I know these safes have been discussed before, but I can't seem to find much on them.

9 Ga steel
2 hr @1800 degree fire rating
18-1.5" bolts on all four sides of door
UL Listed LaGard lock
free shipping

All for less than $2,000.  It seems to good to be true.  Especially since I can hardly find any ratings/reviews on them.  Who has experience with these?

Aren't they the brand that say they are made in the USA, won't disclose where they are actually made, and look like their Chinese knockoff counterpart?  Not sure about this info though.

You're probably thinking of Patriot.

Tempting. Their $10,000 safes with 3/16 thick body are on sale for $4,199. And they have tactical lighting. And you can get them with patriotic themes painted on them.

I don't have a problem with Chinese safes.  Some of them are built better than their US counterparts.  I do have a problem when one is dishonest about it.

18 bolts? LOL

Yeah.  7 dead bolts on the hinge side, 7 bolts on opposite side, and an additional two on both the top and bottom.

I don't see anything saying where they are manufactured, and if they were trying to pass as American made, and weren't, that would be a deal killer.

Honestly, I don't have $5,000 to spend on a quality safe.  I have about $1,500 that I can stretch to $1,800.  The other safe that I have been weighing this against is the Fatboy JR, and this blows it out of the water for only an additional $200.

If that's true, then this is an easy choice, but my common sense keeps saying, if it's to good to be true...

So what's the difference?  How does steelwater get all of these specs for so much less? Quality control? Lack of security in the lock?

One of my buddies bought a Steelwater last year, and I helped him move it. I checked it out thoroughly, and was pleased with it. It was exactly as described, and looked well made.

HTH

I bought one, my biggest piece of advice is to buy one that is bigger than what you need. I got mine a year ago and I am out of room... They are made in china. The mechanism inside of the door looks like any other RSC. Mine has an S&G dial. I will see if I can pull up the picture when I get home. At the end of the day it is a RSC and not in any way a safe. If I did it all over again I might go for a sturdy safe but at the end of the day I have had no problems with it and it does what I need it to do.

Look at Drake safes.  1/4" body on all sides, made in Roxboro, NC.  Excellent quality for quite a bit less than that.  my 40"w x 71"H runs about $2,800 if I recall correctly.  Customer service is top notch!  They don't have patriotic themes though... kind of a rustic finish but look good. Very robust.  

Thinking about it, a patriotic theme on a Chinese safe sounds pretty stupid.

I looked at their website and I'd stay away from them with a 10' pole.

Reason?  They talk alot about the "founder" of the company, but NEVER mention his name.

This company reminds me of…what was the name, like "sportsman steel" or something like that?  I talked with the owner of that company one time, the guy was the son of another "safe guy", but this son sounded like a used car salesmen IMO.  

Nevermind, may be two different companies.  THIS I believe is the company I was refering to in my last paragraph…

http://www.sportsmansteelsafes.com/options.htm

General rule, if you take pride in what you do and sincerely believe you have the best product in the marketplace, people are going to beat your prices

Lots of interesting people in the gun safe business.  Everybody acts like they know what they're doing, and very few of them have the slightest clue.  Does keep things entertaining though.

Stay away from Sportsman Steel.  Just google them and search the threads here about them.  There are MUCH butter products for the same money!

I got a Sturdy years ago.  Absolutely no regrets