Leaking Humidipaks again…
 

I usually use Music Nomad humidifiers in my guitars’ cases over the winter season but, this past winter, having heard that the leakage problem had been solved several years ago, I decided to try Humidipaks again. A very expensive option - for example, twelve replacement paks cost over £80 ($100) on Amazon UK - but they've kept the RH nicely in the 45-50% range all winter so, on that score, I’ve been reasonably happy with them. The paks remained soft all through the winter so I’ve had no reason to ‘recharge’ or replace them.

However, when I checked them yesterday, three of the twelve paks were leaking. Fortunately nothing leaked out of the cloth bags the paks hang in, but the 25% failure-rate has persuaded me to abandon Humidipaks and, next winter I will go back to the Music Nomad humidifiers - never had a failure with those, and a gallon of distilled water costs around £8 ($10) and lasts several years.

A very disappointing end to what I had hoped would be a successful experiment. And the last time I’ll waste money on those POS Humidipaks. Back to the KISS Principle, and the good ole, fail-safe MNs..

I will never put a moisture - containing device inside, or in direct contact with a guitar. While that indeed seems a bad run of luck, I've been running boveda | humidipak to stabilize my Martin & Santa Cruz guitars for 3 years now, and all my woods for building (for a year+). I suspend packs over silica desiccant / distilled water as needed to remove / add water. No packs have failed yet, and as they're never in contact with an instrument or tone wood, I'm not worried about when some eventually fail.

My problem with MN etc is that the equilibrium humidity of air over water is something like 80-90% RH .. also, putting them inside the instrument body.

Ommv of course.

I guess if I want someday to make my wall case for the SCGC OM, and my tone wood storage box more stable and further reduce my maintenance time, I'll work out a correct salt slurry mixture, put that into a glass container with slotted cover, and run a small battery powered fan to provide forced circulation.

Sorry to hear that. I’ve been using Humidipaks for many years. Never a problem. So they remain my go-to humidification system.

Same. Knock on wood...

I was using RO treated water but too many minerals remained and put a light dusting on everything. Now I use the water produced by the air conditioner in the summer, because it’s free.

I've used Humidipaks for years and never seen a leak. Where did you buy them? It would certainly be an easy product to counterfeit. I beta-test some MusicNomad items and I was given a case humidifier about 5 years ago to evaluate and it is the best case humidity stabilizer I've used. The last I heard was a couple of years ago and they were still not ready to release it. I don't know why but I would like to get more of them. What I got still works great.

Same here.

I've been using them for over 10 years. Fortunately, no issues here.

Hi Steve, I bought them from the D’Addario Store on Amazon UK, I’ve frequently bought other D’Addario products there and they have been fine, so I have no reason to suspect the humidipaks were counterfeit.

I ‘get it’ that there are others here who claim to have ‘used them for years and never had a problem’ and, if that’s so, I’m genuinely very happy for them. However, ‘never’ is a very long time, and I’d recommend those people not to count their chickens before they hatch - very much in the same vein as owners of Martin guitars built since 2012 who haven’t experienced binding-separation…..yet.

In JayBeeWorld, personal experience is the supreme teacher. No more humidipaks will cross my doorstep, I’m sticking in future to the KISS principle and using my safe and reliable Music Nomad humidifiers - I’ve never heard of anyone having any kind of problem with those.

As always, the standard disclaimer applies - IMHO. However, I realise that YMMV, and I’m cool with that.

I understand completely. However, if you haven't, I would contact the seller of the paks and (I know you don't want them) get a refund for your purchase. Honestly, the most efficient system I've used is the soap dish/sponge. You can buy "special" :) sponges that don't drip and drill holes in the soap dishes. It works great and they're usable for .... (almost) ever at no additional charge.

Yeah, I’ve used home-made ‘sponge-in-a-perforated-baggie’ humidifiers in the past, very cheap indeed (a few pence each) and they work absolutely fine. The MN humidifiers I have use the non-drip ‘dense’ sponge inserts, and I’ve had great success with them in the past - the only drawback is the need to soak them in distilled water every week or so but hey, I’m long-retired, so time is not in short supply! :wink::ha:

Every year people report here about leaking Humidipaks. I don't know why people keep using them.

Just because it hasn't happened to you, doesn't mean that it won't. Your time just hasn't come up yet.

Same for me.

Been using them for many, many years on many guitars without any leaks. Sorry it happens to some.

Too many reports like this to risk a catasrophic leak inside an expensive guitar. In winter, I put one in the case pocket and a moist sponge in the soundhole. In summer, nothing.

I’m using the packs in two guitars. The bags they use now have a lining, which is an improvement over the open mesh pouches they used to use.

Many years ago the packs leaked into my Martin Geib case and damaged the inside of the lid. With persistence I got Daddario to pay for a new Geib case.

I still use the packs but I don’t go for long periods without inspecting them. (Music Nomad sponges 🧽 repeatedly developed mold even with distilled water).