Official Luthiers Forum!

I need to purchase a decent room humidifier for the shop and would like to solicit your recommendations. Also, I suspect that the digital hygrometer that I got from StewMac doesn't have the greatest accuracy, so would also appreciate recommendations for a more accurate hygrometer.

Thanks!

Alan

Alan my friend here is what I have learned about humidifiers and hygrometers.

Humidifiers: What a hassle they are....... Having used several different humidifier offerings what I am using now is the best that I have found but far from perfect in terms of performance and ease-of-use......

Sears sells these:





The larger one is billed as a whole-house humidifier and with a new filter/wick can indeed put out a great deal of moisture. The digital displays and sensors are the good news and surprisingly all three of mine, 2 larger ones and one of the smaller one, the digital displays seem to be accurate. The displays read 45% when my Aberon hygrometer reads 45%.

With the digital displays you can set it at 45% and forget it and it will maintain your shop near 45% RH.

What I don't like about them is that the wicks need to be cleaned often and if you have hard water of say over 400 parts per million you will be washing out the wicks every 3 - 5 days........

The wicks from Sears suck and will only withstand washing a certain amount of times before they get to wimpy to stand up...... I have found another company offering wicks that are more robust but still need to be washed out every 3 - 5 days.

I think that these would work much better for someone with softer water or water without a lot of softener salt in it.

The alternative is humidifiers that do not regulate their own cycles and if you forget to manually regulate one of these or the weather changes and you are not home your shop may feel like Saigon.....

Here is a picture of the wicks that the Sears ones use:



Complaints aside with humidifiers bigger is better and these ones do work well but you will be maintaining them often and purchasing additional wicks every season. The reason that I think..... bigger is better is that when these turn on they also tend to dry out the wick. If you have a larger unit that turns on less and can be run at slower speeds the wicks do not dry out as fast with less air moving through them and of course a larger surface area for the wick.

As for hygrometers no hygrometer is perfect either. The digital ones can be way off although the Caliber III's that I have are the best that I have used.

An Aberon hygrometer is my favorite and here's mine:



I have been sending mine into the US rep for Aberon every 6 months for calibration. There are two levels of calibration available. The NIST standard is available and is about $75...... Or they will calibrate it to an in-house standard promising to be within 2.5% accurate for about $25.

You can also learn to calibrate them yourself, which I am working on, using a wet bulb.

Although hygrometers are not going to be as accurate as other manual means to measure RH they do offer us at-a-glance readings without having to be Bill Nie the science guy......

_________________
Ann Arbor Guitars

Alan,

I've had my Sears model for about 3 years now and it works great, but, as Hesh pointed out, it does require a fair amount of upkeep.

Hesh - where do you get your "aftermarket" wicks?

Anthony

_________________
Anthony J. Lembo
Lembo Custom Guitars - www.Lemboguitars.com

Anthony bro I get them from http://www.filters-now.com

The prices are a little better but the filters are a lot better.

_________________
Ann Arbor Guitars

Thanks Hesh, I appreciate the recommendations.

Hope you have a merry Christmas and a great new year!

Alan

Forget the wicking type humidifiers! Get a Venta Sonic 205 (or the Rolls Royce Venta Sonic 370) and you'll never look back. No wicks, no antibacterial stuff to add, virtually no cleaning, and they work great. And whisper quiet, too. These babies are a great investment.

http://www.venta-sonic.com/Sonic%20Humidifiers/VS205/
http://www.bestvacuum.com/venta.html

I got mine from Bed Bath and Beyond. After a year and a half or so, it developed a leak in the base. It was no longer under warranty, but Bed Bath and Beyond took it back and gave me a new one without batting an eye. They also told me that the Ventas are the best and that problems like that are rare with them.

The one I have is actually for our house, not my shop, but my old Bemis in the shop is about to go to the landfill and be replaced with a Venta. I might just go for the 370 and get the advanced digital controls. The basic 205 model, though, is such a huge leap into the 21st century from the old wicking type. Get one and you'll see what I mean.

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Todd when Ventra first came out I bought two of them with one of them being the largest one they made. These were the black cube models. They were outrageously expensive with the top-of-the-line big black cube one being $300 - $400.....

Both of mine broke in the first year and man was I disappointed with the quality, or lack of same...... I had them both replaced, also at Bed-Bath-and-Beyond and in less then a year my two replacements broke too but by then I had gone a different route in frustration.

With the original models they were billed more as air cleaners than humidifiers although they do humidify they don't put much water into the air and did not meet my needs in a Michigan winter.

The new models, including the 370 look promising but even the 370, the biggest one, only puts out 4 gallons in a 24 hour period and that is with all things being optimum. 4 gallons a day might..... work in my RH and contained shop that is about 350 square feet of contained area but it also may not. Right now with my big Sears unit I am needing to put out about 5-6 gallons a day mostly because I also vent to the outside at times during the day. I smoke, well I don't but these things in this pack do when you light em.......

For a house 4 gallons is mouse nuts and would not cut it at all......

Oh how I would love to get away from these stinkin (literally......) wicks but the ultra-sonic offerings still lack the output to be serious contenders for the level of humidification that I know that I use now since I am the lacky that schleps about 20 gallons a day to the ones that I have now......

I'll check out the Ventras again at BBAB next week when I am back in civilization - thanks for the suggestion.

_________________
Ann Arbor Guitars

Todd....FYI, in checking out the link to Venta that you provided for the VS205, I noticed that they had a special for a factory reconditioned VS370. It's $139 with free Fedex shipping. Thought I would give it a try.

If you are tired of constantly refilling the portable humidifiers, I recommend the Trion. It is directly connected to a water supply line. I have been using one in my 1200 sf shop for 2 years and am very happy with it. I have wired it to a good 120 volt humidistat and I never have to think about it. I highly recommend purchasing from this site: http://electronicaircleaners.com/707u.aspx. They have excellent maintenance info also. A good water filter inline before the Trion is required.

Brook

Well, Hesh, if I have the same experience with the Ventas not lasting a long time (and my first one didn't, it's true), then I'll eat my words. The amount of moisture they provide, though, is more than adequate in my experience. The humidity controlled room in my shop is about 250 sq ft, and it's well sealed off. Though I haven't used the Venta in there yet, I've used it in another room in my house which is just as large and not sealed off from the rest of the house, and it easily keeps the RH as high as I want, running intermittently as it turns itself on and off, and only needing to be refilled once every 2 or 3 days. Do you have forced air heat? I would imagine that would make a big difference. I have radiant heat throughout the house and shop.

I've just been so relieved to have a unit that works with such minimal maintenance, doesn't require the use of chemicals, doesn't even have a problem with buildup of scale from our hard well water, and runs so quietly. I've been feeling about it. But if they keep breaking down on me, I'm sure that feeling will quickly change to .

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/