I live in South Florida and have kept my guns in a garage safe for years.
They get a twice annual cleaning with break free and a spray and wipe of WD-40
Never had a problem.

I think you need to look at the gun oil part more than where the safe is and the humidity of the room.

Maybe because you are more north it's a condensation thing rather than humidity??

Simple, cheap, and expedient: the classic hockey pucks lifting the safes off the concrete floor will likely make a huge difference in moisture infiltration. Adding a fan so that the air is always moving under there might reduce it further. Climate control/HVAC in the garage is likely to be expensive, but perhaps worth it to preserve the value of your collection.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
Climate control/HVAC in the garage is likely to be expensive, but perhaps worth it to preserve the value of your collection.

For reference, my father just had his 2.5 car garage (2 car garage with an additional workshop bay) turned into a climate controlled space earlier this year.

This included insulating the walls and ceiling, replacing the door with an insulated door, and having a minisplit installed.

It cost around $11k total.

$2k blown-in cellulose insulation and patching the drywall holes in the walls
$4k insulated two car garage door installed
$5k mini split HVAC installed

But this is in a relatively low cost of living area. Labor and supplies will always cost more if you're in a high cost of living area.

Jumped back in to say that we were once in a temporary armory (steel box with vents and locked doors) in Ft. Macon while a building where we used to store weapons was under construction.

It was basically a large ammo magazine that was in skids vs permanently attatched to a slab. IIRC it was 12’ wide, 8’ tall and 20’ long.

The weapons all had racks on the bulkheads. Eastern Nc is terribly humid. So we ran a dehumidifier 24/7 in it. We also put plastic over the vents to prevent air from coming in-but it had a door, so there was only so much we could do.. We soon had to run a hose to drain it outside vs carrying the bucket outside. It did remove enough humidity to keep the weapons from rusting, but in one day when it broke down they began to rust-even thru CLP.

So maybe a dehumidifier in the garage.

quote:

Originally posted by mrvmax:
This is a mini dehumidifier that works well, but you will have to drain it frequently. It may take two since it is outside.

Lockdown Dehumidifier

Do these go inside the safes or just inside the garage?

quote:

Originally posted by ruger357:

quote:

Originally posted by mrvmax:
This is a mini dehumidifier that works well, but you will have to drain it frequently. It may take two since it is outside.

Lockdown Dehumidifier

Do these go inside the safes or just inside the garage?

Inside the safe, I have mine set at 37% and it holds it there. It has a little “pan” where the condensed water goes and that needs to be emptied. I think it comes with a hose that could be run outside the safe so you do not have to keep emptying it.

I suppose if your garage stayed closed you could run a full size dehumidifier in there. There are commercial ones that will remove a lot of humidity but if it is not somewhat closed off from the outside it will be running all the time. Since the safe is sealed, I think you would get much less moisture if it was a little one inside the safe.

My solution is expensive, but already mentioned. I insulated my garage door and installed a mini-split AC/heater on the wall. There's a bedroom above the garage, so the ceiling is insulated already. It can be 100˚ outside in central FL and it's always 75˚ in my garage.

On only have rust issues if I open the garage door in the middle of summer and leave it open for 30 minutes. I made that mistake once. I washed my truck with the garage open and my mill and lathe had a layer of flash rust by the time I was done washing the truck. Spent the next 2 hours wiping off rust and oiling my machines back up.

Tony.

Those dehumidifying products (not actual electric dehumidifier units) have a limited capacity and lifespan and need to be changed if you're seeing rust.
The more humid the environment, the less service life they have.
Inside an air conditioned house is a much different environment than any garage. Once they're saturated they seem to increase the rust problem and I don't use them at all anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
Those dehumidifying products (not actual electric dehumidifier units) have a limited capacity and lifespan and need to be changed if you're seeing rust.
The more humid the environment, the less service life they have.
Inside an air conditioned house is a much different environment than any garage. Once they're saturated they seem to increase the rust problem and I don't use them at all anymore.

The one I linked is a dehumidifier made fro safes. I’d buy those and replace when they break rather than try to make a garage climate controlled.

I hven't seen these mentioned, but in addition upgrading your "oil" processes, they make cordless dehumdifiers that will suck out the moisture when you close the safe door. The larger ones are good for about 2 weeks. Search on Eva-dry (E-500 is the larger, "high-capacity" one). Buy 2 and you can rotate them in and out.
https://deansafe.com/products/edv-500

This is different than the bar your using. The bar is only to raise the temp up to reduce condensation, and they do a good job at it (but not for you evidently). The Eva-Dry is a rechargeable desiccant. There's a color change indicator on it showing how charged it is, and in @ 2 weeks or so, you simply plug it into a wall outlet until the color changes back indicating it's now recharged and you're good for a couple more weeks. The small ones get rebranded by gun makers, Remington for example. Get the big version.

Next: give a quick squizz of this link and then do an internet search on other tests. There's some darned good ones out there. Not all oil is created equal. Make sure you scroll down to see the results, differences are stunning: https://dayattherange.com/gun-...-product-evaluation/

Lastly, check the seal under your garage door, and also go with that room dehumdifier advice upthread. I was showing up to our coast place and the wind was blowing dirt and crap under the Garage door is how I learned my door seal was misshappened. Once I slapped a new thick foam strip under it, the place is both dryer and cleaner. Small additional note: Dehumdifiers can be the kind you have to manually empty, but some can be set up to coninually drain into a sink or drain. Sounds like you want the latter kind. They also come sized for different areas, so check that as well before you buy one.

I tripped over this info as I noticed a bb gun I'd left downstairs next to my gun safe had started to rust. Inside the safe are some things I DO NOT want to ever see rusted, like a classic P210 etc etc.

what is the right humidity level to prevent rust. My gun closet hovers around 65 degrees, and 53% humidity.

If you never open the garage, insulate the door (they have a kit) and air condition the garage. A mini split or even a window unit is perfect for this. IF you can't do that a dehumidifier would help.

My safe is in an unconditioned garage in Florida that I also park my vehicle in and has no issues with guns sitting in the safe for years. I just have a goldenrod.