You have bought the perfect gun safe for you. Just the right size and the highest quality you could afford. You are pleased with this purchase because you know it will keep your guns protected. However, you’ve begun to notice some humidity in your gun safe and have become concerned.
How do you know what size dehumidifier you need for your gun safe? Dehumidifiers come in different sizes, the best way to know what kind you need is to review the owner’s manual of your gun safe for its specifications.
Dehumidifiers happen to be the perfect solution for any kind of humidity within a gun safe. Keep reading to find out how to find one and figure out what size you need.
What Size Dehumidifier Do I Need For My Gun Safe?
Different brands of dehumidifiers have different size requirements. The best way to know what size dehumidifier you need is to first look at the specifications of the owners manual of your gun safe.
Types of Dehumidifiers:
- Desiccant
- Electric
From there you can research the different types of dehumidifiers there are out there and decide which type and size work best for your safe.
There are two types of gun safe dehumidifiers. Both have strengths and faults that will be explained below. The two types of dehumidifiers are desiccant and electric.
Desiccant dehumidifiers are containers filled with silica-gel or some other absorbing material. They absorb the moisture in the air. They are the cheapest option and are ideal for those who do not want to use electricity or drill holes in their safe walls.
There are two issues with a desiccant dehumidifier. The first is that they’re not always the most durable and will lose its absorption qualities.
Eventually, you will have to replace it with another dehumidifier, but as mentioned before desiccant dehumidifiers are the more affordable option.
The second issue is that natural desiccants don’t absorb all of the moisture. While they will get the majority of the moisture, with some moisture left over, there is still a risk of your guns becoming corroded.
Electric dehumidifiers work by heating the air around them, pushing the moisture out of the safe through the safe’s ventilation. The electric dehumidifiers are the favorites of gun safe owners, as they are more effective than the desiccant option, eliminating all of the moisture from the air, including what the desiccant dehumidifier would miss.
The one real issue with electric dehumidifiers is that, for them to have the power you need to pursue two possible options.
First, you could purchase a smaller battery pack, however, this would require replacing and can become expensive. Second, you could drill a hole into your safe’s wall so that the dehumidifier’s power cord can reach an external power source.
Either option for a dehumidifier is good; it just depends on your needs and what you can afford. If you want the cheaper model a desiccant humidifier is your ideal choice, just be sure to check the air temperature every now and then to gauge extra moisture. If you can afford a more expensive option, then an electric dehumidifier is ideal for you.
I would recommend a desiccant dehumidifier if the humidity of your gun safe is regularly low and you want to make sure that it is maintained.
If your gun safe is at high risk of having a humid internal climate, I would recommend using your time and resources to purchase an electric dehumidifier and make the necessary modifications to the safe.
Whichever you pick, make sure to double check to make sure that the size you need is
correct according to your gun safe’s owner’s manual.
How Dehumidifiers Are Beneficial To Gun Safes
Let’s assume that you keep your gun spotlessly clean and you oil it religiously. Your gun is pin-point accurate and fires effectively, never jamming.
You take great pride in maintaining your guns and strive as a gun owner to be responsible for their maintenance. To ensure that no issues arise with storage, you buy a gun safe.
Gun Safes are automatically assumed to be infallible. The ideal storage space for your guns that will allow you to keep them protected and maintained at the highest quality. However, there is a little known risk associated with gun safes, corrosion.
Effects of Gun Corrosion:
- Rust
- Pitting
- Inaccuracy
- Jamming
- Misfiring
Corrosion, or rust, is caused by the moisture in the air and how that moisture interacts with the gun and the safe.
Standard modern safes have interiors made for durability but become corrosive in humidity. This corrosion eats away at the gun’s integrity.
A gun with rust can be cleaned if caught soon enough, but a problem is still likely to arise after the gun has been effectively cleaned. The corrosion in the gun’s barrel can cause pitting, this affects the accuracy of the gun, meaning a bullet fired from the gun may not hit its intended target.
The corrosion can also affect the firing and ejecting mechanism of the gun. If a gun cannot effectively eject a bullet casing after it has been fired there runs the risk of the gun developing a severe jam.
A jam is when the bullet casing stays in the chamber after firing and block a live round, which can be disastrous.
An inaccurate gun or a gun that easily jams is dangerous. As a gun owner, your primary responsibility is to make sure that your gun and its associated parts are always in working order. An ill-maintained gun can have dire consequences.
To prevent these consequences, you need a way to remove the humidity from your safe. There are a variety of ways to monitor the conditions of your gun safe, but there is only one sure way to maintain a consistent climate in your gun safe, a dehumidifier.
With a dehumidifier, the humidity or moisture is removed from the air. Either type, desiccant or electric, will work in this capacity. After cleaning it and proper storage, a dehumidifier is the best way to maintain a gun continuously.
Do I Need a Dehumidifier For My Gun Safe?
Now the question is, does your gun safe host the condition that requires a dehumidifier. Is the internal climate of your gun safe humid? There are a few key factors to consider when asking yourself this question.
Criteria for Gun Safe Humidity Levels
- Where are you located?
- How often do you open your gun safe?
- Where have you placed the gun safe?
Do you live in a humid area? Do you use your gun safe frequently? Where is your gun safe located?
If you live in a dry climate, such as the desert or somewhere equally as arid, you might not need a dehumidifier.
However, if you live in a humid climate, meaning you have either a lot of rain or constantly shifting humidity levels, then you should purchase a dehumidifier. A dehumidifier would keep the moisture levels of the air in the safe constant when the outside might not be.
If you are using your gun safe often, often here meaning once a week or so, you may not need a dehumidifier. If you don’t use your gun safe frequently, you are not creating a constant airflow to circulate in the safe.
The air, when it is still, will cause the humidity levels to rise, meaning you will most likely need a dehumidifier to keep the air flow constant.
Where you place your gun safe is critical. Not only should it be in a temperature controlled room where you know it will stay dry, but you also want to make sure you are placing it along an interior wall.
If you place the safe against an exterior wall the outdoor conditions will affect the interior of the safe, making fluctuations in humidity.
Chances are you meet at least one of the criteria for having a humid gun safe interior. If this is the case, then you absolutely need a dehumidifier for your gun safe.
If you don’t meet any of these criteria, I would still recommend purchasing a dehumidifier. Most people feel confident in their skills to gauge how humid or dry their gun safe is, however, even the most confident person can be wrong at times.
You may end up moving, or you may end up using your gun safe less frequently. The place you store your gun safe may unexpectedly flood.
Many different things could change the environment surrounding your gun safe. Rather than risk your guns becoming dangerously corroded, err on the side of caution and purchase a dehumidifier.
If you don’t want to spend a lot of money on something your not sure you need, as I mentioned before desiccant dehumidifiers are cost-effective and don’t require any drastic changes to your safe.
You may find that is all you need or that you need to upgrade to an electric dehumidifier later on, either way, your guns will be safe.