Gun Safe Humidity, How Much?????

[dreever]

We all have something or another to control humidity within our gun safes, but just how much is acceptable?
I wondered about this so I put an inexpensive temperature and humidity electronic guage available at Wal Mart in my safe for 24 hours.,If you buy one make sure you compare all they have, since I've seen a couple that were VERY different from the others being 8-10 percent one way or the other) This morning when I opened the door the temperature was 68 degrees and the humidity was at 32 percent.

So what are some of your results, and what do you feel is an acceptable level and how do you achieve this? Do you opt for a larger de-humidifying rod to get it even lower, or what?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Danny

 

[JFMorgan]

Danny,

In the Air Force we kept our equipment cooling at 65 degrees F. and the relative humidity at 35%. The figures you stated seem to be in the X ring.

Jim

 

[CatShooter]

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.

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.



.

 

[rem_kujawa]

I just got my safe and have two large desiccants in at the bottom that support 60CI safes,also I have one smaller remington one on my pistol self.I just put a gauge in and its already at 58degrees and 43% humiditiy.It should go down in a few hours cause the door was open.One thing I did notice is that one of the larger desiccants the blue beads turn pink over night,the other two are fine.

My safe is 30ci

 

[Jeffvn]

When I lived in Houston my gunsafe,45 cubic feet) was located in the house, so the temperature fluctuated with the house temp,between 65 in the winter and 80 in the summer), but I keept two large desicant continers in the safe and the humidity never got above 25%. I never had even the first signs of surface rust on my rifles or pistols, regardless how long they sat in teh safe. Corrosion takes both adequate temperture and humidity/water to start and continue the process. From my experience the humidity, is far easier to control then the temp - at least for me in Houston and now here in Las vegas.

JeffVN