# De-humidifier cabinet



## jriffel (May 13, 2009)

I am going to have an modified chest of drawers that is somewhat sealed with a dehumidifier in the base or bottom drawer. I want to set the humidity inside the drawers to 20% while the outside will fluctuate between 25%(summer with air-conditioning) to 60% in the winter. Should I expect damage to the wood in the medium/long term? My wife suggested a dual layer of wood with a sealed air pocket between to help prevent movement/damage like dual-pane windows. I like working with Red Oak and this sounded like a fairly easy plan to me, are there any other suggestions?? The contents of the chest of drawers is an obscenely large collection of modern (plastic) playing cards and clayish poker chips(nobody tells actual contents of the chips anymore). All of these are qwirky about humidity. Suggestions are welcome !!!!!!


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## Julian the woodnut (Nov 5, 2008)

What about using silica gel desiccant packets instead of a dh? They should do the job and be much easier to deal with.


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

Interesting challenge. Like Julian said you are going with something non-mechanical right ?  Like this.
If you are thinking something else I am only familiar with 2 kinds of small d/h's, one is thermo-electric like this Or conventional units that have freon and use a compressor...in both cases I think you are going to have heat issues...I know for a fact you will with a freon unit, they put out tremendous amounts of heat.

I may get corrected here on construction methods but I think you want to seal the _inside_ of the cabinet with a spar marine varnish. As well as the outside. This IMO should slow down the moisture transfer from the room into the piece. And help with the battle of the one side of the lumber being subjected to higher RH (relative humidity) than the other. That battle, especially in something like red oak will cause joint failure.


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## jriffel (May 13, 2009)

I have tried the silica packets and even a the rechargable types. They aren't quite up to the task. Thanks about the idea of the spar varnish inside and out, what about the idea of dual paneling ?? Does that have any merit?


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

I can't see the great advantage of double panels, but maybe I am missing something. If it was me I would keep the cabinet in a room that I also controlled the RH. Dehumidifier in the room where it is and less aggressive measures inside the cabinet...just a whole lot easier all the way around.


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