Electronic lock reliability - solenoid vs motor blocked

[ymg200]

My LaGard swingbolt 4200 has failed and I am looking for the replacement. I see that now they make 4200M, where "M" stands for "motor-blocked" instead of solenoid in regular 4200.
I am concerned about reliability. What are pros and cons of motor vs solenoid?
Thank you.

[Squelchtone]

Please keep this in the This Old Safe area, the Locks area is for discussion of picking door locks and padlocks.

Thanks for helping us keep the forum organized, I will move this for you.

Squelchtone

[MartinHewitt]

And now?

[cledry]

IMO ditch the LaGard for a AMSEC ESL10.

[MartinHewitt]

I have heard good things about the reliability of M-Locks locks, but I don't know if they are available in the US and personally I would use a purely mechanical lock.

[ymg200]

IMO ditch the LaGard for a AMSEC ESL10.

LaGard 4200 has served me well over 10 years. I'm curious though what made them switch from solenoid to a motor.

[L4R3L2]

You may want to ask the manufacturer for their answer. Personally, I would have to have a very good reason to have to use an electronic lock of any kind on my safes, but if I did it would definitely not be solenoid driven. In most cases gear drive is more secure. I second the recommendation to switch to Amsec if you have to have an electronic lock for some reason.

[MartinHewitt]

Often manufacturers produce locks with a variety of bolt operations, i.e. swing bolt, motor-operated dead bolt, hand-operated dead bolt (turning the PIN pad). Some of these can be motor and others solenoid.

[jwrm22]

From electronics point of view I'd say a solenoid is more reliable than a DC motor.
But solenoids have obvious flaws too.

[mh]

I'm curious though what made them switch from solenoid to a motor.

Security concerns. Solenoids move with vibration and strong hammer blows.

[cledry]

I'm curious though what made them switch from solenoid to a motor.

Security concerns. Solenoids move with vibration and strong hammer blows.

That is more a concern on cheaper safes. Group II locks with solenoids don't have this vulnerability AFAIK.