I recently picked up a cheap gun cabinet, mainly for storage. Its one of the cheap '10 gun' cabnets that actually holds more like 5 or 6. I'm looking for a cabinet dehumidifier. I don't need to keep the thing bone dry. Do you guys have anything you like? I know they make some that use a desiccant that you plug into the wall once per month to dry the chemicals. What do you guys find works well, perferably not too expensive.
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Gun cabinet dehumidifier
- Thread starter nuclear_shooter
- Start date
All desicant can be de-humidified (recharged for a better sense of the word) in an oven at 250F, you can pick it up in bulk online. You would just need a container to keep it in inside you cabinet, most of it changes colors as it gets saturated (purple to pink/blue to clear) so that you can tell when you need to change/dry.
If close to a power outlet you could rig a low watt light bulb sort of a poor mans golden rod dehumidifier ($30.00) The trick is to put the heat source at the bottom of the safe so that the warm, dry air rises and flows continuously around your guns.
Also you can use a hygrometer from a cigar humidor to measure % humidity ($6.00) Mine sits around 55-60%
Make SURE to monitor your desiccant, once it "fills up" it becomes a humidity battery and I believe actually encourages higher humidity (the kind that come in a tub that collects in the lower side of the container)
Also you can use a hygrometer from a cigar humidor to measure % humidity ($6.00) Mine sits around 55-60%
Make SURE to monitor your desiccant, once it "fills up" it becomes a humidity battery and I believe actually encourages higher humidity (the kind that come in a tub that collects in the lower side of the container)
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I have been in three distinctly different climates; Hawaii, Coastal Virginia, and at the base of Rockies in Colorado. I have one of those little heating rods you place in the bottom on the safe. Overall, they worked okay in Virginia but I had to buy a larger one and then ran two to keep humidity down and rust to a minimum in Hawaii. I also added a duhumidifier in the room where the safe is kept and had to empty water out once a week. I don't have any particular brand favorites - just get whatever - they are all made in China now anyway - they last for a few years and then burn out and you just buy another. The nice thing about the rods is they won't break if something falls on them and they won't explode and cause problems if that occurs either like a light bulb.
Just as an aside, our arms rooms at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii were a nightmare. We would clean weapons after a deployment or FTX - and turn the weapons in on Friday and the weapons would still have a light coast of rust by the next week. That place was a real challenge. Alternatively, here in Colorado Springs things are uniformly dry and humidity isn't an issue. Overall, I would recommend shooters move to Colorado - if you can stand the occasional wildfire - things are otherwise pretty ideal for shooting
Just as an aside, our arms rooms at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii were a nightmare. We would clean weapons after a deployment or FTX - and turn the weapons in on Friday and the weapons would still have a light coast of rust by the next week. That place was a real challenge. Alternatively, here in Colorado Springs things are uniformly dry and humidity isn't an issue. Overall, I would recommend shooters move to Colorado - if you can stand the occasional wildfire - things are otherwise pretty ideal for shooting
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Overall, I would recommend shooters move to Colorado - if you can stand the occasional wildfire - things are otherwise pretty ideal for shooting
And of course the new round of full retard laws!
Thanks for the good info! I'm thinking about getting something like this: Amazon.com: 450 Gram Silica Gel: Home Improvement. How much should you leave out at a time? Whats a good price for bulk silica?
Edit: Grammer
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I didn't want to mention the politics of Colorado - I am not a resident and therefore 1) don't know the political climate 2) wasn't here to vote for the elected officials that passed the latest round of gun laws. The good news is laws an be changed! The other thing is in a few years the Army will move me again - I am hoping it won't be California!
go with something like this:
Drirod | Removes Moisture | Protect Valuables
The recharge ones are a pain and you end up letting them go far too long between recharges and the other style in the can just trap water in them and they eventually create a nice cup of water in the safe. What you may have an issue with is the structural integrity of the cabinet (as in the amount of air that is allowed to pass between seams and door). With a plug in dri rod style you just plug it in and forget it. Again, if the cabinet is not rather tight you will just end up with a cabinet that has the same internal conditions that is found in the surrounding ambient air outside of the cabinet.
Drirod | Removes Moisture | Protect Valuables
The recharge ones are a pain and you end up letting them go far too long between recharges and the other style in the can just trap water in them and they eventually create a nice cup of water in the safe. What you may have an issue with is the structural integrity of the cabinet (as in the amount of air that is allowed to pass between seams and door). With a plug in dri rod style you just plug it in and forget it. Again, if the cabinet is not rather tight you will just end up with a cabinet that has the same internal conditions that is found in the surrounding ambient air outside of the cabinet.
Hairball,
I really didn't find the dri-rod incabable of altering the humidity. With the safe door closed, I was able to achieve a localized zone of dehumidified air. I kept a digital gauge inside the safe - when I opened it - it was consistently indicating something in the 30-40% range in Hawaii - where the humidity where I lived, Kaneohe Bay, was typically twice that. So, I really felt the dri-rod was doing its job - after I bought two and placed them inside the safe. It was pretty obvious that I didn't have the rusting problem like I would have had I had no means of dehumidifying the area otherwise. Granted the safe was not air tight by no means but with the door closed, I believe that it had enough of a localized zone of control to be effective. What can say categorically is my weapons were not rusting! That was plenty good enough for me. I think for climates less demanding than Hawaii, folks should have correspondingly better results.
I really didn't find the dri-rod incabable of altering the humidity. With the safe door closed, I was able to achieve a localized zone of dehumidified air. I kept a digital gauge inside the safe - when I opened it - it was consistently indicating something in the 30-40% range in Hawaii - where the humidity where I lived, Kaneohe Bay, was typically twice that. So, I really felt the dri-rod was doing its job - after I bought two and placed them inside the safe. It was pretty obvious that I didn't have the rusting problem like I would have had I had no means of dehumidifying the area otherwise. Granted the safe was not air tight by no means but with the door closed, I believe that it had enough of a localized zone of control to be effective. What can say categorically is my weapons were not rusting! That was plenty good enough for me. I think for climates less demanding than Hawaii, folks should have correspondingly better results.
