Thread: Mildew on my rifles. Damp rid seems to do nothing

Any suggestions on what else to try?
My local Hunting and Fishing sells these moisture absorbers to keep in your gun safe.
I have been using damp rid and dont know if they preform any better. They can be reused over and over again, you just plug them in and heat them up to dry them out.
My gun cabinet is kept on the ground floor and i suspect a bit of dampness is coming up through the concrete. I have installed a ventilation fan to constantly blow fresh air into the room and was hoping this was going to be enough.

Any other ideas would be appreciated.

My experience with damp rid and the plug in regenerative ones is they are useless. I'm sure damp rid actually draws moisture into a safe. I was changing mine on a regular basis in a safe that was not in a garage but in a very dry room in the house. The only issue I was having though was a mild forming of white mould on leather slings.

I went with a cupboard heater and seperate thermostat and it's all good now. The little tube ones sold by gun shops are under nourished though.

There may also be a risk of overdoing it and drying out seals and lube in scopes, suppossedly.

Old fashioned light bulb wired into the safe, just a little heat is all you need

Dehumidifier plugged into an arlec smart plug (Bunnings). Humidity and temperature sensors on the same system which turns on smart plug when humidity reaches a set parameter. That’s how I run my reloading shed. Set and forget.

Originally Posted by thatguy

Dehumidifier plugged into an arlec smart plug (Bunnings). Humidity and temperature sensors on the same system which turns on smart plug when humidity reaches a set parameter. That’s how I run my reloading shed. Set and forget.

The ultimate solution meetinks

I've got a dampchaser - similar to an incandescent bulb in steady small heat output
17 watts, plug it in and forget about it

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/dampchase...eater_p0448989

clipped in horizontally at the front just inside the door near the floor


Steel boxes always sweat

Plus you have supported a New Zealand company's product.

And having your safe on an internal wall helps somewhat.

I have tried many options. Settled for years now on a safe heaters. I leave them going all year round. Workshop innovations ( called something different these days) sells them. Best quality IMO is Golden Rod.

A dehumidifier works brilliantly in my concrete floored gunroom.

heat and circulated air.
buy a decent dehumidifier and do the whole house. its far cheaper to cool/warm dry air than damp air
forget the DVS BS, its useless

@308 do you know if those dampchaser units can go angled or vertical as well? Like the idea but my 6 gun safe is probably a bit narrow to fit it horizontally

What is the mildew eating, perhaps you are encouraging it to grow with the right food and humidity ?

Originally Posted by Jake77

@308 do you know if those dampchaser units can go angled or vertical as well? Like the idea but my 6 gun safe is probably a bit narrow to fit it horizontally

Don’t see any reason why you couldn’t mount vertically. They are about 300mm long. I have mine mounted on a piece of timber against the back of the safe. Rifles butts sit directly in front of the heater. But if you had restriction in terms of width, mounting alternatively would work.

Originally Posted by Old_School

Any suggestions on what else to try?
My local Hunting and Fishing sells these moisture absorbers to keep in your gun safe.
I have been using damp rid and dont know if they preform any better. They can be reused over and over again, you just plug them in and heat them up to dry them out.
My gun cabinet is kept on the ground floor and i suspect a bit of dampness is coming up through the concrete. I have installed a ventilation fan to constantly blow fresh air into the room and was hoping this was going to be enough.

Any other ideas would be appreciated.

A solution we found at a mates set up was to put metal spacers / washers on the bolts securing the cabinet to keep the cabinet about 10mm from the wall then a steel liner to prevent physical access to the gap. And we went well oversize on the bolts too just in cast the person vetting it tried to argur it could be pried off...( Plastic ining between the cabinet and the wall would potentially help to as a moisture thermal barrier. The light bulb trick works as does a small fan on a timer switch so it runs at the times of day when condensation forms. (Our situation was around an hour before dawn and an hour after sundwon so we ran it from 30min prior to 30 min after each day. Wont have to be a big fan, just something to move air- often a 6 or 8 inch PC fan will suffice depending on locker volume....