I am buying my first gun safe. I really need to have it in the garage as there is not any room in the house. My garage is not heated and I live in South Dakota so it is hot and humid in the summer and gets week below zero in the winter. I need a safe that has some sort of humidity control device/system. Not too concerned about temperature. Should I be concerned with temperature or am I ok with focusing on humidity control? Is it a wise idea to put a safe in the garage in the first place? Any and all help and feedback is greatly appreciated.

Make room in the house.

just put one of those golden rod moisture thingys and you should be good to go.

quote:

Originally posted by thecanadian:
just put one of those golden rod moisture thingys and you should be good to go.

And maybe some soft foam weather stripping around the lip of the door.

quote:

Originally posted by J_Zola:
Make room in the house.

+1

Make room in the house. Unless you store your guns in the Garage year round

Build yourself a little climate controlled room or "office" in your garage.

I have two safes and one of them is in the garage, you'll be fine. Use a golden rod or get two of them if you're worried about it.

For a safe, I prefer a 6' tall safe, the extra height is very nice. You'll pay a little extra but it's money well spent, MHO.

Buy a Lincoln Series Liberty safe. I own two. Make room in your house or closet.

I was in the gunsafe installation business for 14 years on the side to pay for guns and hunting. I'll tell you what I always advised my customers. The garage is always the absolute last resort. Besides climate issues, the main problem is security. Most garages are easy to break into, can have tools that help them get into your safe or damage it. Unless you build an enclosure to hide it, it can be seen when the garage door is open and there are many sharp-eyed S.O.B's out there! I can tell you some horror stories about garage installations. You need to bolt the safe down in to a concrete slab if possible and use at least two 1/2" Quick bolts(11-15000 lbs. of holddown.) I used to have people tell me that once they put all their guns in it it would be too heavy to steal, and I would laugh and tell them how I had loaded and unloaded their 750lb. safe, by myself, in and out of my pickup without any kind of lift and if they thought 300 lbs. of gear would stop me they were dreaming. They usually got the point and had me bolt it down for the paltry $25 extra that I charged to do it. An unsecured safe if fairly easy to steal, I have sure seen it done! An unsecured safe is door heavy, roughly 1/2 or more of the weight is in the door an I have seen them tipped over out of spite, and the guns and scopes inside were trashed. Get a fire resistant model with a U.L rateing of at least 45 minutes, the more the better and make sure the rating was done on that safe. Some are really only giving the rating of the materials themselves, which is not the same as having the safe tested by UL. GoldenRods are pretty good, as long as they dont accidentley get unplugged or have a breaker get switched off. If you use one , I recommend putting an indicating dessicant bag in as a backup, get one that is big enough to do the job by itself and it will be there on standby if Old Murphy pops a breaker while you are on vacation! Get the biggest, tallest safe you can afford, you will never have enough room! Good Luck!

me thinks lee440 is a man that knows from where he speaks!

I also do not recommend putting the safe in your garage.

Find room for it in the house.

If the wife is the problem, make her spend the night in the garage for a week or so.

A basically outdoor climate is not good for your guns or ammo.

Not to even mention the security problems listed above.

Plus every time you go to the garage and get a gun out of the safe and take in the house, or from the house to the safe, you will have a condensation problem many times of the year.

Gun Safe in a garage, ammo in a garage, not me, not ever.

South Dakota? Hot and humid? My friend, you don't know what heat and humidity is.

1. While the climate controlled (mostly) living space of the house is a better place for a safe in terms of long-term storage, unless you are in a state adjacent to the Gulf Coast (or some portions of the other coasts, you'll be just fine with a garage installation.

2. The garage and the house are usually identically resistant to break-in. Which is to say, not at all. Which is why you need a safe in the first place. Well duh?

3. As has been stated, the safe MUST be secured to a concrete floor, otherwise much of its security is subject to breach. (You'll also cuss like a sailor when that mother tips forward as you swing the door open and traps your foot under 800 lbs of "security".)

There are a few things that you need to do, even in a reasonably dry climate like yours to ensure that a safe in the garage adequately protects your guns.

* First, be sure it is placed where it is not visible from the street when your garage door is open.

* Place it where you have access to an electrical outlet so you can place a dehumidifier (heater) inside if conditions warrant; but remember, heating the air inside the safe when it is 100 degrees in the garage is not going to lower the relative humidity significantly, so a "dehumidifier" (heater) may only be useful in the cooler months.

* "Dessicant" bags/boxes can be placed inside the safe, but these constantly have to be rejuvenated by "cooking" them in the oven to drive off the accumulated moisture. Even a large container is only good for a short time under humid conditions -- and is worthless if your safe is not relatively air-tight.

* Making sure your guns are wiped down to remove finger prints and acids and coated with an appropriately light coat of protective oil is the VERY BEST defense against rust and corrosion, no matter what the conditions. Handle your guns by the blued metal surfaces without wiping them down and they'll gather rust post-haste.

* Keep a simple rag soaked with an aerosol oil inside the safe at all times. The evaporation of the volatiles in the oil will create a very poor atmosphere for metal oxidation. This is probably the cheapest and most effective precaution you can take. Although you want an oil with high volatiles, make sure it also has a high flash point since you don't want to put a fire accelerant inside your safe.

* Unrelated to the corrosion protection of the guns, if it is practical, enclose your safe on all sides and top with framing and drywall. The door is the most resistant to defeat, but the top and sides, regardless of how "heavy", are simply sheet metal which a 7" circular saw can cut through in seconds. The framing/drywall will help keep intruders away from the vulnerable sides/top and the drywall will also provide additional fire resistance.

* Hope no one ever tries to get in. The most successfully defeated intrusion is one that never happens.

Take a good look at Sturdy Safes.

www.sturdysafe.com

I have one, it is a very good product, form a very good company. Made in the USA.

In San Antonio about 10 years ago we had a rash of tow truck safe thefts. Much like the ATM units.... the tow truck backed up to the garage put a wire cable around the safe and pulled them out that way.
There is a company that allows for modular assembly of the walls/ sides
--20 min 1,200 degrees. USA made
http://zanottiarmor.com/index.html
I have no connection to the company and do not own one but this might be an easy way to install the unit in your house

One of the main advantages of having a safe in the garage is that in a fire there is relatively little fuel surrounding the safe and it is nearly always on a concrete slab. If you have a safe in a basement of a 2 story house and the same safe in a garage which do you think has the better chance of protecting the contents in a fire? Any safe, even the UL tested ones, only protect the contents for a limited amount of time to a certain temperature. The less fuel around the safe, the better chance you give it of surviving a fire.
The same could be said for the above safes if they were in an upstairs bedroom. Now you have the fire under the safe heating it until the floor collapses and it falls into the coals.
Locks only keep honest folks out and only slow down criminals a little.

My safe was made by Sportsman's Steel. The side walls, back wall are made from one piece of 1/4 steel, rolled in to shape. The top and bottom are welded on and the steel tubing holding the door frame are all welded to original piece of steel.
The safe weighed 1350 pounds when it arrived. With guns and such I'd bet it weighs close to 2000 pounds.

Jim

I really didn't think that UL listed gunsafes....sure could be wrong though...

One piece of advice I am certain about is BUY A BIG ONE......somehow guns seem to multiply.....


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quote:

Originally posted by JTEX:
I really didn't think that UL listed gunsafes....sure could be wrong though...

One piece of advice I am certain about is BUY A BIG ONE......somehow guns seem to multiply.....


.

Amen to buying one bigger than you ever think you will need.
My safe has a sticker that says UL Listed 8M10, whatever that means and another sticker that says
Omega Point Labs 1638 F for 45min.

quote:

Originally posted by JTEX:
I really didn't think that UL listed gunsafes....sure could be wrong though...

One piece of advice I am certain about is BUY A BIG ONE......somehow guns seem to multiply.....


.

Most gunsafes have a residential security container certification which in the eyes of UL means it isn't a true safe. A real safe starts at the TL-15 rating and there are only a few gunsafes that make or exceed that rating.

Mr Stonecreek,

Could you name a few aerosol oils that would fit the bill for an evaporation rag in the safe?

Thanks,

Chris