Teach me about dehumidifiers...

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bogie

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Getting ready to buy a nice safe... Do most of 'em already have a provision to run an electrical cord, whatever? Or would that compromise the fire safety? I'm thinking I'd rather have a "goldenrod" type of thing (likely I'll just use a 25 watt fridge light in the bottom) than the big boxes of dessicant...

Also going to buy a dehumidifier for the basement - anyone know anything about those? It'll be going in the area with my loading stuff, to hopefully keep the humidity (and rust) down...
 
re: the dehumidifier... I run one in my basement pretty much all summer long. It keeps the humidity well below 70%. Never feels damp or anything down there and I have zero rust problems. I store all of my guns and do reloading in the basement and have for about a year now.

On very humid days, even when the central air is on, I'll have to empty it every 24-36 hours.

HTH.
 
Bogie,
Get a basement dehumidifier that has a provision to drain into either the floor sump or a convenient place in a septic/sewerage line. Never have to worry about emptying it.

The 25W light bulb in the safe works for me...

TC
TFL Survivor
 
Above advise is right-on. You can set the unit's 'humidistat' to allow the unit to run and stop thus controlling the % humidity in the room.
Anything between 30 and 50% is what I try to achieve. Drier than 30 and you may get cracking stocks. Anything 70% or greater is considered 'wet'.
 
I have just ordered a "golden rod" by Browning..

I have heard of people using the rope lights too..
 
I have most of my guns in the basement with ammo etc. Definately get a dehumidifier, I run mine into the sump pit.

I don't have an expensive safe, but each gun cabinet does have a large silica gel bag in it. The bags are "rechargeable" by putting them into an oven for three hours, and they are inexpensive.

In the future I'll probably add a couple of the "goldenrod" things when I can find a deal on them; I haven't seen any below about $50 while the bags are $5-$10.
 
I have a small metal gun cabinet in my closet and use this on the closet shelf....of course, so cal is not that humid to begin with so you may require something more substantial...but I like the design and ease of use...it's good for a 10 by 10 room and once a month I just plug it in the wall and dry out the crystals....

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/air-n-water/evedmide.html


got a metal plug in rod off ebay like this one for around 12 bucks for my brother's safe...just search "safe + rod"

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=52501&item=3690534272
 
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