Musty smells? Can they be cured?

[Jomme]

Hello
Just to say I bought a little ozon genarator because I had a few accordions with bellows smelling like mushroom factorys and by using this thing in a box for 2* 2 hours the smell is really gone!
To use with care.... shouldnt be difficult because the manual is 6 pages of what not to do but they dont say how to use the machine

 

[HiTechBiniou]

Leave the accordion wide open on its back on a table and the case open too for one year or two and the smell will go away. You can also leave it outside under a covered place once in a while to help the process. I mean, for an hour or two while you can keep an eye on it. Never let it on direct sun light because the wax will melt. You can leave the case open on direct sunlight thought.

 

[HiTechBiniou]

About leaving you accordion on its feet, here is a slide that shows one of the reason not to leave your accordion standing on its feet. The accordion is store best standing up like the second slide shows.

 

[debra]

Leave the accordion wide open on its back on a table and the case open too for one year or two and the smell will go away. You can also leave it outside under a covered place once in a while to help the process. I mean, for an hour or two while you can keep an eye on it. Never let it on direct sun light because the wax will melt. You can leave the case open on direct sunlight thought.

I tried that for about half a year (on my late sister's accordion). The other half of the year it's too cold and moist here...
I can definitely say that half a year is NOT enough, not even when for the other half of the year I tried with the accordion in its case together with a bag of ground coffee alternated with a bad of baking soda... Maybe I should try again for the next half a year outside (under cover and not in direct sunlight of course)...

 

[Waldo]

Ozone!

 

[Scuromondo]

Patient: “Doctor, doctor, it hurts when I do this!”
Doctor: “Then don’t do that!”

…If the ‘cure’ for musty smells in an accordion is to not play the accordion for 2+ years, it sounds like the real practical answer to the question, “Can they be cured?” is, “No!”

​

 

[HiTechBiniou]

Patient: “Doctor, doctor, it hurts when I do this!”
Doctor: “Then don’t do that!”

…If the ‘cure’ for musty smells in an accordion is to not play the accordion for 2+ years, it sounds like the real practical answer to the question, “Can they be cured?” is, “No!”

​

Of course, you can play the accordion while doing what I recommend. Just don't leave it in its case.

 

[Dingo40]

"Of course, you can play the accordion while doing what I recommend. Just don't leave it in its case..."
As High Tech says: in fact, the more you play it the better!
In short, speaking from practical experience, airing in a dry warm environment eventually succeeds, but it does take quite some time!

 

[Scuromondo]

"Of course, you can play the accordion while doing what I recommend. Just don't leave it in its case
As High Tech says: in fact, the more you play it the better!
In short, speaking from practical experience, airing in a dry warm environment eventually succeeds, but it does take quite some time!

Probably true, but I will never know because I would never willingly breathe mold spores for as long as it would take!

 

[swingbozo]

First thing I noticed after my influx of old accordions was my house smelling like an old accordion. I like the ozone in a bag solution, I think I'll have to try that! We got an ozone machine for a fridge I needed to de-stink. Worked so-so on the fridge. Should work way better on an accordion!

 

[Dingo40]

SB,
What worked were for me, when destinking a fridge after a power failure during a heat wave, was leaving two heaps of sodium bicarbonate (from the supermarket) piled in empty sardine tins
( one in the cooler another in the freezer section).
It took two weeks in all.
Now it's as fresh as a daisy!

 

[Ventura]

a brief on Ozone:

Ozone is simply O3 which is an unstable molecule of Oxygene
which makes it like to loose it's 2 extra atoms of OXY by
reacting with almost anything that will accept a free oxygen atom

oxidation is natures purification system, and is behind most purification
processes (like bleach and other Valentes)

because it is so unstable and so reactive, as a Human you wish to
avoid breathing it in, as that concentrated an amount of excess Oxy
can "burn" your lungs and other mucous membranes (like the inside
of your nose)

ozone machines are very useful and effectively deployed to the insides
of ductwork (to purify an airflow and internal surfaces) and inside of
commercial Ice Machines, water cooling towers, cisterns and the like..
they do their work and the excess Oxy is dissipated by the time associated
air gets back around Humans

really tiny ozonators are sometimes included in room air filtration systems,
but output is miniscule so they do not affect pets or people

today, we have available small to medium ozonators that use a type
of UV Light-tube... these are handy to use as often you can send the
airflow down a 1/2 or 3/4" tube

i have used several of these for many years and have used the ozone
to "clean up" mold spores etc. in hard to reach places

we also have readily available plate ozonators (popular on Amazon)
with twist on timers so you can set them to run for 15 minutes
to a few hours as you walk out the door.. i also used one of these during Covid
to purify cars, rooms, etc.

since these are larger, you need to open your accordion (and bellows)
and set it on a table in a small room with a door

Ozone is a great tool to use, but use it carefully

 

[Dingo40]

As Ventura says, Ozone will attack anything...even parts of the accordion or accordionist!
Also:
"Whether in its pure form or mixed with other chemicals, ozone can be harmful to health. When inhaled, ozone can damage the lungs. Relatively low amounts of ozone can cause chest pain, coughing, shortness of breath and, throat irritation."

 

[crescendo]

I had my home fumigated for termites and left the mildewed accordion inside during fumigation.
No damage to accordion and mildew gone

 

[matagamasi]

This worked for me on a slightly musty smelling 14-year old accordion: I put it in a closed box with camphor. Camphor kills fungus and bacteria and it also prevents metals from corroding, so it is good for the reeds and other metal bits. Mechanics put it in tool boxes, and it will prevent silver jewelry from tarnishing. I put two pieces of camphor in the box. Each piece was about the size of a Smartie, so you don't need very much. The camphor slowly sublimates (like mothballs). It lasted about 2 weeks before I had to replace it. After a month the musty smell was mostly gone.

I also put camphor in the soft-sided case which took about 2 weeks to completely get rid of the smell.

I try to play it every day, and when I do I put a tiny amount of Vicks VapoRub on the back of my hands. Vicks is 4.7% camphor by weight, so the idea is that some of the camphor gets into the bellows when I'm playing. Maybe it does nothing, but it doesn't hurt, and it masks the smell.

One of the best disinfectants that people don't generally know about is hypochlorous acid (HOCl). Sounds dangerous but our white blood cells produce it to kill microorganisms and I think you can safely drink it, but that is best left untested. Water is H2O. Replace one hydrogen atom with a chlorine atom and that is HOCl. Is is about 100 times more powerful than chlorine bleach at killing microorganisms, and it is effective at killing spores which bleach is not good at.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/581270

HOCl is also better than rubbing alcohol and iodine for cleaning wounds at a concentration of only 6 ppm:

Hypochlorous Acid: An Ideal Wound Care Agent

Why don't you see it everywhere? Because it has a short shelf life. You have to make it and use it within a few hours or a few days depending what you read. I've been using it for years for smelly dishwashers, smelly drains, fungus on window frames, etc. There are expensive machines that make it from water and salt. I mix 1 teaspoon (5 mL) of bleach in 1 litre (1,000 mL) of water, and then I add 1 teaspoon of vinegar. That produces a 200 ppm solution of HOCl which is good for spraying on surfaces. Use 2 litres of water and you will get a 100 ppm solution which is good for soaking things in. I only let it work for 10 to 20 minutes because about 20% of the bleach does not convert to HOCl, so it will have a bleaching effect if you let things soak in it for a long time.

For the musty accordion, once a week I put about 2 tablespoons (30 mL) of the 200 ppm HOCl solution in a small glass jar and put it in the box with the accordion along with the camphor, and leave it in the box overnight (24 hours maximum). The idea is that HOCl gas will help kill the fungus. I don't know if the small amount of HOCl gas will corrode metal, but the camphor should mitigate that. I haven't noticed any corrosion anywhere.