What would be the best suggestion to keep moisture out?

Shawn1976

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What would be the best suggestion to keep moisture out?

Alright.
First of all I live in Florida, so anyone that has been to Florida knows that it can be hotter than the Sahara one day and cold like winter the next.
Long story short, about a year ago I had to move due to my job. I had all 6 of my games at my house, but again due to the move I had to bring them over to my folks house for storage. All of the game are wrapped with shrink wrapping and are now currently in my folks garage. The garage is not climate controlled but they are all covered with bizqueen in the corner of the garage and are protected from rain/ the sun.
The question I have is the games will probably have to stay where their at for another year or two and I wanted opinions on whether or not I have to be worried about the cold/humidity issues of the environment? I don't want any of the boards/electronics to get corrosion issues due to not being climate controlled.
Can I get some feedback on things I can do to make sure I don't run into any corrosion/humidity issues with the games?

The only thing I can think of is to get a dehumidifier.
Any other thoughts?
 
I was also going to suggest the dehumidifier. Though, if you are worried about the boards, pull them and stash them in the folks house or wherever. One or two years? That's a long time not to play your games.
 
Ya. I know.
Unfortuantely I don't have the finances currently to buy a house yet.
So...On that note I'm living in a one bedroom apartment thats on the second story.
Not willing to lug 6 games up the stairs, let alone the space to store them.
To add to the other suggection that you gave, I wanted to utilize the space of having multiple cabinets, so on pretty much all of the games I have multiple boards in each of the cabinets.
To put it mildly I have 21 boards in 6 cabinets.
 
If it's insulated then you should be okay. The temperature will slowly climb or drop, which isn't a problem. If it's not then the temp swings and high humidity will make the metal parts, paint, and glass sweat. This will cause moisture damage. Any exposed particle board will swell and the moisture will drip off of the sweating parts and damage whatever is underneath it.

Same thing if you are actually on the water or close enough to get the wind coming from the gulf or ocean. The humidity in my house without the AC or heater running is about 90% most of the time. During this time of the year, when I'm not running the central air unit, I run two dehumidifiers to keep the humidity out.

If you don't have some sort of ventilation then the humidity will cause the same type of moisture damage and you'll get the added bonus of mold and mildew building up on it.

Wrapping it in plastic helps a lot. It will keep the surface of the machine from getting wet and helps a little with insulating it. I keep games in the carport sometimes when I first bring them home and do the initial cleaning and repair on them. Keeping a tarp over them protects them from getting wet, but the games are usually opened up and stripped down. So a lot of air circulates though them to keep the moisture from building up inside them, but I could see it still being a problem if they were closed up with all of the doors and parts on them.

- JM
 
I am guessing here, so take this for what it's worth...

If you are going to be popping in on Mom and Dad every few months or so, you could wrap them up in shrink wrap and put a bucket of moisture absorber in the coinbox. I put the approx. 1/2 gallon size tub in my boat when I winterize it. It only holds so much moisture and would have to be changed out to stay effective.

.
 
Well I am very, very far away from body of water so that is not going to be an issue.
As for the garage, it is separate from the home and unfortunately it is not insulated.
But I do know that the garage is built like a house so the garage has a wooden framework covered with an additional layer of sheeted wood (2 layers total) and the outside of the garage has been covered with stuko and has a concrete foundation. It's basiccaly a smaller version of a house without the climate control.
For the time that I've been in it I've never seen anything inside the garage with sweat or condensation. The area from what I've seen is dry, I just want to make sure for prevenative measures.
 
Thought of that too, but wouldn't that localize the moisture to one confined area?
Was thinking Damp-rid and thought of that and decided not to go that route.
 
You could avoid all this if you interview and select someone who would be willing to take on storing the games for you in exchange for being able to play them. This has worked for me in the past. You get free dry storage in somebody's home (a friend or good klov person) while they and their friends get free entertainment. Win-Win. Done it a few times, with good results.

I bought a game out of a shed last year and it clearly didn't do well over the few months it sat out there. Too much board corrosion. Very sad. I wish you the best.
 
Bumping this thread. I have no room left in my apartment so I've got 2 machines I'm restoring in a garage in Miami. There is no moisture or condensation in the garage but it is incredibly hot.
I already have some humidity sponges in and around the machine as a precaution.
What can be damaged on the game if anything at all?How bad is it for the PCB,monitor,and cabinet?
Any other Florida guys care to chime in?
 
If you think about it, what can moisture do to anything?

If the humidity stays high, mold and mildew LOVE it and will grow. To avoid that problem, the humidity should be kept below 50%.

Moisture will also cause metal objects to oxidize. In other words, rust.

Some cabinets will also absorb the moisture and swell. Granted, it's not as bad as if the game was sitting in a puddle but wood will still absorb moisture. You know some doors in a house will stick in summer? It's because they absorbed the moisture and swelled.

As was mentioned earlier, if you are concerned about things, you can pull the boards and the monitors and store them inside somewhere.
 
I don't know how much you want to spend but what about climate controlled storage. I used it for one year to store my furniture and had no problems.
 
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