A very expensive disappointment. As of right now, I am locked out of my safe. I had it recommended to me to go with the digital lock. I was sent the ESL10. I followed all the directions closely. It worked for the last three months, but not today.

A couple other reasons I wish I had gone with a different manufacturer. Why would they send wood screws with it? Who spends this kind of money to mount these doors to wood? Yes you can replace the screws with screws for block. But you can’t get anything longer that four inches unless you want to drill the frame where you will see. The caps that cover the bolts are only for small screws.

They also make it damn near impossible to separate the door from the frame. I actually used a big block cherry picker to lift the door out of the frame. If you know it has to come out, why ship it in there. The installation instructions suck shit too. They say you should have a professional install the door. Great plan. There was no one anywhere near hear willing to do it. So I got some builder friends to help. I’m so pissed at this company right now.

Did the lock fail?

get a https://sargentandgreenleaf.com/ mechanical combination lock only and maybe get a man to install it.

Yeah I’m thinking I’m going to have Amsec get that done. Yes this lock has failed as far as I can tell. It functions exactly as it should but doesn’t open. Just glad my work gear isn’t in there right now.
Since they’re In California I was able to speak to a rep earlier. They said change the batteries and call back. The door is new. I assume they didn’t ship it with old batteries. Either way, WTF, why would this happen with old batteries? That’s not what old batteries do according to their troubleshooting page.

The ESL10/20 has to pull a dead bolt against spring tension and possibly against gravity. That requires a lot from the battery. Definitely worth trying a fresh, high-quality battery. The battery really should not fail that soon, but if it gets the safe open it is preventing a lot of extra work.

Tried new batteries this morning, no go.
I have no idea what it’s going to take to open this thing, but they better got on it fast and do it right.
The main part of the safe is 1/2” steel with a block wall in front of it. The door is the only way in. I have a feeling they are going to have to cut the door to open it.

They are sending a guy out Friday morning to open it. They said they will most likely have to drill it out. They said the lock is draining power. Why they think that is beyond me. Even if it is, with new batteries it should open, then drain the batteries. They are going to replace the lock with a dial lock. I just asked for their spy proof lock. I have no idea if one is better than the other. I am happy they are getting on this so quickly, but this just never should have happened in the first place. I've had cheap safes with digital locks that never failed. Now I spend over 5k and it doesn't last a year. I guess it's good that it happened when it did because they only have a year warranty on the lock. The sales guy I spoke to (Not an amsec employee, a dealer) said they had a lifetime warranty on their digital locks. I don't think he was trying to up sell me. I think he was just miss-informed. It didn't cost more.

Depends on your environment if a spy-proof dial is of help for you. The spy-proof dial has a narrower field of vision to make it more difficult for people nearby or perhaps looking through the window to find out your combination while you dial. If you have such a kind of environment, then it would be a benefit for you. If nobody can spy on you I think the normal dial is a bit better to use, because the spy-proof not only narrows the field of vision for spies, but also for you.

black spy-proof dial
vs.
black normal dial

And in my opinion a black dial is better to look at. White on black is a very high contrast. But there are also silver and gold dials, which might fit the design of your door better.

silver spy-proof dial
gold spy-proof dial

All my safes have S&G mechanical dial locks on them. I learned about electronic locks the hard way. Back in the 1980's I purchased a first generation Tradlok safe with their "Logolok" feature. NEVER buy a first generation anything because you become the manufacturer's "lab rat". The manufacturer refines and modifies it's product from all complaints and field service calls it receives from first generation buyers. The Logolok failed twice. The first time, Treadlok Corp replaced it on their dime, all I had to pay was shipping back to them. The second time, they told me how to drill it open and after I did, I immediately ordered a top tier Liberty safe with S&G mechanical dial, which I still own today.
Gary

Hopefully the dial lock they send is of S&G quality. I’m not giving these turds another dime for anything else.

Ok, so the lock did not fail. It was something internal. Not sure what yet. The lock smith is working on it now.
Really that’s even more of a disappointment. I feel like I just got some cheap Chinese POS vault door.

He was literally here for 8 hours and did not get it open. It has something to do with the backup locking system having fired when it shouldn’t have.

what's the next step? torch?

The AMSEC is so good even a trained locksmith can't get it open.

The lock smith can’t come back tomorrow because he doesn’t have the plans for this door yet from Amsec. The next full day I get to spend at home with him drilling yet another hole in my door is a week from Monday.
I sent this email to Amsec today:

I just want to make sure you all know, I am extremely disappointed with Amsec so far. The lock smith is great but he can’t open the door if you all cannot provide him with plans for the door. I tried to have him out tomorrow. He doesn’t want to do it because he hasn’t got what he needed from you.
The next day I can have him out for a full day is a week from Monday. That will be yet another full day of me staying home. So it will be over two weeks I will not have been able to access my safe because you cannot provide the lock smith with what he needs. The last day he was here for a full day, I had taken the day off to spend with my kids. I ended up staying home with my kids all day because of this. Waisting an entire day at home was not what I wanted to be doing with my kids. That would have been ok if the door was opened, but it wasn’t.
Now there are two holes drilled in my new $5k+ door. I’m about to have another one drilled in it when he can get what he needs from you. How would you feel about spending 5k+ on a door then having three holes drilled in it. I can’t help to think, had I gone with a different manufacturer, this wouldn’t have happened and I wouldn’t have spent as much money.
From the very beginning of this, I was not very happy. You ship this door in the frame knowing it has to come out to be installed. The directions are very poor. You send wood lag bolts with a large steel door. No one buys this door to mount it on wood. I replaced the wood bolts but you can only replace them with short lag bolts because the pre-drilled holes you have are too small for larger bolts that would secure it better.
And to top it all off , deer season starts on the 9th of September and my crossbow is in my safe.
If you really want to make this right, cut this door out completely, and send me a replacement upgraded door, or a refund. I will never be happy with a door that will have had three holes drilled in it. Other than that, there isn’t much left you can do to make me happy with this now.
Sincerely,

Not sure what the issue is that you're dealing with...but an AMSEC BFII is on my short list of safes I desire. I'd get a dial lock, however, as I don't trust digital locks.

What a terrible experience. So what would be a good alternative company for a vault door? I always thought Amsec was supposed to be good too.

who installed the door?  i have been nothing but happy with amsec but i dont have a digital lock, but then again you said the relockers are the issue, did the door get slammed shut?

Any updates,

The lock smith should be back a week from today. They haven’t responded to my email yet.
I installed the door. It worked for a few months just fine. It’s not an install issue. No, the door was not slammed.

I went with a very large Sturdy safe with dial. The slammed door is a good question. My safe is so “tight“ that it makes kind of an air buffer if you try to close the door quickly.  No slamming that door but a room will be very different.

ETA- just saw your response, that is very weird. Man, that sucks.

I have sold and installed hundreds of AMSEC vault doors, and have never had any issues outside of cosmetics.

Sounds like you swapped the lock yourself?  If so, and now you have a fired relock, 95% odds it was something you did (or didn't) do.

Nope, it still has the digital lock it came with on it. I haven’t done a thing to it.

not a fan of digital locks, but this appears to be a relocker issue, are the relockers glass in the amsec vault doors?

Btw. what are the exact symptoms?

1) The handle turns exactly the same with locked and unlocked lock?

2) The handle turns slightly more with unlocked lock?

3) The handle turns with unlocked lock like it would open the door, but the door doesn't open?

The handle doesn’t turn. There is play in it just like there should be when it’s locked. The digital lock appears to unlock it. It just doesn’t.  
It may not be the re locking system. It may have to do with the lock that can be activated from inside the door which should not be able to be activated with the door open and bolts retracted so I’m not sure how that could be. He got the parts he needs to replace what ever needs to be cut to fix it. Amsec has still not responded to my email. Maybe they’re waiting until it’s open. What ever happens, they better do something to make this right beyond open the door and filling the holes.

Now the lock smith cannot come Monday because he has a funeral to go to. Hard to be upset about that. But I have yet another week without getting in there. That’ll be four weeks.

Why can't you work because you can't open the safe?

Sounds really like the lock. The lock has also an internal relocker which activates when the cover falls off, which it shouldn't. The screws holding the cover are covered by a sticker.

I’m not sure what you mean. I am still working. In the beginning I was going to teach a class and needed gear out of it. The class was canceled because of the hurricane that came through Florida and southern Georgia.

Hole number three has been drilled and the lock smith still can not open it. I don’t have a photo server so I can’t post pictures. If anyone has one and would like to see what this looks like, I can email them if you’d like to post them.
Amsec has not replied to me and as far as I can tell, they really don’t care about this too much. I still can’t go hunting and my fucking 5k door is destroyed.

It’s up to five holes. He was here until 730 pm and has no idea why it won’t open. I’m missing more deer season. They better make this right and fast.

When my Treadlok safe failed the first time and I couldn't get Treadlok Corp. to respond in a timely manner, I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). I got a personal phone call from the VP of product support with in a week after filing.. He arranged to have my existing safe replaced at their expense. All I had to do was ship the safe back to them on my dime. They wanted it to see what had made it fail so they could make upgrades to the design to prevent it from happening to others. Might work for you.
Gary

I’ve been locked out over a month. No one from Amsec has bothered call to see what’s going on. At this point, just replacing it isn’t going to work for me. They can upgrade it, cut this one out and install the new one. I’ve used time off on this and missed over a week of hunting. They could mail me a crossbow today too if they don’t want any hard feelings over it.

Holy shit. That's pathetic

I called this afternoon. Was put on hold for almost 10 minutes. Then I was told they would have to call me back, several hours later, no one called me back, so I called again and was left on hold again. I’m really hoping they do the right thing here but seeing how poorly this has been handled so far, I’m not sure they will.
I sent a shitty email demanding they cut this door out and replace it with the step up door immediately. They need to install it too because I’m not doing it again. This is going to get ugly if they don’t start trying to fix it ASAP.

Well, I guess I complained enough. Someone finally called me. I don’t recall his name. He said they are going to get it opened this week and they are going to replace the door. I still do plan to demand the 1/2” steel door version. If they get it open this week and quickly replace the door I’ll deal with it.
I’m happy to see they at least sound like they’re going to fix this.

Hope they make it right for you.
Unfortunately this is the new norm for customer service at many places. Not just consumer level also B2B.
Imagine your situation but instead it's a near new $300K Makino 5 axis cnc mill that has been broke for months and your business is loosing $150 / hour that it sits.

I can’t be available for the amount of time the lock smith needs to open it for a few days. It sounds like they plan to have my new door ready to install, and have the locksmith here on the same day to cut this one open. I’m guessing they want this door to figure out what happened because no one seems to know how this happened. I’m going with their mechanical lock. The lock wasn’t the problem but there’s been a lot with digital locks going on lately and a one year warranty could leave me in a bad spot in a couple years down the road.
I’m not at all happy I still have to wait. I’m especially not happy I’m not out hunting for several more days. I keep seeing deer on my cameras. I guess if they are making it right I can’t be too upset with them for that. I’ll let you all know how it goes.

I am a safe technician in Washington state and I am very familiar with the BF door. I am going to send you a PM with my email. Let me know if you did not receive it.

Mind sharing pics? Or persec

If you don’t know how to post pictures using online resource like img.bb I don’t know what to tell you.

It’s 2023. You don’t need a “server” to do that.

No server is needed.

https://postimages.org/

Always write down the name, date, and time when you talk with someone. That way you can use it next time. It helps.

I don’t generally waist my day online or on computers very often. I’m sure if I grew up on computers like many others I would know all about it. I have better things to do than be online. I don’t use social media and usually only use forum’s when I need something related to that forum. I’m still not used to the attitude people get online because they don’t communicate face to face.

Thank you for the link FDC.
Edit:
I deleted the pictures. I just realized, since these holes are not random, it’s showing everyone on the web places to try to drill on these doors.

Damn, you weren’t kidding. They just kept drilling holes.

it least you know it's a good door, if a trained locksmith cant get it open a crack head burglar has zero chance.

good plan to roll with the mechanical lock electric locks are nothing but headaches waiting to happen

Seemingly at random too.

That is not where I would have drilled the holes.

They finally got it opened today.
It was the panic lock inside. It was assembled wrong. It malfunctioned and locked the door.
It doesn’t stop there though. Amsec told me they were going to have the new door ready to install today after the old one was opened. Of course I’ve heard nothing from the company and the new door was not here today. I called and was told it will be ready In early November!
Guess they had to get one last screw up in there before fixing it.
On the plus side, I can finally get to hunting.

My dad was recently considering trading a piece of equipment. Trade value was $580k (its 3 yrs old), new machine $740k. It brings in $9,000/hr that it's running. I reminded him that it took 6 months to work out the kinks and get it running like a well oiled machine. Why trade for a new one that is a roll of the dice and may take 6 months to work out all the issues?  He still has the used one...