Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Weird question: Has anyone gotten sick from a new piano?

Hello,

Longtime fan/reader; first-time poster. I have a weird question for my first post!

Around a month ago, I purchased the Yamaha Clavinova CLP-785. I love it! I felt lucky because I was given the option of receiving a brand new piano directly from the warehouse (rather than the floor model). Because it was probably unboxed shortly before delivery, it has a strong smell of wood, varnish, new electronics, etc.

I live in a small condo in a cold climate (windows closed), and I can smell the "new piano" smell when I get home and walk in the door. This didn't really bother me.

I've started to feel really sick in the last week, to the point where I visited my doctor and received several blood tests. Fortunately, everything came back normal, but I started to think about any recent changes I've made in my life (diet, etc.). I realized the only difference is my new piano!

Of course, the new piano may or may not be the cause of my sudden illness, but it does make me wonder. Has anyone here gotten sick from the "off-gassing" of a new piano?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Brian

There was just a post about this in the acoustic piano forum, the person was getting a headache from their piano smell. I'm not surprised some people get sick, there are a lot of materials that outgas used in the construction of everything these days.

Thank you -- I didn't see that post!

When I Googled "new furniture outgassing" I got (as a first hit, which means it's a paid ad):

https://foobot.io/resources/off-gassing/#:~:text=Off%20gassing%20is%20commonly%20happening,system%2C%20and%20also%20a%20carcinogen.

I think that opening a window might be a good idea.

And (going through my old memory banks), there is a known problem with new offices and buildings, making people sick.

I got a bad reaction 10 years ago to a new mattress because of the formaldehyde in it. We ended up getting rid of it as it was making me sick.

It is surprising the toxic chemicals in everyday products!

My new Kawai was delivered last Sunday and I noticed in the first couple days I had a stomachache when I sat down at the piano. I opened the window near it and turned on our air filter next to it and by Wednesday it seemed fine. Might have just been the new piano smell. It's beautiful though and I love it, so I'm glad it stopped bothering me. lol

I get a smell from my Kawai Acoustic Grand when I open the lid, particularity on highly humid days. It was quite strong when the piano was new 3 years ago, but the smell is still there to a lesser degree.
It's a nice seasoned timber smell, and as such I find it very pleasant...like clothing stored in a cedar chest and it has no health affects on me.

If there's a smell, there's someone who gets naseous from it. The only question is, how much of the population is affected.


For instance, the 'new car' smell that people like enough for car manufacturers to actually perfume their cars with? Makes my mom nauseous.

Anyone who has a bird (ahem) has to be very careful with anything that gives off an odour. Birds can get sick and die from the off-gassing from things like paint and plastic, and chemical cleaners and the like.

That's really unfortunate that your new Piano's smell should make you feel unwell.

I damaged my sense of smell after running into a fence with my nose ie, due to my inability to stop quickly on 1990's astroturf whilst playing soccer (a common problem at the time), and inertia ---which caused the rest of me to follow my nose into the fence---I can no longer appreciate the deadly smells of a Yamaha CLP-785, or indeed any other smells that normally clear a room.

Should opening up the window fail to alleviate this condition, I would---as a charitable act---be prepared to take your piano off your hands for a small sum to cover shipping fees 😉.

If you are able to put up with this by opening a window ie, long enough for chemical oxidation to complete, then the problem should dissapear.

Frank: my friends parents used to own a diesel powered canal boat. In order to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning, they used to take their canaries aboard during trips across England's canals. These birds never shut up with constant tweeting (what they talk about for so long, I have no idea). Anyhow, you'd know that if the birds become quiet, that your boat's diesel engine is giving off carbon monoxide, as the birds conk out way before humans do.

Tosaguy, I’m sorry you haven’t been feeling well. I think it’s probably premature, though, to blame it on the piano. There is a phenomenon in epidemiologic research called ‘recall bias.’ When people fell unwell, they try to understand it by thinking about what happened in their lives or what changed, and they do so more than people who are fine. In research studies, this can lead to a falsely determining that an exposure (like acquiring a piano) is truly associated with an outcome (feeling unwell). This is a research principle, but I think it’s useful to think about on an individual level. It is possible that the piano smell is related to your problems, but my guess is that it is unrelated. If you continue to feel unwell, you should continue to follow up with your doctor. Many medical problems evolve and can take time to diagnose. If you do truly feel like the problem may be the piano, then perhaps you can cover it in such a way that doesn’t let the smell permeate the room and see if that results in an improvement in how you feel.

Thank you all for your thoughtful answers!

In the meantime, try antihistamines for the next week or so as the piano outgasses.

And that open window.

I just had new carpet installed in my bedroom... around 2:00 AM I wake up with a mild migraine.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

About 14 years ago i won a MacPro at a competition.
The computer spread a penetrating "sweetish vanillaish" smell from day one.
(you can google "mac pro vanilla smell" if you want)
Which gave me really bad headaches.
After the smell was still there after approx. a year i was lucky that Apple service replaced the computer.
Unfortunately i don't live in the U.S., otherwise i would have thought about starting a law suit

Maybe one thing you can try is to open windows and run fans to reduce the concentration of the fumes in the air inside the apartment. Even if it is winter and cold ----- it should be done, just to cut down on the fumes becoming a serious health hazard.

Bird lovers unite! You can get CO alarms y'know!

Many years ago I taught my bird to talk. Spent hours on that and eventually he started talking and I thought, "Cool!" A few months later he started repeating the last thing he heard, and suddenly I had an echo in the house all the time. Then he learned to ring. His cage was near the phone and it was great fun to ring so I would get up to answer the phone.

Very cute and clever but when you have to live with it it gets a bit much after a while. So I've never had another talking bird. I've always had a bird ever since I was a little kid, but I've learned that regular singing is good enough for me.

And he won't be volunteering to be a CO alarm!

Yeah, CO alarms don't tweet either which means golden silence. Unlike Frank's bird, cannaries can't talk. On the other hand, my friends next door neighbour had parrots, and they used to taunt their two dogs and pretend to be the phone.