Nightstand safe questions

[Up1911Fan]

I'm in need of a nightstand safe to hold a handgun and hand held light. I like the idea of the ones that have a built in clock and chargers, so i'm condensing the Hornady Rapid safe Night Guard https://www.hornadysecurity.com/rapi...night-guard#!/ or the Vaultek Smart Station d2Si https://vaulteksafe.com/vaultek-smart-station/.
Does anyone own either of these? If so, what are your thoughts? The Vaultek is more expensive, but has biometrics vs just the RFID reader of the Hornady. It also has a wireless charger built in vs just the USB ports of the Hornady. One pro for the Hornady is I have their Rapid AR Locker in my closet with a long gun, so the same RFID tag could be programed to both.

[El Cid]

Always liked that style of concealment but my HD pistol has an optic and can so it won’t fit. I just use a Fas1 safe for mine, but I’m interested to see what people say about the clock safes

I do have a Vaultek Lifepod 2.0 and am very pleased with it. If the fit and finish is the same, the clock safe should be a quality product.

[rd62]

I just saw the Vaultek yesterday and had told the Mrs that I was interested in one.

If you end up with one, I'd be interested in your impressions.

[breakingtime91]

I have a vaultek in my office that holds a g19, tlr7a, 509t, and 17 round magazine. It is a tight fit but it is an older model, I may replace is with a larger one down the road.

[HeavyDuty]

I’ve been looking at the slider model.

[cosermann]

Electronic safes hold the same position for me as so-called "smart" guns. The #1 criteria for a defensive firearm (again for me) is as close to absolute reliability as I can get. Same for the safe.

When we stick a safe in the chain of access to a defensive firearm, the reliability of the chain can't be greater than it's least reliable link.

In my experience, the more technology we put into a quick access safe, the less reliable it gets. It's cool, but it's less reliable. Biometrics - How often does your iPhone fail to read your finger or face? Proximity cards - same thing (plus you need to have access to the proximity device). Batteries go dead. Power goes out. Electronic buttons wear out. In short, electronic locks seem to fail at greater rates than mechanical locks. Every electronic lock I've had for any length of time has eventually failed - which is why I relegate electronic locks to only storage that does not require quick access.

Contrastingly, I haven't had a mechanical lock fail yet. Mechanical locks can fail of course, but in my experience do so at far lower rates than electronic locks.

For quick access, I much prefer mechanical locks of the Simplex variety. The Ft. Knox Pistol Boxes [1] are one example. The Simplex design does have a somewhat limited combination space (1,084), such that a motivated teen could brute force the combination over time, but that's not a concern for me. YMMV.

[1] - https://www.ftknox.com/product-category/pistol-boxes/

[cosermann]

FWIW, Vline also has some products using the Simplex-type lock - https://www.vlineind.com/products/

[dontshakepandas]

I've been using a V-Line with a Simplex lock for about a year now. Even though it is a fairly large safe, it doesn't really "take up" much room since I can put it on my night stand and just pile anything else I need like my phone charger on top of it without actually losing much usable space. My primary purpose for it is to have a firearm close by and accessible when I'm home while preventing access from kids. Generally it is empty when I leave the house so I haven't bothered hard mounting it to anything, but that is possible if you are more concerned with preventing theft.

I love the Simplex lock and after using it definitely wouldn't consider anything with electronics.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Cookie Monster]

I have 4 V-Line safes and have been very happy with them. Customer service was excellent when I was too dense to correctly program my code of choice.

[TGS]

100% go with a Simplex style lock from V-Line, ShotLock, AMSEC or Ft Knox for all the aforementioned reasons.

Simplex locks will eventually go out of order just like a revolver goes out of time, but it's generally not something that happens spontaneously without warning. You'll feel the buttons start to stick and whatnot before it actually fails you, which is your warning to get it serviced. Electronics, on the other hand, are great until they're not, and fail without warning.