Humidifier for ukulele

Laouik

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Hellooooo.

I did perform a search but... nothing clear came out of it.

Humidifiers. I won't need one in Toronto until late fall, but I'm starting research now.

The only humidifier I've used thus far has been the Dampit. I gave it to the person who acquired my KTS-4 because, frankly, I don't like it. I'm afraid that after charging it water will drip onto the wood inside the ukulele and I don't know when it's discharged.

I've seen the Oasis humidifier which appears nicely sealed and gives you some indication that it's discharged. Then there are the humidor-style that are intended for the case rather than the instrument.

What humidifiers have you tried and what are your thoughts?
 
Many of us make our own. Many use beads, which I am sure they will chime in. I would like to try those too sooner or later. As for myself I use tightly packed cotton, and/or clay disks you can buy for cigar humidifiers. The disks are about the size of an alkerselter but thicker, and fir nicely in a perscription drug bottle, or a 35mm film canister. Those are the two cases I use. I take the top and punch a few holes in them like you would find in a pepper shaker, pack it tight with cotton balls, and a couple of the clay disks. Soak it, then shake the loose water out. Put the cap back on and stick it in my cases. Old Phart uses glitter containers with the beads. The containers glitter comes in look like a perfect sized container too, but I am sure Phart has a weird fetish do something with glitter. But, you didn't hear that from me. ;)

P.S. I also drop a couple drops of Eucaliptus oil in the cans too because it combats mildew, and makes your uke case smell nice.
 
I have used the Oasis, Herco, and Humistat, and like the Oasis best. The gel beads inside soak up the water, so leaking is not a worry, and it shrivels up when it dries out, to let you know when to refill. If you go homemade with this project, get some of the same gel beads from a florist shop.

–Lori
 
I like humidifiers that hang between the strings. And my favorite these days is a Tic Tac container with holes punched in it and a piece of sponge inside. You can back the top of the container out about a mm and it'll hang perfectly between the C and the E.

The best part is, I don't worry about using distilled water like I did when I used fancy store-bought humidifiers. If the sponge starts to get a little hard, I just toss it and cut another piece.

-Pete
 
Used pill bottle (add a lot holes 1/16 inch DIA) and water absorbing gel crystals. About half a teaspoon of the crystals will absorb enough water to fill a normal pill bottle. Made several this year and they work great. This is the same kind of crystals in moisture control potting soil. Several folks here have posts, links, and videos on this.
 
On another note. I just installed one of these in one of my cases, and will on the others by summer.

case1.jpg
 
Be aware that different ukuleles may need different levels of humidity. I'm no expert, but this is what I understand from posts here on the forum and from talking with some luthiers.

A lot of the discussion of humidity on the forum seems to be tacitly geared towards Hawaiian-built instruments which will need a pretty high humidity to match that in which they were built.
Instruments built elsewhere may need a much lower level - in fact, it may be quite detrimental to over-humidify a uke built in a more arid climate. I was warned by the luthier of one of my instruments that he has had some problems with his instruments warping because they've been over-humidified - he builds in a somewhat arid environment.

I would ask the builder of that new uke of yours what humidity he stores his lumber at and at what humidity he keeps his shop, and try to match that.
 
I would ask the builder of that new uke of yours what humidity he stores his lumber at and at what humidity he keeps his shop, and try to match that.

My ukulele was built in Ontario and I've had a chat with the luthier about humidity :D
 
Can anyone give sources for these water absorbing crystals, beads, clay disks, etc. TIA, g2
 
I have to echo what Lori and Mike said about the Oasis humidifiers. I use them and the humidity in my cases remains pretty constant. They're also easy to use.

Can anyone give sources for these water absorbing crystals, beads, clay disks, etc. TIA, g2

In post 3, above, Lori mentioned that you can get water-absorbing crystals at florist shops. Oasis also sells packets of its own crystals, called "HumiGel," for $4.95.
 
Oasis. Easy to fill and visual confirmation of what's happening that you can't screw up. I've not been able to tell when crystals in a pill case are "dry."
 
You folks using Oasis -- are they the ukulele specific ones? I can't find one locally and wanted to avoid shipping. I will go ahead and buy the uke one as I know I should but I was curious as to whether anyone had a guitar one.
 
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Uke: http://elderly.com/accessories/items/OGH5.htm
Guitar: http://elderly.com/accessories/items/OGH1.htm

If you're in the US and need extra strings, this, that, you'll get free shipping from Elderly.
Most decent businesses now waive shipping past a certain point.

Before they had a uke version, I got an Oasis for guitar, and it was too tall to fit in the uke (hanging from the strings). I just keep it in the case, and it seems to be working fine without the bother of installing it on the strings. I get the Case Oasis, which is handy, since it comes with a magnetic clip and a magnetic sticker. I have hand sewn in the magnetic clip into some gig bags, and that keeps the Oasis from rolling around in the case. The magnetic sticker works in some hard cases, but ones that are very plush might need a shave to get good contact. I find they are no problem if left loose in the headstock area.
–Lori
 
You folks using Oasis -- are they the ukulele specific ones? I can't find one locally and wanted to avoid shipping. I will go ahead and buy the uke one as I know I should but I was curious as to whether anyone had a guitar one.

Like Lori, I use an Oasis case humidifier instead of the one that dangles in the soundhole of an ukulele. (For me it's mostly an ease of access thing. I'm not sure whether humidification is better if the humidifier is in the body of the instrument. The case humidifier keeps my case at between 40-50% humidity.) Musician's Friend apparently now has free shipping with no minimum, and it sells the Oasis OH-6 case humidifier.

Both the Oasis guitar humidifier (OH-1) and the Oasis ukulele humidifier (OH-18) are meant to be placed inside the instrument. According to the Oasis web page for the ukulele humidifier, there are two differences between the two humidifiers: (i) the guitar humidifier hangs horizontally, perpendicular to the strings and soundboard, while the ukulele humidifier hangs vertically, parallel to the strings and soundboard; and (ii) "the humidity output is about 50% of the Royal Blue Oasis guitar humidifier, to accommodate the smaller instrument size. This also allows the humidifier to last twice as long between refills." So you don't need an ukulele-specific humidifier if you're going to just put the humidifier in the case, but if you want to put a humidifier in the body of your instrument, it looks like the guitar-specific humidifier won't work.
 
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