Piano in the kitchen...

[rostopchin]

I recently moved into a shared house with an open-plan living room/kitchen, which is where I've had to put my Yamaha U3 piano. The problem here is obviously moisture - because of the design of the room it's difficult for the piano to be more than four metres away from the cooker, which is already scaring me as I'm regularly coming in to find my housemates cooking with steam billowing everywhere, condensation on the windows etc. Obviously I can't ask them to stop cooking, and there's nowhere else for the piano to go, so I was thinking that a dehumidifier might be the best solution - I'm on a limited budget so it would have to be under £150 maximum. I know I'm not going to be able to completely regulate the humidity of the room but at least with this I could take the worst effects of the moisture from the kitchen away. I wonder if anyone could make any recommendations of dehumidifiers, or any other suggestions. Being a piano owner on a budget in a shared house is quite stressful!

[Barrie Heaton]

Your simplest solution is a plastic piano dust cover, that covers all of the piano that will keep the grease off and shop some of the moisture, they are available form UK Piano Page

Your next option is a controlled damp chaser these are a long heater that goes inside the piano, but has a control unit to measure the humidity and cuts off if too dry again can be perched from this website sadly they have just gone up in price but are still in your budget .

Barrie

[rostopchin]

Thanks for the response Barrie. Would a dust cover really protect from moisture? That would be a very cheap solution if so. Also with the damp chaser is the bulb by itself fitted to some kind of humidistat? Or would I have to turn it on myself whenever the room was getting humid?

[Barrie Heaton]

Thanks for the response Barrie. Would a dust cover really protect from moisture? That would be a very cheap solution if so. Also with the damp chaser is the bulb by itself fitted to some kind of humidistat? Or would I have to turn it on myself whenever the room was getting humid?

No if the room was very damp, but it would help with the steam and the grease you get in kitchens

The controlled damp chaser stays plunged in, it measures the humidity in the piano if too damp it kicks in, if too dry is stays switched off which for you is ideal

Barrie