Tag: safe construction

Cheap Gun Safes with Combination Locks

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If you are looking to buy a cheap gun safe with a dial-type lock, be careful.  Cheap units with dial locks frequently use what is called a “direct entry” lock system.  These are much less secure than a safe with a Group 2 dial lock.  Try this:  With one hand put pressure on the safe handle, and with the other hand turn the lock dial.  If you feel the lock turning with the hand on the handle, then it is a direct entry lock.  An experienced person can determine the combination when he can feel what is going on inside the lock.  The picture below is the inside of a very cheap direct entry lock system.  The round silver parts near the top are the three lock wheels.  The slot going from the center to the outside edge of the wheel corresponds with one of the numbers on the dial.  You can determine the lock combination when you feel the openings on the wheels through the safe handle.

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When a safe has a Group 2 lock you cannot feel the lock through the handle.  These locks, as well as the whole locking system, provide much more protection.  Naturally, they cost more, too.  Spend more money — buy a quality safe with a Group 2 lock if you want your safe to provide real burglary protection.

Key-Locking Safe Dials

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Key locking dials on combination locks are sold as security upgrades, especially on gun safes.  Safe buyers are rarely informed of their limitations, however, and misinformation sometimes actually jeopardizes the safe buyer’s valuables.

Sargent & Greenleaf combo lock with key-locking dial
Sargent & Greenleaf combo lock with key-locking dial

To use the key feature properly, close the safe, turn the dial several full turns stopping the dial at “0”, then turn the key 180 degrees and remove it.  The dial is now locked so it cannot be turned.  This is supposed to keep unauthorized people from tampering with the lock.   However, anyone who is skilled enough to manipulate open a combination lock by touch and sound will also be able to pick open that key lock in a few seconds.  The dial lock is also easy to drill open or just force it to turn with a good screwdriver.  Now for the surprising part — most safe manufacturers order their key locking dials so that all of them use the same key!

Now, this is what puts many safe buyers at risk:  It is somewhat common for workers in box stores to show safe buyers how to lock their safes up for “fast unlock”.  With this procedure, you close the safe and lock it by turning the dial clockwise only about 15 numbers to “0”, then turn the key so the dial won’t turn.  Next time, all it takes to unlock the safe is to turn the key back to unlock the dial, turn the dial clockwise 15 numbers, and the safe is unlocked.  Simple and easy!  However . . .

Relatively intelligent burglars know this trick too.  If they find a safe on which the dial has been key-locked, they know there is a pretty good chance that the safe can be opened is just a few seconds.  They can turn the key lock with a pick set, a heavy screwdriver, or even a key that came with another safe made by the same manufacturer.  If the owner is using the “fast open” trick the only other thing to do is turn the dial clockwise.  And then empty the safe.  That is exactly what happened to a local guy who bought his safe from a box store.  He did what the store worker told him to do.  The trick cost him over $20,000 that he thought was secure in his safe.  To get properly educated about safes, buy your safe from people who really know them, not from a box store or a gun store!

Gun Safes and Fire: Seals, part 2

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Below is a smaller portion of the test curve which was shown in the previous blog.  Note how with the three inferior safes the inside temp shoots almost straight up at the beginning of the test.  Then at about four minutes the curve turns back down slightly before shooting up again.  This momentary reversal happens when the expanding heat seals get hot enough to expand.  It does help, but it is clearly inadequate.

Fire Test Chart

If there is a large gap between the door and the door frame, or the door does not close snugly, then heat and smoke will just pour in. In theory when the insulation gets hot enough to release moisture it provides a degree of cooling. And the resulting water vapor should create a positive pressure to keep really hot air from coming into the safe.  But these affects are not enough to overcome poorly designed doors which do not seal.

Gun Safe Seals 006

So why did the American Security safe perform so well?  First, these safes have plate steel doors that have tight tolerances so the doors fit properly.  Second, these units have two types of seals.  They have an expanding seal like other safes (top edge of door in photo above). But they also have a cold seal (in door frame) that keep out heat and smoke even before the expanding seal gets hot enough to work.  Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?  None of the test safes were by Fort Knox, but most Fort Knox gun safes also use double seals.  The inner seal (see photo below) expands, while the outer seal is a fin-type which is very air tight all the time.  Graffunder gun safes use double seals, too — see earlier post.

Gun Safe Seals 001

Why don’t other safe manufacturers use double seals?  Some choose to sacrifice real protection in favor of lower costs.  When buying a gun safe, make sure the door fits properly and make sure it has both hot and cold seals

Gun Safes and Fire: Seals Are Important

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Just as important (maybe more important) as the insulation used in gun safes, is the type and number of seals used around the door.  Some manufacturers claim to have terrific fire ratings – numbers made up based on the amount of drywall they use – but then poor fitting doors and inadequate seals allow heat and smoke to rush to in during a fire.

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This portion of a fire test graph illustrates my point perfectly.  It comes from Intertek ETL Laboratories, an independent testing lab.  Results were released this January for fire tests done on four gun safes in December 2013.  Temperature is shown on the vertical axis, time on the horizontal.  During the test, the furnace temperature was raised to 1200F in 8 minutes, then held steady until the end.  Temperature sensors were located inside each unit 7” from the top.  A safe is considered to fail when it’s inside temp hits 350F.

Looking at the test curves from right to left, the curve furthest to the right is for an American Security BF gun safe.  This safe lasted for 126 minutes before the internal temp reached 350F – over two hours!  I cannot name the other manufacturers here, but they are very well known.  The next curve to the left is a top-of-the-line unit with a 2.5 hour “fire rating”.  Few companies claim to have a fire rating that high, but when this safe was tested by ETL it failed in only 69 minutes – less than half what the manufacturer claims.  The next safe has a 60-minute rating but it lasted only 47.5 minutes.  The final unit is said to have a two-hour rating but, incredibly, it failed in just 9 minutes!!  That’s some kind of great fire protection, isn’t it?

Next time:  Explanation for the successful test and the failures.

Gun Safes: Other Types of Insulation

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Rather than using dry-wall for insulation (see previous post), Graffunder safes and Amsec BF safes use poured-in concrete based composite materials.  This requires an inner layer of steel so the gun safe body ends up being stronger and more difficult to cut into.  The inner steel also prevents insulation from caving in like Type X drywall.  Making safes with poured-in composite material is a slower and more costly manufacturing process, resulting in a superior product.

Liberty Insulation 006
Amsec BF: Inner and outer steel, poured-in composite insulation

A less common form of fire protection is the use of a thermal blanket made from fiberglass or ceramic fiber. This is supposed to reflect heat away before it gets to the inside of the safe.  I have no idea how well it works, but it does not provide any actual cooling effect like the moisture release from dry-wall or composite materials.  Whatever heat does get inside, however, — mostly through the gap between the door and frame – will certainly be trapped inside.  That will lengthen the time it takes for the safe to cool down after a fire.