Humidity and your cabinet

[Mark70]

We're having one of the most jungle like summers on record here this year.

I build my cab out of MDF in the winter when the relative humidity is about 20%.  In the last couple of days it's been as high as 85%.

I've noticed that my lower door is sticking and worst of all, my CP overlay is getting wrinkly.  It must be growing with the increased humidity.  I should have laminated it.  In order to change is I have unwire all my buttons, uninstall all of the buttons and replace it, then put it all back.

I wait for the cheese for my whine.  Sorry.  It's just hard to see something which you put effort into to make it look good and work well, start to look not as good and work not as well.

[ahofle]

That sucks.
Just curious, is your cabinet indoors?  I wouldn't think the humidity would be nearly as bad inside (assuming you have A/C).

[jimmy_bored]

My cabinets are in the lower part of my house, which for whatever reason has lots of moisture in the air.  I use a dehumidifier.  There cheap and work great...

[westell]

I have my arcade machines in the basement and run the dehumidifier 24/7 during the summer

[Mark70]

My cabinet is in the basement.  We don't have air conditioning yet.  The AC unit just arrived yesterday.... coincidentally.  Hopefully once the air is up and running, the problem will subside.

Interesting that I've never heard of a dehumidifier as being an important piece of arcade equipment, yet a couple different people have mentioned that they use them all of the time.

[Ninten-doh]

Like Westell, I keep a dehumidifier running 24/7 during the summer as well.

[Texasmame]

Ditto on the dehumidifier.  Home Depot carries several (Hampton Bay was the one I got).  Ran ALL THE TIME up in NH in the summer but the games NEVER showed any signs of humidity damage.

YMMV