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Posted: 5/31/2011 8:43:27 PM EDT
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Hey all, I've been reading the posts on here about mechanical vs. electronic locks and still have further questions. i have decided on purchasing the Liberty Lincoln 35 safe within the next month or so but still haven't decided on the lock.
I am not really a fan of the dial lock, never have been just personal preference. I like the electronic lock but the biometric fingerprint lock interests me as well. I like the ease of getting into it as well as the fact that with the S&G lock you can set it to fingerprint and/or combination with multiples for each. I went to my local safe store and one of the employees reccomended the electronic lock over the mechanical, there weren't any of the biometric to play around with though. My question is how much more problematic is the biometric lock? All of the electronics other than the battery are inside of the safe correct? I know they all have their pros and cons, and am ok with the risks of going electronic. |
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Make sure the people in your household can use a Biometric lock.
One of my colleagues can't use biometric safes due to hand eczema... the eczema affects the pads of the fingers, and makes fingerprints difficult to take... and Biometric scanners can't read them at all. |
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Quoted:
Hey all, I've been reading the posts on here about mechanical vs. electronic locks and still have further questions. i have decided on purchasing the Liberty Lincoln 35 safe within the next month or so but still haven't decided on the lock. I am not really a fan of the dial lock, never have been just personal preference. I like the electronic lock but the biometric fingerprint lock interests me as well. I like the ease of getting into it as well as the fact that with the S&G lock you can set it to fingerprint and/or combination with multiples for each. I went to my local safe store and one of the employees reccomended the electronic lock over the mechanical, there weren't any of the biometric to play around with though. My question is how much more problematic is the biometric lock? All of the electronics other than the battery are inside of the safe correct? I know they all have their pros and cons, and am ok with the risks of going electronic. The biometric is even more trouble than a standard keypad lock and takes even longer to open than a standard keypad lock. |
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Super-high end biometric finger scanners are fantastic, very accurate, and very reliable.
You will not find these on any standalone battery-powered locks under a thousand bucks. So for typical gun-safe type security I'd lean towards a dial lock or standard push-button electrics that you can be prepared to drill when it fails. If you need to keep something at hand fast, check out the GunVaults... Then you can fight your way to the real safe if need be. |
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Quoted:
Make sure the people in your household can use a Biometric lock. One of my colleagues can't use biometric safes due to hand eczema... the eczema affects the pads of the fingers, and makes fingerprints difficult to take... and Biometric scanners can't read them at all. Both my girlfriend and I have no problems with fingerprint scanners anywhere else and neither have hand issues so this shouldn’t be a problem. Quoted:
The biometric is even more trouble than a standard keypad lock and takes even longer to open than a standard keypad lock. Snop would you happen to have the failure rate or details about failures with the S&G biometric lock? Quoted:
Super-high end biometric finger scanners are fantastic, very accurate, and very reliable. You will not find these on any standalone battery-powered locks under a thousand bucks. So for typical gun-safe type security I'd lean towards a dial lock or standard push-button electrics that you can be prepared to drill when it fails. If you need to keep something at hand fast, check out the GunVaults... Then you can fight your way to the real safe if need be. It’s not so much for the speed of being able to access the safe, but rather the security of nobody can figure out your combination, nosey friend or smash and grab robber. Loose lips sink ships and one person looking over your shoulder as you punch in your pin can cause things to spiral. I haven’t as of yet found the failure rate on the biometric lock, does anyone have some data showing this? Quoted:
I researched the S&G, no faster than digital and big bucks. I choose dial. There is a considerable price difference between the digital and biometric which was one of the things steering me away. Like I said I’ve never liked the dial so I was leaning towards one of these two. |
Admittedly, this was a few years back, but is one reason why I will never use a biometric scanner as a primary access method. As one poster above mentioned, there are high-end scanners which might avoid getting hacked, but those models are unlikely to be used on a commercially available safe. Note that the lock the Mythbusters hacked was back in 2008 - the technology may have moved on, and they apparently used only the print and not the associated numeric keypad. |
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Quoted:
The biometric portion is the only difference between regular keypad electronic locks. They all use the same lock box in the safe. Same reliability as a keypad lock. I would not use an electronic lock on my gun safe, nor do I currently use one on my gun safe. Is it the risk of the electronics failing and having to drill the safe that you hold this position? Is it anything that could not be preventable by regular maintenance and inspection? |
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There's nothing to maintain or inspect in an electronic lock. When it dies, it's dead.
When some of the dial combos start to go bad, they can sometimes slip a little bit and even slip a whole number. But there's still a chance to get the thing open. As far as the biometric over button electronic because it's more secure, don't think that for a second. There's no smash n' grab thief that's going to take the time to randomly sequence your pad, esp since all of them have failed attempt lockouts now. Unless you've got a real tlx6 rated safe, it's a lot easier to zip through the side with an angle grinder and a bag of cutting wheels. So if you're heart is set on electronic, I'd stick with a high end standard pushbutton deal... |
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