Mildew in gun cabinet dehumidifier or fan?

[Shawnba67]

I have a wooden china safe type cabinet i keep some of my lower value guns in. Im having a mildew issue. The cabinet is no where near sealed up think kitchen cupboard with a warped door. It is in the corner of the room along exterior wall.
Do you think i would be better served by a golden rod? Or a small circulating fan? Cabinet is inside of house.
Thank you for any advise

 

[mr45man]

A fan just moves the air .
I would try a goldenrod.

 

[hogpatrol]

A plain old 100 watt incandescent lightbulb is all you need.

 

[Ray B]

Back in the day when dehumidifiers were only available for large areas my mom kept our piano in tune by having a forty watt light bulb dangling between the sound board and the strings. We lived on the Oregon coast and moisture/humidity was a real problem. I suspect the now available dehumidifiers accomplish much the same thing.

 

[spclark]

Back in the day when dehumidifiers were only available for large areas my mom kept our piano in tune by having a forty watt light bulb dangling between the sound board and the strings.

I’d think a Goldenrod or 25W lightbulb’d be vastly easier to fit inside a china cabinet than any conventional dehumidifier... which needs a drain of some kind.

Unless you mean putting the dehumidifier in the same room as the OP’s cabinet? Yeah, that’d work.

I use a dehumidifier in my basement in summers. I keep lots of stuff there I don’t want affected by too-high humidity. Got it set for 50%, haven’t seen rust on anything in the 4 years we’ve lived in this place.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

I agree that a 40 or 60 watt bulb should do a lot in a confined space. A rough service bulb will last longer but will still burn out. Nothing lasts forever anymore but a Goldenrod will probably outlast several bulbs of most kinds. The difference is the bulb will let you know when it stops working.

 

[Shawnba67]

If it matters when I said fan iI meant one that would be in the side wall and pull air from the room into the cabinet.
Or out of cabinet.

 

[hogpatrol]

If it matters when I said fan iI meant one that would be in the side wall and pull air from the room into the cabinet.
Or out of cabinet.

If it's a high humidity environment, you'd need more than a fan.

 

[T-shooter]

First, you need to seal the cabinet. Closed cell self-adhesive foam rubber inside the door edges and calking in the seams and corners. The best thing I found for moisture control are these packs. They are $1 each at one of the Dollar store chains. The beads dissolve to pull moisture out and after a while, the bottom will have about a full cup of water in the bottom. I use 3 in my safe (top, middle, and bottom) and change them at least once a year or when the beads all but disappear.

 

[JRS]

Have you removed the mildew?

 

[Shawnba67]

Have you removed the mildew?

Will as soon as I catch a moment. Its due for the yearly clean and re-oil routine.