I live in a dry climate (Utah) and of course indoors the relative humidity is even lower. I have a whole house humidifier set at about 35% which is best for the house. I need to get the relative humidity higher for my ukes (50%). I have thought about storing them when not being played in a sealable plastic storage bin, such as an under-the-bed storage container, and putting in a humidification packet (Boveda). Would this work? Has anyone tried anything like this? I thought the sealable bin might be better than trying to humidify the ukes in their cases/gig bags.
Humidify a Ukulele
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don_b
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Disclaimer: I know nothing about maintaining a ukulele's structure via humidity.
IMO, a RH of 35% for indoor environment is perfect. 50% is a borderline cause for mold.
From the web: "Sometimes, humidity or dampness (water vapor) in the air can supply enough moisture for mold growth. Indoor relative humidity (RH) should be kept below 60 percent -- ideally between 30 percent and 50 percent, if possible. Low humidity may also discourage pests (such as cockroaches) and dust mites."
In my neck of the woods, anything above 40% during winter will cause water droplets to form on the inside of windows that will drip down onto/into the sills... mold. 35% is the sweet spot.
Here is another product (besides the 50%) that they sell:
Also, the question of what happens to the instrument when taken out of the 50% and brought into "real-world" environment. Won't it have to go though a relatively fast acclimation? "Real-world" may fluctuate from 20% (sub-zeroF/-18C) to 100% (rain/snow), often within 24 hours.
IMO, a RH of 35% for indoor environment is perfect. 50% is a borderline cause for mold.
From the web: "Sometimes, humidity or dampness (water vapor) in the air can supply enough moisture for mold growth. Indoor relative humidity (RH) should be kept below 60 percent -- ideally between 30 percent and 50 percent, if possible. Low humidity may also discourage pests (such as cockroaches) and dust mites."
In my neck of the woods, anything above 40% during winter will cause water droplets to form on the inside of windows that will drip down onto/into the sills... mold. 35% is the sweet spot.
Here is another product (besides the 50%) that they sell:
Also, the question of what happens to the instrument when taken out of the 50% and brought into "real-world" environment. Won't it have to go though a relatively fast acclimation? "Real-world" may fluctuate from 20% (sub-zeroF/-18C) to 100% (rain/snow), often within 24 hours.
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mikelz777
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I have not personally done it but I know that there are people here who have. It seemed to me an excellent way to handle the issue especially with multiple ukes. You will need a hygrometer to read the humidity levels in the container. I don't know that Boveda packs would be effective in that big of space. I think the people who did this used sponge(s) saturated but not dripping wet then placed inside an unsealed sandwich bag so nothing wet is touching a uke yet the humidity can still readily escape. You'd have to experiment with the number of sponges needed to achieve the desired humidity level. The beauty of this approach is that sponges can be had easily from a dollar store and you can use tap water instead of distilled water.
I live in MN so humidity levels get pretty low in the winter. I considered the storage bin approach but I use the in-case approach. After years of messing around I settled on a Boveda pack in the headstock space and an Oasis humidifier in the sound hole. I check them weekly. Sometimes I have to remove the Oasis from the sound hole and place it in the headspace. I have little hygrometers I put on a string and I put them in the sound hole to measure the humidity inside the body. So far this year it's ranged from 47% to 62% humidity with this method. I take the Oasis humidifier out of the sound hole when the body humidity goes mid-50s or more.
I live in MN so humidity levels get pretty low in the winter. I considered the storage bin approach but I use the in-case approach. After years of messing around I settled on a Boveda pack in the headstock space and an Oasis humidifier in the sound hole. I check them weekly. Sometimes I have to remove the Oasis from the sound hole and place it in the headspace. I have little hygrometers I put on a string and I put them in the sound hole to measure the humidity inside the body. So far this year it's ranged from 47% to 62% humidity with this method. I take the Oasis humidifier out of the sound hole when the body humidity goes mid-50s or more.
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merlin666
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Thanks, our furnace failed a week ago in the depth of Prairie winter and yesterday we got a new one installed to which I had an evaporative humidifier added. It now shows 36% so will not try to push it higher. Will also keep the soundhole humidifiers but will be interesting to see if they will need less water for refill.
KanePono
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I don't know if this will help, but below is a link (if it works) to an article in Ukulele Magazine on ukulele humidification. Mostly it seem to be descriptions of available commercial products with links to sales platforms. I live in Arizona and use a whole house humidifier and sound hole humidifiers if more moisture is needed.
Oh, The Humidity! How to Avoid Ukulele Disaster by Using Humidifiers | Ukulele Magazine
Humidity can wreck your ukulele over time if not kept in check. Here’s the lowdown on humidity and some different tools to help control it for ukuleles.
ukulelemagazine.com
I think the moisture that is part of the wood doesn't change instantly like what happens when taking an instrument from warm to cold quickly. It takes a while to really dry out the wood in low humidity. Dry wood shrinks, and when it shrinks, something's gonna give, a seem, a binding or worse case a weak grain line. And if there are different woods they shrink at different rates. I keep one bedroom humidified and that's where my ukes and guitars live. I bring them out regularly for hours at a time then return them to their 50% room. Never had a problem (and the room doesn't get moldy), but you can feel the humidity difference when you walk into the room. I'll never forget a real nice guitar I once had and I was restringing it, and always steel-wool the fretboards/frets when I change strings. It was 68ish in the house, 15ish outside. I took it out on the porch to steel wool it so I would get steel dust in the house. Instantly, right before my eyes, spider web checking appeared in the finish, all over. It was an expensive lesson. To this day when a new uke arrives in winter, I leave it in the box in the house for a few hours before opening it up. Another tip, when you take your hardshell case out into the "low humidity zone", close it up right after taking the uke out. The interior of the case will hold the humidity level better closed up. At least in my mind that's the case.
InTuneWithUke
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Can't speak to the long term effectiveness since this is my first winter with a solid wood uke, but I keep a Boveda pack inside the case and then store the case in a slim Sterilite container with a D'Adarrio sponge style humidifier. I refresh the sponge every week with distilled water, gently squeezing out excess water before putting it back in the Sterilite container. Environment is Midwest winter with low humidity and forced heating/air. As insurance I also picked up a room humidifier but haven't felt the need to use it. The sponge is still slightly damp after a week and the Boveda pack has remained gel-like.
ripock
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I live in the desert as well. In the summertime, my house is damp enough to keep my ukes at about 50% humidity because of the swamp cooler. In the winter I humidify them in their hard cases and they measure between 40 and 50%. Your idea would work. It work best if the bin wasn't too much bigger than the instrument. So a hard case would work, an airtight bin, but soft cases don't work well. When I tried using soft cases I found that there was no difference between the atmosphere inside and outside the case. I suppose the soft case wasn't solid enough to retain the moisture and let the moisture escape.
I live in Wisconsin and the winter humidity can get extremely low. In the Spring and Summer it can get quite high.
I have 25+ tenors. All but one are solid wood. I have two rooms that have room humidifiers with electronic controls that maintain a RH ±3%.
I keep all of my ukes in hard cases. (Canvas/foam cases are not acceptable. The humidity leaks very quickly.) The best are ABS & Fiberglass, but next best are the wood hard cases.
I use D'Addario/Boveda HumidPacks in every case. Usually by the heel of the uke. This is enough for all but a few of the ukes. 3 get fret sprout very easily. And two had cracks/seam splits form in the soundboards and backs. I use Oasis humidifiers for them in the sound holes. With a HumidPack in the headstock area.
Cases absorb humidity just like the wood of the uke does. Wood, foam & the interior materials absorb or release water. So new cases need to acclimate to the room RH. Or you'll have to refill the humidifier inside more often.
My home has wood framed windows in it. When I kept the RH in the rooms at 45%, mold/mildew formed on the frames. 40% works well.
I track the humidity in the room & some of the cases with hygrometers. The cases keep the RH around 42% with a single Boveda HumidPack.
My understanding is that you need some air circulation to prevent mold/mildew from forming. Especially in a dark location. There are always mold spoors in the air.
I have 25+ tenors. All but one are solid wood. I have two rooms that have room humidifiers with electronic controls that maintain a RH ±3%.
I keep all of my ukes in hard cases. (Canvas/foam cases are not acceptable. The humidity leaks very quickly.) The best are ABS & Fiberglass, but next best are the wood hard cases.
I use D'Addario/Boveda HumidPacks in every case. Usually by the heel of the uke. This is enough for all but a few of the ukes. 3 get fret sprout very easily. And two had cracks/seam splits form in the soundboards and backs. I use Oasis humidifiers for them in the sound holes. With a HumidPack in the headstock area.
Cases absorb humidity just like the wood of the uke does. Wood, foam & the interior materials absorb or release water. So new cases need to acclimate to the room RH. Or you'll have to refill the humidifier inside more often.
My home has wood framed windows in it. When I kept the RH in the rooms at 45%, mold/mildew formed on the frames. 40% works well.
I track the humidity in the room & some of the cases with hygrometers. The cases keep the RH around 42% with a single Boveda HumidPack.
My understanding is that you need some air circulation to prevent mold/mildew from forming. Especially in a dark location. There are always mold spoors in the air.
badhabits
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couple of things to add... those big plastic bins don't always provide a tight seal, but probably good enough. also, you could get a cheap hygrometer to see exactly what's going on. you could even get fancy with bluetooth versions that will track/record temp and RH
So what happens when a hard case is kept closed (without a humidifier)? I assume that this is a relatively closed environment, especially for the Xtreme hard cases that I have.
I am fortunate to live where the RH is almost always in the 40s (%). So my ukuleles seem to be happy to be left on a stand outside the case. But usually a couple (not in the rotation) can be kept for months inside the hard case without a humidifier. It seems that once the case is closed, it is somewhat irrelevant what the room RH is.
So does the wood of the ukulele start to absorb moisture or release moisture? Does it stay with RH in the 40s or can it slowly dry out?
Then if there is an issue of leaving it in the case, how often should it be opened and how long before it can be closed again because the wood is happy again and before repeating this cycle?
I am fortunate to live where the RH is almost always in the 40s (%). So my ukuleles seem to be happy to be left on a stand outside the case. But usually a couple (not in the rotation) can be kept for months inside the hard case without a humidifier. It seems that once the case is closed, it is somewhat irrelevant what the room RH is.
So does the wood of the ukulele start to absorb moisture or release moisture? Does it stay with RH in the 40s or can it slowly dry out?
Then if there is an issue of leaving it in the case, how often should it be opened and how long before it can be closed again because the wood is happy again and before repeating this cycle?
Poul Hansen
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I have a hygrometer inside a guitar on my wall and it takes 24-36 hours for the humidity inside the guitar to change when I have a change of 10% ambient. When humidifying guitars for repair I can keep a steady humidity for days on end inside a closed bin bag, without any humidifier inside..
Jerryc41
Well-known member
Yes, those Boveda/Humidipak things are great. If they start to dry out, put them into a Ziplock with a damp sponge, and they'll be ready to go. I've had them last all through the winter, so there's no need to keep refilling a little bottle.
If you want to splurge, you can buy a device to put into the case that will send the humidity level to your cell phone. Look for that on Amazon.
This is all about risk management, so it's worth understanding the two different kinds of risk.
The big risk is from continued, rapid changes in humidity. Ukes tend to be built in around 40-45% relative humidity - as humidity increases the wood expands across the grain, as it decreases the wood shrinks. The big danger is from something like an efficient heating system which goes off for part of the day, and when it goes on it reduces the relative humidity by, say, 20%. Do that every day to an instrument and it will almost certainly develop cracks.
Steady humidity at above or below the building level produces changes which are usually manageable, and thus low risk. If drier than the building range, frets ends may stick out (fix by filing) and the action may lower as the soundboard dome decreases (fix with a taller saddle or shim). If wetter, the soundboard will rise thus increasing the action, fixed with a shorter saddle. Steady humidity within a tolerable range means a low risk of damage. If it's steady at the extremes (say 20%, or 90%), that's when you ought to protect the instrument.
Here in the UK we have a benign climate for instruments, so we rarely humidify. Plus most housing stock is old (30-500 years) which means inefficient heating and leaky windows, all of which slow down humidity change. My ukes change a little from winter to summer, so in the winter fret ends might get some attention. If our extremes were greater I'd have summer and winter saddles. What damages instruments here (and this has happened to instruments I've built for friends) is hanging them on the wall near radiators (relative humidity in that location drops rapidly when the radiator is on) or storing them in an attic in summer (temperature varies widely between day and night, changing the humidity).
Hope that helps people decide what their own particular risks are, and how to manage them.
The big risk is from continued, rapid changes in humidity. Ukes tend to be built in around 40-45% relative humidity - as humidity increases the wood expands across the grain, as it decreases the wood shrinks. The big danger is from something like an efficient heating system which goes off for part of the day, and when it goes on it reduces the relative humidity by, say, 20%. Do that every day to an instrument and it will almost certainly develop cracks.
Steady humidity at above or below the building level produces changes which are usually manageable, and thus low risk. If drier than the building range, frets ends may stick out (fix by filing) and the action may lower as the soundboard dome decreases (fix with a taller saddle or shim). If wetter, the soundboard will rise thus increasing the action, fixed with a shorter saddle. Steady humidity within a tolerable range means a low risk of damage. If it's steady at the extremes (say 20%, or 90%), that's when you ought to protect the instrument.
Here in the UK we have a benign climate for instruments, so we rarely humidify. Plus most housing stock is old (30-500 years) which means inefficient heating and leaky windows, all of which slow down humidity change. My ukes change a little from winter to summer, so in the winter fret ends might get some attention. If our extremes were greater I'd have summer and winter saddles. What damages instruments here (and this has happened to instruments I've built for friends) is hanging them on the wall near radiators (relative humidity in that location drops rapidly when the radiator is on) or storing them in an attic in summer (temperature varies widely between day and night, changing the humidity).
Hope that helps people decide what their own particular risks are, and how to manage them.
