A good understanding of how humidity relates to the health of your piano has the potential of adding years of life to your piano. I believe every piano owner would benefit from reading these short articles.

Best place to locate your piano

Bay windows, while attractive, are usually one of the worse places to locate your piano

The general rule is to avoid outside walls, fireplaces, doors, windows, direct sunlight or any area where the humidity is unstable.

There are three enemies of pianos:

1. Unstable environment
2. Lack of service
3. Defective or low quality parts

While low humidity badly affects a piano, and high humidity badly affects a piano, even worse is swinging back and forth, which is what we have in Kansas City ( KC MO & KC KS ) – hot humid summers and cold dry winters. This swinging back and forth is a serious problem which makes placing your piano in the most stable environment very important.

Piano placement according to Steinway

As we have said, common sense is an excellent guide in the care of your Steinway piano. This is especially true when you are choosing the proper site for the piano in your home.

About 70% of your piano is wood, which even though it has been carefully selected and dried, is still “alive,” so to speak…  Constant fluctuation in… [humidity]  …is definitely bad for your piano’s health. And may lead to more frequent servicing. The action regulation, tuning, and voicing will become unstable.

We urge you to adhere to the following recommendations which will help you minimize wear and tear and help you keep your piano in optimum condition.

• Don’t position it in the path of an air conditioning outlet or a heating outlet.
• Don’t put it near an evaporator cooler or a room humidifier.
• Don’t put it close to an uninsulated outside wall.

If you think of yourself rooted to any of these spots and subjected to the changes of temperature and humidity thereabouts, you will be able to imagine what a piano in the same location would have to endure. Pianos placed in such locations cannot be expected to stay in tune and keep their adjustment. More important, the instrument subjected to such environmental insult may be permanently damaged.

When placing your piano within a room it is important to pick a spot where it will not be hit by direct sunlight. The exterior of your piano is made of wood from the same tree, carefully stained and color-matched at the Steinway & Sons factory. Exposure to direct sunlight will bleach the wood and ruin the piano’s carefully prepared finish.

It is a good idea to place a fairly accurate hygrometer near the piano so you can monitor humidity swings. Room dehumidification, humidification or air-conditioning may be needed to maintain a stable environment. The consideration of these items if necessary far outweigh the increased servicing, which may become necessary if these guidelines are not followed.

Deciding on the best piano location

Walk around your home and pick out every area you could possibly tolerate your piano. Then buy an equal number of digital hygrometers (humidity gauge) and place one hygrometer in each area for six months. (Be sure to buy hygrometers that will record the minimum and maximum humidity swings) The best place to locate your piano is where you have the least humidity swings.