Humidifier and lime in water - is there a solution to this?

[lfm]

I use up about 6 liter water a day humidifying my living room/studio to have guitars in shape.
- guitars are covered with keyboard type covers hanging over neck and body
- guitars are the least problem

But lime from water enter everywhere, even covering lasers on optical players, into drawers and such.

To keep even humidity in room I need to do this 7 months a year.

What I found on market are huge installs on water supply and such. Also found some filter but takes about 15 minutes for 1 liter to go through, and this really becomes too cumbersome.

I tried an air pollutant cleaner to see if that made most of moist go through that filter and stop there as particles.
- but did not help anything sadly

I have most guitars in a closet about 2 m2 and moving guitar to living room will make it bend too much. It will move for hours unless close in humidity.

Did you encounter a solution for this?
- a filtering option that is quick for every time I fill humidifier up with 6 liter water

Nice to have guitars ready to go and just sit and play a bit.
- maybe I have to live with dusting all kinds of surfaces everywhere a good part of the year unless finding a solution to this
Thanks.

[Synthman2000]

Look to see if a filter cartridge holder can be installed by a plumber/specialist company
on the water tap in kitchen. The filters are replaced every so often maybe 3/6 months.

Maybe here

https://www.clearlyofsweden.se/

[mountainmaster]

Some options:

• Use distilled water. This could be an expensive option.
• Use an evaporative humidifier instead of an ultrasonic humidifier.
• My solution: I switched to carbon fiber acoustic guitars after having lost several wooden acoustics to humidity fluctuations. My electric guitars however don't seem to give a damn.

[lfm]

Use an evaporative humidifier instead of an ultrasonic humidifier.

Never knew about the difference, thanks, might be something to look at instead.
- brilliant idea

I do notice on electrics as well, have to adjust neck relief both spring and fall, if no climate control.
- and they stay tuned better as well

[lfm]

https://www.clearlyofsweden.se/

Thanks, I have sent an email to them to hear if they have suggestions.

[lunardigs]

An evaporative, or hot/traditional humidifier should do the trick to minimize aerosolized solids. The tradeoff will be that those dissolved solids from your municipal water will end up accumulated in your humidifier, requiring periodic cleaning--which imo would be entirely less trouble to deal with than all over your things.

[osiris]

I don't know where you are but Pur makes a filter you can put right on you sink tap. They aren't cheap but they last long and you have the choice of filtered or just regular. Go to Amazon and look up Pur faucet mount.

[lunardigs]

Under-sink RO/DI systems are pretty inexpensive too. Plus, I'd say they're well worth it in general.

[lfm]

Thanks guys, excellent input.

Looking at recent gear in humidifiers also seems to acknowledge the "white dust" thingy.

Philips HU4816 having what they call NanoCloud which makes even smaller drops which said to eliminate "white dust".

Stadler Eva has a calcium/lime filter in water tank also, not sure how much is reduced though.

[Uncle E]

A water softener will help everything in your house. Faucets, shower heads, dish washer, clothes washer, water heater, etc. It took me 3 days of soaking with citric acid to get the lime deposits off my zojirushi.

[zerocrossing]

An evaporative, or hot/traditional humidifier should do the trick to minimize aerosolized solids. The tradeoff will be that those dissolved solids from your municipal water will end up accumulated in your humidifier, requiring periodic cleaning--which imo would be entirely less trouble to deal with than all over your things.

I use one, and we have really mineral laden water, and it works great, but I do go though filters a lot quicker than what’s recommended. I’ve got a Honeywell.

[Download SOphist]

just out of curiosity, what is your target humidity and what's usually outside?
I live in place where I have the opposite problem, I usually have to lower the humidity but as long as it sits between 45% and 60% relative humidity all is good.

[lfm]

just out of curiosity, what is your target humidity and what's usually outside?

Thanks for input since last, everybody.

This winter I target 40-45% since it only need 6 liter a day. Last winter I did 45-50% but needed 12 liter a day silly amount of white cover of everything in room.
- scary part is how electronics is covered in white dust
- thinking new computer might be impacted too

In the closet where most guitars are I always do around 50% RH since white cover does not create a problem, just making the keyboard covers over guitars get a bit white which I just vacuum as I polish guitars up a bit and check tuning and such.

All guitars are in floor stands, since I found cases does not give even humidity all over neck part.

From mid june to november all is fine without any humidifier. But winter is down to 33% RH in between and mostly below 40%.

I ordered a evaporative unit Swiss made, Stylies Orion, yesterday and will see how that works. It's cold mist still.

[Download SOphist]

most acoustic guitar are built to be stable at the 45-60% interval, the US built ones on the lower side of the spectrum while the souther European ones on the upper part of that interval. Northern European ones I have no info about. my advice, if you're an working musician, is to try to buy a guitar made by a respectable local luthier, as he would have the best idea about how to better withstand the RH variations on your zone. of course, that's not always possible.
in any case, only extreme differences between the RH at which the guitar was built and the RH at which the guitar is stored should pose a problem - and that's part of what type of structures guitar boxes are, and as such, unavoidable.
anyway, just some random info.
I wish you good luck with the new humidifier.

[lfm]

Most nylon string acoustics don't have a truss rod at all, and are very dependent on surroundings.
- Cordoba though is one that has, so got one of those, a cheapo as a start
- Cordoba also has many options with width of neck how you want it

About US made, it does not quite fit my experience with in lower range RH.

I got a Martin D16-GT 2006 and had for 13 years and each year felt I had to lower bridge a little to make action acceptable even with a straight neck.

So sent it to Martin Service Center in Denmark with the request it might need a neck reset.
- they said, it's almost dried out and set it on a cure
- so got it back with no further action
- still going strong

So it fits what happend, when I move a guitar from 45% room to closet with 50% it raise in pitch a bit, so neck moves backards.

I have had a weather station with a wireless satelite inside it and it never were below 40% RH, but had no humidifier in the room so far. So started doing that after that.
- Much too nice a guitar not to take care of it.
- so have three steel string acoustic on this mist diet, with 3 wireless remotes, that I watch all the time how conditions are, both in room and inside guitars
- I rarely have to tune them even, just make it for the cause of having constant string tension on it, and ready to play
- and the electrics benefit too actually

I can recommand Bresser that has a brilliant unit to keep track of three
https://www.bresser.de/en/Weather-Time/ ... sults.html

So it's just the white dust that I hope to take care of.

Not even gigging musician, just doing music full time for enjoyment as retired making music to some time lapse films and songs I have in store.