Safe drains keypad battery

ZA_Survivalist · Oct 31, 2023

Hello folks, I've noticed one of my safes has a nasty habit of draining the battery to the key pad. I replaced it with a lithium battery just a month or so ago, probably accessed the safe 3-4 times during that period.. however it's near drained again.

Anyone else experience this?

I've read to pop off the internal cover when the door is open and see if there is anything touching/grounding going on, I've also heard to use a meter to test it.

Lastly, one solution read was to simply take the battery out when not in use.. but I'm not sure if the memory of the keypad input will remain. Attempting to find the safe documents now, so hopefully I have some more info soon. I realize without the brand it's a little difficult to provide a definitive answer.
This safe is in storage, and I had forgot to snag the brand name.. I'll have that info here later on as well to better diagnose it.

billdeserthills · Oct 31, 2023

I had much the same problem, battery would drain too fast. At first the battery would last a few months but at the end it would be drained in a week. I finally took out the digital lock and found the wire was stripped & grounding out. I put a new lock (& wires) in & it works fine now

ZA_Survivalist · Oct 31, 2023

billdeserthills said:
I had much the same problem, battery would drain too fast. At first the battery would last a few months but at the end it would be drained in a week. I finally took out the digital lock and found the wire was stripped & grounding out. I put a new lock (& wires) in & it works fine now

Copy that, I assume I may have the same issue as it shouldn't be draining like it is.
I'll have to pop the back door panel off and see what's going on in there.
Thank you for the info!

WAYNO · Oct 31, 2023

I've been having problems with my electronic keypad on my safe.

The battery goes dead way too soon, and the low battery light never comes on. Easy enough, I use the backup key. But then the keypad stopped accepting inputs. Replaced the keypad and it worked for a couple more years.

Now, it recently quit working so I replaced the keypad again. (getting expensive). Worked for a short period, now not at all.

I've completely lost trust in electronic safes. I wish there were more analogue-dial safes available. Most of the safe manufacturers have taken the easy road, and most of their lineup(s) are electronic.

Kruel J · Oct 31, 2023

I've had my Liberty for about 10 years now. I've replaced the battery twice.

ZA_Survivalist · Oct 31, 2023

Kruel J said:
I've had my Liberty for about 10 years now. I've replaced the battery twice.

To be fair, I should have bought a higher quality safe. This was one of the cheaper large safes from Costco.

orygun · Oct 31, 2023

Kruel J said:
I've had my Liberty for about 10 years now. I've replaced the battery twice.

I've had my Liberty safe for 15+ years and have never replaced the battery.
Oh yeah! It doesn't use one! :s0108:

(Sorry)

bionic knees · Oct 31, 2023

30 + years on my manually operated safe and zero problems !!!

Nosferatu · Oct 31, 2023

Probably just a bad copy of the lock, assembled by a 9 year old Chinese kid on a Friday.

ZA_Survivalist · Oct 31, 2023

bionic knees said:
30 + years on my manually operated safe and zero problems !!!

I thought I was being slick with the keypad.. I should have known better than to have:

Bought a low grade large safe
And
Gone digital.

ZA_Survivalist · Oct 31, 2023

Nosferatu said:
Probably just a bad copy of the lock, assembled by a 9 year old Chinese kid on a Friday.

From what here, they don't have Fridays.
It's a solid 7 day, Monday work week.

WAYNO · Oct 31, 2023

Does a higher-end safe have a better made Chinese keyboard than a cheaper one?

WillametteWill · Oct 31, 2023

ZA_Survivalist said:
Hello folks, I've noticed one of my safes has a nasty habit of draining the battery to the key pad. I replaced it with a lithium battery just a month or so ago, probably accessed the safe 3-4 times during that period.. however it's near drained again.

I'm betting that it is a lock issue but also check the instructions to see if lithium batteries are okay. Many safe companies use the same or similar, likely Chinese, locks. When I called one last year with an issue they were adamant that batteries need to be alkaline only, not lithium as they will cause damage to the electronics.

I know many who use lithium, just passing along what I was told. LIBERTY appears to be one of them by the way. It appears Cannon does as well.

Flopsweat · Oct 31, 2023

WAYNO said:
Does a higher-end safe have a better made Chinese keyboard than a cheaper one?

It's entirely possible. Dell makes all of their computers in China, but they have fulltime staff onsite 24/7. They still make a decent quality product. If you hire a Chinese company to make your product, it will only be as good as your QC staff. If you use their QC staff, you will get a very poor-quality product. You can probably still sell it on Amazon though.

Kruel J · Oct 31, 2023

WillametteWill said:
I'm betting that it is a lock issue but also check the instructions to see if lithium batteries are okay. Many safe companies use the same or similar, likely Chinese, locks. When I called one last year with an issue they were adamant that batteries need to be alkaline only, not lithium as they will cause damage to the electronics.

I know many who use lithium, just passing along what I was told. LIBERTY appears to be one of them by the way. It appears Cannon does as well.

Mine came with a regular Duracell when I bought it. Zero problems with it in 10 years. I don't shy away from technology.

Alexx1401 · Oct 31, 2023

ZA_Survivalist said:
I thought I was being slick with the keypad.. I should have known better than to have:

Bought a low grade large safe
And
Gone digital.

Bummer for sure. If it was me I would try again so see if you can spot something that could be shorting. If not get the brand and do some searching to see what is involved with buying and installing a whole new lock. While back there was a thread here about swapping a digital with a standard S&G dial. So if nothing else works I would look that up and see if maybe yours looks like that would work? Hopefully you can find a solution that does not cost much or take a pro to do since it would be pricey.