I have a mechanical lock on my Liberty Safe. I had it for about 10 years. I don't really open it that often but one day it wouldn't open. I contacted the dealer I got if from and I was told take 2 digits off the middle number.
I did and it worked.
Just putting that out there.

I've had them for eighteen years. I started out changing them every year, but dropped it back to every 10 months.

I'm due to change them again, in a few days.

Bob

I have a 10 year old American Security Safe with an electronic key pad. Batteries were changed yearly, without fail. The safe itself is a good one.
Because of dexterity issues the safe was easier to operate, especially by my wife, with said pad.

Two days after changing batteries in late December(almost 10 years to the day!), the lock failed. Service call, new lock, etc., was a $775 hit. The tech remarked that these locks had about a 10 year life span, and a mechanical lock is better. Again, dexterity and visual issues,now, are not an option, with a mechanical pad, for me.
Regards to all.
Blackhorse4

I've had my safe 11+ years and just changed the batteries for the third time. So...every 3-4 years when it beeps angrily at me.

quote:

Originally posted by oddball:
None of my safes in my house have an electronic lock.

Label me a luddite, but I find the concept of battery operated locks to be outside my thinking.

Speaking as an Electronic Engineer, so do I.

When I bought my current safe I was talking to the owner of the Safe Store. I asked about the failure rate of electronic locks and he said it's fairly often.

I then asked bout the failure rate of mechanical locks and he said he'd been there 17 years and never seen a failure.

I was just thinking about it last night, usually do it once a year, battery is still good, but it's time.

I'd say you have a bad batch of batteries or somethings wrong in the lock.

I changed my 24 y.o. AmSec from the original electronic lock to mechanical dial 6 years ago. No EMP worries now!

I believe I'm going to switch to Rogue's schedule, but my e-lock beeps at me when the battery is getting low so paying attention usually suffices.

quote:

Originally posted by Z06:
No EMP worries now!

*sigh*...

I wish this thing would die.

EMP, in the unlikely event it ever does happen, is unlikely to affect small, unconnected electronic devices. Particularly small, unconnected electronic devices that have been designed to be EMP-resistant--which all quality e-locks are. (Doubly-particularly such things sited below ground level, such as in basements, or inside metal-clad or stone buildings, and/or with metal roofs.)

What EMP will affect is anything connected to big "antennas," such as the power grid, phone and cable lines, wired networking, rooftop antennas, etc., and high-tech stuff with a lot of relatively exposed electrical wiring, such as modern automobiles.

Your e-locks are probably safe. Your mobile devices (phones, tablets, wristwatches, etc.) are probably safe (for all the good that'll do with no networks). Portable radio gear is probably safe, though, most having some kind of antenna, not as guaranteed.

Either your battery are the cheap ones that don’t have much life….or your lock is draining them. They should last years.

It depends on how much you get in and out of your safe as to how often you should change it.

I am weird about locks. For my pistols safe around the house, I have simplex lock on them

For gun safe, the S&G electronic locks are really reliable. So much more convenient than mechanical lock. Mechanical can be great if you set your own combination and practice a lot. I used to be in mine in less than 30 seconds.

If you don’t get into your safe a lot…you can go with either. But if do, you won’t be upset with an electronic lock.

I just moved. My National Security gun safe hadthe s&g electronic lock from 2000. I had them replaced it when I had Liberty Safes of Atlanta move it. That is 22 years and my daughter shot competitively and I coached an SASP team. I got into my safe a lot.

My safe came with a push button electronic lock. It worked fine until it didn’t. A fresh battery would drain and not have enough juice to open the lock.

a1abdj came to the rescue with his expert advice and knowledge. I replaced the electronic lock with a mechanical dial with his help.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
… Invest the money and put your mind at ease.

Forum member a1abdj might be able to refer you to a trustworthy locksmith in your area.

If you haven’t yet, this is the advice to follow.

Replaced mine with an S&G mechanical combo lock.

One of mine is a Fort Knox, with electronics, which I've had probably 15 years. It uses 2 9V batteries. I used to wait until the thing started beeping funny to change batteries, which is a total of 3 times, including one I just did yesterday. And I open it quite often. I have decided to start changing batteries yearly from now. OP's case sounds like a bad batch of batteries.

I've been pretty lucky. The electronic S&G locks on my Browning safes have been trouble free for 23 years. I change the batteries when they flash and beep (maybe once every year or two).

I won't argue the reliability issue. There is no question that mechanical is more reliable and, on average, and will last longer. However, I can tell you that I can access a digital combination many times faster in daily use. Also, my wife would not do well with spinning a dial and counting rotations under stress. It's a trade off I'm willing to accept. If we get blasted with EMP when the safes are locked and they both jam up, I'll cut through the side of one with an angle grinder and get what I need.

Sorry ensigmatic, the exclamation point at the end of that sentence should have been an 'LOL'. LOL

I purchased my safe with features as-is on sale and it came with an electronic keypad. I do what some others are doing and change the battery every New Year. The alarm has yet to go off doing it like this.

After the safe was delivered, I registered it and purchased a lifetime warranty for the keypad, just in case.

Usually when someone here posts a reminder and I happen to think about it.

S&G Electronic lock. I change batteries every year at DST, when I change Smoke detector batteries. Last year I installed new Detectors and a new S&G 6120.

Don't know if all of the electronic safes use solenoids, but the ones that failed of friends I have helped with had bad solenoids.

Best evidence of this is that without a spanking fresh battery, the solenoid doesn't have enought power to move a full cycle.
Instead of a proper "clunk" and release you hear "tink, tink".

In all of those we were able to switch to mechanical.

I have two handgun safes that use a battery, I change them on Valentine’s Day-same day I change the smoke detectors.

They aren’t used much though. One in the front hallway-in case I don’t have my gun on me, and one for the visiting grandparents who carry.

Gun vault micro. They have a key backup.

I don’t have electronic dials on safes. When I was in the CG they replaced a safe that held TS stuff like codes for radios etc with one that had a new electronic dial. It failed after about a month and the radiomen lost their minds.

Took hours to cut into it and get the stuff out. It was a giant kerfuffule.

My weapons safes never had that problem. S&G mechanical locks please and thank you