Gun Safe Humidity Control

speedy

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With so many options for Gun Safe Humidity control, what products do you use, or find to work the best for you. For a large or small safe.
-Humidity Control Desicant, disposable or renuable (plug to renew)
-Electric Dehumidifiers (ie, rods)
-Eva-Dry & Peet Dry
-Air circulating dehumidifiers
-other
 
I'm curious what people use as well. If possible, I'm also curious where people buy them. Searching Google comes up with a lot of results, but no good way to evaluate them.

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Damp rid. Remington also make a re-chargeable "Bag" that you can put in your oven to re-charge. Short money.

I had a thing from Remington where the little beads would change color to indicate they needed to be recharged. During the summer the thing would change color within 2 days of recharging it. I said screw it and got the damp rid. It's lasted over a year so far. Oh, I should also mention I stuck in one of those Oust air fresheners with the battery powered fan (link), but left the air freshener part out. It keeps the air moving and I noticed that the reservoir in the damp rid bucket collected water a LOT faster once I started using that little fan. The fan cycles on and off automatically, so one D battery lasts about 6 months or so.
 
My approach is threefold:

The gun safe is in a room whose door I keep closed and locked. In that room, I have a dehumidifier set to run all the time, with a little pump that gets rid of the accumulated water to the outside. I don't mean the dehumidifier runs constantly; it cycles on and off. I have the knob set about half way from off to full, and that seems to do a good job.

Inside the safe I am using a goldenrod and one of the Remington Model 365 Silica Gel Desiccant Dehumidifiers: Model 365 Silica Gel Desiccant Dehumidifier

I have a cheap little relative humidity gauge on the front of the safe that tells me how damp the air is. Over the winter, it has typically shown low 40s or high 30s. We shall see how it does in the summer, but I think taking the moisture out of the air in the room is the critical factor, as I have had the Remington thing in there for months without ever having to recharge it.
 
I use large silica packs similar to THESE

I get them from work though. Some of the supplies we buy come with them. I pop them in the oven on low (170°F) for a few hours every couple of months. I also keep one in each of my ammo cans.
 
I have a room dehumidifier that I use all year long. It keeps the room around 40%. (except winter of course, 30% due to frunace heating), I can set it to dry more or less but I find it comfortable at 40. Will cycle on an off as needed. I have not used any dehumidifiers inside the safe other than desicant bags. I assume that the RH inside will be close to the room. I will look into investing on a small Relative humidity gadget to monitor the inside of the safe. Can the golden rods be adjusted for driying levels or is it a one setting deal?
 
I have a room dehumidifier that I use all year long. It keeps the room around 40%. (except winter of course, 30% due to frunace heating), I can set it to dry more or less but I find it comfortable at 40. Will cycle on an off as needed. I have not used any dehumidifiers inside the safe other than desicant bags. I assume that the RH inside will be close to the room. I will look into investing on a small Relative humidity gadget to monitor the inside of the safe. Can the golden rods be adjusted for driying levels or is it a one setting deal?

Both of the ones I have offer no control. You just plug them in and they are on.

I bought my humidity gauge (hygrometer) from these guys: http://www.elighters.com/accessories-hygrometers.html

I don't know if their products are any better or worse than anyone else's, though.
 
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A silica pack (the metal canister kind) and a Goldenrod seem to do the trick fine for most people. The Goldenrod stops the air from falling below the dew point, and the silica decreases the amount of vapor in the air.

I like to think of Goldenrods as a backwards typical dehumidifier - a dehumidifier usually works by making a very cold object below the dew point, onto which air vapor condenses. The goldenrod warms the safe contents a few degrees and ensures that, if the air temp drops such that water vapor is going to condense out, it'll do it elsewhere... the whole room other than the safe is in effect the dehumidifier.

I've also had good luck with the vapor phase corrosion inhibitor stuff (Bullfrog from Cortec in particular).
 
i use this remington one and havent had to "recharge/dry" it since end of last summer. my safe is in the basement and it gets pretty damp in summer so i run a dehumidifier in the room. i also use this browning zerust in the safe. best defense is a protective coating on the metal. i use eezox for its rust prevention and it dries so dust wont collect as bad as oil.
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use that same Remington plug in to recharge that Joshh has pictured.(iI had that bag thing and when I put it in the oven to recharge- it exploded,wife will not let me near oven to this day after that)

I do a total pull them all out,wipe down and replace at least twice a year.Most are in the wick gun socks as well.
 
Lots of great ideas. I may try the Remington (eva-dry type) dehumidifier along with wick socks on the less used items, and a basic hygrometer to monitor the inside of the safe I am sure the it won't be far off from the room readout. Have not used Eszox, but sounds like a good product. Will look into it. I still like to keep basic disposable desiccants with the ammo boxes. This is one of those things that has not been an issue, but then I do not want to look back and say, crap!...I should have taken care of this sooner. I can see how a small fan (battery) can keep the inside air homogeneous by circulating it around. Cool.
 
Looks like the same company that makes the ones for Remington but that have bigger models too.Might grap a 500 as well,can't hurt.

They are great, come in different sizes and really are well constructed and work well. You can get them on Amazon and other websites at a nice discount....

Very easy to re-charge... Good Luck.
 
My cellar is pretty dry, I have yet to have any corrosion problems with the guns in my safe over the last 30 years. For insurance I think I will install a 75 watt light bulb. This should evaporate any residual moisture.
 
I use almost the exact system StrangeNH uses: Goldenrod, silica-based desiccant (the kind with the color indicator that you "recharge" in the oven), and Bullfrog VCI. So far, so good.
 
Goldenrod in the safe which is in the basement. The Goldenrod is way oversized for the volume of the safe.

In the basement I have a whole house dehumidifier running with the humidistat set to 40 percent. It drains into a french drain and exits the house via a sump pump so I don't have to worry about emptying buckets
 
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My cellar is pretty dry, I have yet to have any corrosion problems with the guns in my safe over the last 30 years. For insurance I think I will install a 75 watt light bulb. This should evaporate any residual moisture.

That'll work but it's total overkill. It really only takes a degree or two of differential for the principle to work. Not to mention 75W x 24h x 365 is 657KWh/yr, so there's also the ~$100 per year in electricity leaving that on all the time will cost you. Use a 20W utility light or just drop $20-$30 on a Goldenrod and never look back.
 
I use the plug in rechargeable ones similar to what other have posted. In my big safe i run 2 of the big Eva-Dry ones and in the smaller safes i run 1ea of the smaller style.
 
Obviously, the lower, the better. What are the generally accepted humidity level parameters for storage?
 
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