New Gun Safe and initial review

[MarkL]

Brought home a Stack-On 28 Gun Total Defense Safe tonight. Got it at Fleet Farm for $849. I thought I had all the bases covered for this 500lb beast, but I was wrong. I found a electric powered heavy duty stair climbing dolly (we had to go down) that was rated for 650lbs. While it functioned as advertised and saved our backs some, there were limitations. Tight corners to navigate and several doors. I managed to get by with only one hole in the sheetrock and 1 chunk out of a door and considering I under estimated the task and had to get my neighbor to help, I think that's a pretty good outcome. The safe survived unscathed, not a scratch on it, so another plus to offset the damage. Tomorrow I will present the neighbor with a gift certificate to take is wife out to dinner on us. Was above and beyond what we both expected and the least I can do for his effort that was extremely appreciated.

I looked at a quite a few safes over the past few months and no it's not a $1500 and up safe. But for the money for what I needed, I felt it can do the job. Hell, just getting it to the basement was hard enough, can't see anyone trying to get it out and I have a monitored home alarm system. What cinched the deal and I'm sure their marketing dept knew it, was to include a door storage system that you didn't have to purchase later. Has a 3 number combo lock, a little stiff to turn for my taste, but it works. When I opened it up, it wreaked of glue and whatever other stuff they used, it will have to air out for awhile. Carpeting could have been done better, but nothing that's not easily resolved, just the fact that I will have to touch it up in places. Just not trimmed or tucked in or glued in places where it should be. The biggest complaint I have is the shelving notch racks for lack of a better name right now are not lined up between the right and left side. One side is off where the notch on the left side with a level will end up between the notches on the right. So you can't get the shelves level and your eyes go right to it. Not sure just yet if I'll fix it or what, could be easier to shim the right side shelf board, definitely not taking it back! Why would it have been so difficult to get that right? Pretty much on target with other reviews I've seen, yea a couple of flaws, but way better than a $400 safe and cheaper than $1200 and up safe. It's water proof to 2ft of water and is fire resistant for up to 60 minutes at 1400 degrees. Fire department here would at the door in under 15 so it should be fine.

Link to safe on Fleet Farms website: http://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/stack-on-28-gun-total-defense-safe/0000000083271

[tenmilmag]

Nice. I enjoy the h e double hockey sticks out of my new safe every day. You will too!

[gun_fan111]

Very nice! Looks like Kmart has a sale where with in-house delivery comes out to about $930 plus tax.

[Nalez]

What I like - "Waterproof for 72 hours in up to 2 ft. of water (must be bolted to floor to insure rating)" I am not sure I can figure that one out. Either the bolts fit through some gaskets; or they are concerned about the 500lb safe floating away. I would have never thought about water proofing. I guess the advantage to that is that not only does it protect your goods from the fire - it also protects your goods from the water used to put out the fire.

[Snakeman721]

What I like - "Waterproof for 72 hours in up to 2 ft. of water (must be bolted to floor to insure rating)" I am not sure I can figure that one out. Either the bolts fit through some gaskets; or they are concerned about the 500lb safe floating away. I would have never thought about water proofing. I guess the advantage to that is that not only does it protect your goods from the fire - it also protects your goods from the water used to put out the fire.

If it's waterproof, it also means that general house humidity cannot get to the guns inside! So a small gel pack of absorbent inside the safe would be all you would need to keep the inside dry as an Arizona desert.

[MarkL]

It does have washers with rubber gaskets to use when bolting to the floor, though I doubt I'll be bolting it down. I'm looking at trying one of those cordless dehumidifiers and see how that goes. I don't really have that much of a humidity issue in my house, but better safe than sorry. Being safe from water putting out the fire was a consideration.

Apologies for not posting this in the review section, realized it after I had submitted the original post.

[Heffay]

You really should use a video camera (like a gopro or the nice monoprice one) to record stuff like this. Watching things go relatively smoothly is interesting enough, but in the event that things go completely cattywampus, you're looking at youtube gold!

[gbono23]

I currently use one of the cordless dehumidifiers in a 16 gun safe. The safe is in the basement, and I open it frequently (my wife says i like visiting with my guns) and have found that it lasts slightly less than a month before it has to be plugged in and dried out.

I just upgraded to a new safe as well. I'm not as confident with moving it in my self, so I hired a company to do it for me. For any safe under 600 pounds they charge $175 for delivery in the Metro area. An additional $25 for moving it down one flight of stairs. I'm not going to risk my health or my friends for $200. If a 55 pound safe gets away on you going down the stairs, someone is going to get hurt.

[minnhawk]

Congratulations on the new safe! Peace of mind is priceless. I hadn't heard of a waterproof safe in a basement, but that is a definite plus as well. Glad no one got hurt. I am nursing a ruptured disc in my back from too many "seemed like a good idea at the time" moves and lifts, and I would gladly pay a $1000 right now to avoid the surgery and loss of work time created by too many "he-man" feats in my youth.

I went another way. Instead of a good safe, I hid things in plain sight. If I had the room and wasn't moving in a few years, I probably would have done what you have done, buy a safe. Instead, down in the family room, we built a false wall 18" out from the insulated wall covering the concrete block foundation. It is about 24 feet long and no windows in that wall. We built bookcases across it, with one of the bookcases hiding the opening. That bookcase is on casters hidden by the front kick panel. This bookshelf is screwed into the adjacent bookshelves. To access the 3ft opening, you just zip the screws out and then pull evenly on both sides of the bookcase. Out she comes like "open-sesame." Humidity has not been an issue over the past five years. I keep everything in there from reloads and ammunition to primers, jewelry, pistolas and long guns.

[MarkL]

Thanks,
2 weeks ago I was shuffling around the house in extreme pain, legs going out from under me. Hadn't had a back issue for the last 6-7 years, but I had bent down to tie my shoes and when I came up, I couldn't. Have history with a herniated disc that a couple of cortisone shots fixed up the last time, not sure what happened this time. But 2 weeks later I feeling pretty good again after taking 1200mg of Ibuprofen a day and swapping hot and cold packs, then I decide it's ok to man handle a 500 lb safe! I do stupid stuff like this all the time! Wife just shakes her head and says don't come crying to me! Well the back survived and yes, no mishaps everything turned out ok, but don't recommend to anyone to try it themselves without ample strong friends with good backs and then to be extremely 'safety' conscious with the task at hand. We stopped several times to assess our next move to avoid trouble.

Picked up one of the cordless dehumidifiers today just in case and will see how long it takes before it goes pink, I suspect it should be a while. I have a split level walkout vs a full basement, so not quite the humidity issue you would see with the full basement.

[hal]

What I like - "Waterproof for 72 hours in up to 2 ft. of water (must be bolted to floor to insure rating)" I am not sure I can figure that one out. Either the bolts fit through some gaskets; or they are concerned about the 500lb safe floating away. I would have never thought about water proofing. I guess the advantage to that is that not only does it protect your goods from the fire - it also protects your goods from the water used to put out the fire.

I have the same safe that I got from Menards a few months ago. Being Waterproof was a plus last weekend when the electricity went out. My safe is in the basement, and I was running on battery backup on my sump pump, but if it went out, I was not worried about all of the ammo on the floor of the safe getting wet. My neighbors backup sump went out and he had a foot of water. I was not worried because of my waterproof safe.