How to take care of your piano, and what you should keep in mind to prolong its lifetime without investing much money?

Before buying a piano, it's wise to consider where you will place the instrument.

It’s better to keep the piano away from open windows, doors, exterior walls facing the street, and heaters. Besides, try to find a position that is out of direct sunlight.

It is advisable to place the piano in a big room where temperature is lower than in other rooms and away from the kitchen or bathroom. When ventilating the room, protect the piano against droughts.

It’s also important to change the light bulbs to an energy-saving type.

It is crucial to maintain the temperature of up to 20 degrees Celsius in the room where the piano is placed. Ideally, under certain circumstances, a piano owner shouldn’t use heaters at all. It’s evident that we can’t go through the winter without a heater. Then it would be highly advisable to pay attention to maintaining an indoor constant, moderate temperature without huge swings.

As for the piano maintenance in terms of humidity.

It’s recommended not to put a water jar inside the piano. You’d better think twice before using additional humidifiers to prevent adverse effects.

If you live in a wet, humid climate, and there is a risk for metallic parts to get rusty while wooden ones may warp, the possible solution can be to place the instrument on the side opposite to the window looking at the sea.

If the room is located in the basement, or it suffers from a high level of humidity for some other reasons, it’s desirable to install a ventilation system to reduce indoor humidity.

While humidity is a problem on lower floors; on upper floors, dry air is the problem. In that case, you should neither humidify nor dehumidify the room.

It would be necessary, as it's remarked above, to control the indoor temperature to prevent it from being too high and to install a uniform ventilation in order to protect the piano from fluctuations in humidity and temperature swings.

If a room on the upper floor is closed and narrow without proper ventilation, the wooden parts of the instrument can dry out, which may require their replacement.

In addition, please, avoid using heaters which are pointed at the piano. It is also important that you don't keep the instrument or use it when the temperature drops below zero. After remaining for a while in these ambient conditions, the piano will be susceptible to dry air.

It's advisable to try to maintain an indoor relative temperature +18 Celsius with about 45 % humidity through the whole lifetime of the piano.

In summer, higher temperatures do not affect the piano, because in this season an indoor air isn’t as dry as in winter.

If you live in an old house, and you've seen flying moths, or you possess wood wormy antiques, it would be a good idea to put some insect repellent inside the piano. If the house suffers from mice infestation, it’s necessary to consider anti-rodent measures.

A piano owner should avoid putting anything on the exterior finish as any hard or heavy thing can scratch the instrument that leads to side tones caused by the phenomenon of resonance.

Piano owners should protect their instruments by keeping glasses of water, cups of coffee or other liquids as far away from the instrument as possible. Liquid spills can result in either costly or unrepairable damage to the instrument.

When purchasing a piano, it's strongly recommended following the advice of a reliable technician. It is important to get the opinion of a properly trained professional to avoid risks of buying a piano with defects or one in need of money-consuming repairs.

You should take into consideration that not every piano player is competent enough to assist in choosing a good piano.

As the piano is a heavy and fragile instrument, you should ensure it is delivered by professionals. If the piano is delivered in winter, it isn’t recommended to unpack the instrument until the following day. It is advisable to call a skilled tuner to have the piano tuned one week after delivery. One week is enough to let the instrument adjust to the changes in climate.

How often you need to tune your piano depends on a large extent on how it is stored.

As you can see, there are a lot of details to keep in mind when either buying or maintaining a piano.

Finally, please keep in mind that, as each piano is unique, no advice is uniformly applicable to all pianos.

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Enjoy the music!