The Yamaha HQ100 is a so-called “gray-market” upright. A gray market piano is one that’s authentically manufactured by Yamaha, but is not intended for sale in a specific geographic region or country. Instead, it’s sold as “gray market” — a market that exists outside the official distribution channels and is not authorized by the manufacturer. In this case, the HQ100 is the Japanese version of the Yamaha MX100II, an upright Disklavier, with a few small modifications.
Like all Yamaha Disklavier uprights, Dampp-Chaser Piano Life Saver Systems cannot be installed inside the cabinet. There isn’t any room. Instead, a backside system is installed between the support posts behind the piano. The back is then ensconced in a light fabric to keep the humidity-controlled air inside.
Modifications for the Yamaha HQ100
The Yamaha HQ100 has one significant oddity: There are only two support posts. The double bucket system usually installed just doesn’t fit. So in this case, after communicating with Dampp-Chaser, I opted to install a full-size bucket on the rear of the system.
I added a thin layer of foam or neoprene need to the sound-board side of the bucket. Similarly, I added a full-size baffle. And I used two feet of two inch wide Velcro, with the male side backed with a strip of neoprene. Otherwise, the system is installed like a typical back-side system. The dehumidifier brackets did require some bending to get them to fit properly.
The picture is below:
Full-size Dampp-Chaser humidifier bucket installed behind a Yamaha HQ100.
Please see my Dampp-Chaser FAQ for more information on the Dampp-Chaser Piano Life Saver System. I highly recommend these systems, and have accumulated data over the years to support that decision! You can view my graphs and charts on that FAQ page.
During the winter months, many clients leave the state of Maine. Their piano is left in Maine, which means there’s nobody to fill the Dampp-Chaser! This is a solution.
My best estimate is that this system can supply a Dampp-Chaser with sufficient water for three months during the winter, or perhaps longer. Normally, they have to be filled once a week!
There is no pump or water pressure: The two containers are self-leveling using nothing but physics. This means that, in effect, the interior tank has nearly the entire capacity of the external tank. The lack of electronic components remediates risk of severe failures. The external tank I use is the Barker 10-gallon tote.
Although not necessary for operation, an Arduino micro-controller is installed to monitor the water level and send updates using cellular data. This gives us confidence everything is working as it should, even during long absences. This is in development, although the source code I’m currently using is below. At present, I’m using the Botletics SIM7000 shield and an Arduino Uno Rev3. I connect using Telnyx.
The setup outside of a piano, with the Barker tote and the Dampp-Chaser universal tank connected by a hose. The universal tank will sit inside the piano, and the Barker tote will be outside.This is the monitoring website for the above unit.
Carefully! My favorite key cleaning solution is Cory Key-Brite, which is available on Amazon. It can also be purchased at Starbird Piano in Portland or through me. Lacking this, the actual key tops can be cleaned with a damp cloth. Just make sure that the cloth is well wrung out: Keys are very sensitive to moisture and will warp easily.
Another good product is MusicNomad’s Key One Cleaner, also available on Amazon. I use Cory Key-Brite when doing detail work, but Key One is also a suitable option if you’re wiping down your keys on a more regular basis. (With Cory you can expect to do a little more scrubbing, whereas Key One is thinner and behaves a bit more like Windex.)
How do I clean the rest of the piano?
Microfiber cloths dust off the outside of the piano effectively. If you have a high-gloss piano, it is worth investing in Cory Super Gloss Polish, which can also be purchased at Starbird Piano in Portland or through me. Cleaning underneath the strings and cast iron plate of a grand piano is an involved process, generally taking hours. This is a service I provide; however, if it is something you are interested in doing yourself, or you are located outside my service area, consider purchasing piano cleaning tools:
Spurlock Tool’s “Squeegee Type” Soundboard Cleaner is a very professional tool costing about $100. It will give you excellent and reliable results, without having to remove the lid of the piano. I especially recommend these tools if you have a venue or other location where cleaning is important and routine.
Soundboard steels are inexpensive, but they are a labor-intensive option that will require removing the lid of the piano for convenient access. If you have patience, this is an inexpensive solution.
My piano smells awful! What can I do?
The folk remedy for piano odor, which I learned working on consignments at Starbird Music, is to put dryer sheets inside the piano. This is pretty effective for dealing with minor smoke odor. However, with any strong, offensive smell, it’s essential to find the source of the problem. Over the years, I’ve seen many pianos devastated by moths, mold, and mice. If you believe your piano has fallen victim to any of these, it needs a thorough and professional cleaning as soon as possible.
Often, in cases of serious mold, I will clean the piano out and then install a Dampp-Chaser dehumidifier system inside the piano to make sure the issue doesn’t return.
Recently, I’ve been tenting and ionizing pianos. In extreme cases, such as very moldy pianos in homes where residents have mold allergies, this can be a very effective technique. See “Can you clean out smoke, mold, and bad smells with an ozone generator?” below.
What can I do about mold?
Mold invades the felt and wood inside the piano. It can be extremely difficult to remove in older pianos where it has been allowed to flourish. Newer pianos are generally chemically treated, and mold invasions tend to be smaller in scale. In any mold invasion, the entire piano should be professionally cleaned and treated, with the action and keys removed.
Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant
If possible, the piano should be left disassembled and placed in direct sunlight for several days to kill the remaining mold. Direct sunlight dries things out, and the ultraviolet light is lethal to the mold.
Clean with Hydrogen Peroxide
I’ve found 12% hydrogen peroxide to be an optimal cleaner. I purchase 1-gallon containers of 12% peroxide. This peroxide is devastating to mold, but needs to be handled with gloves, safety glasses, and caution. In addition to being highly effective against mold, peroxide ultimately leaves behind nothing but oxygen, which makes it uniquely clean.
Most studies I’ve seen imply that returns rapidly diminish after a 10% concentration, so purchasing higher concentrations of peroxide simply endangers the user without more effectively killing more mold.
Install a Dehumidifier
If you have mold, a dehumidification system must be installed directly inside the piano. You can either install an entire Dampp-Chaser® Piano Life Saver System, which both keeps the piano dehumidified and humidified when the weather is dry. Or you can install their dehumidifier only system. The dehumidifier is all that’s necessary for controlling mold.
These work very well. They keep the relative humidity too low for mold to grow, and so provide a longer-term solution.
Finally, consider a humidity monitor. This is a tiny sensor installed inside the piano, which will operate on battery power, and will set off an alarm (in the form of an email or text message) if the relative humidity clears a certain threshold (such as 50%). You’ll get an immediate alert if there’s the potential for mold to grow inside the cabinet, and can correct it quickly. Most likely, this would happen if the dehumidifier were unplugged.
This device allows us to trust that the dehumidifier is operating as intended. This is important, since you can’t actually see or hear the device, people might accidentally unplug it, and so forth.
Can you clean out smoke, mold, and bad smells with an ozone generator?
In severe cases, I ionize the piano. Starting about a year ago, at the recommendation of a favorite eccentric customer, I made my first trial of ionizing a piano—or filling it with ozone gas. I tent the piano and place it with an industrial ionizer.
For this, I use an ozone generator that provides at least 10,000 mg/h of ozone (such as the Enerzen O-555).
Ozone is very harmful to organic substances, so it’s best not to overdo it. You want to make certain you use enough to kill the invading mold, but not so much that items in the household start degrading. In particular, plastic and rubber will off-gas rather unpleasantly. You may have to replace rubber components inside the piano (notably the pedal attachments) sooner after this treatment.
Follow the protocol described above, drying out and cleaning the piano as thoroughly as possible. Then you can ionize the instrument.
Running the Ionizer
During the ionization process, all living things must leave the home. Even houseplants should ideally be moved away from the generator. Ozone gas is irritating to lungs. In terms of the chemical effects, it’s similar to breathing ultraviolet light (if somebody could do such a thing). However, as ozone reacts with biological substances, it degrades into oxygen, which is harmless. Once the ozone generator has finished its cycle, leave the house unoccupied for at least an equivalent period of time (six further hours if you ran it for six hours) with, ideally, the windows open.
What about mice?
Signs of mouse damage in upright.
Mice can do colossal damage, but seldom do in newer pianos because of their chemical mold treatments. In older pianos, if the colony nests inside the piano, the damage can be devastating.
The initial response is a total cleaning and an evaluation of the damage to moving parts. Additionally, mouse urine can cause warping, sticking keys, and mold. Once all visible evidence is removed and parts are replaced, there are two possible forms of prevention.
Treating the house for mice is ideal. However, this isn’t possible, the piano interior can be thoroughly scrubbed with a solution containing peppermint oil, and a saturated cloth left in the bottom. Another highly rated chemical repellent is Grandpa Gus’s Mouse Repellent. Any visible openings can then be covered with steel exclusion fabric.
Some customers use ultrasonic rodent repellent, but I have none of that I can recommend at this time. They do not seem to be effective as a long-term solution.
Can I polish the strings?
Sometimes, piano dealers polish the strings using 3M pads and steel wool. This can only be done to treble strings, not copper-wound bass strings, and will almost certainly throw the piano out of tune. If your strings are regularly breaking or are severely rusty, it might be worth considering having your piano restrung by a rebuilder.
Do Dampp-Chaser Piano Life Saver Systems help with tuning stability?
Yes, Dampp-Chaser Piano Life Saver Systems do help your piano hold a tune for longer. I always recommend maintaining stable humidity in the room the piano resides in if possible Although this is the best possible solution for the piano, it can be quite challenging. The Piano Life Saver System solves this problem by protecting only the space inside or underneath the piano.
If controlling the humidity in the room is neither practical nor possible, then consider purchasing a Dampp-Chaser Piano Life Saver System. These systems can protect the most vulnerable parts of your piano and assist with tuning stability, even in unstable and extreme environments.
But I didn’t just take their word for it! I’ve installed remote humidity sensors in several pianos. My finding is that Dampp-Chasers do, in fact, keep the humidity inside pianos noticeably more stable. They’re particularly effective at keeping summer humidity under control, and are capable of bracing pianos against even the high humidity of a coastal Maine summer. The graph below depicts the performance of the system in a Vose & Sons baby grand piano located in a church:
Humidity levels over time in Vose & Sons Grand in the Summer.
The above piano has far more tuning stability than it did before, and the Dampp-Chaser will also protect against mold and corrosion. The piano in the above graph does have an undercover installed, and I nearly always recommend including these on grand installations.
Humidity levels over time in Vose & Sons Grand in the Winter.
This chart shows typical wintertime performance. The green line indicates outdoor humidity (not included in the first chart). As you can see, outdoor humidity varies tremendously during the Maine winter. The humidity routinely reaches nearly 100%! The air, once heated, dries out considerably, and you can see this relationship represented by the blue line. Finally, the red line represents the humidity as measured at the piano itself, and you can see the Dampp-Chaser effectively smooths out the variation.
Do Dampp-Chaser Piano Life Saver Systems protect my piano from Extreme Humidity?
Yes, the Dampp-Chaser protects several of the main structural components of your piano from the harshest extremes. During the winter months, in some evenings the relative humidity indoors can be as low as 10%. (I’ve measured as low as 5% in some customer’s houses.) This is close to the humidity the piano might experience in Death Valley during the summer. Conversely, Maine summers can see relative humidity clearing 80%. Both of these extremes can be absolutely devastating for soundboards, bridges, and other finely constructed wooden components and glue joints.
The dehumidifier also does a superb job keeping out condensation and mold. A dehumidifier only system (about a third the cost of the full system) can be installed in pianos susceptible to mold.
However, it’s important to mention that the Dampp-Chaser system does NOT protect the pinblock. Even though the Dampp-Chaser offers significant protection to the piano, the humidity of the room should always be controlled when possible.
Does the piano have to be tuned after the Dampp-Chaser is installed?
The piano will settle after the Dampp-Chaser is installed, and the tuning will change. The usual recommendation is to wait at least two weeks for the piano to settle before tuning it.
Do I need to do anything once it’s installed?
Dampp-Chaser climate control versus the environment.
Your only obligation is filling the humidifier with distilled water when it requires it. There’s a light installed on the piano that will flash when the system needs to be filled, and it comes with a special fill bucket.
Do they wear out?
The Dampp-Chaser system has no moving parts, so they typically last for decades. The humidifier will require a new set of paper wicks every six months. I provide these for free at regular tuneups.
Use only distilled water. Household water contains minerals, and those minerals can accumulate on the humidifier. Over time, corrosion will develop, prematurely aging the system.
Why do Dampp-Chaser system installation quotes vary so much?
The Dampp-Chaser is a retail product, sold through technicians. The technician acts as both the installer and the retailer. Aside from the initial price of the product and any delivery fees, the technician will add a retail markup and then add their installation fee, which might be flat rate or hourly. Different technicians handle this pricing structure very differently, and you’ll see Dampp-Chaser quotes ranging widely. The most important detail is that your installer understands the system conceptually, and has experience adapting it to many pianos effectively. Every Dampp-Chaser installation is a bit unique—some very—and your installer needs to be up to the task.
Do I actually have to use Pad Treatment and Distilled Water?
I’ve cleaned out some horrific humidifier buckets throughout my career. Pad treatment prevents bacteria and mold from growing inside the humidifier. Use the recommended dosage of pad treatment. I’ve had customer try to “pinch pennies” by using half the recommended amount, and yes, I’ve seen mold grow in the humidifier as a consequence. It won’t spread to the piano, as the dehumidifier protects the cabinet. However, it will create an awfully gross situation inside the humidifier, and you’ll need replacement hardware much sooner.
Remember that anything you put into the humidifier, stays in the humidifier. If your water has sediment in it, the sediment has nowhere to go. Dampp-Chaser recommends distilled water. I’ve seen customers use highly filtered water without any negative consequences, but I’ve also seen them use well water and grow massive deposits of iron, calcium, and salt on their humidifiers! These cause corrosion, and are messy. Use distilled water.
