Curious GunVault FAQ...

See GunVault Frequently Asked Questions. The fifth question and answer. Imagine the vault not operating when immediate access was required :duh2: .

adamlau said:

See GunVault Frequently Asked Questions. The fifth question and answer. Imagine the vault not operating when immediate access was required :duh2: .

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Q. My brand new GunVault door will not open.
A. Place the unit on a flat service, turn the key, and hit the top/side of the safe with your palm. In rare occasions you may have to use a flat head screw driver by placing the head between the body of the unit and the door. You might also have to bang the lower left edge on the ground.

I believe that this refers to a new (out of box) GunValut where the door was jamed in transport...

Hope this helps.

Yeah, well this one isn't much better:

Q. I hear a whirl noise when I try to open my GunVault.
A. Please call Technical Support for assistance.

Its a balancing act like everything else in life. Try to keep your kids, visitors, bad guys from grabbing your firearm by using a mechanical device that might fail (GunVault), or keep easy access to the gun and risk it falling into the wrong hands.

I have a GunVault next to the bed, but don't really care for it as the battery will conk out requiring you to use the key. Which sorta defeats the quick-access part of the equation. JMO.

powernoodle said:

...I have a GunVault next to the bed, but don't really care for it as the battery will conk out requiring you to use the key. Which sorta defeats the quick-access part of the equation...

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How often do you replace the batts? How many times a day do you open the safe?

I have a Gunvault that's going on 2.5 years with the same 8-AAs in it. The instructions say to replace yearly but they're still going strong.

Wow. Yeah, that must be for only some shipping problem. It sure could use some more explanation though. Wow. Might as well say "Jam a crowbar in it and drop it smartly onto a concrete surface. Following this recommended procedure will open the safe, as it will for a thief as well." PLEASE E-L-A-B-O-R-A-T-E YOUR F-A-Q.

I agree choosing this over some other safety means is a balancing act. When I first got my GunVault I really tested it a bunch. After choosing what I though was a pretty hard combination, with both finger chording and single presses, the thing actually opened once when I just randomly hammered the buttons with my fingertips. That happened once. I couldn't get it to do it again even with the same combo, though I tried many, many times. It's not perfect. Probably nothing's perfect. I keep trying to get it to open again that way, usually taking the time to try it right after changing the batteries. It hasn't opened again that way.

Now I weigh the benefit of having no key around against the likelihood that the box can be opened by curious little fingers. I guess anyone has to do that but for me the vault has proven that it's more likely to be opened randomly than I suspected when I chose to buy it.

For me it's been for years a good, reliable, and relatively safe vault.

Is the door spring loaded? Strong enough to open the door when mounted vertically?

Im thinking of having it bolted to the bed frame

V8TOYTRUCK said:

Is the door spring loaded? Strong enough to open the door when mounted vertically?

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The door spring open with a fair amount of force.
Just keep in mind that if mounted vertically, things will be fairly hard to reach if they are at the bottom.

There is a biovault that is a nice alternative, but it's 3X the cost.

Just to add a teeny bit to what flownosaj said about the door... I held my GunVault vertical and the door opened fully no problem, and stayed that way. Like he said it's heavily sprung. The only thing is that my particular model (Mini Standard) has two rubber bumpers that are about 3/16" thick that are placed at the bottom of the door opening near the hinge to prevent the spring-loaded door from crashing against the frame at the end of its travel. (It's hinged inboard of the frame opening.) They're sort of like the feet you get with an electronics box when you need to attach the rubber feet yourself. Because they're just stuck onto the opening and the hinge is behind them they also prevent the door from opening the full 90 degrees.

flownosaj said:

The door spring open with a fair amount of force.
Just keep in mind that if mounted vertically, things will be fairly hard to reach if they are at the bottom.

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Could you mount it so the door is positioned on the sides (not up/down)?

greenLED said:

Could you mount it so the door is positioned on the sides (not up/down)?

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The instructions say you can mount it in any direction, except they warn that (duh) you might not want to mount it with the door opening downward because things might fall out. Really. One example is in this (pdf) user manual. (Page 9) What's the world coming to. Hehe.