I saw that costco has a Cannon CS72 for $700 and I'm currently in the market for a new safe. Seems like a good deal but I've read that the Costco contract ones are built to a different spec. I'm mostly looking to move my cheaper stuff to another safe to make room and not safe gouge my guns. I understand that this wont stand up to determined safecrackers but I'm looking to keep smash and grab tweakers and curious hands out. Might put some papers and such in there as well. Any thoughts and does anyone have one of these?

I’ve had a Cannon safe for about 15 years now and have been very happy with it. Get an electronic keypad rather than a manual lock, as the manual eventually wears out and becomes really hard to unlock, as I found out. I can’t comment on the ones sold by Costco.

I'm very happy with mine. No idea about the Costco version. I will second the recommendation for the keypad style lock. I only get to access mine about a month and a half each year as it's in the U.S. and I'm not. I've never had any issue with moisture or anything. I do have a Goldenrod dehumidifier in it and a section of rope lighting that are on all the time. They make a good heavy safe in my opinion.

I've had this safe for about 10 years. No issues. For the money it has worked out great for me.

Used a couple mover dolly's to bring it from the curb to an entry door and it's final resting home.

Mine did not come with any interior door bag/compartment, but you can always add one.

It has anchor points on the bottom and a pass through for an electrical cord for golden rod or server setup.

Cheers~

I've heard good things about Canon. Like a lot of things, check the model and see how it compares with the rest of their line.

Big, multi-door dealers tend to want their categories to hit specific price-points within a specified price tiering. Brands will made edits to an in-line product to accommodate the request, usually they're cosmetic or, certain features are removed/added.

You have me wondering if Costco has Cannon making a safe specifically for them, or are all Cannon safes made to the same spec's, w/ the same parts.

Check out this review...

Why you should never buy a safe from Costco
Background

Costco is a great place to shop, you can get your necessities in huge quantities at rock bottom pricing. For items that are commodities such as baby wipes, toilet paper and chicken, Costco is truly the best bang for your buck and I would highly recommend it.

Where Costco fails miserably is when they show you huge savings on an item that is supposed to be high quality. I say “supposed to” because Costco will take companies that typically have had great quality products and force them to strip out all of the things that made it great to reach a price point they deem favorable for the customer. In reality, they are completely fucking over the customer and I feel horrible for the people who got taken for a ride believing they were getting the same quality product. The best example of this is Cannon Safe Company. Cannon used to be one of the highest quality producers of Gun Safes in the country, but once they started selling to companies like Walmart and Costco, everything went down hill.
How are Safes Different at Costco?

There are some main components to gun safes that are what we call “behind the curtain” that are vitally essential to the long-term use and security of the safe. HOWEVER, you don’t see them from the front of the safe, you only see them behind the back panel.

On the front of the safe, you see the lock, the handle, the paint job and a placard that tells you the security rating (if there is one), the fire rating (if there is one) and the storage capacity.
What you don’t see is all of the actual meat and potatoes, you get disillusioned by the gravy! On a real safe, you have things like a hardplate , a relocker , thicker steel in the door and body , longer bolts, high quality fire material and strong locking mechanisms operating the boltwork.

With a safe from Costco, you get the thinnest steel possible in all areas of the safe, no relocker, no hardplate, little to no boltwork and an untested fire rating.

So while the safe may look big and robust from the outside, it can be popped or cut open in under 5 minutes with basic tools like a hand saw or a crowbar.

Another major disadvantage to a Costco safe is the lock. More often than not you’ll find every safe at Costco having a key override behind the lock that will allow access in the event the electronics die. Unfortunately, any safe that has a key override automatically disqualifies for any type of insurance rating and the reason why they put the key in the first place is that they know the electronics will die. It’s not an “if” they will die but a “when” they will die situation. Key locks are ridiculously easy to pick as can be seen on tons of different youtube videos and ruins any security you think you had. I highly, highly suggest you make sure the safe you purchase has a UL Rated Lock preferably made in the US or Europe. My favorite electronic locks are made by NL and they have a very affordable option in the NL Universal Lock UR-2020 and a Redundant option that features both a mechanical dial in the middle and electronics on top meaning you’ll never get locked out of your safe and you don’t need a key override. Here is a great video by Dean’s Safe explaining the benefits and features of the Redundant Lock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC1c2xN8DI4


Conclusion

When it comes to buying a good quality safe that offers more than 5 minutes of protection, I would highly advise you stay away from anything sold at Costco, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Tractor Supply or Dick’s Sporting Goods. The one big box store actually selling a quality products is Cabela’s with their Pro Series made by Liberty Safe. I highly recommend looking at safes from American Security Products AMSEC USA, Fort Knox, Liberty and Stealth. All of these companies have an excellent reputation, great warranties and reliable products.

Check out this list of good quality Gun Safes with Free shipping from Amazon

The only good quality safes that I’ve been able find at prices that compete with Costco are the Stealth Economy Gun Safes. They provide all of the essential security features Costco has ripped out of their safes for a similar or lower cost. You can check them out on Amazon by clicking the links below:


Link

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
You have me wondering if Costco has Cannon making a safe specifically for them, or are all Cannon safes made to the same spec's, w/ the same parts.

With Costco, unique-makes are possible, I doubt they'd compromise on components...again, anything is possible. I know some of the TV's they get are unique for them.

The unique style/item you find usually gets splits into two groups: Mid-to-Upper tier stores like a Costco, REI or Scheels may request a unique color to an existing popular item; creates some exclusivity. Whereas lower-tier retailers like a Sam's/Walmart, Dick's, Sportsman Warehouse, Bass Pro, Modell's not only get a unique style but, its compromised with lesser components which helps push the retail price lower; their biz model is based upon volume.

quote:

Cannon used to be one of the highest quality producers of Gun Safes in the country

Until they were purchased by larger companies like Alpha Guardian, who recently filed for bankruptcy. There's a pretty good list of companies that had "lifetime warranties" that are now "no longer in business".


The rest of what is in that review is somewhat accurate, which is about the best you can hope for from somebody who reviews things but isn't an expert in those things.

Oh....and don't buy anything from Amazon, especially safes.

I have a Cannon safe I purchased 10 years ago from a large safe company. It is a good safe and I've been happy with it. It is in an unconditioned garage, in hot and humid South Florida with a golden rod and no issues. It has a S+G manual lock on it, not digital. I can't speak of Costco, but check with your local safe store. Mine delivered it for free and put it on spacer pads and bolted it into the slab...….I did have to pay them $300 to unbolt, move it, and bolt it to another slab when I moved in 2013......

Originally posted by Dzozer:
Check out this review...

Why you should never buy a safe from Costco
Background

Not downing you and I appreciate both sides of the arguement but after reading that review I saw that the site is an amazon affiliate and I wonder about their information bias as they also push barka safes as the #2 overall option for safes and the only recommendation in this category is a stealth brand safe with no reviews on amazon.

My thought is in most manufacturing nowadays, a seller contracts a factory to build something to their spec. Like I can get a Vortex PST made in the same plant I get a Swapfox Tomahawk. Same plant, one is made to higher specs with better materials. I believe it may the same with these. Is a comparable size Cannon a better safe? I dont know but from what I've read the shelves carpet might feel a bit cheaper, there might be a ding on it, the lock might be a different manufacturer. With that said its also quite a bit cheaper. Maybe I only need that Swampfox vs the Vortex PST and if so I'm thinking this might do the trick. Could be wrong though. I appreciate all of your feedback so far.

The specs should be available on Cannon's website for various models, and on Costco's site or the model. Easy to compare it some aspects. Total weight of the safe should give you an idea if Costco's is cheaper built.....No way of hiding the weight of safe materials.....thicker steal is heavy, etc. etc. The door and body gauge's (thickness) are listed on Cannon's site for each safe. etc.

I saw that it has the hard plates etc. good idea on checking the weight. I know the Costco one is like 696 lbs. Looks like a comparable, slightly larger Cannon from the website is 770. It is however dimensionally a bit larger.

While I'm an Amsec fan, this Costco RSC offers a lot for 7 bills.

If you do the math, the drywall inside of most gun safes will outweigh the steel by a large margin. Most of these safes are 11 gauge steel which weighs 5 pounds per square foot. This puts the weight of the steel used in your average 60x30x26 gun safe at around 300 pounds.

Remember than when you're looking at a 700 pound safe. It's actually a 300 pound safe with 400 pounds of prepackaged contents.

Safes are much like car batteries. Safe's are made from steel, and its a heavy material. Batteries are made from lead. Its also heavy, and its the active ingredient. Just like bourbon, but its not the weight with that.

OK, back to basics. Why are you buying a safe? To protect a dozen guns you've bought from Walmart over the years? Add up the new cost and total it. Does it exceed the cost of the safe? How about after allowing for wear and tear? Don't count uncle Willies old single barrel off brand shotgun. Rule #1 is don't pay more for a safe than the accumulation is worth.

There is the issue of protecting the neighborhood from dirtbags with guns I guess. And you might even need a safe to store ammo in. Hint: the ammo may be worth more than your guns. But you can also buy a Job box made for tools. Those are pretty solid, they're designed to keep shitheads out at construction sites. If you get one that takes multiple pad locks, you may be good. No guarantee.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
If you do the math, the drywall inside of most gun safes will outweigh the steel by a large margin. Most of these safes are 11 gauge steel which weighs 5 pounds per square foot. This puts the weight of the steel used in your average 60x30x26 gun safe at around 300 pounds.

Remember than when you're looking at a 700 pound safe. It's actually a 300 pound safe with 400 pounds of prepackaged contents.

What gauge steel do you want in a $1000 safe? $2000 safe?

quote:

What gauge steel do you want in a $1000 safe? $2000 safe?

That's the problem with gun safes as a whole. Once you get over the 1,000 pound mark they're harder to sell because they're harder to move and may be too heavy for some structures. It then becomes a balancing act, because most consumers want some fire protection. Combine that with gun owners, who are notoriously "cheap", and you've got to cram that balance into a price point.

Gun safes tend to be the ultimate jack of all trades, but master of none. They aren't that burglary resistant, aren't that fire resistant, and aren't that well built from a manufacturing standpoint. So although they will keep the meth addict out, and they will protect against some fire damage, they will not perform as well as safes purposely built for those tasks (which are heavier and cost more).

The other thing that is common with gun safes is the costs associated with aesthetics. That fancy paint, machined handles, plated hardware, and upholstered interiors do not provide any burglary or fire protection, but do certainly add to the cost.

Overall, 11 gauge steel (which is roughly 1/8") will thwart a smash and grab burglar with a hammer and large screwdriver/small prybar for at least 5 minutes (which is what the RSC test proves).

Gun safes are great for guns. That's what they were really designed for. All of this marketing that they are great for paperwork, family photos, digital media, and other valuables is nonsense unless in very small quantities. If you're using a gun safe for guns, any gun safe is better than no gun safe at all.

My Costco Cannon safe is about 10 years old and it's been good, not great. The lock has had some problems, but Cannon's customer support was pretty good. They sent me a whole new mechanism and walked me through it on the phone. Though I was able to repair the original one in that process.

It's not going to stop a pro safe cracker at all. It will, however, deter or slow down a lazy, unprepared burglar, such that they don't want to spend as much time in the house as it would take them to get in. Now, I have mine in the corner of a closet and anchored to the foundation. So it would take some effort to break into, but a pro could easily do it.

Layered security is key here. Alarm, door locks, safe, etc.

Keep in mind, "pro safe cracker in this case is anyone who can go to Harbor Freight, buy an angle grinder and a few cutting wheels.




Link to original video: https://youtu.be/F7k4q3b2q1o

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
My Costco Cannon safe is about 10 years old and it's been good, not great. The lock has had some problems, but Cannon's customer support was pretty good. They sent me a whole new mechanism and walked me through it on the phone. Though I was able to repair the original one in that process.

It's not going to stop a pro safe cracker at all. It will, however, deter or slow down a lazy, unprepared burglar, such that they don't want to spend as much time in the house as it would take them to get in. Now, I have mine in the corner of a closet and anchored to the foundation. So it would take some effort to break into, but a pro could easily do it.

Layered security is key here. Alarm, door locks, safe, etc.