Sentry Fire Safe Fix

I have a Sentry Safe that I bought at Sam's for $150.  It worked great for about 3 months and then went completely dead. I tried the batteries, playing with the contacts, all of the normal things that an electronics geek would try and no luck.  I was keeping medication in there that I take every day so I needed to get in.  I called Sentry support.  They have an 800 number and they answered quickly and it was actually an American on the other end!  I know, amazing, right? He told me all of the usual and then he said there had been some problems with the contacts inside.

The solution: unscrew the face, there is a small phillips head on the underside of the keypad.   Turn the face counter clockwise and pull forward.  The problem was immediately apparent when I pulled the face off.  The connection that the batteries push against almost fell out.  Very poor quality.  There are two v shaped contacts that the battery tray presses against.  Take a flathead screwdriver and bend the contacts down so that the battery tray makes solid contact and voila!

I posted this here hoping it would get indexed by Google because I didn't find it with a search.  The model number is SFW123FTC. Other than this, I have been very happy with the safe.  It feels well built(other the the above) and is pretty roomy.  Probably great for the average family.

Family Found Living in the Wild for 40 years!

This is an amazing story.  A family in Russia had moved into Siberia to escape religious persecution and had no contact with the world for 40 years.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-Russian-Family-Was-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html