Creating The Proper Environment for Your Piano

The purchase of a piano is an investment that will bring considerable enjoyment over a lifetime.  With proper care and maintenance, your asset will retain its value and provide musical pleasure for years to come.   

A grand piano has over 1300 moving parts, and many of those parts are composed of wood and felt.  Because these organic materials are sensitive to extreme conditions of humidity and dryness, it is crucial that the piano be placed in a room away from direct sun, heat sources and any exposure to extreme temperature and humidity.  Humidity levels in the room should be generally maintained between 45% to 70% during the winter months, and summertime humidity should not exceed 70%. Temperatures in the summer should not exceed 77 degrees, and winter temperatures should not fall below 60 degrees and not exceed 70 degrees, when possible.  Maintaining a consistent level of both temperature and humidity is vital to the health of the instrument and the overall longevity of all the moving parts.

In order to achieve these results, it may be necessary to purchase a dehumidifier during the summer months, or an air conditioning unit for the room where the instrument is housed, if central air is not an option.  In the winter months, it is essential to introduce humidity through a humidifier, if the heat source does not provide humidification throughout the entire house. The purchase of a good hygrometer will help measure accurate humidity of the room. The only time a Dampp Chaser should be installed in a piano is in extreme cases where humidity cannot be easily controlled.  It is always preferable to control the overall environment of the room than to specifically target the interior of the piano, which can create a tug of war that can be stressful to wood.

By taking the time to create the proper conditions, your investment will continue to gratify, and the returns will be notable in terms of tuning stability, tone longevity, and overall performance.