Lets get straight to the point...

...we have a clothes horse to dry the seemingly endless supply of washing. Now, this used to go into the spare bedroom (her)/studio (me), which as you can guess would contain my amps, guitars, miss etc.

I get concerned that the moisture from the washing could potentially affect the guitars in some way, so insist it is put in the main bedroom away from all that. Now the Missus (lovely as she is), insists that the moisture will affect our chests and cause some illness of some sort. I don't deny this, but would rather that we all have a potentially life threatening lung disease than find a crack or two in my Sheraton.

Am I being over dramatic? Would the moisture of drying clothes affect my guitars in any way? Do I need to hire a solicitor? Any Relate counsellors-slash-rock musicians would be helpful.

Tom

Who knows. I suspect it all depends on how much moisture there is in the room normally. You can get a dehumdifier from Argos fairly cheaply. Or a condensor drier for not that much more. You could measure the humidity in the room with a whirling hygrometer.

J

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www.jackruston.com

Oh no :-( I have just eBayed my whirling hygrometer and everything. £4.00 no reserve.

Wouldn't a de-humidifier be just as bad for guitars as too much humidity? I obviously don't want to ruin my guitars (or at least exaggerate something that I could have prevented).

BTW, we have a dryer but we like to air dry clothes the majority of the time, especially in colder weather.

It is normal enough for people in the USA to buy humidifiers to compensate the dry air from their air con. The cheapest form of doing this is a contraption that consists of a wet sponge in a small tray that hooks on the sound hole of an acoustic guitar and just hangs inside, damping the air. These cost over $100 last time I looked! Check the humidity levels to make sure the room, which I'm guessing is not very large, is not 'damp'. But it might be that your guitars are actually quite enjoying a little additional humidity.

I don't want to make light of the question though. I recently moved from a quite humid basement flat, where my guitars (which always live on stands in our living room) and small amps thrived, to a very dry one above street level. And the new place has proper central heating plus big south facing windows, meaning hours every sunny day drenched in direct sunlight (which I try to keep the guitars out of the worst of). So I'm looking and listening for any signs of the guitars not being happy, but after 6 months all seems to be exactly the same. Then again our moderator, Zenguitar, had a setback due I think to extreme dampness in the middle of his 'project ukulele' at about this time last year...

On the whole better to have spent your money on the humidity gauge than a divorce lawyer!

One last thing, and I know people don't come to the SOS forums for advice about laundry management. But both your wife and yourself might feel it worth investing in one of these . For £80 not only will it help manage the humidity but it might well also help manage the laundry. Its very cheap to run, versatile, doesn't chuck out much actual heat, works really well, is easy to stash away when not in use and has a great capacity for the footprint. If you don't like using tumble dryers as a rule, and we don't, its the next best thing to a washing line outside on a warm, sunny day! We got one because we live in a flat. So far at least two friends who live in houses with gardens, having seen ours, have got one too, for the rainy days... Happy washing!

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Strictly project and just for fun

Probably no more moisture from the drying clothes than from a couple of sweaty musicians. It's all about ventilation, really.

May your guitars keep dry, and your wife keep moist!

You can get a automatic de-humidifier in which you adjust the target humidity to something like 47%. I got one a couple of years ago for £30. This will protect your guitars beautifully, and in theory may be a trifle high for microphones etc (but then I assume you'd keep the latter in their cases).

Bear in mind that it will warm up your room since de-humidification liberates heat, in contrast with evaporation which has a cooling effect (exemplified by the evaporation of sweat, designed to cool the body).

One more thing - your clothes will dry that much faster!

Finally - I'm an NHS consultant and I can assure you that moisture will not affect your health negatively. Indeed patients with Asthma / Bronchitis often have humidifiers to aid comfortable breathing - the 'nebuliser' is a case in point.

Jay

If you have central heating the air drying clothes will probably be an advantage rather than a problem.

With humidity the problems generally come in two forms. The first is excessively dry humidity, that causes wood to shrink. The second is moving between very dry and very damp conditions.

Where humidity is likely to be more of a problem is with your mics.

Andy

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When the going gets weird, the Weird turn Pro.

Right, so from what you're all telling me, this really isn't a problem unless there's either damp running down the walls or the room is situated inside an oven. Now, the room is chilly usually with condensation on the actual windows with no heating on but nothing else, and I can actually 'set' the window to allow air in a little but not actually open the window to allow burglars in (which is good). All the rooms are radiatored (?) anyway and are set to come on automatically depending on the temperature in the living room.

The mics are all in their cases in a two tier drawer so I reckon they're fine. I have a Ribbon in a wooden box behind my monitor so that is safe from the air, but not the cat (who shouldn't be in there, but that's another story).

I'll pass on the message as well that it doesn't affect the health - I assume that this is an old wives tale (it did actually come from several old wives)? Still, I can see how you could believe it to be true - I know have been.

Also, I think I will end up looking at de-humidifiers and that Lakeland dryer!

Thanks for the advice everyone, now if you'll excuse me, I have a moist Mrs to air.
Tom

Edited by tomdot (15/01/12 05:30 PM)

Dampness...It's not the moisture per se that does you harm. Jay is correct in that regard. But It's the moulds and other organisms that grow on/in mouldy walls, furnishings and fabrics that not only cause harm to the structures affected but can also set up nasty conditions such as allergic asthma and other respiratory conditions. That is why "old wives" advise against living in such conditions, why councils spend money on repairing and replacing inferior properties, and why public health bodies have examined this in detail over the years.

I'm guessing Jay's job doesn't include looking after patients with chest problems. I'm also guessing that he doesn't have to worry about living in damp conditions himself.

Being an "NHS Consultant" doesn't make you a font of all knowledge. I should know - I am one too. What do I know? Have a look at the two links; your Missus has a point!

Whether it would affect your guitars though....?? That I can't answer.

http://www.cieh.org/JEHR/condensation_in_dwellings.html

http://eetd.lbl.gov/ied/sfrb/pdfs/mold-2.pdf

Quote Exalted Wombat:

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May your guitars keep dry, and your wife keep moist!

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Is that the Guitarist's version of 'Live long and prosper'

Fine stringed instruments have survived for centuries and I understand that it is the modern LACK of humidity brought on by central heating and AC that causes most of the problems.

Re the mild ding-dong with the doctors (I can't get a straight fekking answer to my problems either!)think pianos! Damp is not the problem per se it is the growth of moulds and mildew on the felts, most hardwoods are pretty resistant to rot so long as they are dry and teak and elm pretty indestructable even in water.
There is a device misnamed the "damp chaser" a 1" yard long tube rated at 15W. This is enough to keep an upright piano damp and mildew free in unheated churchrooms. It is probably the circulating, ventilating convection currents that do the job more than the tiny amount of heat?

Dave.

Well, as I said, I don't have water running down the walls or damp anywhere. At the other end of the scale, I have no air con either so I think I may be safe enough. The windows do have condensation on them but I don't believe that's anything to worry about too much.

About the 'sleeping in the same room as drying clothes' issue - the mother has now chipped with her viewpoint and used my full name so I'm quite pleased that the clothes are going back in with the guitars and won't affect them :-S

I think I may be over-panicking as I love my guitars and wouldn't want to be the cause of ruining something that I may pass down to my kids one day. Soppy possibly, but still true.

how about: buy a dehumidifier and keep and the clothes in the bedroom.

1) you keep your guitars away from the source of moisture
2) you resolve the barrier to keeping the clothes horse in the bedroom
3) you can argue* that the ionising effect of the dehumidifier will make the air in your bedroom healthier

*: whether it will or not is beside the point...

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hourglass | random thoughts | doubledotdash!? collective

I think we may do that anyway regardless of the outcome. I also said that we should just buy new clothes whenever the old ones are dirty, but that didn't go down too well. I also realised that I would have less money to buy gear, so we're off to Argos probably.