As a fundamental component of complete care, a piano humidity control system protects your piano from the undesirable effects of extreme or fluctuating humidity levels. The Piano Life Saver System will enable your instrument to maintain proper pitch between tunings and protect the myriad of tiny wooden parts that make up a piano. A stable piano will be more enjoyable to play and listen to while rewarding your fingers with a consistent, proper touch.

By regulating the relative humidity of the air near critical components of your piano it helps stabilize the pitch and prevents damage to sensitive wood and felt parts. With the Piano Life saver System, your piano will sound consistently better and more enjoyable to play.

Humidity in the Lowcountry

Extremes in relative humidity (anything higher than 50% or lower than 35%) and large fluctuations in humidity (changes from wet to dry or from dry to wet), are a piano's biggest enemy. Here in the Lowcountry, our indoor relative humidity can fluctuate between 54 and 85 percent depending on the current season and weather conditions. These extremes and fluctuations are detrimental to your piano, making it impossible for your piano to hold a tuning beyond the next weather change, and causing serious damage as well.

During periods of high relative humidity, you may notice sticking keys and a sluggish action due to wood parts swelling with moisture. The soundboard and pinblock will also swell, causing the piano to go out of tune. And over time, rust and corrosion will develop on the strings and other metal parts of the piano.

When conditions are too dry, keys and action parts may become loose and wobbly. The pinblock will shrink and develop cracks, eventually causing the tuning pins to lose the torque that is necessary to hold the piano in tune. The soundboard also will shrink and develop cracks, resulting in a loss of soundboard compression which will compromise the quality of sound.

While room and whole house humidifiers/dehumidifiers may provide limited benefits, only a humidity control system specifically designed to be installed inside the piano will create a consistently safe humidity environment for your piano.

Dampp-Chaser Piano Lifesaver Humidity Control System

The Piano Lifesaver System consists of basic components which work together to control internal piano humidity, maintaining the recommended relative humidity no matter what the external conditions may be.

Through a cycling action, the Humidistat is calibrated to create a separate environment within the piano, producing a narrow range of average humidity. When the Humidistat, located less than an inch from the soundboard, senses that the wood is dry, it turns the Humidifier on. Then, when the Humidifier has provided enough moisture to the soundboard, the Humidistat turns off the Humidifier and turns on the Dehumidifier. The Dehumidifier carries away moisture from the soundboard on air currents until the Humidistat senses that the soundboard needs more moisture. The System again switches to the humidifying function. The cycle continues day after day, year after year, protecting your piano from external conditions, and maintaining a constant relative humidity of 45%, plus or minus 5%.