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Double Bass Evaporative Room Humidifiers
- Thread starter jaff
- Start date
Somewhat out of necessity, I've become a humidifier geek. 
The first thing to know is what size area you want to humidify and what "load" the humidifier will have to carry. For example, I have a whole-house humidifier on my furnace and I run a tabletop humidifier several feet from the bass. During humidifiying season, the tabletop supplements the local "bass environment" which is open to the rest of the house.
You can get anything from a console, floor-standing unit to a tabletop. Bemis/Essick makes several models and sizes starting at around $30 (e.g., the Bemis E27 000). Last year, I figured I could save re-fill trips by buying an Essick mini-console humidifier (5D6 700). You can see them all over eBay. I hate it. The fan noise is annoying! I went back to the tabletop.
Here's a buying tip. Check on the pricing of the replacement pads/wicks. For some units, they are common and inexpensive. For others, they can be quite pricey.
One other very important thing to consider is control of the amount of humidification. The humidistat on most units is awful until you get quite high in price and then they're still not that good. That was the subject of this thread in which I linked to a great outboard plug-in humidistat. It allows you to save a bunch of money on the humidifier itself and you always have a great control ready to use with any other humidifier.
With an evaporative humidifier, you should use a bacteriostat additive and an additive to prevent scaling, depending on the hardness of your water.
Edit: If you're thinking of a console unit, the Essick H12400 is quiet and works quite well.
The first thing to know is what size area you want to humidify and what "load" the humidifier will have to carry. For example, I have a whole-house humidifier on my furnace and I run a tabletop humidifier several feet from the bass. During humidifiying season, the tabletop supplements the local "bass environment" which is open to the rest of the house.
You can get anything from a console, floor-standing unit to a tabletop. Bemis/Essick makes several models and sizes starting at around $30 (e.g., the Bemis E27 000). Last year, I figured I could save re-fill trips by buying an Essick mini-console humidifier (5D6 700). You can see them all over eBay. I hate it. The fan noise is annoying! I went back to the tabletop.
Here's a buying tip. Check on the pricing of the replacement pads/wicks. For some units, they are common and inexpensive. For others, they can be quite pricey.
One other very important thing to consider is control of the amount of humidification. The humidistat on most units is awful until you get quite high in price and then they're still not that good. That was the subject of this thread in which I linked to a great outboard plug-in humidistat. It allows you to save a bunch of money on the humidifier itself and you always have a great control ready to use with any other humidifier.
With an evaporative humidifier, you should use a bacteriostat additive and an additive to prevent scaling, depending on the hardness of your water.
Edit: If you're thinking of a console unit, the Essick H12400 is quiet and works quite well.
[mini moderator rant]
Is this post about a double bass?
Moved to miscellaneous. I don't want to be unpleasant, but I don't understand why the "Basses" forum gets so many new threads about "not basses". Please read the forum headers.[/rant]
Carry on.
Is this post about a double bass?
Moved to miscellaneous. I don't want to be unpleasant, but I don't understand why the "Basses" forum gets so many new threads about "not basses". Please read the forum headers.[/rant]
Carry on.
Thanks for the detailed reply. My music room would be a little crowded with the Essick 12400 console model although it sounds like the best available so far. For now, I'll stick with using 2 carefully prepared Dampits. My principal in the orchestra has a beautiful old Gemuender and says he has used Dampits in it for 40 yrs. with no problems. He leaves them at home for rehearsals and performances. The trade-off seems to be messing with bacteriostatic additives, calcium dissolvers, leaks, and noisy fans. Doesn't sound like there is a 'perfect' solution..
Back in the 1950's and 1960's, thousands of kids rode unbelted in the rear-facing seats of various station wagons. The vast majority of them were just fine. Would you let your kids do that today? I think you get the point. The probability of a mishap is low but the consequences are devastating. In the case of dampits, IMO, the probability of a mishap is substantially higher than you likely think it is.
Messing with additives? I have two bottles next to my tabletop humidifier. During "the season," every night I add water, toss in a little bacteriostat and a little treatment. Not that inconvenient at all-- anyway it's labor of love.
No, there's no "perfect solution" but some are sure better than others! You know which I prefer.
I disagree and here's why. The misting humidifiers can leave water spots and a fine powder on surrounding furniture, the floor, and even your bass. As the humidity rises, the misting humidifiers, unlike the evaporative ones, just keep pouring out the liquid. Evaporative models naturally decrease their output as the humidity gradient decreases. That is, as the air becomes more saturated, less water is evaporated. Finally, the misting humidifiers tend to yield a less uniform distribution of humidity throughout the room. Sometimes this can be seen in the form of a damp area of the floor below them.
Well, I did say that I'm a humidifier geek!
I use an evaporative humidifier and I put in the bacteriostatic and scale-preventing chemicals. It's a labor of love.I'm gonna put in another plug for [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. It provides precise control of humidity-- more precise than the control I've seen on any home humifdifier regardless of price.
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The outlet humidifier control seems like a good idea, I was considering buying one myself. Since my bass kept getting open seams and loose crossbars last winter I also did extensive research on the topic and I can strongly recommend this model which is one of the the most intelligent humidifier design I've seen, especially for humidifying the air around an instrument or even in your practice room. Why?
- quiet! I usually keep it running on the lowest setting which is still efficient and the noise is less than any window A/C I've used
- not evaporative but "recirculating" - there's a wick in the back that get's soaked with water and the air is sucked through it by the fan. Result: no visible mist which I see as a plus since i don't want to risk having water drops anywhere around my bass, as small as they might be. The wicks are $ 4 per piece if you order online from the manufacturer, how long they last probably depends on your environment (dust, bacteria...) but I use one for 2-4 weeks. When it turns darker I replace it.
- ease of use: with virtually every humidifier you gotta take the tank out to refill. This one has a door in the front where you just pour fresh water in - done! And on top of that the tank is just the bottom half of the device, so I can't see how this thing would ever really spill since the water gets sucked up into the device by a small pump instead of having any sort of sketchy vents that might wear and leak.
- power: I live in 4 bedroom apartment and I keep it in the living room which is all open (basically a very extended hallway - no door between the front door, the hallway and the kitchen). Keeping the humidity up in the high 40's or even the low 50's on the lowest setting in winter with the heating being on constantly (base humidity would have been around 30 %) is no problem, if it ever gets worse I'll try the higher gears which are noisier yet still not overbearingly loud.
- quiet! I usually keep it running on the lowest setting which is still efficient and the noise is less than any window A/C I've used
- not evaporative but "recirculating" - there's a wick in the back that get's soaked with water and the air is sucked through it by the fan. Result: no visible mist which I see as a plus since i don't want to risk having water drops anywhere around my bass, as small as they might be. The wicks are $ 4 per piece if you order online from the manufacturer, how long they last probably depends on your environment (dust, bacteria...) but I use one for 2-4 weeks. When it turns darker I replace it.
- ease of use: with virtually every humidifier you gotta take the tank out to refill. This one has a door in the front where you just pour fresh water in - done! And on top of that the tank is just the bottom half of the device, so I can't see how this thing would ever really spill since the water gets sucked up into the device by a small pump instead of having any sort of sketchy vents that might wear and leak.
- power: I live in 4 bedroom apartment and I keep it in the living room which is all open (basically a very extended hallway - no door between the front door, the hallway and the kitchen). Keeping the humidity up in the high 40's or even the low 50's on the lowest setting in winter with the heating being on constantly (base humidity would have been around 30 %) is no problem, if it ever gets worse I'll try the higher gears which are noisier yet still not overbearingly loud.
See my bold and italics. This is an evaporative humidifier. The pump keeps the pad (not actually a wick) wet rather than relying on wicking action. By pumping water onto the pad, output is boosted. I like it!!!
Err...yes, you're actually right, I mixed some things up here. Great concept nonetheless, works very well. And who knows, maybe it even kinda serves as an air purifier at the same time? I assume anything that is being sucked into the pad won't come out on the other end, what do you think?
PS: the purifying theory is not an attempt to over-glorify my humidifier, just thinking out loud. 
Well, it'll do a bit of filtering but not very substantial. It seems that the unit also has a water filter in addition to the pad. Yes? I didn't see it listed as a replacement part. Do you use it? Again, seems like a nice unit and it also doesn't seem to cost more than the old standard wicking versions. Thanks for posting about it!
Probably true. "Water filter" is a bit too much said, I think this just refers to the little strainer that filters coarse dirt out of the water while pouring - it doesn't change anything about the consistency of the water, just preventing anything non-liquid to enter the unit.
Well, if you have hard water, then yes you'll get some mineral powder around the humidifier area. Just don't park it next to your bass or grandma's antiques.
I find precise control over the humidity level (such as a hygrometer plug or the "natural" control of evaporative) to be unnecessary. I go for a ballpark of 35-45% RH at room temp and I'm good. I have no problem hitting this window just turning on an ultrasonic. If you want to be a humidifier geek then go for it, but my solution of lowest total effort has been an ultrasonic.
Maybe we should ask TroyK if there's a humidifier forum like the one he found about flashlights.
If not we should have our own, who (apart from parents with dry-sinus kids) would need their humidifiers more urgently than we do when every 5% humidity lacking can cost a thousand dollars in repairs? 
Thanks, I'll remain a humidifer geek.
There are other items in my room in addition to my bass and I really don't like the "powder" that ultrasonics produce given that my water is somewhat hard.As for controls, the "natural" effect of an evaporative unit is not a substantial part of the control. It does, however, limit the upper end so that you don't end up with the wet spots on the floor that an ultrasonic can produce. If you have nice hardwood floors (I do), it's good to avoid that.
The plug-in hygrometer serves to avoid large swings and actually saves power by not having the humidifier run when it doesn't need to run. This also preserves the water supply in the tank and prevents it from running out. Is all of this a bit of overkill? Well, perhaps, but given the value of my instrument and the furniture in the room with it, the amortized cost of the plug-in control over years of use is really small. In addition, it's a neat gadget!
As I've mentioned before, if you do want to control humidity closer than +/- 10%, the control allows you to buy a less expensive humidifier because the (poor) controls that are included on some units add to their cost. This way, you buy the control once.
To each his/her own.
