safecracker at large

Electronic Safe Lock Just Won't Open a) You know the combination is correct b) You know the battery is the right kind and it's fresh Sometimes it's super simple: Have you ever parked your car with one of the wheels hard againnst the curb? Sure you have. Remember how you had to twist the steering wheel hard to take the pressure off before you could even turn the ignition key? That happened because the pressure of the front wheel against the curb put pressure on the steering system, including the steering column lock. Result? Ignition key won''t turn until you relieve the pressure. Something very similar happens with safes, and especially safes with certain types of digital/electronic locks. Users either stuff them so full that they have to give a shove before the door will close fully, or don't notice when something inside the safe gets in the jamb before they close the door. Either way, this prevents the door bolts from extending all the way to lock fully. Thi...

Safe Lock Problems Electronic/Digital Safe Locks At least once a week, but usually more often, someone calls and tells me their safe's push-button combination lock won't open when they enter the combination. When asked, they're positive they have the correct combination. The Most Common Solution: Try a new battery first (or batteries, if your lock uses more than one). The best and perhaps most easily available batteries for electronic safe locks will be Eveready Energizers or Duracell. Other battery brands might be just fine for plenty of other battery-powered items, but trust me on this, in a safe lock you want to use either the Energizer or Duracell brands. Did I say "new" battery? I'm pretty sure I did. Don't be a dummy, okay? Quite often after telling a caller to try a new battery they call back and report that a new battery didn't do the trick, can I please hurry over and get their safe open? When I arrive, it often turns out that...

Safe Dialing Problems This will be a short one . . . If you have a safe with a mechanical dial and it won't open when you dial the combination correctly, the settings in the lock might be just a little bit off. The key to this is "when you dial the combination correctly." You can dial the correct combination numbers for a month and never get the safe to open if you dial them incorrectly. Here's the tip: Try dialing the numbers you know one number high on all the settings. In other words, if your combination is 10-20-30, then a final turn, try dialing 11-21-31, and make the final turn. If dialing high doesn't work, try the opposite. D ial the combination one number low on all settings. A combination of 10-20-30 with a final turn would become 09-19-29, then make the final turn. Should either of those tactics work, don't lock the safe door again until after a safe technician has a look at it and has reset and tested the combination. Yes, this wi...