Waterlogged Pads or ? (Shout-out for tech advice )

[wally]

I'm currently "trialing" a used Altus A807E and thinking of buying it. This flute -seems- to be in perfect adjustment, with probably the smoothest fastest lightest mechanism I've ever encountered. Because I practice most evenings for 1-2 hr in a fairly cool (45-55 F) garage at this time of year, it's not long at all before I have to start shaking out condensation from the flute. Eyeballing things, it seems to collect mostly on both G# pads and the Bb pad.

Last night when practicing, I laid the flute down horizontally on a table surface for something and when I started to play again a few minutes later, the G key would hardly close, as if I had screwed the adjustment screw (for the G#) in .... waaaaaaay in. (This model has the split-E mechanism.) I am certain I didn't handle the flute in a way that might have bumped something. I had to back the adjustment screw out all the way before the G and G# pads would more or less seal together, and even that was not enough.

A few hours later, long after I had swabbed and wiped down the flute and put it away in its case, I took it out just to have another look, and whaddayaknow, now the G/G# adjustment screw seems backed out way too far. I was kind of expecting this but I'm wondering, what's going on?

Is condensation moisture swelling the pad(s), the shims underneath, or could this be a symptom of something else? I can't exactly work on this flute yet, as it's not mine, but I have checked to make sure all pivot screws and hinge-rod steels are in right and tight.

-----later.....

I notice that the adjustment screws on this flute have fairly thick square paper 'washers' underneath their tips, probably for noise reduction. Perhaps these are getting soaked and bloated with moisture?

[DivaricationOfMind]

I actually had the same issue with an Altus 907E I was trialling a few weeks ago. After playing for a bit some of the condensation building up inside dripped onto the D# pad and it caused the pad to swell up and I wasn't able to play anything below low D until the pad dried and sealed again.

This was never an issue on the other flutes I trialled or any flutes I've owned for that matter.

suffice to say, I didn't end up buying that Altus.

[wally]

This was never an issue on the other flutes I trialled or any flutes I've owned for that matter.

suffice to say, I didn't end up buying that Altus.

Yeah, never experienced anything like it myself ... I did a bit more research and found that the noise-reducing paper under the adjusting screws is a rather thick, absorbent material. I actually think the condensation was dripping onto those, causing them to swell up, but too early to say. As a test, I saturated the one under the G/G# adjusting screw with ScotchGuard on a needle-tip. Played the flute several hours last night under the same conditions, nothing weird happened and the flute remained in adjustment.