Damp rid for your safe

[redneck2]

I saw an ad in TV about damp rid for humidity. Basically on a whim, I bought a container and put it in my safe. Within maybe a month, the crystals were gone and I had at least a cup of water to pour out

Bought another container plus a refill and now had two. They both filled with water. Got another two, so now I have four at all times in the safe. Pretty amazing how much water they gather.

And yes, I have a Golden Rod

 

[Armored farmer]

We use damp rid in our musty old farmhouse, especially the closets. I store my farm defender ar in a closet.
Yes dump water out of the baggie periodically.
Its gotta work.

 

[jak67429]

be careful you don't remove too much humidity, you could dry out and crack wood stocks.

 

[Fyrstyk]

I got tired of emptying the water so I got a couple of "Golden-rods" for my safes. No more humidity issues, and cheap to run.

 

[Pat Riot]

“Golden Rods” do not necessarily remove humidity. They just keep the safer a few degrees warmer to keep the temps above “dew point” so humidity doesn’t condense on your firearms or other items and harm them.

A little humidity in your safe is not a bad thing if the safe temp stays above dew point.

 

[redneck2]

Golden Rods” do not necessarily remove humidity. They just keep the safer a few degrees warmer to keep the temps above “dew point” so humidity doesn’t condense on your firearms or other items and harm them

“A little humidity” is not the quart of water I dump out every month. If you’re dumping that much water every month, I think too low humidity is the least of your concerns

 

[Steve Milbocker]

I have a low watt light bulb in mine. so far so good

 

[Pat Riot]

“A little humidity” is not the quart of water I dump out every month. If you’re dumping that much water every month, I think too low humidity is the least of your concerns

Oh, I agree. By “a little” I mean less than 50%. More like 30-40%

 

[Metal God]

If the humidity is not hurting the contents of your safe do to the golden rod . Does it mater that it’s there . I mean it’s not like there’s so much moisture in the safe your wood stocks are going to have dry rot or something at least mine doesn’t have that much .

My point , if the metals are safe from moisture damage . How much moisture will cause other damage and do you have that much .

I have a temp and humidity clock like device in my safe and it gives current and avg readings . Mine avg low 70* temp and low 50’s in humidity . I also Have one of those dehumidifier things that turns pink when full and you plug it in to dry it out . Even though I have those good average numbers it’s still collect moisture and I need to dry it out once a month or so with everything in my safe is fine . Which this reminds me that I haven’t dried that thing out in maybe a year LOL

 

[CapnMac]

Dew point is the temperature at which water vapor condenses out of the air onto surfaces.
This temperature varies based on the amount of water vapor in a given amount of air (ASHRAE used pounds per cubic foot).

What the "warm" rods do, is to raise the temperature up some slight small amount, presumably to keep the temperature above the dew point.

Which is complicated. Warm air has less relative humidity than cooler air. At a given absolute humidity, 80º air might be 90% RH in the morning, that same air might drop to 60%RH at 95º in the afternoon (and feel as miserable)

Also, physics wants balance. Unless hermetically sealed, a drier environment will want to balance with damper environment. Just the same as air will want to balance energy--air warmer than ambient will want to cool; air cooler than ambient will want to warm.

Those dessicant packs are the cat's meow. The color changing ones that can be "recharged" are even slicker.

 

[JDeere]

“Golden Rods” do not necessarily remove humidity. They just keep the safer a few degrees warmer to keep the temps above “dew point” so humidity doesn’t condense on your firearms or other items and harm them.

A little humidity in your safe is not a bad thing if the safe temp stays above dew point.

This is correct and the light bulb deal accomplishes the same thing. This is why arms rooms and ammo bunkers in the military kept light bulbs burning 24/7. It's a very simple solution to a problem without overthinking it...

 

[Pat Riot]

Those dessicant packs are the cat's meow. The color changing ones that can be "recharged" are even slicker.

On that note I must bring up something about desiccant. Don’t assume that any desiccant can be recharged in your oven. Also don’t assume the fiber bag your desiccant comes in will not melt in your wife’s oven. You can assume that after it melts it will be messy and your wife will not be impressed.

 

[Hartkopf]

If the safe door isn’t sealed very well, I’m not so sure Damp Rid isn’t pulling moisture in.

My Damp Rids were filling up real quick in the safe so I started putting a second Damp Rid right outside the safe door. The one inside now lasts for months and the one outside fills up real quick.

 

[Meeks36]

I keep this on a shelf and a smaller one in my safe. No rust yet.

 

[Reloadron]

I just use Humi Sorb Activated Desiccant Packs inside the safe to control humidity.


Every now and then, normally at the start and end of summer seasons when our humidity peaks I bake them out in the oven at about 250 F for about 4 hours. I also put smaller bags inside ammo cans I store ammo in. Never tried Damp Rid simply because what I have works but would be interested in hearing more about it. I replace the HUMONITOR 2" x 3" cards every now and then, they also get baked out. I just toss a little temperature/humidity sensor in the safe every now and then and record what is going on over an 8 hour or whatever I choose period.

Here is an old 2016 chart.


Humidity was about a little over 40% which is the saturation point of my Desiccant Packs. Works for me.

Ron

 

[ColtPythonElite]

Put a hygrometer in your safe and dont play humidity guessing games

 

[.308 Norma]

On that note I must bring up something about desiccant. Don’t assume that any desiccant can be recharged in your oven. Also don’t assume the fiber bag your desiccant comes in will not melt in your wife’s oven. You can assume that after it melts it will be messy and your wife will not be impressed.

I know your pain! I actually swiped a small bag of desiccant from the place I used to work years ago. We used the stuff in cans mounted on the sides of a few large power transformers.
Anyway, I decided it would work in my gun safe too, so I swiped a bag of it, brought it home, and poured it into a cut-off plastic water bottle - which I then covered with a cloth (with a rubber band around the bottle) and put the bottle in my safe.
It worked. A couple of months later, the desiccant had turned blue, so I poured it out of the bottle and onto a cookie sheet, which I placed in the oven. After a while, the desiccant turned pink again, so I took the cookie sheet out of the oven, and let it cool before I tried to pour the desiccant back into the plastic water bottle.
THAT'S when the crap hit the fan! Those little round beads went everywhere, except back in the bottle where they were supposed to go! There was no controlling them. We were finding desiccant beads on the kitchen floor and on the countertop for two weeks after that fiasco.
I've stuck with the store-bought metal containers of desiccant (that are meant to be placed in the oven for recharging) ever since. Happy Wife = Happy Life

 

[hso]

Unless hermetically sealed, a drier environment will want to balance with damper environment. Just the same as air will want to balance energy--air warmer than ambient will want to cool; air cooler than ambient will want to warm.

The color changing ones that can be "recharged" are even slicker.

I keep one plugged in and one in the RSC and rotate them.

The large safe has a dehumidifier mounted at head level so the drain hose flows easily out through the wall. I run a fish tape up it twice a year and blow air from the compressor out once a year.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

“A little humidity” is not the quart of water I dump out every month. If you’re dumping that much water every month, I think too low humidity is the least of your concerns

You should install a hygrometer if you really want to know what's going on in your safe.

Unless your safe is air tight, you'll always be drawing water out of the air inside it. And yes, you can draw significant amounts of water out of the air in a safe on a continual basis this way, even with humidity levels well within acceptable levels.

A completely arid environment isn't desirable, either, as it's bad for wood stocks.

You don't have to get an expensive hygrometer setup, either. For about $10 you can, Lowes has small digital ones that track high/low temperature and humidity on a running 24 hour basis. But remote monitoring ones for safes aren't too expensive, either.

 

[NedNederlander]

I'm using two -electric plug in to the wall outlet to recharge units- in my safe for the last three years and all is well. I also have a digital temp/humidity meter.View attachment 931764