Good evening to all. I have looked for a thread that has already dealt with temperature and humidity control in a gun safe, but haven’t found the specific information that I’m looking for.
I am wondering what the ideal temperature and humidity is for storing guns and ammo in a safe. Ammo is stored in cans with the seal. Right now my safe is bolted to the floor of the finished part of my basement which has never been wet. It’s sort of like a family room. The temperature is about 55 and humidity at 60 consistently, even with a dehumidifier thing in there. That’s another related question, does it take time for these dehumidifiers to work? I just put it in today.
Here a few. I also run a large dehumidifier in the room once a month for 4 hours with the safe open, you would be surprised at the moisture in a sealed room. I use the $1.00 desiccants from the Dollar stores.
The thing with temp and humidity is not necessarily a certain level of either but sudden fluctuations in either. If you run the temp of the room up to say 75* all day and then turn it down or off and it drops to 55* you are more likeley to induce condensation which of course is a bad thing. My primary safe is located in an “un conditioned” room in the the house and stays fairly cool and dry all year no matter what the weather or the house is doing. I have rather large “desiccant socks” fabric tubes full of granular desiccant that I take out and “cook” for about 6 hours @ 130*F every year in the spring. The “socks” are not in contact with any metal parts of any of the guns. Even in VA and being deployed for months on end I have never had an issue with rust. There is no way I could effectively drill a hole in my safe for a power cord as it’s 5/8" hardened steel and has a mechanical break in time of 24 hours. I’m sure you could cut it open with a plasma torch but everything inside would catch fire long before you got the can opened. Avoid significant changes in temp and humidity and have a mechanical/chemical method to mitigate moisture and you should be good.
I’ve gone with all VCI, I use a large Zerust capsule (it’ actually box sized) in my gun safe, and use a Zerust Bore Protector (about .10 cal) in all my barrels. Seems to work well. The bore protectors cut to size.
Scott170 I use desiccant bags from electronics containers in my gun safe and keep the temperature at 72 it is in my closest , I have been doing the for over 10 years with no ill effects, in doing this after I go shooting then clean and lube the firearms used the lube has not dried out or caked so my guns are ready for when needed this is what works for me and is only a suggestion . My safe is a cannon and hold rifles and hand guns. Take care and be safe.
I live in Florida and run the air conditioning for about 48-50 weeks/year. The temperature in my safe is usually around 70, and the humidity is around 48-50%. Right now, the outside temperature is 62 and the humidity is 85%.
My safe seals well and I don’t open it but once or twice a week.
Just like cigars you need a good seal
The more you open it the harder it is to control it. Unlike cigars your humidity needs to be a lot lower. Get a good unit to measure humidity & temp. Also check it by using a salt test as I have seen many that are reading incorrect. & All good info above
In industrial settings when recoating the inside of water and petroleum tanks we determined a 20° dew point spread was enough to keep freshly sandblasted steel from rusting.
In short terms the dew point of the air inside of the tank was at least 20° lower than the surface temperature of the steel.
