What to Do With a Jammed Safe

A safe can be an excellent addition to your home or business security, by keeping your most prized and valuable possessions away from criminals who may target your property. However, the same security that makes a safe so difficult to open for criminals will be the same for you if you have trouble with your safe getting jammed. Safes, especially on the lower end of the quality spectrum, can occasionally become jammed as a result of normal use for a variety of reasons. Before you panic when your safe jams, however, there are steps you should attempt to see if you can open the safe. If you live in the Lake Stevens, WA area, a call to Lake Stevens WA Locksmith can get you back inside your safe again if you have trouble accomplishing it yourself.

To Prevent Your Safe From Jamming

Keep it moisture-free to prevent rust.
Make sure the hinges and hardware move easily and stay well-oiled.
Check your safe regularly for any signs of wear and tear.
If you notice issues with opening your safe lock or door, always narrow down the issue and have it fixed as soon as possible to prevent the issue from escalating into a full-on blocked safe situation.

The Difference Between a Lockout and a Jammed Safe

To prevent a safe lockout, you can take a few preventative measures. If your safe is combination locked, make sure that you memorize the combination and possibly keep a copy of it in a secure place. Combination safes are very common because they’re very good at their job: combinations for these safes take a long time to crack if you don’t know them. Steps to prevent a lockout include making a spare key, write down your combination and keep it somewhere safe, or establish a routine for making sure your safe is working as it should.

You can’t always prevent a safe from jamming, however, because the cause usually develops over time with no warning that it will happen. Safes are very difficult to pry into, especially if they are newer, so other methods should be attempted before you try those which could potentially damage your safe like trying to force the door open.

Research Your Safe for Answers

Your first step when faced with a jammed safe is to find out as much information about the safe as possible to determine if there’s a way you can get in. If your safe is a common one with fairly low security, you can search on Youtube or Google and find tutorials to get you back inside. Search the entire exterior of the safe and see if you can locate a logo, label, or other identifying information to inform you of the brand name. The brand name will allow you to look up if there is a way to open your particular safe online in a way that won’t damage the components of the safe. Try to locate a model number to narrow it down even further.

Methods for Opening a Jammed Safe

For Safe Handle Issues: If you slide your key in or enter your combination but the handle refuses to turn more than just a fraction, the bolts holding the door mechanism in place could be aligned improperly. While turning the handle as hard as you can, pull outward, using all of your weight. Two people might be required to perform this maneuver. By doing this, you can potentially shift the pieces back into their correct position. You can try jiggling the handle rapidly as well while performing this method.
Tapping: If you put in your usual combination and your lock seems to recognize it, or you put your key in and it turns but the door still doesn’t open, this might be a method that works. Take a hammer or similar hard blunt instrument and using tapping motions work your way around the edges of the safe, starting at the opposite side from the hinges. While you tap, pull the handle of the safe. Sometimes this will kick whatever is obstructing the door loose and allow you to get inside.
If the Dial Won’t Rotate All the Way: If your safe dial is refusing to rotate all the way, and therefore not allowing you access to all of the numbers in your combination, it’s possible that the backing of the lock is causing the problem. Start by rotating the dial to your combination’s first number, using force on the combination mechanism itself. Then force it to the second number. Every time you get stuck, use the item you attempted to use for tapping, either a hammer or another blunt force instrument, to tap the combination lock itself.

Call a Locksmith

If you’ve tried all of the above methods and your safe is as jammed as ever, your best bet is to make your next step a call to a professional locksmith. Locksmiths have the tools and expertise necessary to open your safe, and will try the least damaging methods to get it open. Every kind of safe can be opened given some time and finesse, it’s just a matter of trying different methods. An expert locksmith won’t just jump to a certain method, but will inspect your individual safe to figure out the best way to crack into it. Their goal should be getting inside of the safe with as minimal damage to your safe as possible.

In some situations, drilling is the only way to regain access to your safe. This usually occurs if some internal mechanism in the safe has gone bad or is defective, If a safe needs to be drilled, a locksmith will drill a small hole that is just big enough to fit a special instrument through that can be used to manipulate the inside of the lock. Locksmiths have special drills and tools just for this purpose. After a safe has been drilled, the lock will need to be replaced as soon as possible to regain the security of the safe. The locksmith will be able to swap out the old, faulty lock with a brand new lock, as well as any other parts that were causing the safe to jam.