I am interested in opinions from Steelwater owners.  The East coast warehouse is local to me, and I visited a few weeks ago.  I was impressed with the quality of these safes, but wanted to see what owners think about them vs. taking the staff's word for it.

Of course they are Chinese import but what I have seen of them they really appear to be a decent bargain.

The Chinese import subject did come up while speaking to the rep, and he mentioned how even though they do come from China, they are made to their specs.  That doesn't mean much to many folks, but that is what I was told.

I just got back from visiting the warehouse again, and this is a safe that was in a house fire, having been under smoldering rubble for a week.  It is their 20-gun model with the lowest level of fire and theft protection.  No documents were burned, no ammo ignited, and the only damage to the guns inside was a small amount of rust on the barrels of the owner's rifles.  Seems that it held up like it is supposed to.

I don't buy it for a second.  Too much damage to the interior to not have the equivalent amount of damage to the contents.  Also, you will never open up a safe full of guns after a fire that has sat for any length of time that doesn't exhibit extreme corrosion damage to the firearms.  

The problem is they are too small to know if they are getting screwed by China, too small to survive a downturn, nothing invested in the business. Anybody can be one an importer for a few years. They might be a good bang for the buck but I'd still rather have a chinsier name brand safe or pay a little more.

And everybody is a safe expert.  Just ask them.  I have had safes built to my specs, but my background puts me in a good position to specify how a safe is made.  Where do their specs come from?  Who specs their safes, and what is their background?

It appears that Steelwater is now owned by Cobalt (or perhaps was from the beginning).  I can't see who owns it, because neither company appears to be registered within the state they are doing business under either of those names.  I can also tell you that all of the other small safes that Cobalt sells are regular off the shelf units offered by the manufacturers.  Since they aren't "specifying" those safes, I doubt they aren't "specifying" the gun safes either.  Perhaps they're choosing the colors or the locks.  

I was a dealer for Cobalt years ago.  We stopped when they started letting everybody and their brother sell them without any concern for their background.

I simply stated what I was told, and the safe owner relayed that info to the Steelwater employee.   The carpeting was not burned, and I imagine some of the damage shown was the result of removing the safe from the rubble and transport.  

Interesting that you mentioned Cobalt.  They do have some of their executive safes on the floor as well.  I will ask a few questions next time I go back.