I got to thinking today about controlling humidity inside a gun safe today in talking with my dad.  His gun safe is a "waterproof" safe that has a rubber gasket on 3 sides of the door frame (this is how it came from the factory), the top is the only part without a gasket.  It's propped up on 2x4's and anchored through them into the concrete floor in the garage.  We came up with 2 ideas, and I wanted to get someone else's input on them before we went one way or another.


Idea 1.  Finish sealing the door by putting a gasket on the top part of the door frame (the only part without it) and putting another desiccant pack in the safe effectively sealing it.  My only concern with this is that it might get too dry inside there.




Idea 2. Don't finish the door seal and get a mini humidifier with a humidistat.  Tap the reservoir for a drain hose and run it out the bottom/rear of the safe.  The humidistat could be set to 40% an it would run only when that threshold is exceeded, and cut off when that threshold is met.  The only downside I see here is that the small dehumidifiers with humidistats have less than stellar reviews...but I do call into question the intelligence of the users.  Most are trying to use them to dehumidify an RV, a bathroom, or a closet.  The units are marketed at rooms up to 150sq feet, which is probably a very optimistic assessment.  My dad's gunsafe has a footprint of less than 9sq feet, so even if it operates at 25% efficency it should work just fine in that enclosed space.  The units are operated off of a heat sink and a computer fan for air flow.  I just don't know if the unit will kick off much heat and have a golden rod like effect anyways.  






He does NOT want a golden rod.  He's pretty sure with his safe door partially sealed it will cause moisture to be trapped in the safe could cause a "greenhouse" effect by developing/trapping moisture in there.  If there weren't a gasket this probably wouldn't be an issue, but I can see where he's coming from with it.  He has no interest in removing the gasket either.  


Currently the safe usually sits at around 50% on average.  The highest it's ever gotten is 60% one really wet spring, and the lowest was in the 30's in the winter.  And this is with just using desiccant packs and him occasionally forgetting to check them/pull them out and plug them into the wall to recharge them. He has a wireless monitor he's going to install in the safe that syncs to his home automation system.  He can set a threshold alarm on it and it will alert him on his iPhone.  In the mean time I bought him another one of those plug in the wall to dry out desiccant packs.  I figure with 1 and a box of rechargeable desiccant in there working fine for the last 8 years adding one more won't hurt.  


 

He may not want a golden rod, but it is the easiest, lowest maintenance option.  The safe is not air tight, and I don't see why the golden rod wouldn't work like it does on any other safe.  Your 50% reading isn't bad at all, comparable to conditioned space, and the 60% isn't horrible, but higher than ideal.  I would be more worried about the low reading and cracked wooden stocks.  Good luck with whatever you decide.

What wireless monitor system are you using and is it accurate and reliable?  I am interested in getting something for my safe to remotely monitor the humidity.

 




We put a strip of the rubber on the top of the door and completed the seal around the door, it's all foam rubber anyways and you can see where the factory stuff has been squished by the door so it's doing its job.  The door was also noticeably harder to close, maybe by the added air pressure inside or maybe just the gasket material being present. Without the seal on top the safe was around the same as ambient humidity  (5% lower earlier in the week) with 1 small rechargeable desiccant pack in there, and in 7 days it "saturated" the desiccant pack I put in there last weekend.  With the seal it dropped 10% from ambient humidity and held that till I left with only one small desiccant pack in there.  He's going to track the humidity level inside the safe for the next 7 days and see how it holds up over that time.  If that 1 rechargeable desiccant pack is still good we'll know that this experiment worked.  If it's not then we know it didn't and he's only out $5 for the roll of rubber gasket material.  Seemed like a no-brainer to give it a shot.  

That's right where you want the humidity to be.  Why mess with what has worked?

Does he understand (scientifically speaking) how absolute and relative humidity, wet-bulb temperature, dew-point, and a golden rod all work?

I feel that due to his adamancy for not getting one he doesn't understand it.

IMHO, as somebody that does, golden rods work, plain and simple. It's very easy scientific principle, and it works. There is no need to fear moisture becoming "trapped" or any such thing.

 
He doesn't want it in there because he doesn't want to run electrical into the safe.  It's a paranoia thing he got from my grandfather (his dad)

May I ask what is he afraid is going to happen?  If he's worried about a short or fire, then plug the chord into GFCI outlet or something.  

 
Yeah the whole fire thing.  Trust me I mentioned that.  This is an irrational fear of his, and at almost 70 now I don't think it's going to change.

At 70 you likely won't change his mind but as a electrical contractor for many years I have goldenrods in all my gun safes and also low voltage led lighting.i don't have them wired into anything too fancy just a common quality plugstrip.

depending on how old his home is it could already have arc fault breakers that could trip if anything was shorting.gfci is more for leakage to ground and personal protection. So if he wants a extra measure of safety and has no arc fault currently they sell arc fault devices that are similar in appearance to a gfci.they would provid a extra level of security for any arcing caused in the safe.

Pete

Figured I would do a 7 day update incase anyone is lurking and wondering.

Ambient: temp 78 degrees humidity 60%

Safe: temp 78 degrees humidity 43%

That's with one of those Liberty plug into a wall socket  to recharge desiccant dohickies that you can get for around $25.

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14 day update

Desiccant is still going strong

Ambient: 73%

Safe: 40%

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Your dad is 70, has a home automation system and is remotely monitoring humidity and won't change?  He's just rockin' the new stuff!
 

Edit:  my only problem with the current setup is that I would eventually forget to change out the desiccant packs. But if he's been doing it for years, I don't see it being a problem for your dad.

im in Phoenix, so they r pointless for me.  if i was anywhere else where you actually GET rain, then id prob have 1