Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

***06/05/12 UPDATE*** I have owned two of these safes for about six months now and they are both plagued by a bug in their circuity that could easily get you killed. I have negated my four star review down to a one star review because of it. The safe will, seemingly at random, completely turn its circuity off. Now, you may say that it is a safety feature for when too many incorrect pass codes are entered. Unfortunately, both my safes have shut down on the FIRST, CORRECT pass code attempt. Not only shut down, but shut down before I could unlock the safe. Had it been an emergency, I would have been dead. My code is four digits. I press four digits and the unlock button and nothing. No click to open safe and the keys become unresponsive. It requires a full battery disconnect to reset it (which, obviously, requires the key). The *only* thing I can figure out is I'm pressing the numbers too fast. But, by too fast, I mean quickly, as in haste, and certainly not too fast for a PCB to get confused. The fingerprint entry system has the same bug, too. It's not every time, but it's often enough to a serious, serious problem. It's a bug and a deadly one. Until it's fixed, I wouldn't buy. Furthermore, I contacted Stack-On customer service. It took three emails before a reply and the message was a simple, "It's a safety feature." A very unprofessional and unhelpful email. NOT RECOMMENDED (for emergencies, at least). ***END UPDATE*** ***APRIL 2012 UPDATE*** Well, I purchased a second one, this from "Amazon Warehouse Deals" at a discounted price, presumably a returned item. Aside from some very light paint rash on the top, it looks and operates as 100% brand new. ***END UPDATE*** ***MARCH 2012 UPDATE*** A few days after ownership, on 3/19/12, I practiced opening the safe immediately after waking up. In a groggy fog, I was able to open the safe with my thumbprint on the first attempt. Very pleased. ***END UPDATE*** I bought this as a trial unit to see how well it works in emergency situations. Currently, I have firearms hidden around the house (card-carrying paranoid right here), but I have a kid on the way and the g/f insists I lock them up. However, the need for protection remains. But I digress. Amazon, as always, did a terrible job of packing the safe's box inside their own box, but, as always, there was no damage, so maybe I can't fault them. The safe is clean and simple looking. Programming the keypad and fingerprints is straightforward and I really didn't even need to read the manual to do it. PROS: And this is what blows Stack-On's competitors out of the water: You have three means of entry into this safe: 1) Fingerprint, 2) Keypad and 3) Key. In an emergency, if you can't get your thumb to scan, the keypad actually works a tiny bit faster. And if that should fail (see my Cons), the key will work, too, but probably not in an emergency. In a daytime emergency, I'd probably use the keypad. At night, if I'm too groggy to remember the pin, I'd probably try the scanner. Alternatively, you can program something pretty simple, yet hard to guess. Like 4-4-4-4-4-4-3-Enter. Even groggy and in the dark, you should be able to do that. The door is sunk into the safe pretty well. Much more so than the $400 fire safe in my office. A determined thief could still get into this thing, but I was impressed to see it inset. The instructions were impressive. You get several languages and each is printed on their separate card-stock paper. Not just copy paper, but actual thick stock. I was impressed. You also receive a form and instructions on getting a replacement key. You need the serial number and $10 to do so. The size is good. I could comfortably tuck four full sized pistols in the safe and probably 8-12 uncomfortably. CONS: A mere 25 minutes into ownership, the keypad and scanner went unresponsive. This was immediately after shutting the door, not even hard. Just normally shutting the door. I determined that the battery circuit must have opened, although they appeared to be in contact with the terminals. However, removing and reinserting the batteries fixed it. Definitely something you don't want to have happened in the middle of the night. To fix it, and to ensure ample battery life, I think I am going to solder extension wires directly to the terminals and affix them to D-sized batteries. Should greatly extend battery life and useability. The control center is cheap-looking plastic. The knob feels like a toy. People would universally stop complaining if safe manufacturers would make their control pads steel. The safe is seriously front-heavy with the door open. All the weight is in the door and if it isn't bolted to the floor or whatever, it likes to tip forward. As a bonus, I guess, it saves you from having to do it yourself (as in an emergency). People buy this for the fingerprint scanner, but you can type a PIN into the keypad and unlock it faster than the fingerprint scanner can. We're talking maybe 1 full second, but still. That second could save, or end, your life. Very small CON, but for the five seconds that the safe's bolts can be retracted, you can hear the whine of the motor (or whatever it is) holding the cog off the bolts. It is very similar to a mosquito's whine and it's pretty annoying. OTHER & CONCLUSION: People have mentioned the beeping, esp in contrast to the Barska safes. This beeping is not bad at all. In fact, the motor and cog moving off the bolts is louder than the beeping itself. You can always remove the speaker from the IC if you have any soldering skills and access to Google. I'm not worried if a burglar hears the beeping or the motor. He's going to hear something much louder soon enough. All in all, for $100, it can't be beat and I'm glad I bought it. I've played with it all day with fingertips of varying cleanliness and, unfortunately, have gotten lots of false-negatives (as in, it wouldn't accept my print). But in the middle of the night, that should be less of an issue. And the keypad is always there, anyhow, for backup. As an extreme measure of theft-prevention and to practice my mortar skills, I'm thinking of building a form around the safe and sinking it into 80 lbs of concrete. Just for giggles.