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Electronic lock reliability - solenoid vs motor blocked

Forgot how to dial the combination on that old safe? Think you got the right numbers but the handle is stuck? What safe should you buy? Ask your safe questions here!
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Electronic lock reliability - solenoid vs motor blocked

Postby ymg200 » 11 Apr 2020 23:59

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.
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Re: Electronic lock reliability - solenoid vs motor blocked

Postby Squelchtone » 12 Apr 2020 8:35

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.

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Re: Electronic lock reliability - solenoid vs motor blocked

Postby MartinHewitt » 12 Apr 2020 9:53

And now?
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Re: Electronic lock reliability - solenoid vs motor blocked

Postby cledry » 12 Apr 2020 10:42

IMO ditch the LaGard for a AMSEC ESL10.
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Re: Electronic lock reliability - solenoid vs motor blocked

Postby MartinHewitt » 12 Apr 2020 11:43

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.
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Re: Electronic lock reliability - solenoid vs motor blocked

Postby ymg200 » 13 Apr 2020 0:03

cledry wrote: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.
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Re: Electronic lock reliability - solenoid vs motor blocked

Postby L4R3L2 » 13 Apr 2020 3:30

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.
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Re: Electronic lock reliability - solenoid vs motor blocked

Postby MartinHewitt » 13 Apr 2020 4:01

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.
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Re: Electronic lock reliability - solenoid vs motor blocked

Postby jwrm22 » 13 Apr 2020 16:05

From electronics point of view I'd say a solenoid is more reliable than a DC motor.
But solenoids have obvious flaws too.
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Re: Electronic lock reliability - solenoid vs motor blocked

Postby mh » 20 Apr 2020 2:26

ymg200 wrote:I'm curious though what made them switch from solenoid to a motor.


Security concerns. Solenoids move with vibration and strong hammer blows.
"The techs discovered that German locks were particularly difficult" - Robert Wallace, H. Keith Melton w. Henry R. Schlesinger, Spycraft: The secret history of the CIA's spytechs from communism to Al-Qaeda (New York: Dutton, 2008), p. 210
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Re: Electronic lock reliability - solenoid vs motor blocked

Postby cledry » 25 Apr 2020 21:08

mh wrote:
ymg200 wrote: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.
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