Harm to guns from some safes?

I have used the canister type in three safes for the last 10 years. They work. I generally re charge them about once a month. They last and last. They're only about $25.00 or so and worth it.

I have canister dehumidifiers in my safes and wouldn't buy them again. I use golden rods in all the safes. The canister dehumidifiers fill up in just a few days and need to be recharged. You have to be constantly recharging them to get any value out of them for my uses. My safes are indoors in an air conditioned house in the basement. I have no issues with corrosion. I thought these might add a but more protection but in practice they aren't useful for me. Additionally, you have to keep the cannisters from touching guns since they are essentially holding water. Don't want that touching metal.

A few years ago, there was a problem with Chinese sheetrock outgassing corrosive sulfer fumes- and many safes use sheetrock as a fire barrier.

I would contact any safe manufacturer before buying one to see what they do to ensure this wont be a problem.

Obviously the quality and source country of the safe deserves examination.

I'm having issues with my safe and it's due to mold from objects being stored in other areas of the house and then eventually moved to the safe. Because it's located at the bottom floor, those rooms get colder than most. I thought they were also drier but of late the mold worked over the canvas and leather, actually growing on the barrels in nooks and crannies. Big cleanup in process now.

I added a goldenrod type warmer as their track record over decades is good and they require zero maintenance or checking. A 40W incandescent was also recommended in the day which needs to be hung out of contact with any foam or plastic. My modern sporting rifles have no mold, it's the traditionals with wood, steel and leather which require major cleaning now. I'm removing all gun cases and other woven fabrics which will get scrubbed, hosed and stored separately.

Id worry less about the safe - you are likely storing polymer guns in it, right? It's the non gun stuff that can cause issues. Paper and cardboard ammo boxes etc will also contribute to storage issues, they soak up humidity and will corrode ammo. I'm looking for a separate container for that with it's own stick type dehumidifier.

Now here's a idea - nitrogen for inflating tires is now common in some areas, and flushing the safe with it now and again will stop oxygen from doing it's magic rust act. If your safe has or can be equipped with seals and can be made fairly airtight, you can add a tire stem thru a hole and charge the safe as needed.

Unless your safe is air tight, you'll have issues with desiccant saturating in a short time.

Also, a nitrogen purge would be just shy of useless for the same reason.

Using a Golden Rod will be your best bet.

As to the materials...I have no idea how to check up on manufacturer issues, short of contacting them. Whether they can or will tell you anything, I have no idea. Do an internet search on the topic and see what comes up. You'd be surprised how often you can get info this way.

You could always do (or re-do) the interior components yourself with known material.

Glen said:

I guess my general question is how practical are the canister dehumidifiers? Do they work well? What do you think of them?

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Glen, I see you're in Oregon - you don't say which part of Oregon.
The canister dehumidifiers work swell in my safes here in dry eastern Idaho - I recharge them every 6 weeks or so. On the other hand, I have a sister that lives out on the Oregon coast because her husband has a medical condition that he handles a lot better while living in a cool, damp environment.
BTW, I grew up in western Idaho - right next to the Oregon border. So I know for sure that eastern Oregon is about the same as here - pretty darned dry.

My safe is in the storage area of the basement, I started out with canister packs, but I was needing to recharge them about every week and that got old REALLY fast. So I bought a Golden Rod.

It was only when I finished that area of the basement that I discovered the outlet the Golden Rod was plugged into only worked when the lights were on, which was only if one of us was getting something out of the freezer or I was getting something out of the safe. So 5 minutes every couple days at very most. So for 7 years my guns were in the basement protected only by the oil I put on them with no rusting issues. My basement isn't exactly bone dry either, high 50% RH in the winter and I've seen it range from mid 60's to low 70's in the summer. I do have a Golden Rod running in the safe now plugged into an outlet that's always on, but I'm now convinced proper maintenance/oiling is far more important than humidity worries. I've been using Eezox for years and have no plans on changing.

As to the gypsum concerns, I think they were overblown. The only cases I remember were of safes that had been in either fires or floods and the guns inside were basically ruined and the conclusion was that chinese gypsum was to blame, but it was also something the owners didn't open and clean out immediately either because they had higher priority stuff to deal with.

I agree with bassjam that proper oiling and wiping guns down periodically works well. I’ve lived from the Humboldt Coast where it was rainy/foggy almost daily all the way south to inland so cal where it’s nowhere near as rainy and I’ve never used a dehumidifier. I’ve also never had a gun rust while sitting in the safe.

You should be ok for safe storage with a good wipe down so surfaces are protected by oil and a goldenrod dehumidifier if you so desire .

Stay safe.

I use a warming rod and a hygrometer to monitor the humidity levels.

Materials used in shelving and the like are probably more 'risk' to the factory workers where the sheet goods are stored as delivered in huge bunks. The factory is also where all the primary cutting (and sawdust & particulates) would occur.

Glue used for glue-down coverings would mostly outgas at the factory, too. For stretched, stapled-on, not much gass issue at all.

The "chinese drywall" issue was one of greatest impact in Asia (where it was cheaper to ship the materials) and for certain large-volume tract home builders (cough-Pulte-cough) who are in the business of moving money around; houses are an accidental byproduct.

RSC (aka gun safes) are a low-volume product and tend to source their raw materials as locally as possible, and probably use no more than one bunk of gypsum in a given month. Note, too, RSC factories also use non-standard thicknesses of gypsum board, and often use unfaced (no paper covering) gypsum.

RSC also sit for a long time at their retail and wholesale locations awaiting sale.

Outgas and VOC content in RSC is a pretty low risk.