Safe in garage

[scottzerger]

Moving from the west coast to the midwest very soon. Should i put my gun safe in the garage ? My concern is rust . The garage floor is always dry.

[Gary G]

I just bought a gun safe and put it in the basement garage. I put a night light in it. When the inside temperature of the safe is warmer than the outside temperature, I am theorizing that rust will not be a problem. They make those heat rods for safes, but I am going to try the 99cent night light first.

[bulletstuffer]

The golden rods are worth the investment IMO.  If you have it in the garage make sure its bolted down and check frequently for any signs of rust.  Nothing worse than picking up a gun and seeing rust all over it.

Good luck,

Bulletstuffer

[Pat/Rick]

Wife wants my safes in the garage when we get it built. No Way, I'm keeping them in the closet.

[scottzerger]

I'm told that the golden rod puts out low heat as well . The floors of our new home are hardwood soooooooo. I may just buy the Stackon waterproof safe and put it in the garage.

Whats a good rust preventer for guns ?  In so cal hoppes #9  is all we needed

[Buckskin]

Where are you moving to?  I live in Wisconsin and there is no way I would leave my gun safe out in the garage, winter or summer.  I like the idea of having a controlled temperature.  Mine is in the basement, (it's a walkout so moisture isn't an issue), bolted to the floor with a goldenrod in it.  I don't know if a goldenrod would do much good when it's 25 below...  We can have 60 degree swings in 24 hours.

[hunt-m-up]

Where are you moving to?  I live in Wisconsin and there is no way I would leave my gun safe out in the garage, winter or summer.  I like the idea of having a controlled temperature.  Mine is in the basement, (it's a walkout so moisture isn't an issue), bolted to the floor with a goldenrod in it.  I don't know if a goldenrod would do much good when it's 25 below...  We can have 60 degree swings in 24 hours.

Agree 100%, I'm in Iowa and those extreme temp changes cause a huge amount of condensation, more than what any passive device can keep up with. Also we do have tornadoes around here and the basement is the safest place in most homes. Another point to consider is that a lot of break-ins start and end at the garage. They want to get in quick and easy and get out and most garages are an easy target.

[PowPow]

I just bought a gun safe and put it in the basement garage. I put a night light in it. When the inside temperature of the safe is warmer than the outside temperature, I am theorizing that rust will not be a problem. They make those heat rods for safes, but I am going to try the 99cent night light first.

Gary G - Your "night light theory" is good psychrometric science.

The 15 watts of heat from a night light is exactly that same as 15 watts from any other resistive heat source, and is more heat than an 8 or 12 watt rod.

It may be even better than a rod heater for these reasons:
When the heat is transferred off the rod by convection by adjacent currents of surrounding air, the heat gets distributed as far as the air will take it before it cools off.
A portion of the heat of the night light is transmitted through space by radiation to heat the surfaces that the light illuminates.
So the heat of nightlight may be distributed better than the heat from the rod.

Condensation is prevented when the metal surfaces of the guns are warmed to a temperature above the dewpoint of the surrounding air, and the nightlight does a better job of getting to more surfaces, with direct light and reflection.

The rod may not require any maintenance. The night light will require a replacement bulb every...well, I will tell you when I have one burn out.

But if I wanted to make a living selling a solution to rusty guns in safes, I would make more selling the sizzle of a unique-looking rod heater than I would trying to sell the same nighlight they have at the drug store.
Nice thing about lights is they come in all sizes.

 

[no guns here]

My guns survived 4.5 years in my safe in a garage near Lexington, KY with no rust and only an occasional wipe down with oil.  Had a goldenrod type device in it that has been in it for 7.5 years now.  Yes it is just a small heater.  If you care about the finish of your safe, you might want to consider our solution.  We built a small closet around it by shooting footer boards in and then framing the closet all the way to the ceiling.  Put a shelf in the closet above the safe to store extra stuff in.  I put a piece of plywood in the floor and covered with plastic sheet then put a piece of old carpet on that.  I set the safe in place and then wrapped it with moving blankets.  Then we built the cabinet around it.  Nailed some 1/4" plywood for walls and doors.  Padlocked the door.  This cabinet kept the cats off of it, and kept tools and junk from being stored against it and scatching the metallic green paint.  I left the moving blankets over it while it was in the cabinet too.  Didn't have a scratch on it when I moved it out of the garage last summer.  Bad part was since the cabinet was built after the safe was in place, I had to tear out the cabinet to remove the safe.  Worked for me...  If I move back to Europe this summer, I may have to do this again but in a different state/house (not tellin' where though...)


NGH

[mrcooper]

When I moved here 17 years ago I put a couple of pine boards betwen the cement floor and the metal safe, no problems so far.