The KILN is a portable guitar dehumidifier that has been in development by Guitaring Passionately since 2009. Now this Singaporean company is trying to bring it to the market with an Indiegogo fundraising goal of USD $155,000 (SGD$194,000).
A donation of USD$182 (SGD$228) will entitle the owner to one KILN, inclusive of free delivery to Singapore. This goes up to USD$222 (SGD$278) for International donors, with contributors receiving a suitable power plug and adapter for their region.
But is it worth your money?
Adam Chan, co-founder of Guitaring Passionately, certainly think so. He has been overseeing the development of the KILN since its inception. Adam is a guitar dealer, player, and repair person who knows how to make guitars. The idea for the KILN came about because he noticed that high humidity was a perennial problem that caused guitar bodies to bulge, this affects the instrument’s playability by increasing the height of the strings. He was dissatisfied by common solutions to this problem. To him, these solutions are stop-gaps.
He said, “When I asked a friend what he did, he told me he puts the guitars in sealed room with an electric dehumidifier for 12 hours. And you can’t use the room for anything. Even his wife cannot enter the room!”
Rather than wasting precious living space by maintaining a sealed, climate controlled room for guitars, the KILN offers a much simpler solution.
The KILN is a simple device. It looks like a U-shaped shoe horn. To use it, place the guitar lying on its back and slip the KILN underneath the sound hole and leave it for 8 hours. The KILN uses heat to dissipate the moisture trapped within the guitar’s body, releasing it into the air via convection. This means that the KILN is not really a dehumidifier per se – it doesn’t actually remove moisture in the air, so unlike electronic dehumidifiers, there are no water tanks to empty. Adam says the KILN also work much faster (8 hours for the KILN vs approximately 2 weeks for a dehumidifier), and there is no need to place a guitar in an air tight room for 12 hours a day. In fact, Adam says that the guitar’s sound hole should not be obstructed, so users have to keep their guitar cases open when they plug in the KILN to a power outlet to use it the prescribed 2-3 times a month.
This also make the KILN much more convenient compared to its closest competitor. With Guitaring Passionately estimating a 15L dehumidifier at $400, it is also cheaper, but it isn’t as cheap as placing silica gel or another drying agent inside the guitar’s body leaving it untouched for several days.
But aside from the inconvenience and not being able to use the guitar during this period, Adam also questions the effectiveness of this technique – does the drying agent remove access moisture from the air in the guitar body, or from the guitar itself? To Adam, the only way to remove the moisture is to supply and heat to the air inside the guitar’s body.
To achieve this, the KILN uses an aluminium heating plate to heat the air inside the guitar’s body to around 40ºC to 48ºC, well below the 65ºC threshold that Adam says will weaken the glue used to hold guitars together. In order to heat up the air inside the guitar, the aluminium plate reaches temperatures of up to 110ºC , so users should refrain from touching the metal plate when it is hot.
But is it safe?
In addition to having developed the KILN for nearly 5 years, Adam says he has also tested it on over 300 guitars, with no issues. This includes both classical and acoustic guitars, both constructed with synthetic and hide glue. He says he has also exercised his due diligence by testing the worst case scenario.
“I wrapped up one of my Martins, completely heat shielded, and left it running for two weeks non-stop, and the wood cracked. I had to see what was the breaking point and what was safe.” he said.
To prevent users from making this mistake, the KILN has built-in sensors and it is programmed to cut-off after 8 hours. The only way to get around this is to manually switch on and off the wall socket. Adam, who has a Degree in Mechanical Engineering from NTU, conducted a lot of research prior to developing this product. He says, “I am confident in the science.”
How confident?
He has already spent over $100,000 on industrial design alone, not including the production of prototypes, with each easily costing $500. With Adam’s Indiegogo Campaign, he is trying to raise enough money to mass produce the KILN.
He says, “It doesn’t matter if you are making something big or small, it costs the same amount to create an injection mould. Then there are also certification tests, so the starting cost is higher.”
The KILN is seeking funding under Indiegogo’s “fixed funding campaign”, this means that if the target amount isn’t reached, contributors will get their money back. Paypal handles both the transaction and escrow service, with the money being held till the end of the fund raising period. Users who have either a Paypal account or credit card have until July 15, 2014 to make a contribution here.
But even if the KILN doesn’t meet its Indiegogo fundraising target, it may still find a way to make it to the market. Several international guitar brands have already expressed interest in marketing and distributing the KILN.
