Winchester safe problem made right by Winchester.

[rimfire]

My Winchester safe is about 2 months old. I have been pretty happy with it, until a few days ago. When I shut the safe, I heard a clunk inside the door. When I tried to open the safe, the top of the door started to open, but the bottom wouldn't budge. I tried replacing the battery, but that didn't make a difference. The wheel turned and unlocked the bolts, but it appeared that the bottom bolt was not retracting.

I called Winchester and within a day they sent a locksmith out to get into my safe. It took at least 2.5 hours for this to be accomplished. I was pretty impressed with the safe, because it was only one bolt at the bottom holding the door shut, the other 11 bolts were retracted.

When the safe was finally opened, and the door panel with the pockets on them was removed, you could see that there was a rod attached to the bolt on one end and the other end had come off of the wheel mechanism that spun when you turned the wheel spokes. There was a nut that held the rod to the wheel that had come unscrewed. I looked at the other nylon lined nuts which were attached to the other 11 rods. The top one was not even finger tight.

If you have a Winchester safe, which were made by Granite safes, you might want to unscrew the pocket panel on the back of the door and inspect the nuts holding the rods in place to the wheel to ensure they are not loose. The two on my safe were not even finger tight. The nuts have a plastic nylon insert, so they should not have come loose on their own.

I still think the safe is well made, Winchester stood by it. They sent out a lock smith at no charge. They are supposed to send me a new safe. I'll let you know how that goes.

P.S.

The locksmith told me that if my safe had been empty and not bolted down, it could have been turned upside down the bolt may have been able to drop down so the door could be opened. There was no way that could be done with my safe.

I am supposed to be getting a new safe, I'll let you know how that works out.
So far Kudos to Winchester for their customer service!