Unofficial Taylor Guitar Forum - UTGF
Taylor Acoustic & Electric Guitars => Taylor Acoustic & Electric Guitars => Topic started by: Romo on February 18, 2022, 08:13:27 PM
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With the heater in my home driving the indoor relative humidity very low, I have started using D’Addario Humidipaks in the guitar case of my Taylor 914ce. Years back, there were issues reported with Humidipaks leaking inside of guitars and causing damage (which became a big cause for concern on my part.) When I hung the Humidipak cloth unit inside of my 914ce’s sound hole, I noticed that the bottom of the cloth unit was touching the guitar’s back braces. To prevent contact with the back braces, I took a safety pin and pinned the top of the cloth material so the Humidipaks would not come in contact with the back braces (of course I was careful not to puncture the packs themselves). Hopefully, D’Addario has resolved the leaking issue as I have not heard of any recent issues being reported. Just thought I would share this idea with y’all as my first post in this forum. Have a great weekend! :)
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D'Addario modified the way the Humidipak hangs on the strings, and changed the material that the pouches are made of. I never had the problem, but I switched to the new design. They recommend hanging the Humidipak on the D and G strings, but I have found that hanging it that way makes it a little difficult to remove because the pouches get hung up on the A and B strings, so I drape the pouch over both E strings. The pouch comes in contact with the edges of the sound hole, but not the back of the guitar. I've been doing it this way for a couple of years now and have not had any issues.
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Disclosure: Admitting up front that I have never used the Boveda Humidi-Paks. I got scared off by the early stories of leakage and damage, and could never give them a real try. I also saw first hand what happened when a pack leaked in a friend's case. What a mess including a case that could not be salvaged! (I still have an old Humid-Pak version on the shelf unused and unopened, a door prize from a long ago Road Show).
Instead, my choice is water beads from an arts & crafts store inside a perforated soap dish or prescription bottles. These containers are usually in the accessory box inside the case and last about 4X as long as a dampened sponge. I've never had had any leaks or problems with them, and all my wood guitars and ukulele show no signs of humidity issues. Dampened sponges have to be re-wet every week or so, but water beads can last a month and still not be fully shrunken or dried out. (The beads start out at ~3/8" diameter and shrink to ~1/8" or BB size when dry). If starting with a very dry case and guitar, I often put the empty case -- repeat no guitar -- sitting propped open in the bathroom during a steamy shower to "pre-charge" the fabric and padding, and maybe the plywood too. The case can absorb a LOT of moisture until you reach equilibrium with the house interior, and will quickly dry out any humidifying devices at first.
When we lived in Alaska, we struggled mightily -- almost ten gallons a day through a cabinet humidifier -- to get the house up to 20% RH during the winter. Here in Idaho the weather is not as extreme, and our house usually bottoms out at 37% RH, according to both of my hygrometers. Summer conditions are fine in both states.
Whatever works for you is fine. Just telling my tale.
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I was going to say that "I've used humidipaks in all my guitars / guitar cases for 12 years as a back up to my temp/humidity controlled home studio without a single issue," but I didn't want to jinx myself, so I won't say that. 8)
I also might have shared that I recharge them several times before disposing of them.
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I also recharge them several times a season -- just put them in a baggie with a damp sponge. :-)
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I also recharge them several times a season -- just put them in a baggie with a damp sponge. :-)
How do you know when they're done recharging?
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The packs should feel squishy (a technical term) like gel when fully recharged. If they feel crunchy at all there is the potential to leak. It is best to recharge early and often, never letting them get to the crunchy texture. At that point crystals have formed in the solution and those sharp edges can puncture the membrane. Or so I have read....
Many folks have successfully recharged these packs 3-5 times. After that, you are really rolling the dice. I use water beads from the arts & crafts store instead. Those last about four times longer than a dampened sponges, and have caused no problems at all over the years. The sponge in the top serve merely to contain the shrunken beads when they are dry (and much smaller).
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With the heater in my home driving the indoor relative humidity very low, I have started using D’Addario Humidipaks in the guitar case of my Taylor 914ce. Years back, there were issues reported with Humidipaks leaking inside of guitars and causing damage (which became a big cause for concern on my part.) When I hung the Humidipak cloth unit inside of my 914ce’s sound hole, I noticed that the bottom of the cloth unit was touching the guitar’s back braces. To prevent contact with the back braces, I took a safety pin and pinned the top of the cloth material so the Humidipaks would not come in contact with the back braces (of course I was careful not to puncture the packs themselves). Hopefully, D’Addario has resolved the leaking issue as I have not heard of any recent issues being reported. Just thought I would share this idea with y’all as my first post in this forum. Have a great weekend! :)
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I do not have any issues with my humidipack use.
This is a very good beware article.
Thank you.
Rene
And this post is very informative, good beware article.
Thank you.
Rene
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D'Addario modified the way the Humidipak hangs on the strings, and changed the material that the pouches are made of. I never had the problem, but I switched to the new design. They recommend hanging the Humidipak on the D and G strings, but I have found that hanging it that way makes it a little difficult to remove because the pouches get hung up on the A and B strings, so I drape the pouch over both E strings. The pouch comes in contact with the edges of the sound hole, but not the back of the guitar. I've been doing it this way for a couple of years now and have not had any issues.
Good post. I have used Humidipaks in my guitars for several years…and have never had a leakage issue, but I have been a little paranoid about the bags resting on the braces when the bags were installed in the usual fashion. I bought a guitar from a guy recently who had the bags draped “wide” over the E-strings as described…and now it makes perfect sense. I will try this new method and see if there is any difference in humidity readings!
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With the onset of winter, the relative humidity is at 35% in my music room. I’ve put the Humidipaks back in my guitar’s sound hole in the case. With the Humidipaks releasing moisture into the guitar’s body, has anyone heard of this causing moisture condensation on the internal electronics? I know electronics and moisture are not friends.
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I've never heard of condensation issues on electronics from humidity devices, only from actual leaks. I sometimes notice that my aging strings in cases will eventually show some extra minor tarnish or darkening of the bronze versus the guitars that are out all the time and exposed to lower room RH. But that is months, not weeks. Condensation does not occur until the temperature of your guitar reaches the dew point. Indoors that is probably somewhere in the 40° range, which means no heat. Your guitar will likely never be that cold, at least indoors.
For example, right now in Boise the aviation weather report shows the outdoor temp at 20° and the dew point at 13° with an outdoor RH of 74%. As the temp drops toward or below 13° tonight we can have condensation and probably fog. Inside the house at 69° my hygrometer reads 35° RH. The wood instruments are safely in their cases with water beads in perforated soap dishes.
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My method of recharging the Humidipak is below. It works flawlessly and the Humidipak never comes in contact with water.
1) Get a clear Tupperware type container big enough to fit the Humidipak along with another container inside to act as a platform.
2) Put about 1/2 inch of distilled water in the larger container. Place the platform in the container. The platform can be anything that keeps the Humidipak above the water. I use a small upsidedown sour cream container to rest my Humidipak on.
3)place the container on window sill, or anywhere else in the sunlight. In a couple of days the pouch will be full of water and ready to use.
I have a few that I keep rotating. It has been working great for the past year and a half.
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I use the same method. The humidipacs have lasted for years
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My method of recharging the Humidipak is below. It works flawlessly and the Humidipak never comes in contact with water.
1) Get a clear Tupperware type container big enough to fit the Humidipak along with another container inside to act as a platform.
2) Put about 1/2 inch of distilled water in the larger container. Place the platform in the container. The platform can be anything that keeps the Humidipak above the water. I use a small upsidedown sour cream container to rest my Humidipak on.
3)place the container on window sill, or anywhere else in the sunlight. In a couple of days the pouch will be full of water and ready to use.
Your post got me thinking: if I understand your method correctly, the HumidPaks never come into direct contact with the water. If that's the case, why does the water need to be distilled? I'm definitely no scientist, but I would think the HumidPaks are absorbing water vapor which, I think, leaves behind any particles.
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Great tips here all! Thanks
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D'Addario modified the way the Humidipak hangs on the strings, and changed the material that the pouches are made of. I never had the problem, but I switched to the new design. They recommend hanging the Humidipak on the D and G strings, but I have found that hanging it that way makes it a little difficult to remove because the pouches get hung up on the A and B strings, so I drape the pouch over both E strings. The pouch comes in contact with the edges of the sound hole, but not the back of the guitar. I've been doing it this way for a couple of years now and have not had any issues.
I also drape the pouch over both E strings. I find this method makes it much easier to remove without getting hung up on the strings.
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FWIW, I put my humidity devices in the accessory box, which is NOT airtight. The moisture propagates through the whole case just fine over time. Don't believe me? Put a raw onion or a clove of garlic in there and see how your case smells a day later.... There is no risk of leakage directly into or onto my instruments. For my Taylor guitars with cutaways, I sometimes put a cylindrical humidifier (sponge in a Crystal Lite drink container wrapped in my strap or a cloth) into that void as a supplement when it is really dry, but not always.