How do you guys deal with humidity in your reloading room?
- Thread starter nhyrum
- Start date
michaeldarnold
New member
It's 91 degrees here in St. Louis and the relative humidity is 66%. Feels like 106 and sweating does no good to cool you off.
Humidity is a thing here. You get used to it, sort of. I just keep all the metal oiled, and the reloading room is in the basement with the whole house AC unit, basement's not too bad and the tools stay rust free.
Mike
Outside STL
Humidity is a thing here. You get used to it, sort of. I just keep all the metal oiled, and the reloading room is in the basement with the whole house AC unit, basement's not too bad and the tools stay rust free.
Mike
Outside STL
There is humidity here but not in my reloading room. It is only 50' from a 40,000 + acre lake.
It is like others have stated - The house has AC. I have zero experience with a swamp fan and am curious about what its advantage is over AC. ???
Is it possible to add an additional 900 sq. ft. out building with a window AC? You could make it your man cave with a small fridge, recliner, tv and a computer.
It is like others have stated - The house has AC. I have zero experience with a swamp fan and am curious about what its advantage is over AC. ???
Is it possible to add an additional 900 sq. ft. out building with a window AC? You could make it your man cave with a small fridge, recliner, tv and a computer.
Well just got back from a trip to ace and picked up a hygrometer... It's pegged at... 85? 90? Percent? Don't know since it stops at 80 and it's past that...
So how swamp/evaporative coolers work is by drawing hot arid(dry) air through water saturated filteres. The energy expended evaporating the water, which in relativity easy since it's already fine droplets, cools the air, resulting in cooler, moister air. The advantage is they are very energy efficient, since all it is is a pump to keep the filters wet and a fan, and there dirt cheap. Just a bunch of tin, a fan and a pump. They work best in dry climates.
I have a large, rolling ac unit, 12500 BTU's I believe that also has a dehumidifier setting, but using it cuts the efficiency of the coolers in half since one dumps water into the air and the other removes it. But the cooler does a great job at cooling the whole house, in the morning our bedroom is a chilly 55 ish degrees and the other end of the house is 60 ish.
May have to keep the dehumidifier or AC unit pumping a few days to see how the humidity changes
Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
So how swamp/evaporative coolers work is by drawing hot arid(dry) air through water saturated filteres. The energy expended evaporating the water, which in relativity easy since it's already fine droplets, cools the air, resulting in cooler, moister air. The advantage is they are very energy efficient, since all it is is a pump to keep the filters wet and a fan, and there dirt cheap. Just a bunch of tin, a fan and a pump. They work best in dry climates.
I have a large, rolling ac unit, 12500 BTU's I believe that also has a dehumidifier setting, but using it cuts the efficiency of the coolers in half since one dumps water into the air and the other removes it. But the cooler does a great job at cooling the whole house, in the morning our bedroom is a chilly 55 ish degrees and the other end of the house is 60 ish.
May have to keep the dehumidifier or AC unit pumping a few days to see how the humidity changes
Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
Here is a pic of my SKS with mold.
I have lots of mold guns. I can grow mold on an Aluminum AR15 lower.
My safe is ~ 660 cubic feet. 3 of the walls are concrete with dirt on the other side of the concrete. It seldom stops raining around Seattle, and that dirt is wet. So moisture comes through the concrete.
These heaters are rated for 500 cubic feet each, and I have two of them.
36" long
38 Watts
150 degrees F surface temperature
The heaters keep the air temp from getting down to the dew point [ with some measly margin like one degree] and get the air to circulate.
https://www.amazon.com/Goldenrod-725721-P-GoldenRod-Original-Dehumidifier/dp/B00DBTCFGY
http://ads.midwayusa.com/product/401163/goldenrod-dehumidifier-rod-with-detachable-plug-110v-gold
You can see Midway turned 500 cubic feet into 500 square feet.
Same thing, right?
I have lots of mold guns. I can grow mold on an Aluminum AR15 lower.
My safe is ~ 660 cubic feet. 3 of the walls are concrete with dirt on the other side of the concrete. It seldom stops raining around Seattle, and that dirt is wet. So moisture comes through the concrete.
These heaters are rated for 500 cubic feet each, and I have two of them.
36" long
38 Watts
150 degrees F surface temperature
The heaters keep the air temp from getting down to the dew point [ with some measly margin like one degree] and get the air to circulate.
https://www.amazon.com/Goldenrod-725721-P-GoldenRod-Original-Dehumidifier/dp/B00DBTCFGY
http://ads.midwayusa.com/product/401163/goldenrod-dehumidifier-rod-with-detachable-plug-110v-gold
You can see Midway turned 500 cubic feet into 500 square feet.
Same thing, right?
Attachments
How do you guys deal with humidity in your reloading room?
The gun room is part of the house which is temperature and humidity controlled. I also keep several bags of desiccant in my gun safe which I generally bake out start of spring and start of fall. I doubt the desiccant is really necessary but the inside of the safe is generally mid 70s F. and the RH below 50% or so. The room does a good job of maintaining and I monitor Temperature and Humidity every now and then just to make sure things are behaving. This summer has been both hot and humid for my area (NE Ohio) and our winters are typically dry air.
Ron
The gun room is part of the house which is temperature and humidity controlled. I also keep several bags of desiccant in my gun safe which I generally bake out start of spring and start of fall. I doubt the desiccant is really necessary but the inside of the safe is generally mid 70s F. and the RH below 50% or so. The room does a good job of maintaining and I monitor Temperature and Humidity every now and then just to make sure things are behaving. This summer has been both hot and humid for my area (NE Ohio) and our winters are typically dry air.
Ron
Nope, it's built into the wall.
Clark-yep, I know what it's like.. I spent the first 20 years of my life now a Seattle suburb.
I've got an idea though... I'll buy about 5 dehumidifiers, turn the cooler off before I start and turn the AC and dehumidifiers on while I decap, size and clean, so hopefully in those few hours the RH has come down to a reasonable level
Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
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You can hook up a control loop with an active pump type dehumidifier. I do not have a good path from gun the safe to a bathroom drain for the pump drain hose.... so I am stuck with dumb heaters.
https://www.amazon.com/Warranty-Digital-Humidity-Control-Controller/dp/B009VY1BZY
https://www.amazon.com/Warranty-Digital-Humidity-Control-Controller/dp/B009VY1BZY
That's a nice day!
Today's high was only 96, humidity at a mere 92%; heat index = D*mn HOT and I was out shooting sporting clays. I have learned to bring two shirts so I can change into a dry one for the drive home!........
(But a cold beer and a dip in the pool sure feel good when I get home)
I moved my reloading inside here; out West, it was so dry, using the garage was awesome
michaeldarnold
New member
Yeah, we've had some hot days here in St. Louis. A couple of Sundays ago the air temp in my back yard was 101 at 6:00 pm. With the humidity factored in the real feel was 129.
We stayed inside that evening.
Mike
We stayed inside that evening.
Mike
Sure Shot Mc Gee
New member
Buy a small room. 5-6000 square foot Air conditioner for the bedrooms window. Summers installation is all that's required. Fire it up a hour or so before your reloading on hot humid days . Not only cools but too evaporates moisture from the air. I seldom reload in the summer at my house even with its having central air. But I do at my club range every time I go there to bench-rest this or that. Club buildings are hot inside but little humility do to there unfinished Notty Pine interior walls. As for me I wouldn't hand load anything in a (uncomfortable) high humidity environment. I'm spoiled nhyrum.
Mike Irwin
Staff
My reloading area is in my basement, which is VERY humid (I live in Northern Virginia, which is an old Indian phrase for "Holy crap it's like breathing underwater!")
I run a 65 pint dehumidifier pretty much all the time during the summer to keep the humidity down.
I run a 65 pint dehumidifier pretty much all the time during the summer to keep the humidity down.
TheGageinator
Inactive
I reload in my garage which is not climate controlled, so I box and bag up all my tools, powder, and primers with desiccant when not in use. Kind of a pain. I learned the hard way not to just keep my press and powder measure In the desk drawer.... So much rust....
sawdustdad
New member
I'm in Virginia. Detached workshop is air conditioned and heated.
I reload in the garage and usually deal with humidity by sweating more...
But, as TheGageinator mentioned, stuff rusts much slower when put away. I don't have to seal everything up, just putting it in a drawer or cabinet will greatly slow rust formation. If I leave any bare steel out on the bench it will start rusting within a week.
But, as TheGageinator mentioned, stuff rusts much slower when put away. I don't have to seal everything up, just putting it in a drawer or cabinet will greatly slow rust formation. If I leave any bare steel out on the bench it will start rusting within a week.