Honeywell 2050 0.55-Cubic-Foot Shelf or Floor Safe with Digital Keypad
by First Alert
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List Price: Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Honeywell 2050 0.55-Cubic-Foot Shelf or Floor Safe with Digital Keypad
Customer Review: Perfect
Summary: 5 Stars
It's everything I had hoped, and more. I can't grasp the negative reviews - what does one want for the price? It's fine, and works very reliably...Customer Review: Great shelf safe
Summary: 5 Stars
I didn't want to get on my hands and knees to use. Installed in wall studs. Easy to open, easy to close. Fast and easy.Customer Review: got exactly what I ordered
Summary: 5 Stars
no problems, sometimes hard to open the door, not much to grab onto on the knob.Customer Review: honeywell safe
Summary: 5 Stars
very fast delv .. the safe is better than i expected ,,keep up the good workCustomer Review: Perfect safe for storing your valuables
Summary: 4 Stars
REVIEW:
I decided to purchase this safe so I could keep my wallet and watch safe at college. I had recently had my Bolle sunglasses stolen from me because my roommate didn't lock our door and some drunkard wandered into our room and snagged them. I was incensed, to say the least, but he still conveniently forgot to lock the door, and when I kept locking the door, he lost the key so I couldn't.
Needless to say, I needed a way to protect my valuables. I decided on this safe from honeywell because I had heard that they had great customer service and their safes worked pretty well!
I can say that after having the safe for two straight semesters, the customer service was mediocre and the safe was just average.
My gripes with the Honeywell customer service began when the safe I got in the fall of 2008 would not turn on. The batteries were corroded (which I guess was an amazon problem!) and the electronic locking system didn't work! I called their customer service and they mailed me a whole new front unit (the keypad and battery case). That was great, but there were no connecting wires included!
So a week later, they mailed me the WHOLE replacement part, with wires!
The problem then was that I had to disassemble the entire back of the door so that I could connect all the wires to the locking mechanism. They didn't include any sort of manual so it took me a while, and to add insult to injury it wasn't that easy either! Many of the screws were hidden behind complex metal boards and the actual circuit board!
Anyway, I eventually did it, though I ended up with a lot of extra pieces! Oh well, I guess I made the design more efficient!
To sum it up however, I think safes should only be judged by one criteria: Do they work? Because no matter how fancy a safe is, no matter how awesome their customer service is, it means nothing unless the safe protects what you put into it.
That means that it can be secured so it can't be moved if you want it to, and opening it isn't that easy.
The safe included bolts to mount it against a wall, but in my dorm room that wouldn't work because then I'd have to pay ridiculous fines to campus housing. It was significantly heavy though, so that was reassuring that someone couldn't just walk off with it.
Security wise, however, it wasn't spectacular. While I'm sure no one would be able to actually break the safe, the electronic keypad isn't that secure. Sure you can't just unscrew it, but the casing for the keypad and battery is just cheap plastic. That means it can be broken and the critical wires exposed and potentially toyed with. Also, the keys that serve as emergency access are uniform throughout Honeywell's models, so someone could theoretically call up their customer service and request the keys for my exact model, and then gain access through the security key passthrough.
I would have liked to see maybe serial numbers on the keys so that one key wouldn't fit all copies of this safe!
Also, if the keypad and battery enclosure were made out of metal, it would have made those areas more safe!
PROS:
Solid, Good Construction, Easy to use, Batteries last for at least eight months of daily use (will update as time goes on - current as of 05/2009), has emergency pass-through key in case you forget the pass-code, Wall mounts are included to keep safe in one place, Heavy enough to discourage walking off with safe
CONS:
Keypad and battery enclosure are made of plastic so they can be broken and crucial wires can be exposed to tamper with device, Customer service wasn't great for me although they fixed my problems in the end!
SUMMARY:
With all that in mind, is this a good safe to keep in your dorm room, house, or lightly-trafficked area? Yes. If you don't have to worry about lots of criminal activity, this safe should be fine to store personal valuables and the like. But if you have a thousand dollar ring or something that you would die before you lost it, definitely look for a more secure safe!
I would whole-heartedly recommend this safe for college dorm use!