Customer Reviews

SentrySafe QE5541 Fire-Safe Water-Resistant Safe with USB-Powered Connectivity, 2.0 Cubic Feet, Black

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The safe was moderately dented in shipment. I submitted pictures and showed where packaging failed. The damage was cosmetic and I requested Amazon to reduce the price rather than exchange. They offered a fair adjustment and I kept the safe. Thank you Amazon.

I have had the safe several months. It works fine for home use, but there have been annoyances.

1) Every mounting situation is different, but the lag screws supplied give a false sense of security. A prybar can rip lag screws from the floor in seconds. Do it right. The safe should be bolted through steel plates placed under a wood floor or in concrete. Use round head (carriage) bolts that can't be unbolted from outside the safe. BTW, this safe can only be bolted to the floor, not the wall.

2) Occasionally, the safe won't open. Once you enter the code, you have to wait a couple seconds before turning the handle. If you don't wait, the safe won't open. And if you wait more than four seconds... it won't open. The safe has always opened within 3 tries. So, maybe it's just me.

3) Large capacity hard drives require external power and portable drives require two USB ports for power. You cannot add a second portable drive in this safe because of USB power limits. The safe could be improved by adding a hard drive power cable or an externally powered USB hub. Otherwise, you are limited to one small portable drive. On the bright side, hard drive heat dissipation within the safe has not been a problem.

4) The shelving provided is bulky and didn't meet my needs. There are slots in the safe wall though and I was able to make my own shelves.

This safe is not ideal, but it's the best I could find for my needs. It's a quality safe. Amazon has been great and I would certainly buy this safe again.

My friend's house was broken into recently and stuff was stolen. Among other things, he lost his laptop which had all of his photos on it. Of course, they were never back up. Even though all of my data is backed up in duplicate, I wanted to get some extra protection for my external hard drives and other small electronics. It's one thing to have your data backed up but I definitely don't want a thief to steal equipment that I paid so much for over the years.

I'm storing a DSLR, video camera, lenses, and a few hard drives in this one and I wanted the "media" safe for the extra protection in case of a fire. The safe has a nice size to it, comes with a hanging file folder drawer, and a pull out drawer with compartments to fit different items. I ended up removing the slide out drawer for the files so that I could use the top of it like a shelf so with the other shelf, I now have 3 open sections.

Mounting the safe was easy. They do include a couple of coarse-thread wood lag screws but they didn't work for me. The safe is sitting on medium pile carpet and the lag screws would just barely penetrate the sub floor. Not nearly strong enough to hold it in place. I switched to longer bolts and reinforced the floor from underneath with squares of aluminum to spread the strength. This ain't goin nowhere. Because the safe is so heavy, a thief with a prybar could slip it right under the safe and pop it out if the included lag screws were used. I think bolts are the better way to go.

The safe has the ability to connect a small USB hard drive inside and cables are included for this. There is an internal connect to link the USB hard drive on the door and then on the outside of the safe, there is another USB port. Not using this so I can't comment on it. The door has enough storage for 2 Maxtor One Touch Mini drives (I have one of those hard drives and I could fit 2 in the door pocket). There are also hooks on the inside of the door to hang keys from.

Programming the keypad was easy. You can actually program a few codes to this. One main code and then a few Manager codes.

Overall, a great safe and I'm very happy with it. Delivery was right to my curb via freight truck and I borrowed a friend's hand truck to wheel it in my house. The safe is about 200 pounds.

Well maybe I shouldn't call it little. I got the 2 cubic foot model and it is plenty big for my stuff, with room to spare. The door has built in hooks and 2 roomy pockets that are great for holding smaller items.

It has the 2 shelves as shown in the picture, and they are very well built. The both shelves have recesses for CD/DVD's and/or rolled coins. The sliding action is smooth and they have lockouts as you would expect so the shelves don't come out all the way by mistake. A little upward lift and they will come right out for easy viewing of your stuff. They are a little bulky, but perfect for my needs. This actually gives me the option to create more space by taking them out as needed.

I had no problem opening the door at all using the code pad. The lock looks great, and is easy to use. Opens up very easily in my opinion. However it does feel a little fragile, and some sort of protection for the key pad would have been a bonus for sure. The extra double locking feature offers added peace of mind when the safe is not in constant use.

I don't really use the USB stuff right now, but the principal and set up are very sound. I would agree that offering the ability to power with household voltage would be a huge plus, but if I needed to backup that much data, an off site solution would make more sense.

Mounting is very straight forward, but as with all safes I have installed, the supplied hardware will not cut it if you are serious about holding the safe down. Common sense options such as backer plates will be needed. However, as heavy as this sucker is, it will take a determined thief to get very far with it.

Overall all a very good value. I would certainly recommend one of these safes to my friends if they needed one. It is perfect for my small business and home needs.

I would recommend steering clear of the company all together. I used to think a safe was a safe. Not true! Wait til you want to get INTO your safe and cant. $220 to a locksmith to finally break in and the company takes one month to finally say they would only send a replacement and refuse to pay for their defective safe (as determined by locksmith). The safe does get moisture in it and the manual doesn't tell you that. It is a sub quality product and they have abysmal customer service.