My favorite electronic locks are made by NL, S&G and Securam. I highly, highly suggest you make sure the safe you purchase has a UL Rated Lock preferably made in the US or Europe. Key locks are ridiculously easy to pick as can be seen on tons of different youtube videos and ruins any security you think you had. It’s not an “if” they will die but a “when” they will die situation. Unfortunately, any safe that has a key override automatically disqualifies for any type of insurance rating and the reason why they put the key in the first place is that they know the electronics will die. More often than not you’ll find every safe at Costco having a key override behind the lock that will allow access in the event the electronics die. So while the safe may look big and robust from the outside, it can be popped or cut open in under 5 minutes with basic tools like a hand saw or a crowbar.Īnother major disadvantage to a Costco safe is the lock. With a safe from Costco, you get the thinnest steel possible in all areas of the safe, no relocker, no hardplate, little to no boltwork and an untested fire rating. What you don’t see is all of the actual meat and potatoes, you get disillusioned by the gravy! On a real safe, you have things like a hardplate, a relocker, thicker steel in the door and body, longer bolts, high quality fire material and strong locking mechanisms operating the boltwork.On the front of the safe, you see the lock, the handle, the paint job and a placard that tells you the security rating (if there is one), the fire rating (if there is one) and the storage capacity.HOWEVER, you don’t see them from the front of the safe, you only see them behind the back panel. There are some main components to gun safes that are what we call “behind the curtain” that are vitally essential to the long-term use and security of the safe. I can go on and on with example after example of a company that uses their brand name to sell you an inferior product at Costco. Vaultek took their popular biometric handgun safes and stripped down to the thinnest steel possible in the Barikade series. Rhino makes a specific brand called Bighorn that is exclusively sold at Costco and a much lower quality version than their Made in USA products. Cannon used to be one of the highest quality producers of Gun Safes in the country, but once they started selling to companies like Walmart and Costco, everything went down hill. The best example of this is Cannon Safe Company, Rhino and Vaultek. In reality, they are completely screwing over the customer and I feel horrible for the people who got taken for a ride believing they were getting the same quality product. I say “supposed to” because Costco will take companies that typically have had great quality products and force them to strip out all of the things that made it great to reach a price point they deem favorable for the customer. Where Costco fails miserably is when they show you huge savings on an item that is supposed to be high quality. For items that are commodities such as baby wipes, toilet paper and chicken, Costco is truly the best bang for your buck and I would highly recommend it. With all that said, I’m sure you’ll find something great at Costco! Thank you for reading this article.Costco is a great place to shop, you can get your necessities in huge quantities at rock bottom pricing. Keep an eye out for name-brand locks (S&G and La Gard) as the non-name brand options may not be up to snuff.įinally, you should always read the reviews and do your due diligence before buying any safe from Costco (or anywhere else). With their assortment of Bighorn branded safes (and Cannon or Vaultek, you can find something that fits your budget and storage needs easily. If you are looking for a gun safe, Costco is a great place to start. Of course, no matter what you buy, you should be fully aware of what you are purchasing, don’t buy into the marketing hype, and keep an eye out for safes that may not be what they seem to be. Costco safes offer a wide array of options from expensive, USA-made gun safes, all the way to small, lower-end import safes. With the current lineup of gun safes from Costco, I have no problem recommending you buy a gun safe from Costco! Their major brand Bighorn is an awesome value and was built by one of my favorite gun safe companies, Rhino Metals. This image is an important image for them to maintain, and big box retailers like Costco, Walmart, and others are just not on brand for them. Liberty has a brand well known for high quality, an awesome warranty, and making some of the best safes in America. While it is possible that you could see Liberty pistol safes down the road (unlikely though), you will more than likely never see their full-size safe options on Costco’s sales floor.
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