Keeping Them Humidified?

I spent some time today making sure my ukes were humidified. I like the D'Addario Humidipaks, and I use them in my better ukes - set 'em and forget 'em. I ordered two more today. At the end of the season, I put them into a ziplock bag to keep them from drying out.

The other ukes get one of the other popular types, usually two to a case. I put one inside the sound hole and one under the headstock. At time like this, I appreciate the non-wooden ukes. I even give the laminates a humidifier. They're still made out of wood.

I'm surprised that D'Addario doesn't make a size for the ukulele. I cut the double saddlebag apart and put them into two ukes. Two sets will do three ukuleles.

In addition to the humidifiers in the case, I run a room humidifier in the room where the ukuleles live (in their cases.) Will probably add a second room humidifier for this coming week, when we'll be around -25 for a couple nights. I'm officially ready for winter to be over.

Joyful Uke said:

In addition to the humidifiers in the case, I run a room humidifier in the room where the ukuleles live (in their cases.) Will probably add a second room humidifier for this coming week, when we'll be around -25 for a couple nights. I'm officially ready for winter to be over.

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Below zero is no fun. We're due for that again this week. On the other hand, I'd rather be here than down south without the seasonal changes.

Jerryc41 said:

Below zero is no fun. We're due for that again this week. On the other hand, I'd rather be here than down south without the seasonal changes.

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I like the seasons. I usually get spring, summer, and fall in Iowa. A little bit of winter, then we come south. We are also here for short stays thought the rest of the year. Here in Puerto Rico the temp does not vary that much throughout the year, maybe 10 degrees difference between summer and winter. In the summer it actually gets hotter in Iowa than it does down here in PR. The humidity in PR is high all the time. I live a few blocks off of the ocean and it stays around 72% and does not vary any more than the temp. The thing is that my two solid wood ukuleles are up in Iowa in the care of my mother-in-law who feeds the Oasis humidifiers every week when she waters the plants. My problem in PR of course isn't humidity, but the salt air corrodes the tuners something terrible. I think that the combination of high humidity and the salt air is hard on them in general. There can be too much of a good thing. My friend had two very nice classical guitars. He lives in Iowa. One winter he put them each in big yard waste bags with a couple humidifiers and sealed them up. In the spring he had mold in both of them and one of them the bracing came loose. A lot of people talk about sealing up their ukes in air tight containers or bags to keep them hydrated. I don't know about that, but that would just scares me a bit. I've just been around boats and water enough to know that stuff that gets sealed up in a humid environment usually doesn't fare well. Just saying, maybe a little air circulation is not bad.

I’ve been using a hybrid version of the humidity packs. I keep ukes in a plastic type container that’s made for sliding under a bed or some such. I have a soprano and concert together in there. I put in two humidity packs along with a damp sponge in a small travel type soap holder with holes in the top. I believe the sponge gives out enough humidity to maintain the packs and the packs themselves act to keep the humidity from getting too high from the sponge. It’s been my observation that the humidity packs last longer and don’t get hard as quickly. I’ve been doing this particular set up for around six months now and although the packs we’re getting hard spots prior to the sponge now the hard spots are gone and the packs seem as if they haven’t aged.

To maintain the humidity better I also keep a towel over the case to help stop humidity from leaking out as this type of container is not airtight.

I’d rather use the set up then a hard case because I think it makes for more even humidification with less maintenance.

The humidity here is hovering around 45%. One of my ukuleles has sharp frets. I have been anxiously watching for the sharp ends to disappear. I keep this ukulele in its case with two herco clay pots and a soundhole humidifier. Doesn’t seem to bother the other ukuleles. One well seasoned, and the others as new as “sharpie”.

I use the Boveda 45% packs (amazon). I like them because as far as I know, they are the only ones to protect against too little or too much humidity. In Michigan right now it's very cold and the humidity in the house is 24%. All of a sudden all my packs are hardening up, but I started playing in March and I am just now replacing the first ones. In the summer I am at a lake cottage part of the time and the humidity can be 75%, so I like being able to protect them from both extremes. I also like not having to check them all the time. I have a nice older guitar and the soundboard cracked from it being too dry, even though it was in an unheated room. I was really bummed so now I'd rather be safe than sorry.

mgsondance said:

I use the Boveda 45% packs (amazon). I like them because as far as I know, they are the only ones to protect against too little or too much humidity.

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The D'Addario Humidipaks claim to do that, too. That's why I like them. The last time I bought some, they cost $18, while the Bovedas were $30, both on Amazon.