Hi, Dye the Safe Guy here to talk about dial combination locks vs electronic locks. Everyday we get calls from people asking us, which one should I choose? Either a dial combination lock as you see here or a digital electronic lock with a keypad. The purpose of this video is to explain the pros and cons of each lock and let you make up your own mind. First, the pros of a digital electronic lock are that its quick. You can get into it a little faster. You save about a minute. It also has larger numbers as opposed to the dial numbers which are here in a spy-proof dial. Difficult to see if you are elderly or have vision problems. Another advantage of a digital lock is that you can change the combination yourself.
You don't need to call a technician in to have it changed. On a dial combination lock its going to cost you anywhere $60.00 to $80.00 if you take the door of the safe in. Or if its a large safe and you have to have a technician come out, then it will cost you anywhere from $100.00 to $130.00 to have a technician come on-site and change the combination. One of the great advantages of dial combination lock is this technology is over 175 years old. It works every time all the time. You don't have to change any batteries. Where on a digital lock, you will have to replace the batteries every year or so depending on use. And there are failure points on a digital lock, let me explain that next. If a digital lock fails, and the keypad is defective, a safe technician can replace the keypad.
However, on the backside inside the lock is a circuit board where your combination is stored in a nonvolatile memory chip. If the connector here fails behind the steel door, or the connector fails anywhere where the technician can't get to it, then they're going to have to drill the safe open and its going to cost you somewhere in the $300-$450 range to get into your safe. I'm not telling you about this to scare you, both locks are very reliable, however, please understand if you need the most reliable lock a dial combination lock is going to be your best choice.
There is a small failure rate on digital locks but they are electronic and someday they will fail. With every digital electronic lock there are instructions on how you can change the combination. So this is an advantage. There is no added cost to you. It's very simple and there is only 6 numbers. One of the questions I get asked is about memorizing the numbers for a dial combination lock and how difficult it can be. Think back to when you were in school and you got your first lock on your locker. The first two weeks it took a long time to dial that open. However toward the end of the school year you were spinning that dial and opening that lock really quickly. It's the same thing with a dial combination lock.
Once you practice it 15-20 times you will be going just fine and you will get it open almost as quickly as a digital electronic lock. The good thing to remember is that if you need the best reliably a dial combination lock is the way to go. But if you're not concerned about that tiny tiny fraction of percent of less reliability, a digital electronic lock is your best choice. Either way it's not a bad choice. You have to make that decision on your own. If you have any questions about which lock to choose, please give me a call, Dye the Safe Guy or any of the safe consultants that work for us. Thanks for listening. Call us at 1-800-207-2259 with any questions.
