HELP!!_My A/C isn't working :(

specialmike · Jul 7, 2009

Hi guys and gals,

my A/C gave out on me yesterday and now I'm afraid for the well being of my ukulele. Living in GA, the weather is a hot and humid. Lately it's been cool however. So what do you guys recommend I do for the safety of my ukulele?

She's locked up in her case right now and away from the sun. But it's only 79 degrees inside right now, at 9 am. At 2 pm or so ... I won't be able to say the same. The relative humidity as of right now is hovering around 55-65%.

Apart from being scared of how much it will cost to fix the A/C unit, I hope it doesn't end up costing me an ukulele as well. The infuriating disadvantages of being a college student!

Lanark · Jul 7, 2009

I'd recommend not being such a Nervous Nelly.
You'll be fine.

Your instrument is not so fragile as you imagine. The humidity is fine and temperatures above 80 are not going to make it spontaneously warp or explode upon contact with the open air.
Rapid changes in temperature and severe lack of humidity would be bad though. So I would not recommend storing your uke in the freezer before going off into the desert to play for the afternoon.

I'd suggest just taking it out of the case and playing it a while to calm yourself down and take your mind off the lack of A/C. You'll have a harder time of it than it will.

hoosierhiver · Jul 7, 2009

Think about it this way,
Hawaii is pretty hot and ukuleles were common there before AC.

Ahnko Honu · Jul 7, 2009

80% of Hawaii homes still don't have ACs, we just open the windows and let the tradewinds blow thru the house to keep cool, electricity costs are crazy here.

josuegroundhog · Jul 7, 2009

specialmike said:
Hi guys and gals,

my A/C gave out on me yesterday and now I'm afraid for the well being of my ukulele. Living in GA, the weather is a hot and humid. Lately it's been cool however. So what do you guys recommend I do for the safety of my ukulele?

She's locked up in her case right now and away from the sun. But it's only 79 degrees inside right now, at 9 am. At 2 pm or so ... I won't be able to say the same. The relative humidity as of right now is hovering around 55-65%.

Apart from being scared of how much it will cost to fix the A/C unit, I hope it doesn't end up costing me an ukulele as well. The infuriating disadvantages of being a college student!

Quick! Take you pants off!

JT_Ukes · Jul 7, 2009

josuegroundhog said:
Quick! Take you pants off!

I'm seeing a pattern here.....

sukie · Jul 7, 2009

JT_Ukes said:
I'm seeing a pattern here.....

It's happening on almost all the threads, huh? I'm keeping my shorts on!

Oh, by the by -- we don't use our A/C very often and my ukulele seems to be doing ok.

Bratset · Jul 7, 2009

Lanark said:
.
So I would not recommend storing your uke in the freezer before going off into the desert to play for the afternoon.
QUOTE]

Darn!!
That's not good for a Uke?? I usualy do that once a week!! :anyone:

Ukulele JJ · Jul 7, 2009

Your A/C isn't working? Hmmmm...

I usually play an A/C as 2004. Works pretty well for me (although it is a bit dissonant).

JJ

GrumpyCoyote · Jul 7, 2009

Like others have said - don't worry about it.

Wet is bad... like water wet. Humid is fine. Drying out (like desert dry) quickly from very humid can also be an issue, but wood is amazingly resilient.

You are not talking about extremes here - at least not from the perspective of wood. It’ll be just fine.

One note about cases (and it’s counter to most advice you’ll hear)… It’s usually a terrible idea to keep an instrument in a case full time. It’s not protecting it from the environmental changes, just dents. The exception is a humidity regulated case, that’s the only way the case makes much of a difference. Usually cases just make problems of heat and moisture worse.

So get it out of the case… keep it on a stand. Play the snot out of it. Only worry about rapid extremes and very very wet or very very dry.

cashew · Jul 7, 2009

For your personal comfort-- check this out--http://www.gmilburn.ca/category/projects/homemade-air-conditioner/

I actually made one of these when I lived in a horribly hot ACless apt a few years ago, it worked surprisingly well.
(I also had the lushest, greenest tomato garden, from the constant drip watering of my garden beds)

specialmike · Jul 7, 2009

It's Fixed Now

It's all good in the neighborhood. It's fixed and it only cost me... $150 bucks. So.. that would be an Ohana Ukulele that I've been wanting to get

oh well. A/C is rather comforting.

LonnaB · Jul 7, 2009

Good to know you're cool in Georgia again!

There's some great advice in this thread.

I was going to comment about the tax breaks you can get if you install a newer, more efficient unit but it sounds like you didn't have to take it that far. Congrats!

Hankthetank · Jul 8, 2009

specialmike said:
It's all good in the neighborhood. It's fixed and it only cost me... $150 bucks. So.. that would be an Ohana Ukulele that I've been wanting to get oh well. A/C is rather comforting.

My AC went out last night. But the parts that broke ended up costing me a lot more than that. All because an earwig shorted out the starter.
So it may have cost you $150, but remember that it could always be worse. I can send you a bill to prove it. But at least I am nice and cool again.
I have to admit that I was a little worried last night about my ukes, but this week hasn't been horribly hot in Chicago so all is well.
Oh, the joys of homeownership. :wallbash:

RevWill · Jul 8, 2009

Exactly! At least it was the cost of an Ohana and not a Kamaka.

HELP!!_My A/C isn't working :(

specialmike

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