Humidifying Helper

[drurb]

It's that time of year again (at least, in the northeast US) where we have to start watching the hygrometers. One thing that I've found to be somewhat of an annoyance over the years is that if a humidifier has a humidistat at all, it's not usually very useful (the humidity swing it allows, i.e., "the differential," is usually too great) and to get a humidifer with such a control usually means you have to spend more.

Enter the Dayton plug-in humidistat. This little gem combines a hygrometer and humidistat with a claimed +/-1% differential. Sure, it's $50 but you can combine it with an inexpensive evaporative humidifier and you're good to go. If the humidifier ever craps out, just get another inexpensive one. The control should go on and on. Yup, there's one plugged into the wall where my bass lives.

[brendanbassist]

Looks like a nice product. I won't buy one, because here in New Mexico, once we shut off the evaporative coolers, the humidifier runs pretty much 24/7 in my music room!

[drurb]

Originally Posted by brendanbassist

Looks like a nice product. I won't buy one, because here in New Mexico, once we shut off the evaporative coolers, the humidifier runs pretty much 24/7 in my music room!

At times, that 24/7 is true for me too. Like a number of other players, I have a whole-house humidifier and a separate supplemental one for the bass. As the seasons change, it's important to have the smaller one be controlled.

[shwashwa]

is is accurate? i just bought a hygrometer with an indoor and outdoor unit, and i just keep them next to each other in the same room, and they read some times as much as 10% apart from each other. kind of a bummer.

[drurb]

Originally Posted by shwashwa

is is accurate? i just bought a hygrometer with an indoor and outdoor unit, and i just keep them next to each other in the same room, and they read some times as much as 10% apart from each other. kind of a bummer.

I've been testing it. It's plugged into an outlet near the floor but I have another hygrometer right near it. They tend to typically be 2-3% apart. I have yet another hygrometer near the bass a few feet away. They all seem to be within 5% of each other. Of course, you could always adjust the dial on the Dayton unit to maintain the humidity at whatever level you want on whatever hygrometer you trust the most.

[Cody Sisk]

Most digital hygrometers are inaccurate just by design. The temperature makes a difference in the measurement of relative humidity. You need a device that will make the necessary calculation and the cheapest one I could find with real pinpoint accuracy is my Fluke Hygrometer. Though I paid 300 smackers for it. Worthy investment if you have hundreds of instruments stored.

However, to the average bass player, it's not feasible. As an alternative, I'd suggest either purchasing or making your own sling psychrometer. These nifty devices are even more accurate than my fluke and can be built/acquired pretty cheap.

Cheaper than that, trust your body to tell you. If it feels drafty or your sinuses feel dry or are bleeding, it's too dry. If you're sweating and it's only 72° in your house, your humidity is too high.

In most cases, unless you're babysitting a 200+ year old pedigree instrument, if you're comfortable so is your bass.

[drurb]

I'm updating this because of another current and related thread. First, any device designed to read relative humidity must take temperature into account. That's where the "relative" part comes from. All digital and analog hygrometers purport to do this. I agree with Cody that some do it better than others but, to my knowledge, none of them simply reads absolute humidity such that they are flawed by design.

I now have three of the Dayton devices. I decided to install two at work for reasons other than bass maintenance. They work incredibly well and they are quite consistent across devices. That is to say that all three agree with each other within about 1% or so. Either they're all accurate or all equally inaccurate.

[Champagne]

Just wanted to bump this since I use the same humidifier controller. Also, for reading room humidity, I use this:


http://www.extech.com/instruments/pr...=38&prodid=182