This new safe has several features that make it perfect for home defense.  It has an electronic lock for quick access by any authorized member of the house.  In a home defense situation, you do not have time to be turning a dial.  One note:  I am surprised that they did not have a biometric option. Since they are touting this as “quick and quiet access to firearms when it matters most”, wouldn’t a biometric reader with the sound turned off be faster?  The designers at SentrySafe did turn off the typical beeps that go with an electronic lock to make the opening of this safe virtually silent.  Interestingly, the buttons are not on the front of the safe like traditional gun safes, but actually on the top corner.  This allows you to simply put your fingers on the keys and enter the code, much like a GunVault product or even a simple keyboard, all silently.  For nighttime access, the keys are back-lit and the safe does come with a back-up/emergency barrel key.

The Home Defense Center has some other innovative design items such as something they are calling a “ready pistol presentation”, which is a built in piece that looks almost like a book end.  On the top shelf of the safe, you lean your handgun against this felt covered piece to hold your handgun in an upright and “ready” position for a quick grab.  Frankly, this safe doesn’t really even look like a traditional gun safe.  First, as I mentioned, it only holds 1 pistol and 1 long gun only, making it very small like a square tall box (about 4 feet tall).  Secondly, the door hinges don’t just open a door, but actually swing away 2 sides of the safe.  They are calling these their wide berth door to give you quick access to your shotgun or pistol.

SentrySafe also added a very interesting item to this safe.  The top of the safe has a recessed area they are calling their “personal defense tray”.  They are suggesting that every night when you get home or go to bed, you would drop your keys, cell phone, and wallet in this tray.  Plus maybe you have a flashlight that sits there always.  You build muscle memory each night of where your important items are, so when you are in a crisis situation, you can either quickly grab those items or at least remember where they are.  Very nice!

Keeping with the SentrySafe heritage, the Home Defense Center also features the company’s new jumbo 1″ bolts, a pry-resistant door and 12 gauge steel body.  Because the bolts are in the corner of the door, even if the hinges are removed, the door is not opening.  The company has also engineered new hinges on this unit to make them “whisper quiet” to give you discreet access to your defensive weapon when you need it.  Lastly, there is a hidden compartment in the base of the safe for use as a storage area for more ammo, keeping it out of the main part of the safe so that it does not impede the quick removal of any gun.

SentrySafe was founded in 1930 in Rochester, New York.  They sell more produces more fire-resistant chests, files, safes, security storage containers and gun safes than any other company in the world with their products being distributed in over 54 countries world-wide.  They are proud American company that employs 450 people, most of which are in their Rochester headquarters.

I looked for this new gun safe on Amazon, but did not find it.  The SentrySafe website says that it is available at Cabela’s and other sporting goods dealers in the US.  They are going to retail for $499.  I need to go over to Cabela’s and take a look!

Are you thinking about buying a wall safe, but are unsure how to do the installation?  Actually it is pretty easy.  These safes are meant for the average homeowner with limited tools and limited experience.  I would compare installing one of these home security safes the same as installing shelving in a closet.  While you should read the installation instructions completely with the unit that you purchase, these are some general instructions that can give you a different perspective on how to mount your wall safe between studs:

Tools needed:

• A stud finder is a fantastic, $25 tool, that will make this project much easier.  If you don’t own one and don’t want to purchase one, see if you can borrow one from your handy friend.  You can do the installation without it, but it will make installation between the studs go smoother.
• You need a screw gun or electric drill with a screw bit on the end.  You can install the screws by hand, but this will speed up the process and save your wrists when screwing into the wall studs.
• Pencil to mark the installation point.
• Sheetrock saw.  This is a small hand saw that will allow you to saw out the opening.  While a razor blade knife will work, a $6 Sheetrock saw will make quick work of this major part of the project.

Installing your Wall Safe Between the Studs:

1. First we need to find a place for this safe.  Because these safes rely on stealth and being hidden, a closet or behind paintings are excellent places to mount wall safes.  This may seem obvious, but this can only be installed in an interior wall that is hollow (concrete or brick walls do not work here).  Plus, be sure you have permission to do this (in the case you do not own the house).
2. Some wall safes have a wide frame around the outside of the front face of the safe and you cut a much smaller hole and then screw the front face plate into the walls studs making it flush with the wall.  Others have a removable frame that is simply for cosmetic reasons.  Review your instructions.
3. Once you have identified the location for your wall safe, you will need to find the wall studs.  Use your stud finder to identify and mark the location of the studs.  They should typically be 16″ in center.  If you do not have a stud finder, you may need to use trial and error.  Take a small nail and make  a hole.  If you do not hit the stud, move over 1/2″ and try again.  Continue this until you find the stud.  Then measure over 16″ from there and again use the nail to identify the location of the other wall stud.  No worries about the holes, you should plan to cut out the materials between the studs, removing the holes.
4. After identifying the wall studs, mark out the cut out location for your wall safe between the studs per the safe instructions with the pencil.
5. Use a large drill bit to drill a hole to insert your Sheetrock saw.  Cut out your hole.  While you are cutting, if you feel any unusual resistance, use caution as you may be in contact with a plumbing pipe or electrical conduit/wire.
6. If you encounter any electrical wires or plumbing pipes, you may need to find a new location for your wall safe if they can not be pushed out of the way.
7. Once the hole is open, mount the wall safe using the screws provided and electric drill with screw bit.

It is just that easy to install.  Enjoy your new wall safe.

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 back of a full closet is probably the most popular location.  Installing the safe in a location that is quick to access will allow the unit to be used for home defense as handgun safe also.  Make sure to have lots of clothes the the closet so it actually takes some work to find the safe.  If possible, paint the safe the same color as the closet walls.
• Just like the movies, installing the wall safe in a open area and then mounting a picture over it is a very effective way to disguise the safe.  You simply have to cut an opening in the wall to install the wall safe between studs.  Make sure to hang a picture that is easy to remove when necessary.  The safe must also be flush to the wall with  no protruding items to be used in this configuration.  A fingerprint gun safe can not be used in this way as they have a control panel for the locking mechanism that sticks out too far.
• Install the in wall gun safe in the garage behind a piece of pegboard used to store your tools.  Most thieves will not spend much time in the garage looking for a safe.  This location will throw many of them off.  This may be a location where a biometric safe may work because you could vary the depth of how the pegboard is mounted.
• If possible, install the wall gun safe inside a lower cabinet such as a bathroom or laundry room.  Most burglars figure there is nothing of value in the laundry room so will not spend much time looking behind the laundry detergent or bleach!  While it may be more difficult to access easily or quickly, it will be just about impossible for a thief to find or access.
• Here is my guide on installing wall safes between the studs.

Finding an easy hiding place for your wall safe may mean the difference between the burglar find it and missing it.  Do the extra work and protect your safe and the valuables and guns in it.

• 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.

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.

This biometric safe was originally built by Honeywell.  The safe division was then sold to Sicso and now it became part of First Alert.  The 2084DB has numerous features in a home safe including being a fireproof safe, having both electronic and keyed locks as well as being a biometric safe.  This safe has a UL fire rating to 1700 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour.

The biometric fingerprint lock on this safe can hold up to 9 different users programmed into the lock.  The safe can also be opened by punching in a changeable combination into the electronic lock (which can hold up to 65k different codes).  For further security, the safe requires a key to open it once either the biometric or electronic lock is used.

This safe is approximately 18″ cubic and comes with a 5 position adjustable shelf.

1. If your BioVault 2.0 is not on, press any key to activate unit.
2. To Enroll the first User, select the Admin feature from the main menu and press the button.
3. Scroll to Enroll, by using the button and press the button.
4. BioVault 2.0 will then prompt you to swipe your finger three times by displaying “1 of 3” on the screen and the green lights will light up around the sensor area.
5. Place your finger over the sensor with the tip of your finger at the top of the finger guide.
6. Make sure you have good, flat contact with the sensor. As soon as the green lights turn to orange lights, begin to swipe your finger from Position 1 to Position 2 taking 1 to 2 seconds to complete the swipe. Try to get your entire fingerprint to cross the sensor. The orange lights indicate a scan is in progress. The orange lights will stay on until the swipe is complete.
7. After the first scan is complete, your fingerprint will be displayed on the LCD.
8. The lights will turn green again, indicating the first swipe was successful. The screen will display “2 of 3” indicating that the scanner is ready for the second swipe, repeat Step 6 then the screen will display “3 of 3” prompting for the final swipe, repeat Step 6 for a third time.

Thank is all there is to it!  You have successfully enrolled another user into the memory on your Biovault Biometric Safe.

2010 Update-This safe has been replaced by the First Alert 2.0 Cu. Ft. Fire Theft Digital Safe, which is not Biometric.  The next closest options is the SentrySafe DA3930 1.2-Cubic Feet Fingerprint Electronic/Tubular Key Fire Safe.

The Sisco Honeywell 2084DB Biometric Fire Safe is a home version of the larger and more expensive commercial fire safes.  It is an excellent way to protect papers, jewelry, guns, or even computer disks during a fire.  The 2084DB model has a UL fire rating of 1700 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour while maintaining an internal temperature of less than 350 degrees, which is a typical fire rating for a home safe.  Most experts expect that any house fire will last less than 1 hour before it has been significantly extinguished by the fire department.  And keep in mind that the rating is 1700 degrees for 1 hour.  That means  the fire must be at its hottest for 1 hour for the contents to be in jeopardy, not just be in a burning building for 1 hour.

This fire safe is also equipped with a digital biometric lock.  The Sisco 2084DB can have up to 9 different fingerprints programmed into the on-board memory.  One for each family (and for my piece of mind, 2 different fingers of mine!).  The safe opens quickly by scanning your finger, turning the key override lock (used for additional security) and it opens.

In addition to the biometric lock, the Sisco safe has a push button electronic lock that can store up to 65,000 different codes.  Perfect for a backup entry or allowing access to someone that has not had their fingerprint previously programmed.  This can be useful in an emergency situation or even if the primary users die, the back-up code can be used by their survivors to gain access to the safe.

This biometric safe has a single 5 position adjustable shelf.  It weighs approximately 200 pounds and can be mounted to the floor for additional security.  It requires four AA batteries to run the biometrics and keypad, but battery loss will lose any codes or fingerprints.  They are stored in permanent non-volatile memory.  This unit will also flash a low battery light to tell you it is time to replace the batteries, which can be replace right from the front console.

Honeywell safes have a Dry fill guarantee: the safe is guaranteed not to develop mildew from moisture originating in the safe’s insulating material for five years. All Sisco safes are backed with a 5 Year Limited Warranty and Lifetime After-Fire Replacement.

Check out pricing for the Sisco Honeywell 2084DB Biometric Fire Safe here.