I am wondering, what do you all have in or around your piano, to care for it?

I live in Singapore, the island where it rains almost everyday in at least 2 months a year. Humidity is terribly high. My piano does have a dehumidifier (a long tube that emits heat, hence we call it heater here) installed, but I wonder if that is sufficient. I have seen felt worms in my previous piano, which had the dehumidifier on for all 20 years of its life.

I just placed a little container of blue silica beads in the piano today, at the bottom of it, as a test. Does anyone do it? I also have the full-length cover on the piano all the time, even when I am playing. The reason for doing that is because I have read that the cover provides a controlled environment under it. I remove the cover occasionally to air the piano.

I am considering putting mothballs/insect repellents in the piano, though I have no idea where I can hang those, as my piano is rather narrow. I have read conflicting opinions on mothballs, so I really have no idea what to believe in. I went to the local piano dealer, who sells a pack of two pieces of mothballs at SGD 16.70. That is more than 8 times the price of a normal one that I can find in the supermarket! I asked the saleslady how different it is, but she is unable to provide an answer...

If I keep the humidity low, will the insects be kept out as well? Should I put moisture absorbers (those that turn into water) around the piano (not in it of course), to draw away the humidity, if it happens to be too high? I have read of people putting such absorbers UNDER the piano.

Hmm, the piano is just like a mysterious piece of furniture. You must all have read similar posts a hundred times, but I just wonder what everyone does to keep their instruments in good condition, especially those who live in humid countries. I only know that placing dishes of water is out of the question for my case...

i dont put anything in my piano, except the strings as appparently its good practice to leave them in there.

My tuner always tells me to put a jar of water in the bottom of the piano at the 'top' end , to counter act the drying out due to central heating !

Me too. I leave the hammers in too. But back to the topic, don't you install some kind of dehumdifiying/humidifying system in your piano?



Oh, I guess it is because you have central heating, which is really harsh on the skin too. I don't need central heating here. In fact I need central cooling, but I only switch on the air-conditioner (cooler) once or twice a year. The rest of the year, I switch on the ceiling fan and open the windows wide. Keeps the electricity costs down, and likely will prevent the formation of dew on the hammers.

[quote name='teoani' date='Dec 22 2008, 12:38 AM' post='772659']
[quote name='hello_cello' post='772602' date='Dec 22 2008, 05:30 AM']
i dont put anything in my piano, except the strings as appparently its good practice to leave them in there.
[/quote]

Me too. I leave the hammers in too. But back to the topic, don't you install some kind of dehumdifiying/humidifying system in your piano?

[quote name='fsharpminor' post='772605' date='Dec 22 2008, 05:49 AM']
My tuner always tells me to put a jar of water in the bottom of the piano at the 'top' end , to counter act the drying out due to central heating !
[/quote]



nope, its not near a radiator, its not on a heated floor, not near a window and not near a door. (that has a good rhythm, and rhyme to it)
and the humidity is usually fairly stable.

Hi Teoani,

Most of the people on this notice board are in the UK. Here, although we think it rains a lot, it is nowhere near as humid as in Malaysia and Singapore. And it is relatively cold here too. Basically the things people do in the UK to look after pianos are irrelevant to you. Because it is cold here we tend to use central heating. This makes the atmosphere dry, so we might have to add moisture to stop the wood from drying out and cracking. So much of what people do in the UK is completely irrelevant to you.

Your piano has to survive in a hot, humid climate. You are likely to have the opposite problems: wood absorbing moisture, swelling and splitting joints, keys sticking, and possibly felts and ties becoming damp and being attacked by fungus.

Ideally you want:

the relative humidity to be fairly constant, not less than 40% (leads to drying out) and not more than about 70% (swelling, sticking, mould)

the temperature to be fairly constant in roughly the range 15-20 degrees C

What is necessary to achieve that depends on your local climate and the sort of building where you keep the piano.

I suspect that in your climate you'll need a combination of air conditioning to keep the temperature below 20 and a de-humidifier (an electrically powered device that removes moisture from the air) to keeep the humidity below 80%, but maybe that is already taken care of by the climate control of the building you live in. You'd need to take some measurements first to be sure.


Other things that are bad for pianos are direct sunlight, being close to radiators or open fires, and draughts.

ya i do, i don't really know about that though

actually have my piano checked once a year (usu. the man tune the strings inside) and he recommend my mother to take it inside the piano.

I agree with Mad Tom. I would not put a jar of liquid inside the piano at all just in case it was forgotten at some point and the piano moved.

A tuner I had once sold me a long tube thing that you could dampen with water to counteract dryness due to central heating. You put the tube in the piano itself. After a few years I observed some little grey dots which I assumed were mildew on the device itself, so I threw it out. (You'll see by my signature that I'm a bit obsessive about fungus.)

Subsequently another tuner told me that most modern pianos could cope with central heating providing you have it at reasonable temp of course, and that the piano is not really near a radiator, so I have ceased to worry.

However, conditions are rather different where you are teoani, so perhaps you could take advice from others who own pianos, or your tuner, or the shop where you bought the piano.

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

Today, I took a look at the container of silica beads. In just two days, they have turned from blue to purple. I also swept a little beetle from behind the piano. And I found the body of a tiny little cockroach between the full-length cover and the top lid. Hence I have decided to remove the full-length cover. It has probably provided a controlled environment that is warm and humid enough to attract bugs.

I shall also be placing some mothballs inside to repel insects.

You might have more chance of a technically competent reply from The Piano Forum at Pianoworld.com
http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/ubb/ultimate...p?/forum/1.html
That forum's about pianos per se, their maintenance and so forth, and the site is heavily populated by people in the USA ... much bigger climate range than UK!