Paragon 7800 Fire Safe
Pros
- Carpeted Bottom and Shelf
Cons
- Low Quality Solenoid Lock
- Tubular Key Override Opened with a BIC Pen
- Extremely Small Locking Bolts
- Fake Fire Rating - Untested
- Unreliable Company for Warranty and Service
“Lock Breaks. Do not buy! The door lock broke after 4 or 5 uses. Luckily it broke while open, not closed.”
AmyR from Amazon.com
The Paragon 7800 Fire Safe is built to the same quality standards as the rest of their line. It has major security vulnerabilities and can be opened with just about anything. Security is the last thing to sacrifice when protecting your most prized possessions. This fire safe is dangerous, not secure and belongs with the rest of the entire Paragon safe lineup… in the trash. In this review, I will go into detail exactly why you should stay away from this fire safe.
Lock
The lock used on the Paragon 7800 Fire Safe is not UL Rated and not even motorized. It’s the lowest quality Solenoid style lock you can use and you can open it with literally anything just by banging the top of the safe and turning the handle. This is called the bump method and you can even check on Youtube, How to Open a Safe with a Potato to watch this exact style lock be bumped open with yes, a potato. Remember, the lock is always the most important part of any safe and this is quite literally the lowest quality lock in existence that will stop working. The key override used is a tubular key that can easily be opened with a Bic pen and there are tons of videos on Youtube showing exactly how to do it.
Security
When it comes to the security of the Paragon 7800 Fire Safe, there isn’t much to brag about. They list it as 11 gauge solid steel but at its weight of only 78 lbs shipped, I do not believe for one second it is 11 gauge steel and more likely 14 gauge steel. Especially as nearly every user who had this broken into in the reviews shows the safe got cut open like butter. The door looks thin enough to be able to pry open with only a screwdriver and they don’t even list the thickness of the bolts which look around 1/2″ in the picture.
Fire
What concerns me most about the Paragon 7800 Fire Safe, is that they list it as fire rated for 30 minutes at 1700 degrees. When you look at the pictures though, they use a plate door that would only have the fireboard in the same position as where the bolts would be. It is impossible to fit both the fire material and the bolt mechanism in that small of a space and I truly believe they are false advertising the fire rating because there is not true fire rating. There is no testing agency certifying the claim and I would not trust this safe to last more than 5 minutes in any fire.
Function
The Paragon 7800 Fire Safe is finished in textured black with a chrome keypad. I guess the one plus for this safe is they include a carpeted bottom on the internal shelf and bottom so that when a thief is able to easily break-in, the contents will be sitting on a nice gray piece of carpet for them.
The Bottom Line
If you can’t tell by my analysis so far, this Paragon 7800 Fire Safe is absolutely something I would not recommend. There are significantly better options available in the Stealth EHS4, AMSEC AM2020 and Rhino LSB1818. The Paragon can be broken into in less than 5 seconds and you wouldn’t want to trust your hard earned dollars or sensitive information to a complete POS like this.
