Recommendations for keeping my guns in good shape since I have to put my gun safe in the garage

[FireMedic]

as a relatively low cost/low hassle option I use the EVA DRY bundle. It comes with two separate units I can place in different parts of my safe and they "charge" for about 2 hours and are then good for a month or two. Doesn't matter if I lose power, there is no mechanical parts to break, and if for some reason something goes bad its $50 to get a new pair ($25 each) so it's pretty economical. I have had this for coming up on 2 years and my safe has zero problems despite being in my garage which is usually open to outside air with me working out of it. 

[BigK]

I forget who to credit for these stackable shims from Amazon, but I love them. One under each corner creates just enough air gap to keep moisture away and I think I had one corner than needed 2 to make it level. Thanks to a cheap Harbor Freight impact drill and some expanding steel anchors, I was able to bolt it down right onto the shims. Just in case, I have a Golden Rod inside the safe.

[CMDRStormBorn]

I couldn’t find a single bit of bad advice above.  I am the 1%er that has gun safes in my houses, concrete bunker, private cave system, and forest caches.  I enjoy redundancy in protecting my items as much as redundancy in the items themselves.  Two of my favorite bottomline steps in corrosion protection under ALL of these settings is no actual ground/floor contact with safes and periodic “fuming” of arms with a protective aerosol form of CLR/protectant/inhibitor of choice.  Obviously, I cover optic lenses during this process.  Again, everything above is excellent- but these two analog, old school, non-power dependent steps have never failed me. 

[Unkle_elroy]

I used to have a ton of the large desiccant packs strewn throughout my safe when it was in the garage. I never had any issues with moisture. Now it’s in the house, but I still keep some of the packs in there to be on the safe side 

[CaneyRiverDog]

Mine is in garage. Only problem I ever had was with mold and I have a 36'' goldenrod on one side and a peet heater on the other. Never could get rid of the mold. Mark at the safe house told me to never store paper, cardboard, money, leather, and such with my gun. Got all that moved out and still battling mold... just not as prevalent. 

[Snaveba]

So I just regenerated the silica gel I keep in my safe. I have two containers in my safe with about 1200 total grams of silica gel (when dry). I’m not exactly sure when I last regenerated it, maybe Christmas holidays, maybe in January. Anyway, the silica gel had absorbed about 175g or 3/4 cup of water.  That’s a good bit of moisture kept off my guns. I probably went a little long between regeneration, but I don’t think the silica gel was spent. 

[ncomarc]

Appreciate all tips since I now have to move my safe to the garage. 

[hipower]

On 3/9/2023 at 7:41 PM, FireMedic said:

as a relatively low cost/low hassle option I use the EVA DRY bundle. It comes with two separate units I can place in different parts of my safe and they "charge" for about 2 hours and are then good for a month or two. Doesn't matter if I lose power, there is no mechanical parts to break, and if for some reason something goes bad its $50 to get a new pair ($25 each) so it's pretty economical. I have had this for coming up on 2 years and my safe has zero problems despite being in my garage which is usually open to outside air with me working out of it. 

 

Like this. Will be looking into it.

Currently using Goldenrod and dessicant gel pacs in safes. I keep a fan running on low speed for air circulation in warm weather. Also have an attic vent in the room that's cracked. During cold, the vent is alnost totally closed and a small air circulating heater is set at 56 degrees. Seems to work. I've used this system thru 40+ years and 2 homes.               

[Shig60]

Thanks OP and all who replied, same situation here and great ideas.

[California-is-for-commies]

The Russians would just coat their guns in Cosmoline, which is just an oily substance. That will prevent rust.

[Forest_Crawler]

My set up is similar to ones you'll read about here. I have a Golden Rod, a Hornady Rechargeable Gun Safe Dehumidifier, and I toss in a couple large desiccant bags on the bottom. I also run a dehumidifier in the garage. 

I monitor the humidity with a Lockdown Digital Wireless Hygrometer. Works great.