I bought a used TL30 safe and I'm having humidity issues.

Currently I have 3 rechargeable desiccants and I am pretty could about recharging them.  The other day I saw some oxidation on one of my HK magazines.

I need to do something else.

If I need to drill the safe to get a cord in there, then I'll do it.  I'd rather not drill the safe, but if its the only option then I'll do it.  The safe guy tried to drill it, but was unsuccessful (but I'm not 100% certain he tried, however that's what he told me).

I'd also not want to put a hole in a TL30.

Another option is fitting a (very) slender wire from outside to inside the safe.  I have a Golden Rod and I measured the voltage at 120v and amperage at 0.21.

Whats the minimum (safe) size of wire I can use?  The Golden Rod would be the only thing on the circuit.

Lamp cord or thermostat wire

Tag for comments.

One thing I found, use a room dehumidifier if you can along with the desiccant.

Like a 35 pint Kenmore

Also;

LOCKDOWN Silica Gel, 750 grams cans and/or unscented silica gel kitty litter, I use with ladies knee hosiery, fill and tie off, makes great desiccant.

I moved to east Texas from Arizona .....

Safe in the garage so dehumidifier isn’t a viable option.

Thermostat wire, hmmm

Safe in the garage so dehumidifier isn’t a viable option.


I always run a garage dehumidifier, and I live in a humid climate, tools, cars, guns, whatever you are protecting, it helps a lot. The fact that the garage door goes up & down a few times a day does not make it a non-option if that is the reason.

84% humidity outside at time of posting

41% in my garage

52% in the house w/no dehumidifier

@bgene

I’ll look into it.  Couple of questions.

My garage is 900 square feet (32x30) with 16 foot ceilings.   Wife and I park our cars inside the garage, so they open and close quite a bit.  We are in east Texas.

Think it’ll keep up with that kind of volume?

I have my good (expensive) tools in a large tool box with a Golden Rod.

I’m not opposed to a dehumidifier, wondering if it’ll keep up with this kind of abuse.

My garage is about 2/3 the size of yours and a 35 pint model does wonders. My door gets opened closed about 3/3 up/down cycles per day. I am in a humid climate.

Sizing chart link

I would buy an Energy Star rated model from some place that has a good return policy, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, etc and use one of those humidity monitor sensors and compare what you get with and without and see if it works.  I have lived in a number of humid States and always found it useful to run a garage dehumidifier. I have lived in dry climates too, really miss the dry weather! Might have to move again.

Thermostat wire worked.

18/2 flat I am guessing?

Did the wire show evidence of being smashed.

I am in the same boat with a TL with no Golden Rod and have always relied on desiccant.

Correct 18/2.

I put on the ends and ran the Golden Rod over time to test my cable.   Didn’t get warm at all.

Taped it to the floor.  And door closed easy.  Taped it in place.

The garage dehumidifier is still on my list.   I’ll grt around to that once I build the main house.

I’m still going to use desiccant.

That is awesome and I am going to try it.  Thanks for posting the update.

I still recommend the dehumidifer, they just make the garage feel much drier.  If you are a Costco Member they have a 70 pt Whirlpool right now for $160.  I paid about that for my 35 pint.

ETA: https://www.costco.com/Whirlpool-Energy-Star-70-pint-Dehumidifier-With-Pump.product.100332279.html

Only allowed 1/4 inch hole from what I remember, so this product will meet the hole size limit, so just buy the outlet parts at HD and wire it up: Jameco Valuepro GPC002C Power Cord, 8' Length, AWG 18/3, SVT, Pigtail, Black.  Correct place may be in rear bottom on hinge side, so you may need to pay safe tech to come out, pull it forward, drill, push it back, etc.  Go with Torchstar 5000K daylight LEDs.  There, I just saved you some bucks for wiring and lighting it up, so just pay the safe tech what you just saved in time searching for the right stuff.  He will verify the placement of the hole and it will not void the security of your safe.  Money well spent and you will be happy.  Humidity in my TL30 took a week or so with 12 inch golden rod once installed to go from 60's to 50's (just stop opening it up to look inside).  I was there for the hole placement and it requires some knowhow that the tech has for drilling rig, pressure, and bits.  It does not take long if you know what you are doing.

I finally got a couple of digital temp and humidity monitors.  Over night, inside, they are within 1 degree of each other and exactly the same for humidity.   They were $7.69 each on Amazon.

Put one in the safe and one outside, magnetic mounts.

Inside.  79 degrees and 46% humidity.

Outside.  81 degrees and 68% humidity.

it sat overnight and more.

Outside the safe 84 degrees and 61% humidity (outside the garage its 96 degrees).

Inside the safe its 82 degrees and 27% humidity.

Haven't read all the replies, but if you live in a humid climate forget about the units that you can recharge in the oven or some other method of restoring the media that collects moisture. You would be having to do this constantly. I live on the border between NC and VA in the Western part of NC. We don't get the Alabama and Florida humidity, but it's humid, trust me. My massive safe was in a finished basement room that also contained our hot tub. Not a good choice for a gun safe but at the time I had no choice. The hot tub stayed covered and I ran a dehumidifier that pumped the collected water into a drain so I wasn't having to drain the bucket every day. But the room was still humid. I had the largest goldenrod they made at the time and this safe was 42" wide and close to 6ft tall. I had several rifles I was restoring that had the factory bluing already removed. I am very anal about my guns and I never had a spec of corrosion or rust on any of my firearms. That goldenrod kept all my guns nice and dry and last month my son finally came home from a 15 month deployment in the sandbox. I loaded a trailer up of all his stuff that was still here and took it up to his house in ND. He was shocked when he opened the trailer door and saw my huge safe in the nose and packed with my toys. He will get more use out of them than I will and he certainly deserves them. I lagged it to the floor in his garage and the goldenrod is now still protecting his toys. That thing is over 25 years old and just in case I purchased a second one to have in the safe in case the first one dies. Can't be to dry for guns and ammo. Make sure the seal to your safe door is in good shape and that it seals when the door is closed. I have also seen units to dry out safes that actually blow warm air kind of like my old boot warmers, they would also probably do well. But I have first hand knowledge of the goldenrods.
LATER
NCH

I drilled a hole in my TL30. It took 2.5 hours and a few bits. The hardest part was finding a long small bit.

The golden rod isn't supposed to reduce the humidity. It raises the dewpoint.

I would put a proper cord in there and have a permanent solution.

My TL30x6 was drilled for power and to bolt into the floor. You definitely want power inside.

40W incandescent light bulbs do a great job of warming the air to raise the dew point, better so than Golden Rod in my experience. VCI chips are also a good idea as they will decrease the ability to rust even if your temp and humidity conditions aren’t ideal. And I agree with others about putting a dehumidifier in the garage. I had one in a basement that vented to the outside air and it definitely helped lower the humidity in the basement.

I currently have a Golden Rod, 40w bulb, VCI, rechargeable desiccant dehumidifiers in the safe, and run a dehumidifier outside the safe.

That's not right... to put it simply: #1 A golden-rod will decrease relative humidity, #2 Desiccant will decrease absolute humidity, therefore reducing the dewpoint as well.

A raised dewpoint is a bad thing, that would mean that condensation will start to form sooner.

Absolute Humidity = total amount of moisture in the air
Relative Humidity = amount of moisture in the air relative to the maximum amount the air can hold
Dew-point = the point at which relative humidity reaches 100% and dew starts to form on objects because the moisture is condensing out of the air

By "humidity" I assume you meant relative humidity because that is usually what is meant when only "humidity" is used. The golden-rod, or any heat source absolutely DOES reduce the relative humidity. There is no way for your safe's absolute humidity to change unless moisture is actually being added to or removed from the air. A desiccant will remove it but generally nothing is adding to the absolute humidity. The moisture gets in there by riding in on new, moist air from the surrounding atmosphere through cracks/leaks and any time the door is open. So for a fixed absolute humidity, the relative humidity varies with temperature. Warm air can hold more moisture than cold air (this is why your glass of ice-water sweats). So the golden-rod, by raising the temperature (by adding heat) of the air in your safe, decreases relative humidity. It doesn't change the dew-point. Dewpoint is tied directly to the absolutely humidity, and the golden-rod can't change that.

I live close to the coast and have lived right near the beach in the past. High humidity for most of the year. I've been using a golden rod for more than 12 years and they really work well for preventing rust. I had some magazine parts and other blued steel parts sitting outside my safe on a shelf and they started to get rusty within only a few months. I had a katana that I had displayed on my shelf in my living room but even with occasional oil, it stated to get rust spots on the blade. My sword now sits inside my safe until I can make a display case with it's own golden rod and or desiccant.

Any small heat source will work in place of a goldenrod as well. And yes, they do work. They reduce the relative humidity.