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hello, Deirdre. I see that you’re from BC like me. That makes the job much easier, in that we never get really low ambient humidity, nor do we get so much heat that you need the windows wide open on any given day. I had a similar problem with a very valuable vintage guitar. Fortunately I caught it before the damage was irreversible and was able to get the original luthier to rescue it. It is now an amazing 48-year old gem and my pride and joy. Obviously I am very careful with it and all my instruments. I do very well with this Levoit humidifier. It has the capacity to last me a few months between refills, and I’m able to keep it filled with distilled water. It is absolutely silent, and produces a gentle mist that does not condense on any surfaces. Wooden instruments need RH anywhere from 40-60% and the Levoit will keep it within a 5% range. I have mine set to 45, so it kicks in whenever the humidity drops to 40% and continues until it reaches 45, then shuts off. All of my instruments stay in perfect shape, and I don’t have to worry about locking them in cases. They’re all in stands or on the wall.
The only complaint I have about the Levoit is that the humidistat is not horribly accurate. It’s consistent, but I’ve discovered it always reads ~4% low. So the room is actually 44-49%. To know for sure, this is the best low-cost electronic RH meter that I have found. The manufacturer calibrates them manually before they’re shipped.
