Finally Decided on a New Gun Safe

[nfhjr62]

Have a Liberty safe, nothing wrong with them just make sure when you attach them to the floor if you don't use all the holes make sure that you seal the holes as i had my water heater spring a leak with two inches of water on floor and seep into the safe.
Tried to dry out the in side BUT found that had some BLACK MOLD show up no trying to figure out what to do.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Like I said, I've been doing a lot of research on many different safes for a long time now. Its not just the Steelwater test videos and marketing that made me buy into it. I have read tons of reviews on them from people who actually own them. Even folks with multiple safes in their home or business talk praise the superior quality, craftsmanship and finish on the Steelwater when compared to their other safes.

I have looked at Champion. Most all manufacturers make nice safes once you get to a certain price point. But when considering a price point of $2327 that I paid for the Steelwater, nothing can compare.

And I have done my research on Liberty. The FatBoy locks are made in China. You can read all the reviews of their electronic lock and re-locker failures.

Believe it or not, China can make good stuff. Just like America, there are different grades of quality. If you want anything made in America that is easy on the wallet, you can bet your bottom dollar that the quality is gonna be junk. Unfortunately, "American Made" does not equate to quality anymore unless you want to spend a LOT of money. Dollar for dollar, Americans cannot not make the same quality product as China due to inflated US labor and manufacturing costs.

Id probably rather send my money to China than that Communist state of New York anyhow. At least I know my money won't be going to a state's economy that utilizes it to fund and empower anti-gun activist rules and regulations.

I have never layed my hands on a thing made in China I considered quality. It still amazes me they can build it then ship it to your door from China that cheap. I am sure it will do just fine for locking up your guns. I think this is the first time I have ever agreed with JRS ;D

 

[Ledd Slinger]

You are aware that China is a communist country… aren't you? They are a capitalistic country also' Meaning a very large portion of a companies profits go to the regime which is in fact the Chinese government The ones hacking into our computers, etc; etc. Not the kind of people I care to support.

Anyway, enjoy your safe, and congrats on your purchase, along with your new house

Thanks I try not to support China when possible. I'll usually pay extra money to avoid it and buy American made products. Unfortunately in this instance, to get the same specs on the safe I wanted, that difference in cost was gonna run me a minimum of $2K extra or even more depending on the brand. That pill was a little too big to swallow right now.

I know I'm not buying a bank vault that's gonna withstand Armageddon. But with 9 gauge steel body, 18 - 1 1/2" door locking bolts with re-locker, 1/4" steel plate door, and a 2 hour fire rating all backed by a Liftetime fire and theft warranty, it should serve very well to fend off the common house burglar. Being that I will also be living in city limits, the fire dept would be able to respond quickly to any home fire that may occur.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

I have never layed my hands on a thing made in China I considered quality. It still amazes me they can build it then ship it to your door from China that cheap. I am sure it will do just fine for locking up your guns. I think this is the first time I have ever agreed with JRS ;D

I suppose I'll have to see. I will admit it's a bit of a gamble. But it's not like it's designed by the Chinese. Design and QC is done by experienced American safesmiths. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. At least the fact that I can't find one bad review on them gives me some form of confidence.

When I finally get my hands on it, I will even pull the door panel off to inspect the locking mechanism construction .

 

[Stephen_G66]

I suppose I'll have to see. I will admit it's a bit of a gamble. But it's not like it's designed by the Chinese. Design and QC is done by experienced American safesmiths. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. At least the fact that I can't find one bad review on them gives me some form of confidence.

When I finally get my hands on it, I will even pull the door panel off to inspect the locking mechanism construction .

My apologies for resurrecting such a old thread, but I am looking to get a Steelwater safe and all I see online are the stress tests done by the company on their own product. I'm not convinced and would like your input on how well your Steelwater safe has held up over the past 3 years. Would you still suggest this Safe over the others mentioned previously? Thank you!

 

[JRS]

My apologies for resurrecting such a old thread, but I am looking to get a Steelwater safe and all I see online are the stress tests done by the company on their own product. I'm not convinced and would like your input on how well your Steelwater safe has held up over the past 3 years. Would you still suggest this Safe over the others mentioned previously? Thank you!

Read the warranty very closely and don't fall for the salesmanship.

 

[Stephen_G66]

Meaning you're experiences have been subpar to say the least? I'm not trying to read between the lines here.

I understand the warranty. Honestly it's roughly worded to say they can refuse to cover for anything they deem circumstantial.

Liberty's warranty is worded pretty much the same.

What issues have you experienced? Anything negative in particular to this line of safes?

I'm active duty and I'm trying to get the best bang for my buck while consequently keeping the cost minimal without hurting quality.

 

[JRS]

The warranty does not compare to the Liberty Safe warranty, is not transferable, and has to be bolted down to the floor. I'm not going to badmouth the company on a public forum. I understand the best bang for the buck statement.

 

[JFrank]

I'm very pleased with my Champion Model T

 

[Stephen_G66]

That's great.
I don't really care. If this company needs to be bad mouthed, then do it. Inform the consumers against their product. But since you don't actually own one, notice that my original response was @Ledd Slinger.

I'm attracted to this particular line because of their 8 bit bypass key. I don't care that it's made in China.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

My apologies for resurrecting such a old thread, but I am looking to get a Steelwater safe and all I see online are the stress tests done by the company on their own product. I'm not convinced and would like your input on how well your Steelwater safe has held up over the past 3 years. Would you still suggest this Safe over the others mentioned previously? Thank you!

Yes, it has been over 3 years now and I would ABSOLUTELY recommend the Steelwater safes. Top notch quality and awesome customer service.

The only issue was when it first arrived on the shipping truck and I was putting the spokes on the door handle, one of the spokes didn't quite thread in all the way to the door lever. One of the threads must have got a ding during packaging or shipping. Still threaded almost all the way which was enough to work jist fine, but it wasn't quite right. I called customer service and told them about the issue. They didn't ask a single question. No forms, no pictures, nothing. Just immediately said theyd aend me one and shipped me the new spoke. It was at my house via express mail in less than 3 days. Couldnt ask for better service!!!

I am in and out of my safe all the time because I keep documents, optics, gps, boat and camper keys, and all kinds of other things besides firearms in there. I have experienced absolutely ZERO ISSUES. Not one bad thing I can say about the safe. It's beautiful and always works perfectly. It still opens and locks up just as smooth as the day I bought it. Couldnt be happier with my purchase! I now laugh when I see the ridiculous prices on some of the other safes costing twice as much that don't offer near the quality or fire/theft protection as my Steelwater. I will never buy or recommend any other safe brand than Steelwater. Hands down best safe for the money. Hell, best safe for 3 times the money if you ask me.

To get an identical safe as mine from another btand with 9 gauge or better body steel, full 1/4" steel door plate, 18 large locking bolts, and 2 hour fire rating, it would cost nearly 3 times as much as I paid for my Steelwater. And even then I bet none of those other companies test their fire rating at 1875 degrees like Steelwater does. A 1200 degree rated Liberty safe wouldn't last 5 minutes in 1875 degrees.

My safe has the manual dial lock so I can't speak for any other locking mechanism. I chose the manual dial for reliability. Too many mixed reviews on all the electronic locks out there. Doesn't seem to matter how expensive they are, all the electronic locks can have issues. My manual dial has always worked perfectly and I can dial the code so fast now that I can do it in about 10 seconds.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Some pics of my safe. It's the largest model of the Steelwater Extreme Duty line of safes.

 

[perry42]

I bought my Liberty Lincoln safe in a private sale about 15 years ago. Alas with long barrels and high power scopes I find myself needing another safe. Seldom do "we" think that a larger safe will eventually be required. My next safe will be 24>30 inches deep, 72" high, 48" wide and have 1 shelf at the top that is only 12" deep. This will allow for rifles 52" in length with brakes/silencers installed.

perry42

 

[Ledd Slinger]

I bought my Liberty Lincoln safe in a private sale about 15 years ago. Alas with long barrels and high power scopes I find myself needing another safe. Seldom do "we" think that a larger safe will eventually be required. My next safe will be 24>30 inches deep, 72" high, 48" wide and have 1 shelf at the top that is only 12" deep. This will allow for rifles 52" in length with brakes/silencers installed.

perry42

Yeah 72" is definitely the way to go. You can see I raised my shelves up high because there is a 52" rifle in there on the right. (300 Norma Mag Improved on Defiance Lapua Long action with 31" barrel). I put rifle scopes, binos, LRF's and other small things on the top shelf. Bigger things like my Swaro ATX spotter case and big tripod fit nicely on the lower shelf. Shelf height is fully adjustable in about 1" height increments. Came with a bunch of short shelves too so a person could lay them in one of the rifle bays if they wanted to.

I always tell people, whatever size safe you think you need...go bigger.

The door pocket organizer is from a company called Stealth. Affordable ($120) and also very nice. Very heavy duty straps/clips and MOLLE that securely holds any size handgun.

 

[Stephen_G66]

Thank you very much for your input, this is what I have been looking for. I didn't trust their videos and they don't have enough reviews for me to buy a $2600 45 lg safe outright (9g body, 2 hrs fireproofing, 1200lbs).

But I feel more comfortable now. My next question/adventure for myself is to figure out how to get this safe up 5 steps into my porch and over my threshold. Sounds like fun!

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Thank you very much for your input, this is what I have been looking for. I didn't trust their videos and they don't have enough reviews for me to buy a $2600 45 lg safe outright (9g body, 2 hrs fireproofing, 1200lbs).

But I feel more comfortable now. My next question/adventure for myself is to figure out how to get this safe up 5 steps into my porch and over my threshold. Sounds like fun!

I have no reason to doubt any of their torture test videos. When you see the safe you'll understand. Nothing about them is low quality in any way. Once you have your Steelwater safe set up and are using it, stop to re-evaluate other safes in the same price range or cheaper. Check door flex and body rigidity, fire ratings and the testing temperature, interior space and overall weights of the safes. You'll be glad you went with the Steelwater Extreme Duty.

***DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE STEELWATER 5% VETERANS DISCOUNT WHEN YOU PURCHASE THE SAFE***

The Extreme Duty 45 gun 72" safe is a BEAST and is ridiculously heavy. I have 5 stairs that drop down from my garage to my basement, but when it showed up and I saw how big and heavy it was, there was no way I was going to risk trying to control it on stairs. My dolly is heavy duty, but still only rated for 1,000 lbs. No way in hell would I try to move the safe with my dolly. And there's no way to slide it safely on stairs. Would probably end up hurting someone badly and/or damaging the house. There aren't any standard wooden stair runners or floor joists in homes I know of that are desgined to support 1250 lbs on that small of an area. Just way too much weight. Would need to reinforce a spot on the floor with beams and posts if a person wanted to put it inside. I ended up just anchoring it to the concrete in the corner of my garage. Granted its not in my house, but the nice thing is I don't have to worry about someone hauling it off without some serious moving equipment and a lot of noise. Of course if someone was trying that, my neighbors would see the massive effort to steal it and probably shoot the thieves dead. No easy way to cut into the body of the safe either. Much more difficult than the cheap 12 gauge body safes.

Tho no safe is impossible to break into. The key is buy a safe that makes it take as much effort, noise, and time as possible for a thief to accomplish the task so there is a better chance the crime will be noticed and reported. There's no way anyone is getting into my Steelwater safe unnoticed in my neigborhood. Thankfully the area where I live doesn't have much trouble with theft. I personally havent had any issues whatsover in 5 years at this house. So my biggest threat is a house fire. Which of course is why I went with the 2 hour Extreme duty. Most house fires don't last very long at 1200 degrees or above because the material fueling the fire is consumed quickly. But just like its a good choice going with a bigger safe than you think you might need, it's also wise to go with a much higher fire rating than you think might be adequate.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Here is the correct bar for getting into your safe

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Here is the correct bar for getting into your safe
View attachment 1376373

Who’s safe? Might work on a cheaply built Liberty safe but that bar ain’t gonna do anything but snap in half on my Steelwater. Lol.

BTW, this thread is over 4 years old. So I’ve had the Steelwater for almost 8 years now, in and out of it all the time, and it’s still as flawless and smooth operating as the day it arrived.

I have plenty of friends with Liberty, Cannon, and other brand safes that are similarly priced but they pale in comparison to the quality and protection features of Steelwater.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Who’s safe? Might work on a cheaply built Liberty safe but that bar ain’t gonna do anything but snap in half on my Steelwater. Lol.

BTW, this thread is over 4 years old. So I’ve had the Steelwater for almost 8 years now, in and out of it all the time, and it’s still as flawless and smooth operating as the day it arrived.

I have plenty of friends with Liberty, Cannon, and other brand safes that are similarly priced but they pale in comparison to the quality and protection features of Steelwater.

I fell victim to the suggested zombie threads at the bottom of the page getting a pic of that bar. But, that bar will open your safe in less than 5mins according to how strong you are. Its 8’ long and will break any steel holding the pins back