Edison Vault Door Review

Edison Safes is a relatively unknown company in the safe industry. They are based out of Idaho and have only one dealer, gunsafes.com. They are owned by United Commerce Group which is the same company that owns GunSafes.com. Upon doing some further research, I discovered all of their products are actually made by Sun Welding Safe company based out of Simi Valley, CA. In this review, I’ll help you understand what makes the Edison Vault Door a great option and very competitively priced for all that you get.

Lock – Edison Vault Door

S&G UL Rated High Security Mechanical Lock

First and always most important is the lock. Included in the price is the S&G UL Type 2 Mechanical Lock. This is one of only two mechanical locks I recommend as it is high quality, reliable and known for longevity. It uses a three number combination that rotates into the lock body on the inside of the safe. This lock is designed to last for decades and features over 1 million possible combinations.

Securam Basic UL Approved High Security Electronic Lock

The second lock option available is the SecuRam Basic UL approved high security electronic lock. This is an excellent quality lock made by a longstanding and reputable company. SecuRam is the exclusive electronic lock provider of Liberty safe who sells the most safes in the US. UL Approved type 1 is the highest security rating available and has over 1 million possible combinations. The keypad is metal and durable as well as the battery compartment is very convenient to remove from the outside of the safe. All in all, this is an excellent quality lock and the one I would recommend if purchasing a drop safe due to its convenience and ease of use.

Hard Plate and Re-Locker

This lock is also protected by both a hard plate and internal spring-loaded re-locker. The Hard plate is a piece of hardened steel that absolutely destroys drill bits. The internal re-locker fires if the lock is punched through securing the bolts in place. Both of these are essential security features and included on this safe.

Security – Edison Vault Door

Included in the price is a 1/4″ steel plate door with a 3/16″ steel frame. For just a bit more though, you can upgrade this to either a 3/8″ steel plate or a 1/2″ steel plate. The overall door thickness comes in at 4″ and the door is protected by 12 solid steel locking bolts with 6 being active and 6 being deadbolts on the hinge side. When combined with concrete on all other sides, this vault door is extremely strong at 1/2″ thick.

Fire Rating – Edison Vault Door

Nearly all vault doors do not have a fire rating and are thick steel construction. The Edison vault door comes with a 30 minute fire rating included and can be upgraded to 60 minutes. Also included is a Palusol door seal that expands up to 7 times its size during a fire to keep smoke and heat from entering the safe.

Style and Function

The Edison Vault Door is available in a variety of textured and gloss color options. Hardware includes either a drop down handle or a 5-spoke handle. It’s available in four different sizes depending on your wall size. Lastly, I highly recommend you hire a professional contractor to assist with the design of the concrete room and the installation.

This vault door can be built to either right hand swing or left hand swing as well as in-swing or out-swing.

Warranty

The Edison Vault Door comes with a lifetime warranty on all components except the lock. This includes break-in and attempted break-in. The big caveat to this is that you must pay for the freight costs to the factory and the safe must be bolted down or installed in concrete to have this warranty honored. This is of course nearly impossible to uninstall a vault door installed in concrete and ship it to their factory for repair which renders the warranty completely useless and just a facade. Always read the fine print.

The Bottom Line

Would I buy the Edison Vault Door to protect my firearms and valuables. Unfortunately, no I would not. While I want to like this product due to its low cost and ability to be upgraded to a 1/2″ steel plate door, I can not recommend a product with shady business practice in the warranty. Safes and vault doors are meant to last forever and if a company won’t back their products with a reliable warranty, it likely isn’t going to last forever.

With that said, there is a vault door that I highly recommend. The American Security BFQ Vault Doors are built with the 1/2″ steel plate door standard. They also have Drylight concrete composite material in-between two steel plates which offers substantial burglary and fire protection. Finally, they are a long standing American company that makes very high quality products. All things considered, I recommend the American Security Vault Doors over Edison.