As piano technicians and rebuilders we strongly recommend the addition of a Dampp-Chaser Piano Life Saver humidity control system to any piano, especially if the piano is a significant financial investment or resides in an extreme or unstable humidity environment. Having installed thousands of systems since 1983, we know that pianos with these systems perform better and last longer than pianos without a system. The short term benefits include better pitch stability and action performance, while the long term benefits include preventing soundboard cracks, rust, mold, failed glue joints and delamination. On older pianos with existing soundboard cracks that have not yet opened, a system will prevent the cracks from opening and spreading. From a piano technician’s perspective, it can seem like the miracle of pianos is that they work at all! Besides iron and steel, pianos are made from wood, felt and leather, materials whose stability depends on the surrounding humidity environment. The soundboard is the most important piece of wood in any piano, not only giving the piano its voice but also its pitch stability by providing a stable platform for the hundreds of steel and copper wires in the piano. Wood is also used to make the thousands of tiny precision parts in the action of a piano. These wooden parts are padded with other humidity-sensitive materials such as felt and leather to minimize noise from direct wood-to-wood contact. These parts must fit together snugly enough not to rattle, yet loosely enough to move freely. The tolerances are minuscule. The fact that piano actions work as well as they do is a testament to the quality of the materials and the meticulous seasoning these materials undergo before being cut into their desired shapes. Still, for them to continue to function year after year at a consistently high level, a stable humidity environment is required. Most of us are unable or unwilling to maintain such tight control over the humidity levels in our homes, which is why a humidity control system made specifically for pianos is such an important addition. “Dampp-Chaser” Piano Life Saver systems provide round-the-clock humidity control from within your piano. Each system consists of a humidifier, a dehumidifier and a humidistat which adds or removes humidity as needed to provide constant stability to your piano from within. They are designed specifically for pianos, make no noise, have no motors nor moving parts and take nothing away from the performance of your piano. We install them here for $450, often in instruments costing as much as 80 times as much as the system itself. This fact alone makes it difficult to justify NOT purchasing one for your piano.