RH in reloading room

[jimcasey01]

Curious as to how many regulate the relative humidity where they store their powder. I keep mine at 50-55% rh. Most manufacturers send their powder out from about 50% RH storage/manufacturing. Am I wasting my time? I have never tested to see the variation in burn rate/velocity if I allow my RH to rise. I am in Florida so RH is a consideration throughout the year. Locked in, so lots of time for the mind to wonder.

 

[rwj]

I do too... just makes sense... never checked what the manufacturers recommend...

 

[TheOtherZilla]

I live in a dry climate. So no worries

 

[Capt. Oblivious]

Mine is also stored around 45-50%, the dryer powder gets the fatser it burns

 

[oley55]

There seems to be a lot of information out there about manufacturer recommended storage temperatures/humidity. But I have always wondered if the storage conditions was/is less important than the temp/humidity at the time of reloading.

The hot n humid Florida climate can certainly be uncomfortable (I'm on a saltwater marsh) and I know something cool/cold brought into my none air conditioned garage/reloading area will quickly draw moisture out of the air (what's the surface RH when that happens?). To me that means cool powder stored in the house immediately draws moisture out of the air when opened during reloading.

The fix for that is to bring the powder to the garage hours before planned use to allow it to reach hot garage temps. So this begs the question, over the long run is it better or worse to routinely raise and lower the powder temps, or just store it at warmer than recommended temps/humidity?

 

[jds holler]

If the caps are tight, and you avoid great temperature swings, would it make much difference? jd

 

[Ralph Littlefield]

I live in the NorthEast, about 25 miles inland. Not a particularly dry climate. I inherited several pounds of various powders from my brother when he died in 1992, he may have had some of them for several years before I got them. I am just now in the process of using them up to conserve my preferred powders. They have been stored in original containers in an unheated garage all this time and so far all of them seem to be just fine.

 

[Matt in Virginia]

FWIW,
As JDS said I dunno how much difference RH would make if the caps are tight.

I personally run a dehumidifier and A/C in my reloading/vault room. My dehumidifier can make for an overly dry environment even on "low". To the point of being unpleasant to work in for long periods without the A/C on high(which of course works wonders on scales as you might imagine). That said I have one vault in my reloading room and I tend to tailor the RH to the walnut stocks on several bespoke rifles & shotguns kept within. Wood, very expensive wood, worries me more than the chance opening of a bottle/jug of powder. A full on bespoke stock starts in the $7K range, and goes way up, to say nothing of providing the english walnut blank which can run another $2K. In short I try not to go any drier than 55% RH.

I store my rifle powder in a dark room with A/C an unit run by a humidistat and an automatic external drain. Primers are in the same room but separated. I had a few problems with static electricity, in the beginning with extremely low RH, with a powder dispenser(RCBS 2000) which was cured with a dryer sheet... FWIW.

Should have mentioned powder can get as cold as you can store it. It's heat, from everyone I have talked to, that destroys powder.

Regards, Matt.

Btw, brief funny story. When I was finishing the reloading room, some twenty years ago, I had the trim(Crown Moulding, chair rail, etc) installed BEFORE I had the dehumidifier situation worked out. In short I'm fairly picky, however, I was with all of the hand coped joints. Finally found my (still running strong) dehumidifier, put it on medium(idiot knob) and let it "dry" the room out. Returned a few days later to find the crown moulding had shrunk and developed cracks in each corner, where they were coped and tightly fitted, with a new GAP big enough to stick a cigarette butt in. I was not a happy camper in retrospect, however, it was my fault. Had an excellent painter fill in the new gaps and paint over them. That experience gives me pause every single time I put a good stock in the safe. That said 55-65% relative humidity seems to be a happy medium. Again FWIW.