I have a Sentry Safe that I purchased from Sam’s a year or two ago (too lazy to look it up). My wife recently tried to open it and, even though it agreed with the combination that was entered, the electronic opener refused to release the lock. Since this safe can only be opened with an electronic code, this is a BAD situation!I first tested all four batteries with my handy-dandy battery tester and they all passed with flying colors. I could hear the actuator trying to work each time I entered the code.

1. Objectdisposedexception Safe Handle Has Been Closed Serial Port
2. Safe Handle Has Been Closed Serial Port C#

I even tried the “master” code. Being somewhat mechanically inclined, I decided to whack on the front of the safe with my fist (didn’t think I would hurt it) after entering the code. The actuator fired up and it opened.I then started looking on the web and found by lighthouse. Exactly my problem! All you need is a Rubber Mallet (or a hard fist), some WD-40 and a screwdriver.Needless to say, I’ll be taking it back to Sam’s and getting my money back, regardless of whether it’s in or out of warranty.

The above details were pointing that something is wrong with BizTalk and it starts taking lot of time to receive the message. After investigating it further it was found that the account used for running the SQL Server agent was disabled resulting in the size of the MessageBox increased to 1.7 GB as the jobs for maintaining the message box were not running.

I think Sentry Safe has sold many of us a bill of goodswhat do you think? POS!2010-07-10 UpdateSo my son purchased a Sentry safe today and I warned him about the sticking problem. Since I never did anything about my safe since I opened it last, I decided to pry the plastic cover off so I could see the innards and determine what to lube. Looks like the actuator in the upper left is the source of the problem. So, if you need to whack your safe, you can see that the upper right (as you’re facing it) would be the place to smack.When I pried the back off, there was all kinds of plastic slag and crap sitting at the bottom on the ledge.

Such qualityOne of the comments to lighthouse’s post was by a guy who used his “saws-all” to cut through the pins. As you can see, these are all just cast parts, which means they are probably very soft metal.

I guess if this safe is ever involved in a fire it will open automatically as all the parts melt!Keywords:Can’t open Sentry safeSentry safe won’t openSentry safe stuck closed. Jose saidI AGREE THAT THIS SAFE IS MADE POORLY BY SENTRY SAFE, BUT IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BUY ANOTHER SAFE, DO THIS WHAT I’M ABOUT TO WRITE AND IT CAN LAST YOU A LOT LONGER. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THAT I AM DOING THIS, BUT I THOUGHT I HAD TO SHARE THIS INFORMATION TO EVERYONE. ONCE YOU HAVE THE DOOR OPEN, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS GREASE THE GEARS. IT IS STUPID THAT SENTRY SAFE DOESN’T GREASE THE GEARS SO AFTER A WHILE, THE GEAR CAN GET STUCK. THAT’S WHY YOU HAVE TO USE A RUBBER MALLET TO LOOSEN THE GEAR.

YEAH, IT’S PLASTIC, BUT IF IT WAS GREASED UP, IT WOULDN’T BE SUCH A PROBLEM RIGHT AWAY. MINES IS OPENING SMOOTHLY NOW AFTER I GREASED THE GEAR. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO REMOVE THE BACK PANEL WITHOUT BREAKING ANYTHING. TAKE YOUR TIME AND USE A BUTTER KNIFE TO PRY THE DOOR OPEN OR A FLAT HEAD SCREW DRIVER.

I USED A BUTTER KNIFE. IT’S A LOT MORE THINNER SO LESS CHANCE OF BREAKING IT.

I WISH I CAN PUT A FEW PICS UP HERE, BUT IF YOU NEED IT, HIT ME UP AND I CAN SEND THEM TO YOU. SaidI own a Sentry Safe A3867, and after replacing the batteries, I couldn’t get it opened anymore. After punching in “any code”, I would get six beeps, and the red light would blink six times as well. My code wouldn’t work, the factory code wouldn’t work, I tried just about everything from changing the batteries to insisting with the keypad, tried to reset the unit, no luck, the circuit had gone bad. Finally after researching online, I learned that if you use a rubber hammer and hammer the area where the actuator is more or less located, it will vibrate with the impact, and just like that, I kept pulling the handle until it opened, it took me no more than 30 seconds, I ended up with a dent on the door, but got my documents out of the safe! After removing the inside panel from the door I also learned that the actuator cannot be manually powered at all. It has a built in circuit that “communicates” with the keypad circuit, and feeding voltage on those wires will not make the actuator work.

I hope this helps other people with similar problem! Khwaish serial full story. John martin saidThanks for the mallet tip – works a charm.Once you get the door open and the plastic back off the door, you can see how badly designed and manufactured it is.

Looking at the actuator placement, i can see why it sticks – the handle on the outside is quite heavy and if it is down even slightly, it will cause part of the lock mechanism to sit against the actuator, which causes the solenoid to work harder (or not work). Dumb design, pure and simple.Note: if you simply remove the actuator – it’s literally a single screw – you have a functional fire safe that works with key only (the keypad becomes useless decoration). I just did this last night and works fine now. It is a little fiddly – you need to take the plastic wheel off (remove a spring clip), and make sure that the lock parts line up when you put it on again (3 of them have arrows to help you – the fourth doesn’t but its pretty obvious).

I don’t have the combination but i do have the key lock. I’m also re-assured knowing that if i ever lose the keys, i can potentially crack it open pretty quickly. Notprouda Sentry saidThanks. “lift the handle towards the 10 o’clock position and punch in the code. Surprise click and open” I changed the batteries and I still couldn’t turn the handle. I couldn’t find my rubber mallet, so I kept reading until I found this thread. Thanks for the 10 o’clock information, that got me in.

It is a pretty good fire safe. I bought this one to replace one that burned in a house fire. I had to cut the top out of the burned one to get the items out of it, but cash, papers and jewelry were unharmed. Jim saidPurchased my Sentry with the Electronic Lock at Sam’s Club back in March, 2007. Even though I keep it in a room with controlled temperature and humidity it started giving me opening problems a couple of years later. I called Sentry customer service and they sent me a new solenoid ($50) which seemed to correct the problem. Now it’s giving me problems again.

I put in new batteries and no matter how much I pound on it with a rubber mallot it still refuses to open. I’m ready to get rid of it but need to get my valuables out first. Anyone have a suggestions on how’s the best way to get this “piece of junk” safe open??? Treibs said.

ATTENTION. If you have an electronic keypad AND a manual key lock: The manual key lock button must be extended – e.g., unlocked – for the safe to work in electronic mode only. If the manual key lock button is pressed in – e.g., locked – the unit is manually locked. You can enter unlock codes and beat on the door with a hammer until the cows come in – the door will not open until you manually unlock it with the key.I learned this the hard way after my wife tried to get in the safe and inadvertantly pressed in the manual lock button!! It took a while to figure this out ( we haven’t pushed that button in for five years) after finding the key.

After unlocking with the key I got the safe open and pulled off the cover mentioned above. An analysis of the way our safe (CSW 3813) worked led me to this conclusion.

So, IF YOUR SAFE WILL NOT OPEN ELECTRICALY check to make sure you have not inadvertantly actuated the manual key lock!! This is not very clear in the owners manual.All was not a complete loss as I was able to lubricate all of the mechanisms with some lithium grease.

Elk Around saidI have a Sentry Safe model AO3817 with an electronic lock and a key lock. Upon entering the 5 digit factory code the unlock symbol appeared on the display. From this point, apparently you have 4 seconds to push the handle down to open the door. After trying several times and changing the batteries and double checking all the wire connections I went surfing to find a solution as to why the handle would not go down allowing for the door to open. Of course the Sentry Safe FAQ on their website was no help at all. Then I stumbled upon this tread, hunted down the ole rubber mallet, gave it a good whack, just below the handle, entered the code and VOILA!!!! The handle moved and the door opened and I now have my passport!!Thanks!

Nick saidThanks for posting this information. This is exactly my problem with my Sentry safe.

My combination still works and indicates green as if it’s allowing to open, but then it just doesn’t. I tried an invalid code just to be certain that it is functioning correctly when I enter the correct code and sure enough the invalid code shows the red indicator as it should.

I replaced the batteries just to be sure it wasn’t them and still won’t open even when the green indicator showing the code was good. I’m on a business trip right now and after finding this post, I’m going to try this idea when I get home this Friday.I’ve had my Sentry safe for about 10 years and never had a problem. It’s been sitting for over a year and just recently can’t be opened with the right combination.

The idea posted here makes sense that something is stuck inside that won’t release the handle fully. Jim saidThanks so much for the info.

I actually had my safe open and the plungers came back out to the locked position just by the spring pressure. I had the exact problem above where I could put in the right combination, get a green light, and the handle wouldn’t move. I hit the safe door with the back of my fist a couple of times from the outside right where the photo shows the solenoid to be located. After a couple of whacks, the handle moved properly after getting the green light. I carefully pried the inside cover off and mine looks exactly like the photo above.

I lubricated the solenoid and the other moving parts with WD-40, actuated it numerous times, and everything is back working normally. Looks like some preventative maintenance every year or so will keep everything working as it should.

Thanks again for the detailed information. Without it, I would still be stuck. If you are careful, you can work the inside cover over the plungers in the retracted position without breaking anything and carefully work it back on once you’re through lubricating everything. Dawn saidI have a sentry save with a keylock and electronic combination. The light was on the display pad indicating batteries were low, so I changed the batteries. After putting the keypad back on from changing the batteries, my code won’t open the safe. It’s giving me an err code of 1.

The unlock symbol does not appear and the handle doesn’t move. Err 1 indicates that I’m not using the right code, but I know I’m using the right code. I will try the rubber mallet thing when I get home. Anyone else have this type of problem with the err code one even though you’re using the right code? I enter my code and press enter/pgrm button and it beeps at me once but does not display the lock symbol and shows a number 1. Sentry is closed for the holiday apparently (labor 2012) and it’s only Wednesday and the holiday isn’t until next Monday, so I have to wait until next Tuesday to talk to them. I’ve had this safe about two years.

This is the first time I replaced the batteries. Richard saidSame problem here with the A3867, RESOLVED. Installed new batteries and tested. I noticed that (with the door open) the lever was not behaving normally.

It was not opening as others described above. I don’t have a rubber mallet, so I wrapped a kitchen cloth around a small picture mounting hammer (little 3oz) and taped-it. I entered my MFG Code and tapped the safe below the lever and keypad area from left to right while pushing the lever up and down while the Proceed LED remained lit. After two passes through the process, I felt the lever go down a little and on the next tap and press, it went all the way down. I’m not sure exactly which spot worked on this model.Thank you guys so much for this post.Richard.

Bcdaytonaboy saidBought a Sentry OA5848 Electronic safe that was missing key. Found that the door mechanism wouldn’t work so pried off the inside door panel carefully and found that they had apparently forced the mechanism against the solenoid to open door. When pulling apart the rods and gear to straighten out everything a little black piece of plastic with a spring popped out of the gear area and I cannot find where it goes or what it does.

Safe is working ok now, just would like to put all the parts back in. Larry saidWife discovered we could open the safe without entering the combination.

My thanks to this posting above and all the responses. I just finished repairing the safe.

Basically the same issue as everyone else, but mine had the actuator stuck in the open position. I removed the back cover, Pulled off the retaining clip on the gear.

Removed one screw off the actuator and then unplugged the actuator. The metal plunger for the actuator was rusted and the spring not near strong enough to overcome the built up rust.

I removed another retaining clip on the actuator plunger and pulled the plunger out with a small screwdriver as a lever. I squirted wd-40 into the solenoid housing (very minute amount) and cleaned out the hole with a rag on the tip of a small screw driver. I did this a few times until no more rust/dirt seen on the rag.

As for the metal plunger, I used some 220 sand paper to remove the larger corroded/bumpy areas. Then I used some Emory cloth (400 grit sand paper) to smooth it out. Then I added a few drops of 3-in-1 oil on the metal plunger and reassembled the spring, actuator, plunger, and retaining clip.The gear went back on as specified above with the small arrows lining up.

I looked at the arrows before taking apart, but should have noted the top-right gear link since there are two arrows on that linkage. I should also have looked a bit harder since the door would not engage/lock properly due to mechanical issues. I reset the top right link to somewhere between the 2 arrows. Then I still couldn’t get the lock bars to extend by themselves. Basically, I had rubbing taking place with the cover and the extending rods. I installed and removed the cover about 6 times before finally getting it into the proper position.

Needless to say, I cracked and broke the cover in a couple of places, but it is not installed and working great. Karen Alvstad saidWe had this problem this week. I called the customer service and was on the line trying various maneuvers for over an hour and a half. Nothing worked. We called a locksmith and he referred us to this site.

My husband tried the rubber mallet and that didn’t work either, so he went at it with a hammer and crowbar. Well, the safe is open but, of course destroyed. Cutomer service offered us 15% off on a new one.

Objectdisposedexception Safe Handle Has Been Closed Serial Port

This one was less than 3 years old. I think I will look for a different brand. Steve T saidHad same problem with OA5848 model SentrySafe, rubber mallet trick worked at first. Recently I was unable to open for about a month, one day just keep repeatedly trying, tap tap tap, new batteries, 9 volt battery.and it finally released the solenoid.Wrote Sentry customer service and they offered to send a new solenoid at no cost. The directions included were about an 80% solution. I am not a skilled tinkerer but was able to follow and complete the solenoid swap. Seems to be working fine now, I’m hoping this new solenoid is an improved model.Though I am very leery about a future lock out, not being able to get to titles, certificates and cash when needed can cause a heart attack.I’m looking t0 purchase a safe, one that has a manual key override should the electronics fail.Kudos to SentrySafe for the quick return on my email.

Emailed them on Saturday or Sunday, got call back Monday morning, new solenoid with directions in my mail box on Wednesday or Thursday. I think they did more than can be expected of a company, safe is 5 years old.

Safe Handle Has Been Closed Serial Port C#

Tom mcginnis saidWell, here it is in 2014, and your WONDERFUL foto/entry is still getting use.I knew when I bought my Sentry that the whole idea of relying on something either electronic.or. battery-driven was a security mistake, but I guess I was rushed,. And one followed my home.I ran into the sticking mechanism issue, found your solution, have kept the safe OPEN for the last few YEARS while I curse Sentry and neglect checking out the mechanism.But again, here it is, 2014, and this morning, it took me all of 15 minutes to Dremel the plastic back off, to find EXACTLY your picture.

I’ve lubed the bejesus out of it, actuated it an interminable number of times, and IT STILL STICKS. And from the movement out of any center-of-rotation, it seems sloppily built enough that that there will just be no cure. (No cure to which I’d care to trust my goodies.)The final impetus to do this was the clarity of your picture, again. Should’ve taken care of this a long time ago.FWIW, the engineering of the innards (and their apparent cheapness) has to do with making the lock mechanism impervious to hard actuation (of the handle, for example).

Bigger safes have a glass/porcelain link somewhere in the lock, so that if you try too hard to open it, that link will break, and you won’t be able to open it without a locksmith and total destruction. (And lots of time.) This discourages thieves.Thanks again for your piece.TMc. Tom mcginnis saidHA! YET ANOTHER SOLUTION: GO FOR A 9-VOLT BATTERY!After writing/reading “solenoid” so many times, and ready to junk the whole thing, I thought I’d give fresh batteries a shot — the ones I’d put in last time were not name-brand, though they were fresh/bought. I put in some.older. Everyreadys, and “Clink!” goes the solenoid! Whoa!!!Then, I thought about the termination of the 4-battery battery pack (4 x 1.5v), and thought, “why not try a single 9’volt!” I did, and now the solenoid goes a solid “CLUNK.” I STILL don’t like the idea that I’m relying on a battery/electronics to get at my goodies, but watching this think retract with such authority is inspiring.

As well, AND THANKS AGAIN TO YOUR POSTED PICTURE, I know that I can pop off the keypad, stick in a piece of angle metal as long as my index finger, and actuate the solenoid myself. (Then I can post another of those Youtube videos where a Sentry gets busted into in under a minute. Mark saidGreat info all around! I am so glad my wife found this site.

I was at the point of grinding, saws-alling or just beating the crap out of my A3807 p.o.s safe when I came to the last post about trying a 9V battery.My safe’s actuator was trying to work. I could hear the little thing buzzing when I entered my code, but it would not budge. I tried beating it about with my rubber mallet to no avail.After I replaced the incredibly lame and flimsy battery pack with a 9v battery, it opened like a champ.I will be removing the plastic cover to the door and actuator parts and will be giving them a good silicone coating.Thanks to all for taking the time to post these helpful solutions.

Joe saidI have just experienced the same issue. My combo was good and the key unlocked the door, however even after beating on the door with a mallet and spaying the gap with penetrating oil, it still it would not open. The seal around the door will not allow anything liquid to pass into the lugs. I continued to beat on the door while forcing the handle to turn. I was relieved when it finally opened. The inside of the safe and items inside had a slight amount of moisture that I detected and thinking back a couple of months ago I realized it was due to a flood to the area the safe is mounted in.

I was relieved to figure out why the moisture was there. In looking through the door and components this is why the digital release mechanism would not allow the lugs to move because of the rust and moisture in the safe.If I had to do this all over again and purchased a new safe I would mount it only slightly off the floor with something strong and spray the inside of the door and lugs with a silicon that would not hurt the things you put in the safe. The other thing you should do is use a bag of Silica or Desiccant to keep moisture from harming your items and the safe.I am in agreement that the components are cheap inside the safe, however its a cheap from a cost standpoint, and if you you should buy a safe of better quality. If you have the money to protect the items inside your safe you should buy a higher quality unit. I guess it just depends on how much you want to spend. But if you take these precautions when you first get it I think for the money its a decent unit.hope this helps you.

Hans saidAll, lots of good comments here. My sentry safe was running about 2.5 years with the same issue, needed to be a 10 o clock position to be able to open, needed to have the key slot popped out to work at all.

Then last week even with both being present, the safe couldnt be opened any more. From the front it was apparent that the battery seemed to be quite low, but the keypad still worked. Tried the rubber mallet etc but didnt work. Then i decided to give the batteries a try as if the battery is low, the motor might not have enough power. So turned the key pad 90 degrees, pulled out the kepad, replaced the 4 batteries, put it in back again and voila – it worked again. Glad if this will help you fix yours if you encounter the same problem.

Cameldriver69 saidThanks to all the great info from previous contributors to this thread. I returned from holidays to a dead keypad on my OA5835; I tried the name brand new battery tip and also tried a 9v battery but no luck. Unfortunately the rubber mallet solution didn’t work in my case and had to resort to violence.

A power drill, chisel, hammer and 10 minutes of elbow grease had the door open with no damage to the safe’s contents. The photo posted by Russell Wright allowed me to punch a hole right where the solenoid was located, knock it out of the way and open the door. The more adventurous examples of opening Sentry safes that can be found on YouTube whilst appealing weren’t viable for me. After reading this thread and discovering how poorly designed the door mechanism for this safe is, even if it hadn’t malfunctioned I would have ditched mine as a future problem anyway. Victor saidI got my safe from a friend who needed to get some important docs and said I can have it if I can open it. After reading the replies here and banging on the thing laying on every side but the front with a rubber mallet for 2 weeks I decided to replace the batteries. After another week of smacking it I looked at the batteries again.

I assume it came with the 4AA battery module. 4AA X 1.5V is 6V but the connector is for a 9V battery. So I stuck in a 9V battery, put in the code and “CLICK”. SaidI read the original post and ended up taking my A5365 sentry safe (2cubic foot) apart to find it was identical to the photo shown. I was able to see the actuator sticking however, it was not the problem, atleast for my safe It seems that the issue was a tension clip that lets the safe handle stay in the locked position.

This keeps the safe from both locking and sometimes unlocking, and this is what hitting the safe with a hammer actually loosens. I don’t have the ability to upload a photo so ill describe where it is. In this photo there are 4 locking pins for the door that are shown (Tehre is one on the top that is missing, mine came loose too in that area) So using the original photo, the tension pin to keep the handle open is next to the locking pin on the bottom left. Its held in by a screw and the clip goes over the bar to the locking pin. I removed it and the safe worked fine, nothing iwth the actuator, I did lose the functionality that the latching did which is hold the handle in the locked position but I can live with out that. For $500 to replace the safe, its a quick fix.Who the heck was dremling off the plastic to get at the inside.

You just push the 5 metal locking pins inward and you can pull the plastic off.?Im still pissed at sentry, will replace the safe at sometime, none of this cheap crap though. Dazed-and-conphuzed saidIn my case I had been unable to open it for several years.

I read this thread about a year ago and when the mallet didn’t work I just forgot about. Today I no longer give s.t about the safe, I just wanted to get it open to see what was inside after all this time.Success! Forget about a sawzall and trying to cut through anything. Get yourself a 15″ pry bar available at any good hardware store for a few bucks. It slips in the crack between body and door very nicely.

Twenty (20) seconds later I had it open, with very little effort. Much cheaper and faster than cutting it open. Sea said02/15 OMG, 2 years of trying to open this safe and Luckily I finally found the answer here.

Now I have to figure out how to open the plastic cover and grease everything and maybe simply remove the pin from the solenoid. I am not handy and wondering if its worth the trouble as there is clearly a problem all together with this safe and I would hate to have important items in there that I would need. Thank god I emptied it before it got locked as we were in the middle of moving locations.Now would one blame me for being nervous about this safe not opening again, as you and I are here on this site for the same reason!! Never ever again would I buy a safe from Sentry. And should I come across an aisle containing safes in any store, be sure that I will tell everyone in that Aisle what a horrible safe company Sentry is. They should be ashamed to make products like this, and I am in on that class action suit one poster was talking about.Thank you for the suggestion of the mallet, but since I am not well equipped in the house I used a hammer and tapped lightly. And YIPPEEEE!!

HEY, it only took 2 years and 5 minutes to get this darn safe open. SaidMy Sentry safe has to 17 years old and it hasn’t been open for nearly 8. I decided to open it and first had to remember the combo. It’s the old fashion kind with the dial.

I remembered the combo but had to do several tries before it opened. The dial was tight. Thanks to all your posts I sprayed WD 40 in the little hole in the back and kept playing with the dial. I sprayed anything that had movement. The dial spins easy now.

I didn’t have to remove the back. I think it would be good to spray it every 6 months to keep from having anything like this happening again. Thanks again for all the posts everyone posted with help ideas.

Adam saidI just came here to say that after whacking the safe for almost an hour with a mallet to no avail, the 9V battery method finally worked. The actuator made a nice “thunk” sound and the door opened. This makes sense — the 4 AA batteries put out 6V. Most digital logic is 5 or 3.3V so there’s probably a voltage regulator on the circuit board to reduce the power and not burn out the keypad board.

The actuator is able to get a lot more voltage dumped into it giving it a much greater charge to move the rods. Of course this also makes it much more likely to burn out quicker but whatever, it was enough to get it open.Time to get a new safe and dump this POS into the garbage.Thanks for the help, folks. David Salsman saidThanks for all the info! I have a model CSW3910 with electronic and key lock. I could get the electronic display to show unlocked, but the safe would not open. I finally got it open with a lot of torque on the handle and many heavy raps on the outside upper right hand corner of the safe door with a large hard rubber mall. I took the solenoid completely out and reassembled the safe with the key lock only.

I agree that this safe is very light duty construction. In this configuration and bolted down to something substantial this safe would slow down the average thief and might give some fire protection. I don’t think I would buy another one. Susan saidThe rubber mallet trick finally worked for me, after changing the batteries, lifting the handle to 10 o’clock before punching in the code, and even using a very strong magnet, a suggestion I’d seen elsewhere today when searching for help that SentrySafe is unable/unwilling to provide.I got it opened, found the document I needed, and then decided to tinker. I found I now had to reengage the mechanism to LOCK the door–i.e., type in the passcode, apply mallet, lift handle. After a while I gave up, pounded it back into the unlocked position and just shut the door, deciding I’d be returning it to Costco for a refund and I’d just store my documents in my husband’s far-more-reliable Liberty gun safe.For whatever reason, I decided later in the evening to just.try. prying off the back so I could at least SEE what was wrong.

Someone mentioned 5 metal prongswell, mine doesn’t have those. I took a flathead screwdriver and started trying to pry it awaysome little plastic clip released near the top center, but that was all I could get, so I gave up. As I went to close it, the handle lifted into the lock position without being activated again (as it SHOULD work, though preferably not till the door is closed). I fiddled with the keypad again and it now unlocks and locks freely, sans mallet or excessive forceand that handle has been slightly tricky for a good year or two now (the safe is somewhere around 10 years old).Soproblem solved, I guess? Though to be honest, having watched videos all over YouTube on how easy it is to crack a safe “if you’ve lost your key,” I’m not sure I’d trust it against determined thieves. Fire, flood, sure. But for as little as I have stored in it, I may just move my stuff to a small box or envelope inside my husband’s large gun safe and return this to Costco if they’ll still accept it.

Gary saidI have gone through the mallet routine and lubing the mechanism and had a new keypad sent to me in 2013 when it failed. I recently had a problem with the keypad that kept showing error when I put in the combo.

Changed batteries, beat the shit out of the door and no luck. I called for support and found they had a high volume of calls (no s&!t). I opted to be called back in the order my call was received and my wife got a rep sooner when she called 30 minutes later on her phone. After waiting and then being told to call the techs they informed me they no longer carry the key pad and I should call a locksmith to break into my safe!!!

I asked if they had any suggestions for me to open it myself and all I got was a NO! I got out the power tools, took one last look at the picture at the top of the forum to figure out where to cut or drill to disable the solenoid, punched in the combo a couple more times, beat the effin door a couple more times for good measure. Then out of frustration I smacked the handle and the door popped open!!!! Way to go Sentry!!! TOP QUALITY!!! Nothing but the finest materials and reliability!! If you don’t lock your safe with the key as well, anybody can simply kick the handle down and open your safe.

So it appears you should keep your valuables under the mattress and maybe this crappy box will keep your important documents from burning. Allen saidI had two sentry safes lock me out in the same week. One was 1 year old one was 6. I would enter the code and it would just hum. I tapped it with a rubber mallet as others with no luck.

I replaced the batteries even used a 9 volt. I had actual valuables in the safe so now I’m pretty ticked at Sentry.

Who makes junk like this where the owner can’t get in?? Anyway I beat the crap downward on the handle on both safes they it opened right up. I was shocked. Not much of a safe but it might protect the contents from a fire however not a rubber mallet equipped thief. What a joke of a company. I bet there is some fine print saying “not for actual security purposes”. 250.00 down the drain.

Thanks Sentry. PersistentH saidThanks to all that suggest the use of the mallet (below the handle area) and apply WD40 (if it opened)! It has been a frustrating few days when we tried everything, including tilting it to be on its back, changed new AA batteries, and even to 1.5V battery. Still not sure how to close up the battery compartment/keypad as we follow instructions to twist it anticlockwise from 2pm to 12 noon position. The cover is still popping out loose with wires hanging out with the battery pack.

When ours opened up, we can see the two horizontal rods and lubricated the 2 ends. Other than that, we don’t see no gears. The interior is all covered up by plastic case joined to the door. MFB saidI had (note, had) an OA3810 SentrySafe. It wouldn’t open either.First I removed the 4 AA batteries, put in fresh ones. I installed a 9v. NopeThe solenoid on the OA3810 is apparently on the upper right corner – getting physical.Tapping it with a mallet failed,beating it everywhere failed.So did the Rare Earth magnet I ordered, trying to get the solenoid to move.

Nada.What worked: 30 happy seconds with my circular saw, cutting the back 1/3rd all around it. Then a bit of prying with my flat shovel, maybe 5 minutes, exposing the back wall of the inner plastic.

The I carefully circular-sawed a square cut at the edgesgot my stuff out. Nicko saidHi,I had the misfortune of buying a Sentry Safe Model OA3807.Recently it decided not to work. I entered the default code and kept getting ‘Err’; no other feedback.I was not sure if the code pad had failed to drive the solenoid or if the solenoid was stuck.I belted the day-lights out of it with a rubber mallet and got no satisfaction.I asked ‘Sentry Safe’ for support; I wanted to drive the solenoid directly; they said get a lock smith. With all the mucking around the code pad died.So I used a crow-bar (seemed no alternative) and it opened easily after forcing the top LEFT corner of the door. The inner locking mechanism of the door failed dramatically. The metal used was brittle and cheap.I examined the solenoid and found a small circuit board between the solenoid drive and the code pad.The circuit board contained a voltage regulator, diodes, resistors and a transistor (surface mounted). In short if your code pad fails and you want to drive the solenoid directly disconnect the wires from the code pad; connect the black and red together and connect them to +6V.

Get the green wire and connect it to 0v (use the battery pack). Note the circuit (on back of solenoid) gets hot doing this so don’t leave the connection for too long (maybe 20 to 30 secs); while the wires are connected to 6V (as described) the solenoid may operate or you may need to use the rubber mallet if it is stuck. I hope this helps someone and saves them breaking in with a crow-bar (this was not fun). Daniel saidI tried everything with mine, every suggestion and everything i thought would work. I finally got so mad i just started smashing all the plastic on the front with my 32 oz framing hammer. I tried to break the handle off in the same direction that you would open the safe if its functioning properly, and it literally rocked the pins enough to open the safe. Glad it worked as i wasn’t too excited about taking my grinder to it with hundreds of rounds of live ammo inside.

The bottom line is these are complete garbage.