It has been a long time between posts... I've been extremely busy travelling a lot so not much time!

This has led to my problem!

One of the worst things about living in a tropical climate such as Singapore is the humidity... I learnt this years ago when if you don't have air conditioning and don't use things like leather goods for a while they develop mold and become brittle and are totally ruined.

With my travelling schedule over the last 6 months I am only home a few days a week and where previously my A/C was on at least most days of a week for a few hours now this is not the case.... The result is the my current problem, I have a surface white mold on the wooofers and the mid ranges of my S80's... my worry is that this will make them brittle, and or prone to failure.... 

So has anyone experienced a similar situation as this before and any advice? is this a concern?

My current strategy is to have the A/C on every night while i'm at home hopefully that will assist but what about the current mold present? 

Thanks!

That is bad!

Now I am no expert but mold likes to live in places that are porous like cardboard from speakers or the wood of loadspeaker cabinets. I had it on wooden speaker cabinets that hadn't been oiled in a long time. After properly oiling the cabinets the problem never returned.

Same should apply to cardboard: there is stuff available, some kind of laquer, to treat loadspeakers and improve their rigidity/sound. I can't remember what it's called though! This wil fill up the porousness of the cardboard and make the surface smooth and less inhabitable for molds. Think you should treat the back side of the woofer too. But before treating I think you should kill off all the mold that already developed, I would use methylated alcohol (in Dutch we call it spiritus)

I don't know about the dome midrange, it might not like coating or methylated alcohol!

It would be nice if someone with more experience could give his opinion, as above story is based purely on my common sense, so no guarantees

Just dry it out with a hair dryer and brush it off with a soft brush.

I would keep heat and all solvents well away from the drivers.

Unlike some fungi, mold can't feed itself and will stop growing the moment the conditions are unsuitable for it. I don't think the mold in the cones will damage the speakers in any way, but the mold-allowing conditions themselves might.

Once they seem to be reasonably dry, you can carefully wipe or brush the dead mold away, but I think it will only be a cosmetic improvement.

Hey guys,

Thanks for your replies...

Premiumverum, the mold on the outside of the cabinets is what drew my attention to the situation, a white powdery residue.... Will get them re oiled (normally do this 1 - 2 times a year)....

I think Mika, that was my concern, but as the problem seems to be a change in the living situation (meaning some weeks I may only be here 3 days at best) a difficult one.... I might have to explore using timers for the A/C to come on for a couple hours every day in my absence, which I think is all that is needed to dry the air out and get some air movement, which are the obvious causes... Being damper than usual air, that is still.... I have spotted some mold also on one of my paintings .... sigh....

Once i think I have stopped the growing, will use the soft brush to clean them up Telecine....

Best,

Laurence.

In my part of the world we call humidity "damp". You could consider using a dehumidifier as these can be set to what ever level you are ok with. They are heavy on power consumption. How they compare with A/C I do not know, but unless your house is resonably airtight either system will be expensive to run.

Or you might consider having the speakers enclosed in a box with lots of rice for a few days; rice absorbs humidity quite well!

Then you can wipe the white mould powder out. Finally spray anti-mould product all over.