Climate control is actually more important to piano care than tuning. The climate can destroy your piano in a matter of months. Poor tuning habits are usually inconsequential to your piano lasting a long time.(Not trying to instill fear.) An extreme example would be leaving the doors and windows open at your beachfront home in Key West, Florida allowing all that fresh, humid, salty air to settle on your piano. This would cause the strings to corrode in a matter of months, turning a new piano into a 100 year old piano ready to be rebuilt (more or less).

It's really a simple matter, this climate control issue. With some application of common sense we can alleviate most climate related damage. The main concern is humidity or lack thereof. For starters, just be aware of the climate. If it's raining, don't open the windows. Go buy a hygrometer. You can usually find these at stores that sell home care products and they are usually combined with a thermometer and sometimes sold within a set of three instruments including; thermometer, hygrometer and barometer. With these instruments you can keep a watch on the climate in your home. Pianos (and people too) don't like humidity above 55%. The ideal is 42% and if it gets below 30% that's getting too dry.

The good thing is, throughout a portion of the year most homes stay pretty close to the acceptable range without any extra controls. This is why there are so many old piano's that still look good and work pretty well even though they may have not had climate control devices installed.

The seasonal climate where you live plays a large part in your decision of what type of climate control to purchase. In the dry West, pianos hardly ever get rusted parts but they can get too dry. This causes wood parts to crack and moving parts to be loose. These pianos need more humidity. In the upper East and Midwest there are two extremes in climate; humid summers and dry winters. This is the worst situation for anything made of wood. These pianos need more humidity in the winter and less in the summer. In the humid South your piano's need for more humidity is nearly nonexistant so the danger there is always too much humidity. This shows in older pianos in the South. Even newer pianos in the South can show corrosion within months and even weeks after purchase if the climate is not controlled. The strings and other metal parts get very corroded and rusty. Moving parts can get very tight from wood swelling too. No matter what your climate outside, though, a climate control system installed in your piano is always a good idea. Even if it only comes on for very short periods or for a month or two throughout the year, climate control will help to protect your piano from damage and tuning instability.

The best climate controller is you. To the right is a list of practical things you can do as well as things to buy that will help keep your piano from damage due to too high and too low humidity levels.