So, how does it works? Just like any other regular safes, the biometric safe has a lock that forbids entry and protects its contents. The only thing that makes it different than the regular safe is the way how the lock is opened.

For starters, you will have to key in a pass code once first before you let the safe verify your fingerprint to allow entry. People often think that a biometrics safe only works for fingerprint identification to allow access, but that is wrong, as biometrics can mean voice recognitions, DNA tests or retinal scans. The reason behind this is due to the fact that the fingerprint recognition safes are the only product currently affordable by consumers.

Though the biometric safe offers many advantages for storing important items, it has its own flaws as well. For instance, most of them are not fireproof, and most people think that the biometric gun safe is fire resistant. It may protect the firearms or contents for a little while, but if the house is on fire, they are as good as gone.

However, some manufacturers do sell fire safes that have specially designed walls and doors to withstand heat, but they are very pricy. Hence, you should check its label before you make a purchase. In addition, they are not waterproof as well like most safes are, as they are not built to endure lots of water. They might withstand small amounts of water, but it does not safeguard the contents during a bad flood or tsunami.

Unlike regular combination safe or the electronic lock safe, the biometric fingerprint safes are considered more expensive, due to the extra technological features that make up its biometric lock. If the biometrics on the safe is more sophisticated, the price of the safe will be higher as well by a few hundred dollars.  But isn’t that protection worth the extra cost?

You can also access most biometrics safes in the complete dark.  The Gunvault models have a unique hand print on the top to improve your ability to find the proper button orientation even in the dark.  These fingerprint gun safes have a patent on that design.

They are the right thing for you to store your valuables. Regardless which model you intend to buy, getting a biometrics safe is certainly worth the money.

First off, let me say that I really do like my safe, but I am also very picky and so if I make a negative statement, it is just because I want everything the way I want it!  My Stack-On gun safe comes in a green color that really doesn’t match with anything.  Black would have been nicer, but hey, in my basement workroom, who cares!  I bought the 16 gun version not because I figured that I would own 16 gun some day, but I wanted to have room for other items in my safe including valuables and documents (such as birth certificates, passports and such).

If  I had to purchase it again, I would find the Stack On gun safes that hold 19 guns as they have a much different shelf configuration where you can have a top to bottom set of shelves (I think 4 in all).  These take up half the safe leaving the other half for my long guns.  This would have been perfect for storing my valuables and documents plus some ammo and a few handguns.  My current safe only has one shelf that spans the entire upper part of the safe.  This holds mostly valuables and docs, my ammo can’t live in the safe and then I had to purchase some additional pistol racks for the safe to hold my handguns.  Not a big deal and frankly I like having the handguns on the door so they can be access easily and they are not laying on top of each other.

As I mentioned, I have the safe in my basement.  I installed the safe in the corner of my basement with one side of it pushed hard up against the concrete wall.  This should prevent anyone from rocking it back and forth to break the two 4″ concrete bolts that I put in the bottom.  Stack on safes come with a reinforced bottom plate to make them extra resistant against someone using a pry bar and pulling the bolts right out through the bottom of the safe.  I have also thought about building a new wood shelf right beside the safe using some extra lumber and over engineering it with bolts so that you would almost need to spend more time trying to pull this shelf apart than you would trying to open the safe!

I noticed that after I put my four long guns in this rifle safe, that the base area, where the butts of the guns sit, gets crowded.  With just 4 in there, I could see that it may be difficult to put a total of 16 guns in this safe.  The back of the safe allows you to rest 8 against it and then 4 on each side.  With just 4 in the safe now, I am not sure how you could add 4 more on the side.  Consider this if you are really going to fill one of these gun safes.

The security of a Stack On safe is more than enough for what I need.  The 5 live action bolts are very tough and the door is extremely heavy.  The fire protection feature of the safe was actually more important that the security.  I was worried that in a fire, my valuables and important documents would be destroyed.  The guns can be replaced, but in a zombie wasteland where my house burned down, I would love to get to my guns also!!  A fireproof safe is a necessity in my book (even if you don’t believe in zombies).

While I would have preferred a sexy biometrics safe, it just wasn’t in my budget.  I opted for the old fashion combination lock for this beast and then used the extra money for a small biometric pistol safe that I keep under my bed with my favorite Glock 22.  The combination is actually very smooth, but somewhat forgiving (not as sloppy at the gym lockers in high school, but I rarely have to retry the combination because I missed a number by one hash mark).

All in all, this was a good investment considering I purchased it for around $500 from a local store, so this was not a cheap gun safe.  I also looked at the SentrySafe unit with an electronic lock and feel like they are similar units, but my local shop didn’t carry that size in stock (and it was the same money as the Stack-On Safe) so opted for the quick purchase and took it home.

This biometric fireproof safe features six live-locking bolts that secure the door to the frame of the safes.  It has armored plate steel construction and a metal handle.  This should make it both dependable and tough.  The gunmetal gray exterior finish is baked on to protect both the safe and any wall or floor that it may come in contact with.  It does include the mounting hardware to secure the safe to the floor (you should read the instruction manual and insure you are mounting it to the same floor type-concrete, wood, tile, that is in the instructions).  This SentrySafe has also earned a Underwriters Laboratories certification for their 30-foot drop test (which means that even if dropped 30 feet to a concrete floor, it will not open).

The DA3930 has been tested by UL to meet a two-hour fire protection classification.  This means that it can protect its contents for up to 2 hours at 1,850 degrees Fahrenheit.  Most house fires rarely get about 800 degrees for any length of time, so this should be more than adequate for home use.  Unlike many safes, this fireproof safe can also protect electronic media (which will be damaged at 140 degrees versus 400 degrees for paper).  You can feel confident whether it is papers, CDs, jewelry, or guns, they will be protected in this biometrics fire proof safe.

This fingerprint safe utilizes a scanner that generates images to 500 dpi, which is currently the FBI and CIA security standards.  I was surprised that this safe only stores 7 users.  Most biometric safes store 20-100.  While I am not sure why 50 people would need access to a safe, it nice to have the capacity.  For your needs, it may not matter.  Each users is enrolled using two separate fingerprint scans and then a 4-8 digit pin code.  A user can either use their fingerprint or pin code.  Personally, I disagree with anyone except the manager to have a pin code.  A pin code can be written down and stolen or found or it can be given over the phone to an unauthorized user.

Because Sentry Safe did not skimp on the construction, this safe weighs 132 pounds.  It has a 1.2 cubic foot interior and the dimensions are 17.8 x 16.3 x 19.3 outside.  It has a 1 year limited warranty, but has a lifetime replacement warranty after a fire.  You can purchase this safe for about $375 at Amazon.

If you are in the market for a home wall safe, here are a couple important items to think about:

• Do you own your house?  Most landlords would not want you to cut a hole in the wall.  Are you going to be in your home for a couple years?  Since most owners don’t remove wall safes when they sell the home, this should be a consideration.
• While the installation of a wall safe is actually very simple, are you prepared for some work?  Do you have a tape measure, a stud finder, and sheet rock saw? If not, many of these items are inexpensive and can be purchased for this project.  Otherwise, find a friend that is handy and cook him dinner while he installs the safe!
• Hiding a wall safe is actually an important part of the installation.  Since most of these safes have a thin metal shell, they could be opened easily by a burglar if found.  Installing them in closets, behind the painting, or even in a cabinet can help protect them from being found.  Some owners have been known to install them in the garage and then build a false wall in front of the safe to completely disguise it.  Installing one in a laundry room may also throw off the thief from finding it.
• These safes can come with combination, electronic or even biometric locks.  With the prices dropping constantly, most buyers are choosing to purchase a biometric safe as they can be much easier to use and they open quickly with just the touch of your fingerprint.  These are also known as fingerprint gun safes.
• If you chose to install the safe in the basement, you should make sure to use a desiccant in the safe to reduce moisture.

Wall safes for the home are an excellent way to protect and hide your valuables.

1. This is a 2 person job.  Do not try to do this alone.  With a large gun safe such as a Stackon gun safe weighing up to 1000 pounds, trying to do this alone can be at least stupid and at worst, deadly.
2. Do not try to put this in your truck using the dock doors.  These are made for semi-trucks and the floor will be up to 24″ above the bed of your truck.  While it may seem easy to simply slide the safe off this higher ground, it can severely damage your vehicle or kill you if the unit slips and moves quickly into the bed of the truck.  The lower the truck bed height and taller the safe, the better.
3. Have the store bring the unit on its pallet to the entrance of the store or where ever they allow customer pickups.  The new safe should be on a flat level ground at the same height as the tires of your truck.
4. Before proceeding, you should inspect the tailgate of your truck.  For a brief time, the entire weight of this safe will be on the tailgate.  Many are not meant to handle 1000 pounds.  If possible, remove it for safety reasons.
5. Place the safe far enough away from the bed of the truck to allow the safe to lean over at a 45 degree angle.  Make sure to position the front or door of the safe to be up once the safe is in the truck bed.  In other words, this safe should travel on its back.  This is to prevent any damage to the locking mechanism and the fact that the door is most often the heaviest part of the unit and you don’t want it to throw you off balance.  This is especially true for Biometric Safes and their fragile electronics.
6. If you have a bed liner, add a piece of cardboard into the bed of the truck to make it easier to slide once you get it in there.
7. With one person on the back and one person in the bed of the truck, push the top of the safe to have it lean at a 45 degree angle resting against the lip of the open truck bed.
8. Now with both persons on the ground, lift up on the bottom, using the truck bed as a fulcrum point to distribute the weight.  You will find this is actually pretty easy to lift.
9. Once it is lifted to level, push the safe all the way to the front of the truck bed.  Be careful not to ram it into the front of the bed as you will bend or damage the truck bed.
10. To remove it, simply reverse the process.  It is just that easy to move your rifle safe.

If you need further information, there are several YouTube videos out there on how to do this.  Alternatively, see what the cost is to have your safe delivered from where you purchased it.

Update:  One more option is to consider the Dakota safe, Interlock XP, which is a modular safe that comes in 6 pieces, none of which weighs more than about 100 pounds.

The biometric fingerprint safe works by initially storing your fingerprint in its memory, which is called enrolling new users.  It identifies several critical features of your fingerprint that are unique to you and almost impossible to fake.  When you want to open the unit, you simply put your finger on the reader and the bolts securing the safe door will unlock and you have access.  If your finger was not previously registered or you use the wrong finger, the safe will not open.

You can see how simple these safes are to open and why many consumers are now purchasing them.  No keys to lose, no combination to remember, nothing but your finger.  These safes have also made big movements into gun storage.  A biometrics gun safe can give you access to your defensive weapon in 5-10 seconds.  No fumbling with a combination when you are in a crisis situation.

One question that is often asked is “what happens if the safe does not recognize my fingerprint?  How do I get into it”.  Well, this is not much different than if you forget the combination or lose the key on a tradition safe.  Let’s face it, technology does fail so most manufacturers have built in a secondary way to access your safe.  This is through a key on the side of the box that will manually unlock the safe.  Remember to keep this key in a safe place, well away from the biometric safe.

A second question is how accurate is the biometric reader?  Every manufacturer will vary, but typically a “false acceptance rate”, which is the number of times that an unauthorized user can gain access is less than 0.1%.  This means that once every 1000 tries, someone might get in.  That is low.  The “false rejection rate”, which is the number times the safe does not allow an authorized user can be as high as 1%.  Luckily, you can simply try again to gain access.  A number too much higher and you would be frustrated at not being able to get into the safe.

Biometric safes have made large inroads to the consumer market and will soon overtake electronic locks.

• Pry-resistant plate steel doors to slow down a thief from opening them.
• Two or Three live-action steel locking bolts that further secure the door from being pried open.
• Concealed hinges for better security.
• Most of them have electronic locks, but some are a true biometric safe with the same technology used in the models that are 10x the size.
• All of the better manufacturers have pre-drilled holes in the bottom of the drawer safe to mount it to the inside of the drawer.  Failure to mount this make this safe not much better than a simple shoe box as a burglar could take the box with him and open it at his shop.
• One other difference is that the doors on these safes open on the top to allow easy access while it sits in the drawer.

So why would you want one of these drawer safes instead of a normal larger safe?  I don’t think that this safe substitutes for a larger safe, I think it has a different use or purpose.  This small desk drawer safe is useful for quick access to a gun or weapon while you are in your office.  It keeps the gun protected and secure, but also quick accessible.  It can also be a temporary storage for cash or other valuables while you step out of your office for a short period.  It could also be used for important documents that you used frequently such as passports, credit cards, or other financial information.

Owning a drawer safe is a great complement to your safe collection.  You will be surprised at how many uses your find for this little workhorse.

We go into his basement and walks over to this large gun safe and then I got it.  His fingerprint gun safe is a biometric gun safe.  Duh!  I should have figured it out, but I just couldn’t see the forest through the trees on this one.

Fingerprint gun safes use a biometric reader on the front of the door in place of a combination lock or electronic keypad to unlock the mechanism.  It is a very slick system where you simply put your index finger or whatever finger you have enrolled in the software on to the biometric scanner on the front of the biometric gun safe.  Within about 5-10 seconds, this reader compares your fingerprints to the ones it has on file.  If you are in the database, the biometric safe clicks open and you pull the door.

This type of gun safe is a very slick combination of brute force and technology.  The safe itself is what secures the contents against theft, but the technology in the fingerprint reader is what makes it so easy to use.  As I mentioned, you simply put your finger on the reader and it opens.  No more remembering combinations or keypad entries.  No more making mistakes and starting over.  This is especially important if you need to access the contents of this gun safe in a hurry.  You can even open this safe in low or no light as you just feel for the fingerprint reader.

I especially liked the fact that you can program multiple people into this rifle gun safe.  If your spouse or even grown children never use the safe, how are they suppose to remember the combination?  This way, go through the enrollment process once and years from now they can still open it.  No remembering combinations, no writing it down and hiding it.  In fact, I have even heard of people registering their attorney, in case they die.

Just bring your finger!

Finding a used gun safe is pretty straightforward.  Most safe dealers will carry used gun safes as they take them in trade or buy them at auctions.  Buying from a safe dealer or locksmith can insure that the locking mechanism of the safe works properly.  They may also be able to deliver and install the unit for you, which could be a good idea considering that a biometrics safe can weigh over 1000 pounds.  Just pay to have someone install it instead of taking the risk of someone getting hurt moving that beast.

CraigsList is also another great place to find used gun safes.  Often you can buy cheap used gun safes Craigslist because people just seem to be willing to almost give the safes away just to have someone move them out of their house.  If you buy a safe here, you should try the locking mechanism several times to insure it works properly.  Then once you get it into your home, I recommend that you have a locksmith come and change the combination.  Call me paranoid, but you don’t want the seller to show up at your home when you are gone and use the old combination to steal all your guns and valuables.  Just like buying it from a dealer, I would really consider having someone move this safe into its final spot in your home.

Once you identify a used gun safe, make sure to do your homework on the make and model.  Buying cheap safes can be more of a headache than they are worth.  Looks for brands like Amsec, Baraska, Dakota Safe and Biovault to name a few of the high quality safes that you should be looking for.

Recently, I attended an estate auction/sale.  I found a handsome home gun safe that really no one was looking at (they were all interested in the antiques).  It appears to be well cared for and they had the combination.  I tried it several times and everything appears to work well.  The price was perfect, but my wife said if I bring home another used gun safe, she may lock me in it!

There are various advantages of buying and owning a floor safe. One of these is that these safes are usually a little harder for anyone to find if they are trying to steal valuables from your home. You can actually have the safe placed under carpet or other types of flooring where someone who is trying to burglarize your home may not even consider looking.  This is also a good place to hide things from children too.

Another advantage of having a floor safe in your home is that installation is not very hard to do. You will usually have a lot of room under floors compared to walls. The best way to have one of these safes installed is in concrete. Then, you will not have to worry about someone being able to carry your safe out of your home again. An even better advantage of these safes would be that they are usually fire resistant. Many of these models also have the walls that are made out of a material that will not rust either. You usually install these safes in either the basement where there will usually be a concrete floor or you can even install them in a garage if you do not have a basement to put them in.

A disadvantage of these safes are that if you get one that has a digital lock on it, it can possibly collect moisture on this and will not work properly.  No manufactures are making biometric safe versions of these either.

If you are constantly worried about your valuable possessions and someone stealing them, then a floor safe would be the best way to help to relieve you of some of your worrying. Before buying any kind of safe, you will want to do your own research to see which one would best fit your situation.  Do research on the internet to make sure the safe you are interested in will be something that can be installed in your home.