I am making this review after having had the RACT biometric AR safe for about 5 months.
I am not someone who would normally purchase anything that I saw in an Instagram add, however this came up at about the same time that I realized I wanted a safe for my home defense gun that was better at preventing access from my kids and quicker for me to access. Prior to the RACT, I had a steel safe that fit a pistol in it, and it had a 3 digit lock. That means only 1000 code options, and with no lock out feature, it would only take about a couple hours for a little kid to eventually figure out the code. It’s also not the best option if you were to have to unlock the safe in the middle of the night, in the dark, with adrenaline pumping.
So, I decided to toss my initial aversion to biometric safes to the side and give the RACT a try. In the past I never trusted biometric safes but I figured being that this single safe is $400, it may actually have a good and effective system that would perfectly suit my needs of being inaccessible to children and still quick for me or my wife to access.
Upon receiving the RACT, I immediately noticed the first of many issues to come. The actual lock/latch was out of spec and physically could not be closed. I emailed their customer service, and after a few days I received an email in which they agreed to a return. This was made initially difficult because their website would only allow me to print a shipping label with the cost of shipping being placed on me. I didn’t feel this was right since the lock was defective from the start. After another email they were able to manually create a shipping label and I shipped off the locking mechanism to be fixed.
When I received the new locking mechanism, I did a functions check, and it now latched as designed. BUT, this time I found two different issues unrelated to my first one. This time, the locking mechanism would not work at all unless it was plugged in to the charger. Even after 4 hours of charging, it would immediately turn off upon being disconnected and had zero power when trying to press any buttons. It did work when plugged into the charger, which brought me to the second issue; putting in all of my fingerprints exactly as described in the manual, they would not open the lock. I tried resetting and uploading my fingerprints but they still did not work. After another few days, the second locking mechanism was off in the mail to be replaced again.
With my third locking mechanism, everything seemed to work from the start, which meant I was finally able to get the safe set up. Now, it is pretty clear that most of the R&D went into the unreliable locking mechanism, because the rest of the safe seems kinda like an afterthought, although I will say it generally functions as it should. The area that protects the trigger is not perfect and there is some interference with the grip (with an AR) when trying to take it out of the safe. There is a small window of adjustment that allows for smooth removal and putting back of the rifle, and I was able to get it set up properly after some tinkering. I suspect if you have a grip with a greater angle like a standard A2 as opposed to a more vertical angle like my K2, there would be less interference.
When it is all set up, I would consider it child safe for sure and would at least take some effort for someone trying to steal it to remove from the house (depending on how sturdy the studs are that it is mounted on). At first, the fingerprints worked well and it seemed to actually achieve what I had wanted from a safe. It is able o register up to 10 fingerprints. So my wife and ai both uploaded ours (5 each). However, I found that with time (days to weeks) it would lose memory of the fingerprints and the only one that reliably would read was the master finger print, which is the initial one used to set it up. For me, that was my index finger. This meant my wife was unable to access it.
So, we redid the fingerprints and made sure to scan each of them an excessive amount of times. They report that the system learns more each time you can your print, so in theory it should actually get better at reading prints every time I scan them. This seemed to work, but just like before, they gradually would get forgotten even with regular (weekly) trials of unlocking the safe.
It reached the point now where none of my fingerprints read and the only way I can open the safe is using the keys to manually unlock it. I reached out again and they are sending a fourth replacement locking mechanism.
As far as customer service goes, they will take care of you, although I’d expect at most one email response per day, but more like every other day, so if you have issues like I’ve had, it delays the remedy. While I have not yet requested this, if this next unit does not work properly, I will make a request for a 4 digit code locking mechanism in place of the biometric one. As it stands, I would not recommend this as a primary means for locking up a home defense gun. There are plenty of positive reviews on their website. I find it hard to believe so many of the units work properly yet I have had three in a row that do not work. I do not know what to make of that other than possibly many of the reviewers do not regularly and thoroughly inspect their equipment.
I am not someone who would normally purchase anything that I saw in an Instagram add, however this came up at about the same time that I realized I wanted a safe for my home defense gun that was better at preventing access from my kids and quicker for me to access. Prior to the RACT, I had a steel safe that fit a pistol in it, and it had a 3 digit lock. That means only 1000 code options, and with no lock out feature, it would only take about a couple hours for a little kid to eventually figure out the code. It’s also not the best option if you were to have to unlock the safe in the middle of the night, in the dark, with adrenaline pumping.
So, I decided to toss my initial aversion to biometric safes to the side and give the RACT a try. In the past I never trusted biometric safes but I figured being that this single safe is $400, it may actually have a good and effective system that would perfectly suit my needs of being inaccessible to children and still quick for me or my wife to access.
Upon receiving the RACT, I immediately noticed the first of many issues to come. The actual lock/latch was out of spec and physically could not be closed. I emailed their customer service, and after a few days I received an email in which they agreed to a return. This was made initially difficult because their website would only allow me to print a shipping label with the cost of shipping being placed on me. I didn’t feel this was right since the lock was defective from the start. After another email they were able to manually create a shipping label and I shipped off the locking mechanism to be fixed.
When I received the new locking mechanism, I did a functions check, and it now latched as designed. BUT, this time I found two different issues unrelated to my first one. This time, the locking mechanism would not work at all unless it was plugged in to the charger. Even after 4 hours of charging, it would immediately turn off upon being disconnected and had zero power when trying to press any buttons. It did work when plugged into the charger, which brought me to the second issue; putting in all of my fingerprints exactly as described in the manual, they would not open the lock. I tried resetting and uploading my fingerprints but they still did not work. After another few days, the second locking mechanism was off in the mail to be replaced again.
With my third locking mechanism, everything seemed to work from the start, which meant I was finally able to get the safe set up. Now, it is pretty clear that most of the R&D went into the unreliable locking mechanism, because the rest of the safe seems kinda like an afterthought, although I will say it generally functions as it should. The area that protects the trigger is not perfect and there is some interference with the grip (with an AR) when trying to take it out of the safe. There is a small window of adjustment that allows for smooth removal and putting back of the rifle, and I was able to get it set up properly after some tinkering. I suspect if you have a grip with a greater angle like a standard A2 as opposed to a more vertical angle like my K2, there would be less interference.
When it is all set up, I would consider it child safe for sure and would at least take some effort for someone trying to steal it to remove from the house (depending on how sturdy the studs are that it is mounted on). At first, the fingerprints worked well and it seemed to actually achieve what I had wanted from a safe. It is able o register up to 10 fingerprints. So my wife and ai both uploaded ours (5 each). However, I found that with time (days to weeks) it would lose memory of the fingerprints and the only one that reliably would read was the master finger print, which is the initial one used to set it up. For me, that was my index finger. This meant my wife was unable to access it.
So, we redid the fingerprints and made sure to scan each of them an excessive amount of times. They report that the system learns more each time you can your print, so in theory it should actually get better at reading prints every time I scan them. This seemed to work, but just like before, they gradually would get forgotten even with regular (weekly) trials of unlocking the safe.
It reached the point now where none of my fingerprints read and the only way I can open the safe is using the keys to manually unlock it. I reached out again and they are sending a fourth replacement locking mechanism.
As far as customer service goes, they will take care of you, although I’d expect at most one email response per day, but more like every other day, so if you have issues like I’ve had, it delays the remedy. While I have not yet requested this, if this next unit does not work properly, I will make a request for a 4 digit code locking mechanism in place of the biometric one. As it stands, I would not recommend this as a primary means for locking up a home defense gun. There are plenty of positive reviews on their website. I find it hard to believe so many of the units work properly yet I have had three in a row that do not work. I do not know what to make of that other than possibly many of the reviewers do not regularly and thoroughly inspect their equipment.
