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Posted: 2/8/2010 7:28:25 PM EDT
I (and a few others) have bought these small EvaDry 1100 dehumidifiers for inside-the-safe use. I have 2 and they have worked well. In the most humid months I had to empty the tray 1/week at the most. A few weeks ago, my power supply went out. When I first bought the dehumidifier, the venerable TheGrayMan told me the power supply had gone out on his. He is very electrically inclined, so he got his back into service. (He should be along shortly with the fix). While searching for the power supply, I found this thread on Amazon with 9 other dead power supplies, so it seems it is a fairly common problem. Amazon These are good little units and I have one in each safe along with a 18" Goldenrod, but the power supply is a definite weak spot. Edited to change the title. I don't want to discourage people from getting these. I couldn't find another low maintenance, small dehumidifier. |
I store guns and ammo in various places, and unfortunately, my ammo storage is in a cool, damp location. Ammo keeps for a very long time... some of the stuff we used in the middle east had been stored in absolutely horrifying conditions (heat, humidity, etc), and it still fired... but long-term, these things hurt ammunition.
I looked at the popular Goldenrod... but that device is simply a heater, not a dehumidifier. That's not to say that the goldenrod is worthless... it's not. One of the main causes of rust on guns is actual condensation on the cold metal (think of the dew that collects on your car overnight), and the Goldenrod heats up the interior of your safe enough to keep humid air from condensing on your guns. This is good... but I thought an actual dehumidifier would be a better deal, hence the Eva-Dry. Here is one of my ammo storage cabinets (there's the odd rifle in there too). You can see the water accumulating in the Eva-Dry's reservoir. 
Note the reading from my handy-dandy Brookstone hygrometer. It's 70 degrees in the safe, and 33% humidity (that counts as "dry"). The Eva-Dry is a Peltier cooler (a bimetallic plate that develops a hot side and a cold side when voltage is applied to it). The Peltier's cold side is what condenses the humidity out of the air (just like your cold metal car at night), and it drips into the reservoir. There is also a hot side, and a small fan draws air across both. This effectively heats up the interior of your safe, just like a Goldenrod. This way, you get a warmer safe, and a less humid safe... all rolled into one. Ambient temp in that room is 50-ish. 
When my power supply died, I went online to find a replacement. Eva-Dry doesn't sell them (they'd probably prefer you bought a new unit... screw that.) I found a nice 9VDC, 3A power supply (you can find a similar model here), and bought it. Unfortunately, it came with a barrel connector, and the Eva-Dry has a funny power plug. The solution was obvious: 
Yep. I cut off the plug and part of the wire from the old power supply, stripped it, and butt-spliced/crimped it onto my newly purchased power supply. You could probably use wiring nuts just as easily, but I thought the butt-splices look neater. The only thing to be careful of is the polarity. The positive lead is generally marked in some way... with a white stripe, a striated wire (as opposed to a smooth wire), etc. I connected the white-striped positive lead to the striated Eva-Dry positive lead, and the rest is history. The new power supply is actually rated up to three Amps, which should provide a bit more current handling, just in case the old power supply died because it was overloaded. 
I don't remember exactly how long I'd had mine before the power brick died on it (I want to say it was 6 months or so...). My Eva-Dry cost me about 60 bucks new, and I wasn't about to throw it out just because they'd sent a cheapo power supply with it. I ended up fixing it for a third the cost of a new one. Just my little way of sticking it to the man. 
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Thanks for posting the model number of the power supply you used. I had found units that provided the correct specs, but I'm not sure how to splice a round wire to the "lamp cord" siamese that the plug is made of.
I may buy this exact one that you did. power supply |
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Gray Man:
Have you had any issues with your Brookstone Hygrometer? Some reviews weren't great, but, overall, it appears to have received good reviews. I was looking at this one: Weather Store Hygrometer This one is twice the cost of the Brookstone, though. ETA: And one last thing: I'll have to splice the wires on the power cord of the Eva Dry in order to get it though the hole on the bottom of the safe, right? |
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Eva-dry EDV-E-500 Renewable Wireless Mini Dehumidifer no worries about that one leaking in your safe. but that one requires you to take it out and plug it in. I would like one that you plug in and basicly forget. I've never seen one like that, but I don't know why you couldn't drill a little hole in the bottom of the reservoir, glue on a little valve or nipple with some of that sprinkler-drip-tubing stuff, and run it out the bottom of your safe. Matter of fact... I'm going to Home Depot today... perhaps I'll see what they have. |
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Eva-dry EDV-E-500 Renewable Wireless Mini Dehumidifer no worries about that one leaking in your safe. but that one requires you to take it out and plug it in. I would like one that you plug in and basicly forget. I've never seen one like that, but I don't know why you couldn't drill a little hole in the bottom of the reservoir, glue on a little valve or nipple with some of that sprinkler-drip-tubing stuff, and run it out the bottom of your safe. Matter of fact... I'm going to Home Depot today... perhaps I'll see what they have. that is my plan if it does not have a place to connect a drain allready. I know most larger ones allready have it |
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