Oasis humidifier - only works in hardcase? Will gig bag suffice?

Hi everyone, winter is here in Austin, TX and it's time to start humidifying my solid wood ukes. I've read that the Oasis uke humidifier should be used in a hardcase for it to work properly. Has anyone tried it in gig bags and did it work well enough?

I'm pretty sure the gig bag let's too much air in/out and so it will not work sufficiently. I'm on the road for business this week but if nobody else has confirmed by checking with a hygrometer over a day or two, I can do a test on the weekend with a Mono M80 bag and report back.

tinaj said:

Hi everyone, winter is here in Austin, TX and it's time to start humidifying my solid wood ukes. I've read that the Oasis uke humidifier should be used in a hardcase for it to work properly. Has anyone tried it in gig bags and did it work well enough?

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I'm not sure that you have to humidify in Austin. What is your outside temperature? I'm in Illinois ( 4 degrees tonight) where the furnaces are running full blast. I need to use humidifiers. They will work in a gig bag. You need to fill them more often. It really depends ont eh bag. A blues reunion bag will retain almost as good as a hard case.

This week the weather is super nice in Austin 60-70 during the day! Last week there was a cold front and it got down to the 40s and our heater was running quite a bit and the humidity in the room where my ukes are dropped below 40%. There's another cold front coming this weekend so I'm just thinking ahead . Definitely no way near as cold/dry as Illinois but I didn't want to take any chances!

Like John said, I found is that humidifier in gigbags works, but you'll need to refill it more often than on hard case.

I did a lot of experimenting with hygrometers and hydrometers in both a hard case and one of those foam cases with a zipper. I put the hygrometer where the body of the uke would be and then I'd measure the effectiveness of the hydrometer in the head space, the neck space and then the body space of the case. My goal was to humidify the body space which was most crucial. Putting the hydrometer in the head space was pretty much useless. Putting it in the neck space was a little better but still not effective. As you would expect, putting the hydrometer in the body space was best of the three locations and inside the body of the uke itself was by far the most effective. There was also a big difference between a hard case and the zippered case. The hard case held humidity much better. The zippered case leaked a lot of humidity. Will a humidifier work in a zippered gig bag? It would probably be better than no humidifier at all but I'd seriously question if it would work to the level you'd want it. Your need for humidity is a lot different than my need here in Minnesota so all I can really suggest is to get a hygrometer and experiment with the readings. A gig bag would not work for me here and even with the zippered hard case, I wouldn't be confident putting a solid uke in one. (my cheap laminate is in there but I still humidify the neck space for the fret board) My hard cases hold the humidity very well and with Oasis humidifiers hanging in the sound holes, I have no problems keeping the readings at 45-55%.

I have a Mono M80 gig bag and the Oasis needs a refill after 4 or 5 days. In a hard case, refills are generally every 10 -12 days.

I run a room humidifier as well. (Or, more than one if it gets really cold and dry, as we're now experiencing.) Are those you of who have done readings in the case also using a room humidifier?

The human body prefers the same humidity levels as solid wood ukuleles, so if your instruments stay mostly in the same room, and it's a room you spend a lot of time in also, it may be worthwhile to just humidify the room. But I don't live in a place where the air gets extremely dry in winter, so I can usually maintain 35%+ even in winter, with just some plants and myself in the room, which I feel is just fine. It's only when I leave the window open for an hour straight or don't close the door (into the hallway) that it may drop to 25-30%, which is probably still fine as long as it's not a long term condition.

Nevertheless, this is one reason why I bought Kiwaya/Famous laminate soprano and a guitar with only a solid top, and why I keep looking at Blackbird instruments. Worrying about the instruments takes some fun out of the experience.

Thanks everyone for your feedback! I ordered an Oasis hygrometer to monitor the humidity inside the hardcase and the gig bag, and will try refilling the gig bag humidifier more often to see if I can get by without buying a second hardcase. Hopefully that'll suffice, given here in Austin the winters are much milder than other parts of the country.

If you really like your uke, buy it a hard case for Christmas. A hard case will protect it so much better than a gig bag.

Gig bags remind me of when I sold used cars. Some guy would come on the lot and say that he wanted a car for his 16 year old daughter. Budget around $1000. There were times I anted to ask the dad "Do you like her?"

John Sargent said:

If you really like your uke, buy it a hard case for Christmas. A hard case will protect it so much better than a gig bag.

Gig bags remind me of when I sold used cars. Some guy would come on the lot and say that he wanted a car for his 16 year old daughter. Budget around $1000. There were times I anted to ask the dad "Do you like her?"

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Ha ha that's pretty funny. I think I'll get a second hard case, especially since the padded gig bag is a pretty tight fit too.

Joyful Uke said:

I run a room humidifier as well. (Or, more than one if it gets really cold and dry, as we're now experiencing.) Are those you of who have done readings in the case also using a room humidifier?

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When I did my testing I was a bit obsessed because it was during a polar vortex and outdoor highs were in the low single digits if not below zero. My indoor humidifier was not working that year and indoor humidity was sometimes reading in the teens and even on the best of days was no where near 45-55%. Even now with the humidifier working, a house humidity reading of 45% is causing a little bit of condensation on the bottom of some windows so I'll have to dial it back to 40% or lower.

Do most of you keep a small hygrometer in the cases of your ukes?

Mivo said:

Do most of you keep a small hygrometer in the cases of your ukes?

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I do. I actually keep them inside the uke itself. I use the disc shaped ones that are just under 2" in diameter. I fix some thread to it so I can easily lower it into the sound hole and pull it out when I play.

Mivo said:

Do most of you keep a small hygrometer in the cases of your ukes?

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No, I don't.

A good way to find out if a humidifier would do anything in your gig bag in your environment if you dont have anything to measure it,
Test it out by placing a completely filled humidifier in your environment itself and see how long it takes to completely dry it out.
Then, take the humidifier completely filled and place in gig bag w uke and see how long it takes to completely dry it out.
If it takes a bit longer, that should mean your humidifier is relatively encased in the gig bag.