off. Iā€™ll be interested to see what my tuner thinks about it.

                    By the way, I think that hardness is just from the hammers, which makes sense. The damp chaser is on the bottom of the piano and mainly helps the soundboard, and because the soundboard blocks the hammers from the damp chaser, I wouldnā€™t expect the hammers to get much benefit from the DC. And of course thatā€™s why people say increasing the room humidity is more ideal for the piano than using a DC. But increasing the room humidity is a lot harder.

                    Anyway, this post is starting to get long so Iā€™ll wrap up for now. šŸ™‚

                        danno858 My piano's tuning was fairly stable, but I would notice a change in mid winter and again mid spring. I used to have it tuned twice a year. It needed new hammers and strings and a new action and a host of other things so I just decided to go for broke and do the whole thing.

                        I would probably talk to the rebuilder, but I wouldnā€™t be surprised if in the first 1-2 years the piano would benefit from more frequent tunings. When I bought my piano, it was tuned every 3-4 months during the first two years, and particularly during the first year, it really needed it. Since then, the tuning has stabilized and I get it tuned every 6 months. My piano has had a Dampp chaser the whole time, and the climate hasnā€™t been wildly different.

                        I guess I write all this to say, donā€™t blame the Dampp chaser if you find your piano needs more frequent tunings! It may just be that the strings are settling in. Like @ShiroKuro , I do think the DC system helps.

                            ShiroKuro Last fall the humidity levels close to the piano were averaging close to 60%. We had less heat than usual and did not need to run a/c. I kept the windows open a lot for air flow. When the weather was like that, the piano sounded better overall. Suddenly it got very dry in late October and stayed that way ever since. The RH dropped to averaging 35 to 38 near the piano. The piano got twangy and out of tunish sounding. Probably a combo of needing a new board, strings and hammers. The pin block seemed very stable, but I donā€™t really know. I bought it in 2023 with the intention of doing some work on it. Itā€™s a 1911 Steinway A. It was in playable shape but was badly in need of new hammers and strings and the board was original. The bushings needed replacing so the action was a bit finicky and sluggish, but you could adjust your touch and get it to play. But not fast AND PPP at the same time! It has original ivory keys which are in great shape, as well as the key sticks themselves. Since the piano was going to be open, it made sense to me to replace the pin block and board at that time as well. So I sent it up to Dale Erwinā€™s shop in Modesto California after he had made a visit here to inspect the piano. He builds soundboards and worked with a small artisan company in New York to develop a hammer based on the early 20th century NY Steinway hammers. Theyā€™re called Ronsen Weickert Felt Hanmers and are weighted and made more appropriately for early 20th century models. The new pin block and soundboard is in and in January they were putting the refinished plate back in and stringing. I think it will be April before the action will be done and I can go test it out before final regulation and voicing. I decided to move forward with the Dampp Chaser after watching these swings in RH around the piano. I just wasnā€™t sure if it was going to help that much but from everything Iā€™ve read and having gone through all of this work I want to protect it as best I can. Thanks again for sharing your experience with yours!

                            I have my Yamaha P515 in the meantime and Iā€™m working on a Chopin Nocturne and the second movement of Schubert D664 to test out in the piano when I go up there

                                Sgisela thanks - yes Iā€™m fully expecting it will need tuning probably 3 or four times in the first year or so! I decided to get a string cover, too, in order to protect from corrosion and I read that it helps the dampp chaser. And Iā€™m getting a cover to protect the piano from cat scratches. They love to get on top of it and would also like to go inside but they are not allowed!

                                  @danno858 wow, thanks for the photos! How cool! You must be soooo excited!!!

                                  danno858 Last fall the humidity levels close to the piano were averaging close to 60%. We had less heat than usual and did not need to run a/c. I kept the windows open a lot for air flow. When the weather was like that, the piano sounded better overall.

                                  It's always interesting to me how these things influence the piano's sound. Certainly there's a tuning question, but I wonder if it was the hammers that contributed to the "better overall" sound, or something else....

                                  Suddenly it got very dry in late October and stayed that way ever since. The RH dropped to averaging 35 to 38 near the piano. The piano got twangy and out of tunish sounding. Probably a combo of needing a new board, strings and hammers. The pin block seemed very stable, but I donā€™t really know.

                                  I mean, when the RH drops so much, a big thing is just to tune the piano within that climate and often that makes all the difference. But of course your piano is from 1911, whereas mine is from 2000, so getting all the work done to it that you're doing was probably more than overdue!

                                  Anyway, I can't wait to hear how your piano sounds after you get it home!!

                                  Many years ago (around 2010??) I had lessons for about a year and half on an 85-key Steinway-B (if memory serves) that was over 100 years old and had been restored..... That piano was absolutely amazing. Because it had been fully restored, it felt so solid under the fingers, like a modern instrument. But it had a sound, a tonal quality like none other..... I miss that piano. (My current piano teacher teaches out of a music school where all the instruments are quite... in a word.... sh*tty. šŸ˜… the quality of the teacher makes up for it though.

                                  Anyway, what I meant to say is, restoring these old instruments can create the most amazing results!

                                      ShiroKuro yes Iā€™m quite anxiously waiting for the day when it is finished! Although a lot people say you might not be happy with sound after a rebuild, it was definitely warranted and I didnā€™t have the piano very long before I decided to have the work done. So I havenā€™t really had enough time to become attached to it. It has a beautiful tone shining through but the hammers and strings were old and due for change. I spent a lot of time researching rebuilders. Rich Galassini from Cunningham Pianos recommended Dale Erwin to me and heā€™s within 200 miles of where I live so it is convenient for me to drive over there when itā€™s time for final adjustments.

                                          All in all, sounds very promising! šŸ™‚

                                          danno858 Nice pictures! Very cool! I have heard great things about Dale Erwin.

                                          I had my 1951 Steinway M restrung, refinished, replaced action parts, and various other things four years ago. When the piano came back the improvement was astonishing! It still has the character it started with but it sounds much better and the action is way more sensitive. It was nice to have its cosmetic flaws fixed as well!

                                          I had it tuned four times a year for the first two years, and now I'm down to twice a year. I also had it regulated about a year after I got it back.

                                          I don't have a dampp chaser. I leave near Sacramento and the humidity in my piano room stays between 40 and 50 year round. With twice a year tunings I usually don't notice any tuning issues, although at my last tuning in October my tech said that he was having to do pitch raises for all of his clients that month so maybe I should reconsider...

                                              rogerch It still has the character it started with but it sounds much better and the action is way more sensitive. It

                                              Wonderful! This is the promise of restoration, isnā€™t it! That you keep the distinctive character of the pianoā€¦ people always say thereā€™s no guarantee the owner will be pleased with the results (generally this is mentioned as a way to discourage someone from buying a piano before restoration, which I understand) but reading so many happy stories, I wonder how often the result is actually disappointingā€¦

                                                A storm from Hawaii is beginning to approach. Weā€™re supposed to get rain with possible flooding next week. The RH where the piano normally sits went from 43% yesterday to 55% today and rising