doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Gun Safe Concerns..........

I recently bought a Golden Rod Moisture Control. (Humidity Sensor) It has the sensor on the inside of the safe which monitors the humidity inside the safe and out in the room. I read where the humidity should stay between about 30-50% which is considered ideal. Getting below 20% could cause the wood in a gun to "shrink, warp and crack". Getting down to 25% is a concern. The moisture in my safe has been slowly creeping down lower and lower and is now at 26%.The room is at 23%. The past day I left the light out in the safe, but the room and safe get down to about 56 degrees because there is no heat inside the room until I turn on a space heater in the evening when I use the room. I use a 40 watt light bulb to heat the safe and it usually stays about 70 degrees inside the safe all year around. It gets up to about 70 degrees in the room in the evenings when I use the space heater, but I turn it off when I go to bed. I never worried about humidity before I bought this hygrometer a few weeks ago. I have never had any problems with the wood in my guns cracking or any damage to any of them. I never dreamed my house was so dry. Do any of you keep tabs on the humidity inside your gun safe? If so, what do you keep your humidity at?

Never worried about humidity. I repurposed an old, big, Mosler safe almost twenty years ago. It was the safe for an automobile dealership near here, originally. I removed the secondary steel doors and the wooden drawers, etc., then carpeted the inside. I then drilled a hole through the floor (about 8-9" thick) to run the cord for the Golden Rod I bought. it lays on the floor of the safe, toward the front, always on. I have had guns in it for all these years with no humidity monitoring. Never one bit of a problem, even though the safe is in a mostly unheated room with a concrete floor.

It stays warm inside without any hint of moisture problems, even though there are times when the outside of the old safe is totally wet with condensation. I've never understood how the warmth inside eliminates, or at least renders harmless, the humidity. I live in a very humid environment.

Humidity and condensation are relative. A golden rod does not remove water. It simply raises the temperature and thereby the amount of water that the air can hold, thus preventing condensation. Exactly the opposite of what a cold beer does on a warm, humid afternoon. Pretty simple chemistry.

Stan,
The problem is not the humidity, per se. The problem is condensation. If you keep the guns in the safe just a bit warmer than ambient air temperature the moisture in the air can’t condensate out on the guns. You get a bonus for having the higher humidity in that the wood is happier at 60% room humidity than it would be at 22%.

Most of the time, it is inconsistent temperature that causes the metal parts to form condensation, and get rusty.

Best,
Ted

Except, it isn’t chemistry, Prof.

It is physics. Make note of it.

Best,
Ted

Obviously you've never taken any chemistry classes.Phase changes are important.

It sounds like DimmyW should remove the guns from his safe, install some racks, and use the thing as a food dehydrator. He could become one of those guys who sells jerky at gun shows.

But with 23% humidity in the room, he may have already dehydrated his brain into a raisin... which would explain some things.

Years ago, when I bought a baby grand piano for my wife, I checked into proper care and humidity levels. The optimum humidity for pianos is 45-50% at 68 degrees. Stradivarius violins are maintained around the same levels. And a museum conservator told me they try to maintain a stable 45-50% relative humidity and temperatures of 65-70 degrees F. for antique wood furniture and other wood objects. There seems to be a general consensus that humidity levels lower than 40% for wood objects can lead to shrinkage and cracking issues. The ideal moisture content for properly seasoned wood itself will read much lower if checked with a moisture meter (6 to 8% optimal for gunstocks). But moisture content of wood, and the humidity surrounding it, are two very different things.

😛 ^^^^^ I can't see what this person says ^^^^^^because I ignore them and no longer read their posts, so if I interrupted them whoever they are- sorry about that.^^^^^^^^ I was going to say-- I used to use a golden rod in my safe, but the darn thing heated up so hot that it melted the rubber tip on the end. That's when I figured they were dangerous, so I went to a light bulb. And like I said, I guess my house is a lot dryer in the winter than I thought. In the summer it is so humid I constantly have to run a dehumidifier in the basement almost all summer long. That is why I was never concerned about dryness in the winter. I just started leaving the light out with the door closed and the humidity is going back up. Supposedly 30-50% is ideal. So, we'll see what happens. Thanks for your opinions, gentlemen. I really appreciate it.

That totally makes sense. Thanks for the explanation. I like it when something simple works so well, like that Goldenrod.

I store all my guns in "Gun Socks" and never had any issues with rust. Also protects them from bumping around each other inside the safe.