Leaving my gunsafe open good, bad or irrelevant?

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Trunk Monkey

Trunk Monkey

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My question is simple I want to know if it’s good or bad for the humidity level in my gun safe if I leave it open a couple of times a week. I would think it would be good because what little humidity does build up would evaporate while the safe was open

The variables are I live in Colorado Springs which is a fairly dry climate, I have a dehumidifier in the safe and I tend to leave my house keys in the lock of the safe anyway so I know where they are and I can’t leave the house with out checking to make sure the safe is locked anyway.
Opinions?
 
I can't imagine it matters one way or the other here in Colorado (assuming you dont have AC in your house) except maybe during that odd stretch in the early summer when it clouds up and drizzles for a week straight.
 
I don't see why it would matter. Maybe in a wetter climate you'd wear out the desiccant pack quicker.
 
I have a dehumidifier in my safe also....

as I age, my CRS increases , so I have a video cam viewing the door of the safe so I can check from my smartphone to see if I left it open......

.the cam also has a motion detector and if motion occurs in the area of the safe it sends my phone a text .....
 
This one seems to work well for me. There's a million of them found online. Amazon, cigar stores, meteorology equipment...

http://www.cheaphumidors.com/p_CALI...CALIBER_d_IV&gclid=CJbu-NWj4LwCFQVafgod1k4ACQ


Don't really pay attention any more, pretty much always low humidity around here, even unplugged the Golden Rod. Last I checked it was somewhere between 50 and 60%. I read somewhere that you can actually damage gun wood by storing it at too low of humidity, shrinks and cracks.
 
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Trunk Monkey said:
Hygrometers

I don't even know what that is
Click to expand...

It informs you of the Relative Humidity.

In this pic of one of my gunsafes several years ago you can see the Thermo/Hygrometer ... Temp was 69° and the RH was 44%.

Simply stated, Relative Humidity is a measure of the moisture capacity of the air. I like to keep the RH in my gunsafes below ~55%.

zGunSafe_North3.jpg

I also like to keep the interior (and contents) of my gunsafes a bit warmer than the outside room. That way, when I open the gunsafe I will not have to worry about warmer, moister air rushing in and condensation occurring on the colder interior surfaces.
 
My phone gives the relative humidity for the area and right now it’s like 26%.

Colorado Springs is considered a high plains desert and we get very little rain here most of the year.

I have a small Everdry(?) dehumidifier in my safe. The kind with the little desiccant beads in it that turn from blue to pink when it’s time to dry it out and it literally takes like a month and a half to turn pink.
 
Living in GA the humidity is pretty high. I use no special devices in my safes, but do leave the doors open for a few hours several days each week. The AC is circulating air and dehumidifying it during the summer months and I burn wood during the winter which keeps the air really dry then. With the air circulating in the safe's open doors that often I've never had a spot of rust.
 
The air in your safe is going to mirror the humidity level in your house unless you put wet guns in it. I live north of you and do not even worry about dehumidification, in fact, I have a steam humidifier mounted on my furnace to add humidity to the air because if I didn't, during the winter the humidity gets so low that wood will dry out and crack as do the linings of my sinus cavities.
 
If there is a dehumidifier in the safe, it's largely been addressed.

As for leaving the keys in the door, or even having the door open for hours at a time when you are home, that is a personal decision based on your level of comfort. But it does seem to circumvent the whole point of a secure cabinet that prevents unauthorized access. And by having the door open, it allows any higher humidity into the safe where it had already been lowered.

Kind of like leaving the refrigerator door open to let the house A/C assist. Seems counterproductive.
 
It's condensation not humidity that is the enemy. The danger is opening the safe on a warm humid day and then have that amount of water vapor trapped in the safe while temperatures fall. This danger is not changed by the length of time the door is open. However leaving the day open may shorten te recharge interval of a dessicant dehumidifier.

Mike

PS "moisture capacity of air" "warm air holds more moisture", etc. are a pet peave of mine. At any given temperature thbere is a critical droplet nucleation partial pressure for water vapor and the presence (or complete absense) of nitgrogen and oxygen has no significant effect on that. No "holding" of any kind is going on.
 
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I think most people would refer to that as "dew point" which is a statement of relative humidity. At 100% relative humidity the air is completely saturated and by either adding additional water vapor, lowering the air temperature, or exposing the air to a surface colder than the air temperature you will breach the dew point and condensation will occur. In Colorado Springs I don't believe the OP has to fear any of those conditions.
 
Steel Horse Rider said:
I think most people would refer to that as "dew point" which is a statement of relative humidity. At 100% relative humidity the air is completely saturated and by either adding additional water vapor, lowering the air temperature, or exposing the air to a surface colder than the air temperature you will breach the dew point and condensation will occur. In Colorado Springs I don't believe the OP has to fear any of those conditions.
Click to expand...
You are 100% correct except for the idea of the air being "saturated". The air has nothing to do with it.

Mike
 
Humidity's kinda high right now: 14%. When the summer turns on I run swamp coolers in the garage and the house until the 'rainy' season. We get 4" a year if we're lucky. No cracked stocks or rust in the gun cabinets or my tools.
 
If you have a functional dehumidifier, then it doesn't matter. The humidity inside your safe should be adequately controlled.

If you're really all that concerned, install a hygrometer, as someone else already said.
 
Tirod said:
As for leaving the keys in the door, or even having the door open for hours at a time when you are home, that is a personal decision based on your level of comfort. But it does seem to circumvent the whole point of a secure cabinet that prevents unauthorized access.
Click to expand...

In my case I think leaving the keys in the door presents a pretty minimal risk. It’s just my wife and I living here, the kids are grown and we live in a small apartment. I can’t imagine someone entering the apartment with out us knowing it.
 
The pet store has really cheap analog hygrometers for lizard cages.

I got some because I was curious. I live in Denver but my basement feels really muggy in the summer. My safe is about 20% with a golden rod.

I got the hygrometer in the fall so we will see what happens next summer.

J.
 
While we are on the subject, what is a humidity level should the inside of the safe be at? I bought a display to show the humidity and it has been running around 30% (no dehumidifier).

Just got the safe will order a dehumidifier, but is 30-40% a bad level for rust?
 
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