Best Defense for Gun Room Humidity?

[Delkal]

Some general comments from reading the thread so far......

Goldenrod dehumidifiers are just small heaters. They do not remove or "drive off" the moisture in the air. You may be fooled and see the relative humidity going down in a safe but that is because relative humidity is temperature dependent. The hotter it is the lower the relative humidity is for the same amount of moisture in the air. The main advantage to these heaters is it keeps your firearms slightly warmer than the outside air. So when you open the safe on a humid day water doesn't condense on the cold metal. They will do absolutely NOTHING in a room except make it hotter.

Don't waste your time with those tiny silica gel packets. Get a big bag of silica gel cat litter (unscented). It is the same silica gel and you can get Vibrant life cat litter at Walmart for about $1.50 a pound. Put some in a cloth bag and try and find room in your safe.

I would never have a UV light running 24/7 in my safe. It will bleach and crack everything not metal.

[ShooterInPA1]

FYI, Per the NRA, the ideal "museum arms" conditions for gun storage are 50% humidity at 70 degrees.

[MT1]

Some general comments from reading the thread so far......

Goldenrod dehumidifiers are just small heaters. They do not remove or "drive off" the moisture in the air. You may be fooled and see the relative humidity going down in a safe but that is because relative humidity is temperature dependent. The hotter it is the lower the relative humidity is for the same amount of moisture in the air. The main advantage to these heaters is it keeps your firearms slightly warmer than the outside air. So when you open the safe on a humid day water doesn't condense on the cold metal. They will do absolutely NOTHING in a room except make it hotter.

Don't waste your time with those tiny silica gel packets. Get a big bag of silica gel cat litter (unscented). It is the same silica gel and you can get Vibrant life cat litter at Walmart for about $1.50 a pound. Put some in a cloth bag and try and find room in your safe.

I would never have a UV light running 24/7 in my safe. It will bleach and crack everything not metal.

I mounted a 24" rod in my gun room and it did drop the humidity. This will not work in all rooms. Varying factors such as room size and composition will have ample impact. Bottom line is if I turn the rod on the humidity drops and when turned off it increases (all other factors being consistent.

The tiny gel packs are good... when used in a small container. Tiny packs in a large safe or room won't make a noticeable difference. Most people I know that use them only do so because they get them for free in packing supplies.

The UV discussion has already been put to bed in last year's posts.

[LiamBlack]

In my room, I use this one

It is small, but my room is not gigantic. To begin with, I measured with a hygrometer, like it is called, humidity and set the parameters on this contraption. It became even more comfortable in the room

[Tomato]

I built a hidden gun room in the basement so I could have my guns hanging on the wall and actually see them when I was working,it's really nice).

It's a concrete and steel re-enforced large walk in gun room/safe. It's 20ft x 10 ft floor area, w/10 ft ceilings, with 6" thick walls.

With that size, I have little control of temperature, it pretty much stays at the temperature of the house.

The humidity is controlled by a large commercial dehumidifier in the basement that keeps the whole basement,with tools, milling machine, etc) and gun room dry. It has never gotten over 50% in the safe.

I would get concerned if the humidity got over 65%, and I would start wiping everything down with G-96. In addition, you can find cool humidity controllers following my link, great article.

If I had a small safe, I would put large bags of desiccant in it.

In the past, I have lost fine firearms to rust, and it's a heart breaker.