Best Gun Safe Dehumidifier (2021 Reviews)

Gun Safe Dehumidifier

Rust is the enemy of all metals, your guns included. Excess moisture in the air or high humidity will eventually cause metal finishes and surfaces to corrode which can play havoc with the sort of mechanisms present in all firearms. 

To protect your guns, ammunition and shooting accessories, we recommend installing a dehumidifier within your gun safe. It will keep humidity levels low and prevent rust and corrosion from forming on anything stored inside. 

We've tested several gun safe dehumidifiers and reviewed the best ones in this guide. We've now found the best gun safe dehumidifier so keep reading for our recommendation. 

Best Gun Safe Dehumidifier Reviews

Eva-Dry Wireless Dehumidifier

Eva-Dry Wireless Mini Dehumidifier

Best overall

Pro Breeze Wireless Mini Dehumidifier

Pro Breeze Mini Wireless Dehumidifier

Great alternative option

GoldenRod Dehumidifier

GoldenRod Dehumidifier

Great alternative option

Lockdown Dehumidifier Rod

Lockdown Dehumidifier Rod

Energy efficient option

Barska Safe Moisture Absorber

Barska Safe Moisture Absorber

Best for large garages


Best Gun Safe Dehumidifiers

Eva-Dry Wireless Mini Dehumidifier

We love this little dehumidifier. It's small, and it's cheap, and it doesn't need a power supply in your gun safe. You just hang it up and the silica gel beads absorb any humidity in the safe. If you have a large safe, just buy two or three!

At 9" x 8" by 3" it's small enough to slip into even the smallest gun safe. The beads will absorb moisture for up to a month (6 ounces of moisture), and when they turn from orange to green, you know you need to recharge. Simply take the unit out of the safe, plug it into an electrical outlet for about ten hours, and the beads will be dried out and ready for use again.

A few customers have reported the unit getting very hot if it's left plugged in too long, so it's best to recharge while you're around to keep an eye on it. But there are no moving parts to cause problems, it doesn't matter if you get a power outage while it's working in your gun safe, and it's a reliable product that comes with a 5 year guarantee.

Eva-Dry Wireless Dehumidifier

Pro Breeze Wireless Mini Dehumidifier

This little dehumidifier is even smaller than the Eva-Dry (7" x 6" x 2") and works on the same principle, with silica gel beads that absorb moisture from the air. Similarly to the Eva-Dry, the beads start orange and go green when they have absorbed as much moisture as they can hold. A single unit can dehumidify up to 33 cubic feet and you'll be able to go 20-30 days before it needs a recharge.

The reason we've put it second in the list is that it appears to be just a bit less reliable. There are reports that it can take a lot longer than the specified 8-10 hours to recharge, and it only comes with a 1 year warranty instead of the 5 years you get with Eva-Dry.

Pro Breeze Wireless Mini Dehumidifier

GoldenRod Dehumidifier

The Goldenrod comes in a number of sizes from 12" up to 36" long, costing around $25. You'll be able to dehumidify up to 100 cubic feet with the 12" version, and this goes up to 500 cubic feet with the 36".

Technically speaking, the Goldenrod isn't a dehumidifier - it's a small heater. Installed at the bottom of a gun safe, it will heat the air, which ensures a convection current (since hot air rises), reduces relative humidity and prevents condensation. If your gun safe is located in an unheated garage or workshop, this is a really great product to help keep the atmosphere in the safe warm and dry.

You'll need a power supply, so you're going to need to drill a small hole in your gun safe to pass the cable through, then attach the separate plug. (The plug isn't particularly robust so you might consider buying a replacement next time you're at the supermarket.)  The rod comes with mounting brackets which allow you to install it easily and safely.

It's filled with vermiculite, which ensures the heat is evenly distributed along the length of the rod to avoid hot-spots. It can get up to 150F, which is too hot to touch, but the manufacturers assure us that it can't get hot enough to ignite a piece of paper or start setting off your ammunition.

Made in the USA, the Goldenrod gets great customer reviews. And you can always use it together with the Eva-Dry to ensure your gun safe is really well protected from humidity.

GoldenRod Dehumidifier

Lockdown Dehumidifier Rod

The Lockdown rod is similar to the Goldenrod but comes in only two lengths, 12" and 18". It's slightly lower wattage, which is why we put Goldenrod at #3 and Lockdown at #4, but it can still cope with up to 100 cubic feet of space.

And it's nice to know that with its 12 watt rating, this rod isn't going to bust the bank when your energy bills come in. You can run it for three days for less than 13 cents!

The clip-on plug is really pretty flimsy, so as with the Goldenrod, you might want to spring an extra few bucks for a more solid plug from Home Depot. But installation is not hard; the mounting brackets let you fix the rod securely to the bottom of your safe, and you only need to drill a hole large enough to feed the cable through, before adding the plug on the other end.

Lockdown Dehumidifier Rod

Barska Safe Moisture Absorber

We like the convenience of the Eva-Dry but if you have a microwave, the Barska is even cheaper and just as convenient. For just over $10 you get a pack full of silica gel crystals. It's blue - until it gets filled up with moisture, when it turns pink to let you know it needs to be dried out.

To recharge, you just pop the Barska pack in the microwave for four minutes! No need to plug it in - and a lot quicker than the ten-hour recharge for the Eva-Dry and Pro Breeze.

Plus, if you have a small gun safe, it's the smallest of all these dehumidifiers - just 5 x 3.5 x 1 inch!

There's one thing we should warn you about though. It needs four minutes at no more than 600W. If you have a more powerful microwave, then you need to run it at half power or even less. You can actually melt the pack if you put the microwave on too high, so take it gently.

Barska Safe Moisture Absorber

Gun Safe Dehumidifier Buyer's Guide

You've invested in a gun safe. You put your gun away, and for whatever reason you don't go shooting for a while. And next time you go to get it out, it's rusty.

Maybe that's just an annoyance. You're going to have to spend a bit of time cleaning your gun. But if it gets really bad, humidity in your gun safe can make your gun unsafe to use - it can lock up the mechanism and even make the gun misfire.

A gun safe won't protect your guns against humidity. If you live in a wet climate - whether that's tropical hot and humid, or northern cold and rainy - your guns are at risk of rusting. And steel can rust fast, so even in a dry climate, a week's bad weather could start corroding your blue steel finish.

Guns and rust are a terrible combination. Moisture is the biggest cause of rust so you should do everything you can to rid your gun safe of excess humidity. Your gun safe, guns and shooting accessories will thank you for it.

The trouble is that most of us don’t open our gun safe doors regularly, making moisture issues hard to notice. It is for this reason that we suggest you buy the best dehumidifier for your gun safe.

Looking for a new home dehumidifier? See our dehumidifier rankings here

The Different Types of Gun Vault Dehumidifiers

There are two types of dehumidifiers for gun safes, which work in two different ways. The silica gel type absorbs moisture into crystals, which can then be dried out either through a plug-in or in the microwave. The rod type warms the air in the safe to achieve convection and minimise relative humidity.

Neither of these types of dehumidifier are expensive. We advise using both - you can certainly afford it, as they are all cheap, particularly compared to the cost of your guns and ammo.

The Advantages of a Gun Safe Dehumidifier

The most beneficial aspect of these dehumidifers is their low maintenance. Simply set them up and let them do their thing to remove moisture over the coming days and weeks.

You may not open your safe all that often, so you need something that will work over a long period, and won't require too much effort on your part. This is why dehumidifiers designed for gun safes are perfect for the job. 

Space is limited in many safes so a dehumidifier needs to be small. Again, this is why rod dehumidifiers as well as the silica gel type are perfect. 

If you really care about your guns, we recommend that you also buy a humidity meter to check that the humidity in your gun safe is at the ideal level of 50%.


Final Verdict

If you're a gun owner you want your gun to stay in good condition, and that means you'll want to control the humidity in your gun safe to avoid rust and corrosion. Gun safes don't come with built-in humidity control, but you're lucky; perfectly adequate dehumidifiers can be bought for less than ten percent the cost of your safe.

Any of the dehumidifiers we've reviewed should do a great job of looking after your guns. Use both a silica gel type and a rod in combination, and you can be confident that your safe will be dry.

  Resources:

   Western Safe

About the Author Lets Remove Mold

If you're looking to buy a new dehumidifier then you're in the right place. Through years of HVAC and mold remediation experience, the team at letsremovemold.com are able to provide advice on the type of dehumidifier you need for your home.

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