Cooling the garage.

[wyshadow]

I've been given the green light to install a swamp cooler (evaporative cooler) in the garage. My question is will my guns be ok in the garage? I don't fill my tanks in the garage but in my little shooting shed that is cooled by a window AC. I read reviews on the portable evaporative coolers and decided this setup will not work for me. What I'm thinking of doing is installing a swamp cooler on the roof but if the swamp cooler will damage my guns, I will just use a large shop fan. I keep my guns inside a gun cabinet I made and I work on my guns in the garage.

 

[hawkeye69]

A swamp cooler will increase the humidity, not good for the guns.

 

[Guest]

A swamp cooler will increase the humidity, not good for the guns.

I’d echo this. The garage is a bad place overall because drafts and condensation occurs, resulting in rust. 


With actual firearms rust proves problematic too; the best is dipping a gun in a 50 gallon drum of oil lol (for long term storage). But for PCP storage probably a vacuum bag over the whole gun with silica bags inside to capture any moisture left inside (combined with a pre-wipe oiling. Some portions of your house can be super bad too, like near a hall or bathroom. All depends. It is a war we will always be fighting. Unfortunately with PCP guns they have a lot more smaller components than a traditional firearm.

 

[SDellinger]

When I moved to AZ I bought a swamp cooler for my garage. In about 2 hours everything metal was wet. Not good. Seemed fine in the store because the air was already cool and dry.

 

[JimNM]

EVAP cooling needs as much air out as air in. You can't cool a closet by pushing damp air into it.

Generally, not good for metal and electronics.

 

[d_denver]

I use a swamp cooler in my house 95% of the time. All of my guns are stored in the house and I have had no problems. You do need a window or exhaust vent for the air to exit or it will become very humid. Get one with a thermostat built in.



Dale

 

[wyshadow]

I got this and hope it will work for me. I just need to secure everything down. Thank you for everyone's advice. 

 

[T3PRanch]

There is an evaporative alternative but it takes some thought and construction on your part. You can use the evaporative cycle to cool water in a reservoir then pump the water through a set of coils (radiator, old AC Condenser coils) with a fan attached inside the shop. This will give you the benefits of Refrigeration and dry air inside and the benefit of the evaporative cycle rather than a compression cycle of a normal refrigerated AC. Look at industrial cooling towers which have used this method for MANY years!

 

[cmatera]

I’d put in a mini split and have cooling and heating.

 

[tus]

Have to ask, what kind of temps and humidity do you have to deal with? 

For my garage I just went with fans, which works fine with the layout of the doors and where I am.

 

[wyshadow]

During the summer, the temps can get really high. I've never measured it, but if I had to guess it would be 95 to 110 roughly. We dont get high humidity here in las cruces