Buying a safe , any kind or any brand is really just buying time. The real questions to ask is how much time do I need and how much time can I afford to buy.
When you step up into TL rated safes you're buying yourself a lot of time. When you run down to Tractor Supply on black Friday and...
Good quality , UL rated digital safe locks do not come with backup keys. There's a reason some safes have what I call malfunction keys. It's because they have the cheapest Chinese junk locks known installed and have an extremely high failure rate.
Anyway , I'm glad you got it taken care of.
All kidding aside if you get in touch with someone local and you're not sure if they're shooting straight with you don't hesitate to get in touch with me for a second opinion.
I get down to Dublin from time to time and thought if you were close I'd knock it out for you.
Then I looked up your location , You're 190 miles from everywhere :D
There's never a reason to "cut" open a safe. A safe guy that knows what he's doing will open it with one small hole... assuming it's only a lost or unknown combination.
Never EVER use graphite. To answer your question , call someone to service it. There's lots of things that can go wrong and end up locking yourself out of the safe.
If your garage is not climate controlled use the eva-dri to absorb the moisture. Two is better.
The golden rod type of products just heat the air , your safe is still full of warm moist air.
Everything in it will mildew if you don't take the moisture out of it. Do NOT use damp-rid. While...
If you've got dampness issues you've got to have something to absorb the moisture. All the golden rod's do is warm the air up inside the safe. You still have warm moist air , which is a perfect environment for mildew. I use the rechargeable eva-dri in my safe. The down side is you have...
Gardall and AMSEC (American Security) both make a decent wall safe. In my opinion tell your buddy to stay away from the digital keypads. They're nothing but junk , the exception to this is if They''re UL rated locks such as Lagard or AMSEC's ESL series locks. If your safe , gun ,wall etc...
The S & G mechanical lock is very reliable. In 30 years of opening locked safes I've seen two malfunctions. All the others have been lost or forgotten combinations.