Folks, a few years back, I purchased a Safari by Cannon safe with a SecuRam electronic lock for my Son.  Fairly quickly he noticed that the safe was signaling that the battery needed to be changed much more frequently than my safe did.  This constant messing with the battery connector and the associated wires caused the tiny wires to fail, rendering the keypad useless.  I managed to repair all this the first time, and my Son attempted the second repair.  The second repair caused the keypad to quit working entirely even though I could verify with a DMM that we had the correct voltage at the solder points on the circuit board.  This was more than a bit disconcerting and became a real problem when the handle for the safe–which had been left in the open position–managed to get brushed and locked the safe with no way to get in.

Called Cannon who offered to send a new keypad and lock mechanism to us for free, but we had to pay a locksmith to drill the safe to get it open.  I asked if the SecuRam keypads were still available and was told by the support person that they were no longer available.  Like most people, when I heard that I concluded–wrongly I might add–that these components were no longer being manufactured.  So, I set out to search the Internet for anything names SecuRam.  Did I ever hit the mother lode!!!

Turns our that SecuRam electronic locks and keypads are very much still being made and the company’s web site is http://securamsys.com/!   On their web site I found a variety of keypads and after some exploring, I found the specific keypad for my Son’s safe and ordered it.  They ship USPS Priority mail from California and I received it in about 3 days!  The new design on these keypads have a battery carrier that slides into and out of the keypad body in place of the old 9v battery connector and wires.  Once inserted, the 9V battery contacts are engaged by a couple of springs to energize the system, and this entire setup will take much longer to wear out than the old 9V battery connector with those tiny wires that tended to break after several battery changes!   KUDOS to Securamsys for taking a less desirable design and turning it into an incredible design!  After connecting the wire that exits the safe into the new keypad, inserting the battery, and entering the code the safe opened like it was supposed to!

My take away from this experience:

  • Cannon Safe seems to be more concerned about their views, policies, and procedures than they are about assisting their customers.  Seems like a good way to run off customers.  I will NEVER purchase another Cannon Safe EVER!
  • Cannon support DID offer to send me a new keypad and locking mechanism for free, but I had to find a locksmith and pay for him to drill the safe to install the new stuff.  Didn’t seem like a good deal then, and it certainly turned out to not be a good deal now!
  • Cannon Support repeatedly reminded me that if I chose any other path than the one they were offering me, I would void my warranty.  Well IF the new keypad ordered from http://securamsys.com had not worked, I would have been forced to get a locksmith to drill the safe, and at that point I would have had him install a dial combination lock and the Cannon warranty be damned!  I must comment here that having to pay to drill a safe so it can be opened seems like the “warranty” from Cannon is not what I would expect a warranty to be.  Besides, their warranty does not cover the contents of the safe and it seems that more holes in a safe would have the potential for more loss than the path I took.  The keypad worked and for ~$75.00 I got my Son’s safe working again!

The moral of this post is this:  If you are the sad owner of a Cannon Safari safe with a dead or broken SecuRam keypad, and an inside locking mechanism, You should visit the site   http://securamsys.com and look to see if your keypad is shown in their products section, that $75.00 expenditure may be all you need to get your safe working again!

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