As much a lesson to myself, as an equipment problem, I had an ordeal over the last weekend.
Buddy of mine was over and we were discussing pistol red dot sights. I had an example to show him in my bedside pistol safe. Went to open the safe and I couldn't get in. The keypad buttons were just barely chirping the normal push tones. I thought the batteries must be low, so I hunted down the emergency key. The barrel type key didn't seem to be the right one, as it didn't turn the lock assembly. Buddy didn't get to see the example pistol, perturbed I put off opening the safe until later, (thinking possibly pry bars and angle grinders.)
Eventually later, I got the safe opened by fiddling and fiddling with the touchpad. Turns out that corrosion had set into the battery box and seemingly stiffened up the manual lock mechanism also. The pistol inside had some mildew signs on the grip also.
I changed the batteries after cleaning up the battery box corrosion, while remembering that I had battery corrosion last time battery change was needed. I cleaned the terminals better this time and sprayed with silicone in the process. Testing the removed batteries showed hardly any voltage drop, so corrosion was for sure the issue. As I was cleaning up the battery box, the tones on the touchpad gradually became louder and louder, as the silicone and brush helped to remove corrosion. Likewise, the lock assembly loosened up after a silicone bathing and working it.
It had been months since I had accessed the safe. I live in a breezy well placed old farm house that mostly doesn't need the A/C, so I hardly ever use it. Obviously humidity is something I need to be aware of better? I think I'll find an appropriate sized desiccant to live in the box and I listed "storage corrosion inspection" as a monthly electronic calendar reminder.
Icing on the fail cake, the Holosun 509T RDS woke up and worked as should, BUT had a random blink, indicating need for a new battery.
Buddy of mine was over and we were discussing pistol red dot sights. I had an example to show him in my bedside pistol safe. Went to open the safe and I couldn't get in. The keypad buttons were just barely chirping the normal push tones. I thought the batteries must be low, so I hunted down the emergency key. The barrel type key didn't seem to be the right one, as it didn't turn the lock assembly. Buddy didn't get to see the example pistol, perturbed I put off opening the safe until later, (thinking possibly pry bars and angle grinders.)
Eventually later, I got the safe opened by fiddling and fiddling with the touchpad. Turns out that corrosion had set into the battery box and seemingly stiffened up the manual lock mechanism also. The pistol inside had some mildew signs on the grip also.
I changed the batteries after cleaning up the battery box corrosion, while remembering that I had battery corrosion last time battery change was needed. I cleaned the terminals better this time and sprayed with silicone in the process. Testing the removed batteries showed hardly any voltage drop, so corrosion was for sure the issue. As I was cleaning up the battery box, the tones on the touchpad gradually became louder and louder, as the silicone and brush helped to remove corrosion. Likewise, the lock assembly loosened up after a silicone bathing and working it.It had been months since I had accessed the safe. I live in a breezy well placed old farm house that mostly doesn't need the A/C, so I hardly ever use it. Obviously humidity is something I need to be aware of better? I think I'll find an appropriate sized desiccant to live in the box and I listed "storage corrosion inspection" as a monthly electronic calendar reminder.
Icing on the fail cake, the Holosun 509T RDS woke up and worked as should, BUT had a random blink, indicating need for a new battery.
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