Nano coating for reeds?

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  • #14386
    Carola
    Participant

    This is my first post here. My main instrument is the saxophone and I had the desire to add another wind instrument. Saxophonists are usually expected to double on flute or clarinet, but I chose the chromatic harmonica and melodica. I’m very happy with my decision!

    Now to the topic of this post:

    Water on the reeds may cause problems, so I would like to know if one of those nano coating products could make the reeds more water repellent without affecting tone and intonation. Has anyone tried this? If not, then I have a cheap melodica that I could use as a guinea pig.

    #14387
    Melodica-Me
    Participant

    Hello Carola, I don’t think that a nano coating would help since the issue is the accumilation of moisture that affects the performance. blowing the moisture out frequently would help. There has been some other suggestions like an air pump that pulls the moisture out.
    here is the link. https://melodicaworld.com/whats-a-melodica/…
    scroll down to “How do I dry out my melodica?”
    Standing your melodica upright and letting the moisture accumalate then releasing the moisture while in the upright position works too.
    Melodica-me

    #14389
    Carola
    Participant

    Hello Melodica-Me,

    thanks for your advice. Since nobody has reported any bad experiences, I’ll just try it out of curiousity and see what happens (without having too high expectations).

    Carola

    #14390
    Daren
    Keymaster

    Let us know what happens Carola!

    #14391
    Carola
    Participant

    Yes, I’ll let you know what happens. Estimated delivery date of my order is currently 14 – 17 September.

    #14461
    Carola
    Participant

    I’ve now received and tried the nano coating (Nanotekas Nano Coating for Metal Chrome Stainless Steel):

    It comes as high priced spray can (25 Euros/100 ml) in a small package. I had assumed I could spray a thin layer directly on the reeds and just remove excess with a cloth. But first it must be sprayed on a cloth, applied to the reeds with this cloth, and then, excess has to be removed with another cloth. This procedure requires a much higher dosis than spraying it directly on the reeds, which makes it very expensive.

    The spray can has a warning “highly inflammable” on it, but there is no list with the ingredients and also no info­rmation about allergens or toxicity. Is it just as bad as a hair spray or worse? I’d really like to know that, especially considering that every time when moisture is blown out of the melodica, a certain amount of the nano coating might be distributed into the air. The spray has a certain odor, but it’s not extreme and dissipates fast (but sometimes, toxic ingredients have no odor at all).

    Before applying the nano coating, I’ve cleaned the reeds and reed plates thoroughly with a dry cloth – wet cloth – kitchen cleaner – wet cloth – dry cloth – alcohol (there was some debris from the factory). To my surprise, applying the nano coating to a few reeds (including reed plate) left a dark spot on the cloth and the reed plate looks a bit shinier where it had contact, although I had just cleaned it. I didn’t rub hard at all, so it seems that the nano coating contains something aggressive.

    I’ve sprayed some destilled water on all reeds and don’t see any difference between the nano coated and uncoated zone. I had expected fewer or smaller water drops, but that’s not the case. This nano coating spray is primarily advertised for stainless steel and chrome, maybe that works better.

    To summarize it, I don’t recommend using this spray inside a melodica.

    #14466
    Alan Brinton
    Participant

    Thanks, Carola, for reporting on your experimentation with Nano coating. It’s something that waa worth investigating.

    #14467
    Carola
    Participant

    Hi Alan,

    thanks for your feedback, I hope I’ll find the time for more experiments soon.

    #14468
    Daren
    Keymaster

    Carola – thanks for looking into this and ruling out nano coating!

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