Customer Reviews

Solar Group RSKB0000 Curbside Locking Mailbox

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Length:: 1:38 Mins


It's a nice mailbox, EXCEPT...

1. People can reach through the slot and grab your mail.

2. Large envelopes hang up on the textured bottom plate. Your mail will sometimes be left sitting in the mail slot.

3. You can break the door open with your bare hands. Both the lock tab and hinge are held in place by cheap plastic flanges.

4. You can lift the top off after removing 9 exposed screws.

#1 and #2 are inexcusable because you'll never know for sure whether some of your mail has been stolen.

If you're handy, you can modify the box to solve #1, #2, and #4 -- See below.

Why would something this bad get 3 stars? Because most of the other locking mailboxes on the market are also feeble. The $100-$200 mailboxes are more tamper-resistant, but still somewhat pry-able and fish-able. Most are prone to rust (as is this mailbox), and some of them hold less mail (large pieces don't lie flat) .

The world is still waiting for a well designed, affordable locking mailbox.

Pro's:

Tasteful, clean look
Mail up to 10"x13" will go in flat & lay flat
Holds a lot of vacation mail (11" x 17-1/2" x appx 4-1/2")

Cons:

Not at all secure (See #1-#4 above)
Overpriced for what it is.

Fixes:

1. Attach some half inch plywood to the bottom of the mail slot, reducing it from 1-1/2" high to 1" high. (This disagrees with postal regulations, but it's unlikely they'll gripe. You're probably better off with a no-reach-in box.)

2. Put Plexiglas, aluminum, or varnished 1/4" plywood on the floor of the mail box so that large envelopes will slide back without getting hung up.

3. No easy fix, but fix #1 makes it hard to pull door open with bare hands.

4. Fill the Phillips screw heads with Liquid Nails or similar glue.

Pricing: If you do buy this wait for low tide, around 72. There's an "Online Price Alert" that will email you whenever this or any amazon product dips below your target price. Google it. It's nicely done.

The speed of shipping this item was great, but when I received it I opened it and found a loose screw inside the package, and the hinge pin was coming out about 3/4" on one end. I realigned the hinge and tapped the hinge pin back in and it looked okay, except for a depression in the top black plastic part of the mailbox. In the interior part of the mailbox, the locking door panel appears to have a large gap on the base of the panel, the mail slot for delivering mail into is rather large also and I can place my hand inside quite easily. A childs' hand and arm or teenagers' could fit inside the incoming mailslot quite easily....

All in all, I couldn't find any security mailboxes to look at in the surrounding area and the locksmith I went to didn't have any to look at either,... I decided to keep the mailbox anyway, as I really didn't have time to look around, and the others I found on the internet were even more pricey than this one, even though they were probably more secure ...

.... it is hard to tell from looking at pages on the internet just how cheap something is assembled, and how unsecure it is, until you get it..... but at least it is a little more secure-looking than a regular mailbox if you don't examine it too closely.

No security locking mailbox is 100% fool proof. If everything else fails, the mail thief could simple take the whole box off the pole and run away. Locking mailboxes are meant to only "deter" the casual sticky fingered mail thief. And this mailbox does just that. Big, sturdy, comes with 2 keys, side red flag, holes in bottom to mount onto a pole or platform. Nice locking mailbox for the price. Sure... someone could still possibly get your mail, risk getting their hand/arm stuck in the box opening, or use some tool to break open the lock. But no security mailbox will be 100% secure. This locking mailbox is meant to deter the casual walk-by mail thief, or the sticky fingered passer-by kiddie.

I own this mailbox and am planning to replace it. The door is easily pulled opened by the criminals with their bare hands. You can easily rebend the locking tab and use it again, to give yourself a false sense of security. The ability to grab the door with your bare hands is a fatal design flaw. The positive side is that you know that your mail has been stolen. It does deter the casual passerby from checking your mailbox. Save yourself the time and do not purchase this mailbox, because you will want to replace it.

1. Entire top is plastic. Easily broken into. Turns yellow after weathering.
2. After a couple of years, bottom and corners are completely rusted.
3. Steel door is mounted on plastic brackets. Hence easily broken into, makes no sense at all.

Look elsewhere as there are much better mailboxes in same price range.

I had a problem where one of the screw brackets was damaged- either in shipping or it was actually a returned item being sold as new- I couldn't tell. I didn't discover the damage until I had already demolished the old box and started installing the new one. It functions OK without the one bracket and Amazon was good enough to give a price adjustment of 10% without going through the hassle of disassembling it and returning it, which was OK. The door sticks a little (bracket damage is on the other end, so that has nothing to do with this issue). Otherwise, it operates fine and for the price, it was worth the $. Better than spending hundreds of $ on those ugly square boxes.

Our mail box works great.You would have to have a real little hand to get into it.
I think anybody would like it,for leaving the house for a week.

We built our own base rather than purchase the flimsy one recommended with this mailbox after reading reviews. The mailbox itself is large and serves our needs. I had to ask the mailman to be sure to push the mail into the box; otherwise, it could rest on the opening. A nice note thanking him did the trick. Our mail was being stolen, and that has stopped. Very happy with the purchase.

this is my second purchase of this mailbox. the first one I used for 5 years, til a car took it out. Happily,I found it again on Amazon, and repurchased. With all the news this year about mail theft, it is good to have mail more secure.

We had a special need. We are gone during the week and home on weekends. We shopped all the local huge chain stores and could not find a curbside locking mailbox that my wife couldn't just put her hand and arm in the slot. Our mail has been safe in this mailbox. The slot is just the right size to accept larger mail, but keep out someone's hand and arm to retrieve it. We were also very pleased by the fast, safe delivery.