Gun safe humidiity way overthink thread

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O.k. so my quest (and I just plain enjoying doing it) has been to make sure the safe interior is @ the proper humidity and held as constant as possible. I have a multiple zone weather station along with a humidity controller set up in the safe. I've been watching and mentally logging various readings for the past couple years. I use an adjustable humidity controller and (2) 24" humidity rods from ebay. I'd appriciate any input on personal preferences and why. I'll start a general picture of the external temps/humidity.

Here is a VERY ROUGH idea of external readings
Summer (July-ish thruearly September-ish) heat can reach well over 100* and humidity runs very dry between high sIngle digit and 25%. Averages20%ish
Faĺl (September through November) 60's* to 70's*-ish and 65% to 90% humidity.
Winter (December through early March-ish) 40's* to 60's* and 30% to 90%
Spring (March to June-iish) 60's* to 80's*, humidity @ 60% to 90%+

So all that said the humidity controller has (1) dehumidifier plug and (1) humidifier plug. Both can be set to spacific parameters. The humidity plug is not yet in use. The (dehumidifier) side is set to energize (1) 24" rod and the other 24" rod is powered 24/7. This keeps it presently (November) @ the preset 35%.

According to the 24" spec.s, running both (2) 24" rods would over amp the controller. I took both acual amp and temperature readings pre install (after warm up) and both draw and temp where NO WHERE NEAR spec.'s... on either rod. ??? Bad rod(s)?, wrong conditions? It is a large safe but (1) 24" IS rated to do the job. Thoughts?

More to the point
1) Is a constant 35% optimal storage humidity?
2) i don't know actual interior humidity in the hot/dry summer, but it stands to reason it will be too low, input on urgency of adding a humidifier?
3)What is the actual temperature of your rod? (O.k. don't read into that) Amp reading?

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Nobody keeps their powder dry?

Merrry Christmas all

 

[Whisky Tahoe]

I can understand wanting controlled humidity for your Cigars, but have never wanted to put a humidifier anywhere near my guns. Quite the opposite, I have desiccant in my safes. When fully absorbed, desiccant can be "baked" to release the moisture and is as good as new. Note that my large desiccant containers have never "filled" up.
I have safes in Oregon and Arizona.

I'm not a fan of the rods, they seem to be inefficient at what they are supposed to accomplish.

For my cigars, I have humidity tubes that are designed to release moisture up to a defined point and will absorb it above that. The gel beads in these tubes are designed for a specific humidity. I have not seen anything below 60% though.

Can you share why it is important to maintain a level of humidity in a gun safe?

 

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Maybe i confused the issue? DEhumidifiing is mostly my focus.

I guess like the title suggest I'm possibly overthinking things a tad bit. But as times get tougher to buy guns, heck even parts, I feel a responsibility to keep them in top order. I think most here would agree with that. Ive seen what high humidity does secretly to metal, hence my interest.

The ambient humidity right now is presently 97%. Im not sure of Tucson humidity level @ the wet time period but I would imagine portland stays pretty high?

I guess I'm just having fun watching and tweeking the humidity level just as a performance engine builder would do with a certain motor. I'd like to swap tips with others interested. To me that's what part of firearm ownership is about. Sort of like proper effort in preserving correct hùmidity level on a cigar

 

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FWIW Using (1) 24" full time powered and (1) 24" on the controller power, set @ 35% with a 4% buffer (meaning humidity will rise 4% or to 39%, before kicking back on)

I've learned:

1) 2 out of 2 humidity rods don't come close to sellers performance spec.s.
2) rods are slower but more compact and less maintenance than bulky dehumidifiers
3) buy the biggest rod that fits the safe laying horizontal (alright enough already!)
4) add a wireless humility guage to monitor before and present %.
4) an adjustable humidity controller is worth every penny!
5) once corrected &(lowered/DEhumidified) level is achived my safe on (1) full time 24" rod will maintain 35% (70% to 95% ambient temp) with 1% rise every apx 24 hours. At that point the second kicks in and quickly lowers humidity to 35%

 

[Belevolk]

No offense, you close the door and provide heaters to remove the humidity?

Sad to say you can raise the temp to the surface of the sun and the humidity is still there. I used desiccant as well. Put in the BBQ to get rid of the absorbed moisture. I do not need the extra humidity in the house, allergies.

 

[Whisky Tahoe]

In a closed environment, 1lb of desiccant will dry the air in a very short amount of time. My safes stay dry

Interestingly, My cigar humidors in Oregon take more maintenance than my AZ ones for some reason.

This is what I use in my cars to reduce condensation... Would work in a safe as well
Dehumidifier

This is probably better for a safe where it is already dry and you want to keep it that way
Desiccant

 

[pop]

No offense, you close the door and provide heaters to remove the humidity?

Sad to say you can raise the temp to the surface of the sun and the humidity is still there. I used desiccant as well. Put in the BBQ to get rid of the absorbed moisture. I do not need the extra humidity in the house, allergies.

No offense taken. I love the feedback
The door is closed but the safe in a high humidity environment . I use a combo temp/humidity gauge to monitor and the winter temperature really isn't effected not that i would resist a few raised *'s. The operating principle of the rods is the same as a heater but seems more gentle, less power abd space..

 

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Interestingly
This is what I use in my cars to reduce condensation... Would work in a safe as well
Dehumidifier

This is probably better for a safe where it is already dry and you want to keep it that way
Desiccant

I prefer the rod compactness and no maintenance (dumping). The desiccant is a great option but doesnt stop when not needed. Like I said this thread probably can qualify as overthinking, so be it.

 

[Whisky Tahoe]

Belevolk and I are really curious why you want some humidity in your safe.
If you used desiccant, it would stay low even if you had your safe near your dryer or other source.

There's no dumping with bagged desiccant. It sits where you place it, doesn't need power, and works till it needs a warm nap in the oven. I have never had to recharge my desiccant in 25 years in Oregon and 5 years in AZ. Both safes are in the garage.

35% humidity in a safe is more than I would like. Are you storing parchment or rare papyrus documents?
Guns like it dry. They only want oil and a little grease. Old wood loves a rub down now and then. I'm a fan of Ballistol and Hornady's One Shot Gun Cleaner. Both leave a light trace.

Hornady's cleaner actually leaves a dry lube that has super rust preventative capabilities. Some guy with loads of curiosity and time, tested it against all sorts of products.
Comparison test between rust preventative products
Be sure and scroll down to the bottom where the article starts.

If you shoot corrosive stuff. Be sure and wash it then clean your gun.
Those corrosive residues will frolic if you let them especially at 35% humidity.
10% Ballistol and 90% water in a water bottle is a safe way to wash your barrel.
I do this with my SKS because surplus ammo sales often lie and there's mercury in there somewhere.

 

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Belevolk and I are really curious why you want some humidity in your safe.
If you used desiccant, it would stay low even if you had your safe near your dryer or other source.

There's no dumping with bagged desiccant. It sits where you place it, doesn't need power, and works till it needs a warm nap in the oven. I have never had to recharge my desiccant in 25 years in Oregon and 5 years in AZ. Both safes are in the garage.

35% humidity in a safe is more than I would like. Are you storing parchment or rare papyrus documents?
Guns like it dry. They only want oil and a little grease. Old wood loves a rub down now and then. I'm a fan of Ballistol and Hornady's One Shot Gun Cleaner. Both leave a light trace.

Hornady's cleaner actually leaves a dry lube that has super rust preventative capabilities. Some guy with loads of curiosity and time, tested it against all sorts of products.
Comparison test between rust preventative products
Be sure and scroll down to the bottom where the article starts.

If you shoot corrosive stuff. Be sure and wash it then clean your gun.
Those corrosive residues will frolic if you let them especially at 35% humidity.
10% Ballistol and 90% water in a water bottle is a safe way to wash your barrel.
I do this with my SKS because surplus ammo sales often lie and there's mercury in there somewhere.

O,k, great input.
I am trying to REDUCE humidiity, in the humid season. I initially used desicant but the indication color changed too rapid for me. Im mostly curious as to what your actual humidity level is at during the Portland wet season?

What would your perfect world humidity stay at? I was just guessing at 35% factoring in too dry being harmful to wood. I'm getting familiar with the controller settings, I think I'll drop it to 25%?

 

[Whisky Tahoe]

O,k, great input.
I am trying to REDUCE humidiity, in the humid season. I initially used desicant but the indication color changed too rapid for me. Im mostly curious as to what your actual humidity level is at during the Portland wet season?

What would your perfect world humidity stay at? I was just guessing at 35% factoring in too dry being harmful to wood. I'm getting familiar with the controller settings, I think I'll drop it to 25%?

Ok, I'm getting the picture, I think. When you say the color changed, how much desiccant was involved.
The automatic dryers have a small amount of desiccant compared to a large bag. That can really make a difference.

My safes are at 20-25% when I keep the door closed.

 

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So would you say year round 20% to 25% would be optimum?

 

[Whisky Tahoe]

I would say that using a couple of pounds of desiccant should solve your problem. That has been my experience.

20-25% sounds right but that's only my opinion.

I'm traveling or I would measure for you. I'll post an update in a week or so.

Update: Pardon the delay, I was enjoying Cave Creek, Sedona, Jerome, Clarkdale, Prescott, and a lot of i17 and i10. Now I'm back.

I ordered a Thermpro TP50 Hygrometer for my Tucson Safe. Out of the box the humidity in my garage was 40%.
Sounds high but is has been raining a lot in parts of AZ the last week.

Placed the hygrometer in the safe and checked it 12 hours later. Meter read 35% Higher than I thought but I did recently reorganized the safe and cleared out most non gun contents including the desiccant packets that I had been throwing in there.

I now have two 500 gram desiccant bags in there and after 4 hours the humidity is now 34%

I probably need to adjust my expectations of what the actual humidity is in my safes.

One thing is the Canon Safe in Arizona doesn't have a very tight door seal. My safes in Oregon have additional weather stripping I applied to make the door seal tighter and they have about 1lb ~ 500gr of desiccant where my Arizona safe had left over desiccant bags from shipping cartons. I never put to much thought into humidity being an issue. Now that there's a significant amount of desiccant in the AZ safe, we'll see what that does to the humidity.

The readings on the TP50 are from the picture.

 

[Whisky Tahoe]

Update:

After a few days with desiccant, my hygrometer is reading 32% humidity in the safe.

 

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Thanks for the input.

Were you surprised by the relatively high humidity (32% in 40% ambient)? I wonder what Oregon safe is reading?

I recently watched my pre and post interior humidity numbers while the safe was open (apx. 80%+ ambient for 20 minutes.) It was a settled @ 35% interior and ONLY went up several %. Door shut to door re shut. This was with the wireless humidity/temp. display in another room. Kind of surprised me. I have lowered the humidity controller to 30% with a 1.0% delay/re-energize after reaching 30% it resets to the delay to re-energize and turn on with a 1.0%. So far this set up amazes me. It went from 35% to constant 30%+ish range overnight.

I think I'll let it settle and prove a constant 30% for a couple days then drop the level to 25%.

 

[Whisky Tahoe]

Thanks for the input.

Were you surprised by the relatively high humidity (32% in 40% ambient)? I wonder what Oregon safe is reading?

I wonder that as well. My house in Oregon is reading 50 degrees and 60 % though I don't know if I trust the nest thermostat to read humidity accurately. I'll have to check in a couple of months. Your setup sounds robust. Should keep your guns safe.

Update:
The humidity in the garage fell to 29% yesterday.

 

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Been awhile. I've learned alot about my season/time of day humidity patterns. I use an eBay adjustable humidity controller and a remote weather station to watch things. By watching my bedside weather station I know how my safe reacts 24/7 in relation to exterior weather condition changes. I've learned what type DEhumidifier to use snd when
Heres my take away.:

1) the "rod" type DEhumidifiers are great in the winter as it also adds heat (the principle it works off of). It is obviously NOT good as the days heat up and is also slow to react with the controller.

2) A small 110v eBay DEhumidifier working with the controller, keeps the humidity in range and constant. No need for the rods assistance (at least in the hot times)

OUTCOME
Set @ 28% the DEhumidifier keeps the safe ranging between 27% and 29%... 24/7
... 👍 perfection achieved 😉