Gear is never just gear. For professionals, gear represents livelihood, financial stability, and potential growth. Hobbyists see their artistic ambitions, the labor-hours invested in the gear’s acquisition, the satisfaction of knowledge gained, and what remains left to learn. Even novices can see in their gear their new path of embarkation and the road ahead to mastery.
Despite how laden with meaning these objects can be, they will nonetheless spend most of their lives in storage, waiting to be plucked for duty—and often with little thought given to the conditions of that storage environment. Dust, humidity, fungus, or just plain instability all threaten the long-term functionality of your cameras, lenses, optical equipment, mobile electronics, and other valuables.
Ruggard, maker of protective storage solutions for photography and video equipment, laptops, and other portable electronics, has recently debuted a line of dry cabinets that create an optimized storage microclimate for a broad range of sensitive gear, protecting your investments, aspirations, and livelihood.
Dry Cabinets, or Why Humidity-Controlled Storage Matters
A dry cabinet is a sealed storage cabinet with an electronically controlled dehumidifying system, allowing users active management of the conditions inside the cabinet. It’s more sophisticated than, say, a pile of silica gel packets in a camera bag or finding the least humid room in the house. Dry cabinets are a preventative measure and are less about drying damp gear than keeping clean, dry gear in a stable, optimized environment.
The danger isn’t just hypothetical. While quality electronic equipment is built to be resilient against adverse environmental conditions, continued exposure, especially to moisture, will accelerate the gear’s deterioration. Metal contacts and components can corrode, housings can warp, and important connections can short-circuit. Even something like a lens, whose operation is less explicitly dependent upon electronic circuitry, can be susceptible to fungal growth if not stored correctly.
Other storage options fall short of the moisture protection dry cabinets provide. Both camera bags and hard cases fall prey to trapped humid air. Room storage like closets and shelves, while convenient, can’t counteract ambient humidity. Silica gel boxes do offer a low-cost moisture control system, but they’re far less precise and effective than a dry cabinet.
To achieve this optimal storage state, Ruggard dry cabinets deploy a proprietary TE Cooling Wafer that regulates the interior’s relative humidity, doing so without a fan, compressor, or water tray. Relative humidity is adjustable from 35 to 60%, and the cabinet makes the adjustments fully within 1 to 3 hours.
Who Should Use a Dry Cabinet?
Resisting the temptation to say “everyone,” there are certain groups for whom a dry cabinet is worth consideration, if not a no-brainer.
Topping the list are the photographers, videographers, drone pilots, collectors, and other sensitive electronics users who live in humid climates. This includes, but is not limited to, coastal areas, rainy regions, tropical climates, basements, old buildings, and poorly ventilated apartments. The high relative humidity characteristic of these places immediately puts your equipment at more risk.
While working photographers and videographers will both benefit from the use of a dry cabinet, hybrid shooters specifically have a lot to gain from a controlled storage environment. The sheer breadth of equipment required for dedicated hybrid work, the essential nature of each of the many pieces, and the varying conditions each item demands all point to the kind of precision dry cabinet storage provides. Ruggard offers dry cabinets with a dual humidity zone, meaning two separate adjustable microclimates for mixed equipment—ideal for hybrid shooters.
Collectors of vintage cameras, lenses, rangefinders, and other electronics will also benefit from dry cabinet storage. Not only is a lot of older equipment more susceptible to moisture damage, but vintage gear tends to be more difficult to repair, and more expensive where possible.
Ruggard manufactures large-sized dry cabinets as well, including a 1280L cabinet well-suited for use in studio and rental house applications. These cabinets accommodate the kind of multi-body, multi-lens kits accessed by multiple users. In addition to providing an optimal microclimate, the larger cabinets help simplify equipment organization on an institutional scale.
How to Choose the Right Ruggard Dry Cabinet
In choosing a dry cabinet, size and feature set will be the determining factors. All Ruggard’s options feature the TP Cooling Wafer, 35 to 60% relative humidity range with one to three hour adjustment times, adjustable, sliding shelves, electronically controlled dehumidification, door seal for dust and dirt protection, and door security. Where the models differ is in size, control interface, door security type, and number of humidity control zones.
The cabinets come in ten different sizes designated by volume: 18L, 30L, 50L, 80L, 125L, 180L, 230L, 600L, 850L, and 1280L. Three different colorways—black, red mahogany, and weathered oak—are available across all sizes, although not all colorways may be available in all sizes. You can chunk the sizes into three buckets: the 18L to 50L volumes for a small, personal kit, 80L to 230L suitable for serious enthusiasts up to individual professional kits, and the large cabinets of 600L and up most appropriate for studios, rental, production, institutions, or any other multi-user gear room.
Newer Ruggard models feature an LCD touchscreen control for the cabinet’s internal settings, including humidity, interior lighting, and other display personalization options. Older models feature an LCD display panel with a separate, adjacent control panel for temperature and relative humidity adjustments. Interior lighting is only available in the new touchscreen models.
There are three lock types for Ruggard dry cabinet doors: combination, keyed, and fingerprint. The combination locks have a three-digit tumbler offering 900 possible combinations. The electronic fingerprint locking system allows personalized access, with manual and automatic locking modes in addition to automatic self-lock when the door closes. Up to 20 fingerprints can be stored, and keyed manual access is also available for backup.
While the locks enhance the cabinets’ protective capacity, Ruggard does not advise the use of their dry cabinets as safes.
The last variable to consider is single-zone or dual-zone storage. As mentioned earlier, different equipment types may require different optimal relative humidity settings. If your kit skews mixed use, consider a Ruggard dry cabinet with dual-zone humidity control. Available predominantly in the larger cabinet sizes, dual-zone humidity control allows independent settings for each area.
Given the importance of your gear to your goals, a dry cabinet makes a lot of sense as a proactive measure to ensure your gear’s longevity. Ruggard’s dry cabinets put sensitive equipment in a stable, climate-controlled environment, and in doing so can put you better at ease. Simple to use, well-made, and good-looking, Ruggard dry cabinets are an attractive accessory for anyone protecting emotional and professional valuables from the corrosive effects of extended exposure to moisture.
For more information about Ruggard dry cabinets, including additional features, specs, and highlights, be sure to check out their detailed product pages.
