If you're considering buying a fingerprint safe, one of the most popular safes on the market is the Sentry Safe DA3930 Biometric Safe. Straight out of the box, it is advertised that it helps protect your valuables from water, fire, and theft and is an ideal biometric safe for homes and businesses as it can be programmed for multiple users. The Sentry DA3930 is a popular introductory safe, but does it live up to its reputation? AvidBiometrics.com, a retailer who sells a variety of biometric safes, was kind enough to let us borrow this safe for a few weeks to put it up to the test. So here we go.

General Description

To begin, the DA3930 provides anti-theft features with 6 live-locking bolts. The locking mechanism is completely biometric and includes a backlit electronic keypad with a tubular key for additional security. The safe is also designed to protect from water and 2 hours of fire protection. The safe is ETL verified to protect contents from 2 hours of fire, and the water resistance is a great features in the event of a flood, or a fire where a sprinkler system is activated to extinguish the flames.

Construction

The Sentry DA3930 fingerprint safe features armored steel construction, a metal handle, and 6 live-locking bolts to help protect your valuables. The safe is very sleek looking with a black and gunmetal gray finish with very clean hardware. The finger safe is easily bolted to a floor and even comes with mounting hardware. Other safes we have reviewed often charge extra for mounting hardware! To test it, we bolted the safe to a piece of plywood and found it to be an easy project for any do-it-yourselfer. We secured it in less than 20 minutes.

Fire Protection

Due to fire code restrictions in our warehouse, we were unable to put the safe to the ultimate test, but no worries – the good folks at Underwriters Laboratories have done that for us! This fingerprint safe is UL classified for 2 hours of fire protection for temperatures up to 1850 degrees F. It is designed to protect media like CD's, DVD's, and other electronics from water and fire. Lastly, in the event you decide to throw your safe out of a window (for whatever reason), it is UL classified for a 30-foot drop test.

Organizational Features

One of the key selling points we liked while reviewing this Sentry Safe is that is functional and has various features to help you keep your documents and valuables and organized. This fingerprint safe has a removal tray that allows you to stack your possessions, or you can remove it to store larger items. The tray worked well and fits A-4 sized papers and binders perfectly, helping you keep the contents extremely organized. It also includes a handy key rack on the door, so you can easily organize keys and label them. Perfect for the highly organized types like ourselves. This biometric safe also features a compartment on the door which is perfect for small items such as a jewelry, money, or small valuables.

The Fingerprint Lock

Again, the key selling point of the DA3930 is that it uses your fingerprint to authorize entry. We tested over 50 fingerprints and the biometric scanner performed perfectly every time. For the tech savvy – the biometric scanner utilizes a scanner which generates images at 500 dpi which meets the FBI and CIA security standards for reading fingerprints. Very cool.

The Sentry DA3930 allows you to have one manager (or administrator) and up to7 users. The manager has complete override ability and each user can store 2 fingerprints and an individual PIN code. Again, this is great for home use or an office setting where multiple people have access to the fingerprint safe. The DA3930 offers dual lock construction. What this means is that the safe can be opened via a fingerprint scan or with the users programmed PIN.

The Results

After using this safe for a week, we were very pleased with it. Our only complaints was that we felt that the interior could be made of a more solid material and that the handle could be a bit more solid. Maybe it was the specific model we tested, but we have noticed that on numerous security safes that we test. Although, the safe is designed for theft protection, we feel that it makes a good introductory safe (especially at 135 lbs.) If you're considering a solid steel completely indestructible safe, you're generally looking at one that weighs over 500 lbs and costs several thousand dollars.

Despite these few slight drawbacks, the price is right for this safe. It runs around $400 and is a great introductory safe for anyone looking for the protection of a safe and the awesome functionality of biometric technology.

Again, thanks to AvidBiometrics.com for letting us write a Sentry DA3930 Review. Avid carries several dozen fingerprint safes at great prices, so be sure to check them out when you're looking for a fingerprint safe!