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[BigDave83]

I have a small gun safe in the back room of the garage. It is back there because it is out of site of anyone that comes. It is rarely opened as it is the over flow safe. It has several that just have special meanings like my first shotgun, and some that were owned by family members, and a few that I used to shoot regularly but had bought some that replaced them.

Most of what I use when I shoot anymore are in the safe in my bedroom, I don't have room to put the other safe in the house. The back room is concrete block and concrete floor, with no windows and really no air movement. I did wall off a portion of the room and raise the floor and insulate it and the walls.  No heat in it but the doors to it are open and the heat from the garage works its way back there, so it gets very humid in the summer. I have a heater in it. I opened it a month or so ago for some reason, and found a lot of mildew on most of the guns. I was out over the weekend and bought a big tube of Flitz and a can of WD40 and over the last 3 days have been working on cleaning them up.

Last night I raised the safe off the wooden floor so air could get under it as well as around it. I noticed that many had more mildew towards the bottom of them than the barrel when stood in there. Also I had one shotgun in a gun sock that seemed unaffected, I have order more gun  socks, I put in a bigger dehumidifier rod last night also. Size of the safe is about 22D 28W 60H, and it is maybe 15 years old.

My thought is to run power into it and put and outlet inside to plug the rod into and find a small timer and maybe a computer type fan I could run a rheostat on to get the speed I want and have it set to come on every 4 to 6 hours and run for maybe 10 minutes to move the air in the safe more than just the way the rod does it, sorry I don't know what that type of movement is, hot air rises and pushes the cold down.

So does anyone have or have had similar issues or have ideas on what I am thinking of doing or other suggestions?

[Conumdrum]

Put it on wooden blocks a few inches off the ground.  It's the coldness from the ground causing it.

[Canadian John]

 
When I had my gun safe, it was in the finished basement of our house sitting on a painted concrete floor. Humidity wise it was slightly higher than upstairs.  My only concern was during the Summer months

when the humidity is high (we are close to the great lakes). I had a round, 36" low watt density heater placed in the bottom. The company that manufactured the heater claimed it to be a dehumidifier..

Reading between the lines, their claim was it heated the air just enough so it moved about as fast as smoke from a cigarette, and rust wouldn't form as long as there was air movement..  As the safe was rather

tight, I drilled some 1/4" holes in the back. 2 @ bottom + 3 top or 3 + 4  (don't recall). The purpose was to allow the air to exchange: fresh in @ the bottom, warm out @ the top..

Over the years I never had a problem w/ rust at all. Granted, my humidity levels were lower than what you describe. We also have a forced air HVAC system that I am sure helps.

You might try installing a small fan in the room to move the air around.

 There is an other dehumidifying system that uses a fan to pull heavy damp air off the floor expelling outside. The replacement outside air comes from the top so there is a dryer air flow thru the room. These

are easily fabricated or available for purchase.. 

An other option is desiccant. You would need several packs: one in use with the others drying out.

Just some ideas Dave.  Hope you find a workable solution.

[JimAZ]

If you have an event store around see if they have a big bag of silica gel or dry air dehumidifier (https://www.campingworld.com/dri-z-air-dehumidifier-4735.html) and place that in the bottom.

[BigDave83]

Put it on wooden blocks a few inches off the ground.  It's the coldness from the ground causing it.

I had built the floor up with 2x4 and plywood, put a moisture barrier and insulated it. Last night I did lift it up about 2 inches with part of a solid door I had narrowed.

[BigDave83]

If you have an event store around see if they have a big bag of silica gel or dry air dehumidifier (https://www.campingworld.com/dri-z-air-dehumidifier-4735.html) and place that in the bottom.

I have 2 rechargeable desiccant  things I put in. They never seemed to last very long, I thing I saw something like you describe at tractor supply.

[BigDave83]

When I had my gun safe, it was in the finished basement of our house sitting on a painted concrete floor. Humidity wise it was slightly higher than upstairs.  My only concern was during the Summer months

when the humidity is high (we are close to the great lakes). I had a round, 36" low watt density heater placed in the bottom. The company that manufactured the heater claimed it to be a dehumidifier..

Reading between the lines, their claim was it heated the air just enough so it moved about as fast as smoke from a cigarette, and rust wouldn't form as long as there was air movement..  As the safe was rather

tight, I drilled some 1/4" holes in the back. 2 @ bottom + 3 top or 3 + 4  (don't recall). The purpose was to allow the air to exchange: fresh in @ the bottom, warm out @ the top..

Over the years I never had a problem w/ rust at all. Granted, my humidity levels were lower than what you describe. We also have a forced air HVAC system that I am sure helps.

You might try installing a small fan in the room to move the air around.

 There is an other dehumidifying system that uses a fan to pull heavy damp air off the floor expelling outside. The replacement outside air comes from the top so there is a dryer air flow thru the room. These

are easily fabricated or available for purchase.. 

An other option is desiccant. You would need several packs: one in use with the others drying out.

Just some ideas Dave.  Hope you find a workable solution.

Thank you, I put an 18" Golden Rod style heater in it is bigger than what I had. I had also thought about trying to figure out a way to move air in the room. So maybe the fan and timer could be set up on a larger scale outside the safe instead of my thoughts of inside.

[yorkdude]

I always keep charcoal briquettes in a nylon in mine, while not in the same environment I have never had any problem.
Years ago a guy I bought a few pistols from told me about using it, he said the preference is aquarium charcoal but this is a close second per him.
I change them every 2-3 months.
Just a thought.

[GREG-B]

Wow, we live in what I consider hi-humidity area and I've not had those kinds of issues......yet.  Mines bolted down in the garage to the floor, with a huge silica pack.  My BIL installed a dehumidifier in his and says it works pretty good. Should install one in mine, it's wired for power.

[BigDave83]

I live in the mountains of PA. I would imagine if I were to move it out of the back room where there was more air flow I would not have the issue. The room it is is is 10 by 30, I lowered the ceiling and studded out the walls and insulated. Just walking into it from the garage after about a minute you could feel the difference in the humidity.

I should have the gun socks by the weekend, so I will put them on and maybe see if I can find a hygrometer and put back there and maybe do the fan and a timer to move the air in the room.

I had originally planned on building a vault there, I knew someone that had a door they were going to sell to me, but they kept messing around saying they were going to use it then they would tell me they would sell it to me and the next thing I know he sold it to someone else.

appreciate all of the responses so far.

[Brushpopper]

Wow, we live in what I consider hi-humidity area and I've not had those kinds of issues......yet.  Mines bolted down in the garage to the floor, with a huge silica pack.  My BIL installed a dehumidifier in his and says it works pretty good. Should install one in mine, it's wired for power.

I live in a high humidity area and don't have the problem either and mine is bolted down in the garage.  No silica packs, but I have a plug inside the safe for a little heater or whatever it is and no problems so far.  Other than the 9V battery going dead that is in the lock.

[Canadian John]

 Re: The heater/dehumidifier. As it has been ~ 20 years, some of my memories are slow @ coming back. I don't recall the dimensions of the safe. I do remember that originally I had a shorter heater than the

safe was wide. Probably thinking about saving electricity.  I didn't have humidity related problems however I upsized the heater's length to match the width of the safe. As I recall, the heater manufacturer

recommended selecting a heater's length based on the width of the safe.