VS-25BL Small Biometric Safe

The safe and company are excellent. The best thing is that you have 3 ways to open it, Fingerprint, Key Pad, or last resort a hidden Key. More importantly is the OUTSTANDING customer service the company provides. The quickly respond to emails and make sure you are satisfied with their product.(Updated 2/2015) I purchased a second one of these safes to use in a camper. I was concerned about the electronics when the camper was in storage, but I can say that they work fine. During the past few weeks, we have had weather from the teens down to -10 degrees F., so I decided to experiment on opening and closing the stored safe. Again, this is in a camper parked with no heat, camper temp was less than 10 degrees F. every time. The safe opened every time using the key pad, but sometimes was a little finicky using the fingerprint pad. Now in the safe’s defense, it was very cold in the camper as was the biometric screen, so condensation could have come into play as I placed a warmer finger on the screen. I am 53, but I have had zero problems with the biometrics on the safe in my home. It is accessed almost daily.

This is better quality than any others in this price range, however it could use some improvements. The door is not completely flush with the door opening and the display needs to be backlit. Other than that it is worth the cost.

Good build. I would recommend.

I ordered this safe a month ago to keep my H&K P2000 from my wife’s son and house guests. I found a missing screw, and here’s why I still gave it a 5 out of 5 below…After receiving my safe, it looked well, the measurements matched up, and was perfect for what I needed. I registered two scans of two fingers on each hand for both myself and my wife so that no matter what, we can get it open. Not only that, but we both know a key code we can share or use in case we’re missing a finger. DID I SAY THEIR FINGERPRINT SCANNER WORKS EVERY TIME? DIRTY FINGER, WET FINGER, WHATEVER! I was very skeptical about biometric scanners not working like what’s typical on computers.. not this thing, it works well. I would trust my life to it opening if someone broke in and I was going for my gun. The interior light is nice, although very basic in design. The batteries are common (AAA, or AA.. I forget, but it’s easily replaceable with one phillips head screwdriver). The safe is very secure, made of thick metal, thicker than your average gun safe for sure, looks professional and high-tech, and even if the batteries die out you can still use a key on top of that.. talk about versatility. You can disable the sounds so that intruders won’t hear you, or leave them on. It beeps occasionally if you leave it unlocked, reminding you to lock your **** back up before someone finds it! Comes with mounting screws, and they work well in my headboard’s cubby space. Very secure. Size wise, I could lay out four full size pistols in this safe, although it would be tight. I have one pistol, a large pistol cleaning kit, electronic earmuffs, 2 magazines, and a box of 50 rounds. It’s a little tight, but everything fits neatly. The safe’s mechanism is very simple if you pop it open, but it’s not a military safe, it’s an affordable highly secure safe with tons of features packed in that just WORKS. I swapped out the batteries on purchase with new Duracels, just to be on the safe side, although the ones included worked fine when I tested it out. The most important thing to me however… was the companies customer service. They were apologetic, and quick to ship out a new screw to replace the one missing with my shipment for free, very quickly. Not only that but they maintained contact to make sure everything was going well with their product, that I received the missing piece, the experience with me as a customer as well. Honestly, I haven’t felt this appreciated as a customer in a while. I felt like it was that mom and pop shop that is excited that you even graced their store with their presence, and wants you to be their facebook friend more than tell you how much their new product costs, but they’re still talking business too. This safe was the best value for what I was looking for, and now that I’ve had it for a month, if I had to replace it, I would just order this same one. Viking is my safe company of choice, and I spent a lot of time researching. Also, the packaging was pretty good too.

It works as advertised,has LED’s that come on when you open it, and has a beep when you leave it open/unlocked. It takes open 2 seconds to open it with the biometric scanner. Exactly what I wanted to secure my valuables. I like the shelf option too!.

Very simple to set up. Programming the finger print scan and pin codes were not difficult. I was pleasantly surprised that the batteries needed were even included. It has opened every time I’ve attempted the fingerprint scan. Especially like the hidden key lock feature. Bought two one for upstairs, one for downstairs to keep the handguns out of reach of the grandchildren. Would highly recommend this product. After months of searching finally settled on this safe because our son in law bought one of these and liked it.

No really, my husbands loved his Father’s Day gift this year! I decided to get this safe because it was smaller, perfect for our bedside table and the price was decent. Easy to program PIN, program finger prints (opens 90% of the time), came with 2 keys and the LED light inside is nice too. It is perfect for the 9MM, ammo, important paperwork and jewelry. Thank you for developing such a wonderful product- shipping was pretty fast too!-Happy Wife1 Year Update***We have had this safe now for just shy of a year. Fingerpront scanner works 90% of the time still. We have had to replace the batteries once and I think its because our toddler likes to come in to our room and push the buttons because they make noise. However, that was an effortless process. And the safe still works well. Would I buy one again? Absolutely. To those asking questions, I hope those pictures I attached help. It could probably “comfortably” hold two hand guns. Pictured is my .357 and ammo. But we also keep other important items in here too such as personal documents, jewelry and pictures/camera SD cards. We’ve considered bolting it to the floor or nightshand in case we are burgled- the safe is light-weight enough an adult could carry it off. Other than that, it works perfect for us. – Happy Wife

Pros:Price–I paid $160 for this safe including shipping. This is a very competitive price. Stack-on might be a little cheaper, but has a reputation for poor quality and poor reliability with their biometric readers. Gunvault and Barska are both typically more expensive for a similar size. So Viking wins here.Seamless welding–more durable, more secure, and looks better. What’s not to like?biometric scanner–I scanned my index finger in 5 different positions/angles and then tested the safe’s ability to read. It opened with my index fingerprint every time, but didn’t open when I tried a non-registered fingerprint. Better reliability than many competing products.LED lighting inside (batteries included)–it’s a nice touch and makes it easy to see what you’ve got stored.Ease of use–it’s easy to register fingerprints, to turn sounds on or off, change batteries, etc. The user manual is actually surprisingly straightforward and understandable. I expected some horrible direct Chinese-to-English translation in the manual but it was actually fairly decent English.Fully-carpeted interior–don’t want to scratch the finish on your guns? This has you covered, no need to buy a liner mat.Cons:Finish–the non-scratch finish was chipped off in two locations when my safe arrived. Possibly due to shipping damage, but more likely due to poor application. One area lost about a square inch of finish material on the upper left corner, the other area was near one of the pre-drilled bolt holes in the floor of the safe–it looked like they applied the finish and then drilled the holds, and the finish had chipped during the drilling. I don’t really care if the steel is exposed since I care more about function than appearance for my gun safe, but this may be an issue for some folks.My biggest complaint, however, was lack of product testing. When my safe arrived I installed the batteries, registered my fingerprint, closed and locked the safe with the key, and then opened it with my fingerprint. Everything went smoothly. Then I tried to re-lock the safe. And nothing. The safe made a little whirring noise briefly, but did not lock. I tried again. Nothing. I referred back to the instructions, yes I was doing it right. I locked the safe with the key, then re-opened it with my fingerprint. No issues. But once again it wouldn’t lock on its own. I repeated these steps with minor variations several times, but each and every time the safe failed to lock with its motor, and the only way I could get it to lock was manually with the key. Being mechanically minded I opened up the locking mechanism and started fiddling. After a few minutes I was able to identify the problem–a small piece of the locking mechanism was snagging on one of the mounting bolts in the door. This required me to disassemble the locking mechanism, bend some steel with pliers, and then carefully dremmel-smooth some edges. Once I did that and re-assembled the locking mechanism everything went smoothly. Now my safe functions perfectly. Opens and closes appropriately with key, PIN pad, or fingerprint. But it was a hassle getting there. I’m assuming that most people will use this safe to store guns. If you own a gun, I’m assuming you know how to break it down and clean it. And if you can break down and clean a gun, you can break down and fix this safe no problem. The fix was not difficult or complicated. But the fact that I had to do it in the first place costs them one star in the review.

works well and we programmed several of our fingerprints and it opens immediately every time.

No real issues 🙂

Like many others I bought this safe to secure my ruger pistol. The research I did prior to the purchase suggested this safe was a notch above others in its price range. After 6 months I heartily concur. The biometric scanner has proven accurate 100% of the time and will not respond to various non-programmed prints, mine or others I’ve invited to try. It’s carpeted interior and interior light are excellent touches. At this point I’ve removed the shelf and crammed it with two guns, a 25 lb bag of silver, some cash, and a few other valuables. I obviously have great faith in the integrity of this item. It’s solid and secure.

Excellent biometric scanner. The only time it doesn’t read is when my finger definitely isn’t flush. Only two things i dont like. 1. The door isnt flish so it rattlea when you push against it. I think the locking bolts are smaller than their holes. 2. The key is behind the viking label, so you have to use an allen wrench to use it. Overall functionality is excellent. Glad i spend the extra money for a better safe

I received my safe today and just finished installing it. I appreciate the solidness of the construction and the biometric reader works well, but I was actually disappointed by the light inside the safe, which is cheaply made. The negative contact spring in the battery compartment is soldered at an angle such that just a little bit of vibration (like when you are putting the light back in the safe) can unseat the batteries – which means you have to take the light out and try to put it back in again without unseating the batteries. Also, the switch to turn off the light wasn’t working at all when the door was closed (I confirmed this by recording a video with my cell phone in the safe and closing the door). I had to bend the switch arm to create more of an angle so that there was enough pressure on the mechanism with the door closed to turn the light off. Overall, minor annoyances that do not relate to the real purpose of the safe… but an annoyances all the same.

I really liked this small safe. It was easy to program my fingerprint and pin number. I had no problem entering my fingerprint or my wife’s even though I am 62 and she is 61. The safe shipped promptly and was well packaged. The door does rattle but a thin strip of moleskin took care of that issue. The only drawback which I knew before I purchased the safe is the fact that there is no back lighting to enter your code/fingerprint at night. I will try a small motion sensitive LED light above the keys. Hopefully that solves the problem. If not, I will be keeping my pistol on the nightstand at night. All in all I am happy with the safe since the purpose is to keep my pistols away from small hands.

This safe has worked well for me for 8 months, access several times a week. Easy to set up, very secure. However, I ran into an issue when I changed the batteries, the lock went off. I called customer service and spoke to Siana. She explained what may have caused it. When I wrote back to explain I tried to fix it the way she explained there was no return e-mail. I told her I needed access and how difficult it was not to be able to use it, and never received a response. I was able to correct the problem and even with that I love the safe and feel I can trust it, but am very disappointed in the lack of response. So I could only give it 4 stars.

I like it but am returning it – the size is not as described; what is shown is the EXTERIOR dimensions —–the interior is about 2 inches smaller due to door / lock thickness so instead of 10x10x14 it is more like 8×13 or so- a full sized handgun will not fit unless laying down sideways and Im not stacking them loose on their sides (its just not a good idea) —- this is just a hazard of buying online where you cant ‘see’ the item before you buy it but no worries, return policy is great so If you are considering this one, just be aware that it is not as large as it sounds- if there is any doubt, get the bigger one which is what I am going to wind up doing. I wish I’d just ordered the larger one in the first place but It sounded like this one would work.As to the item itself, the safe arrived on time, undamaged and appears to be very good quality for the price— thick steel and good solid feeling lock but what I need to store will not fit unless laying down (that wont work). One thing to consider: the keypad is not lighted and it is a little difficult to find the key to activate the bio lock (pound key) and impossible (for me at least) to do the combo unlock with out a light. I can say the key is pretty good looking and I don’t see how it can be easily opened or picked at least not by using u-tube videos like some of the others. breaking into this one without a good set of tools, some noise and time would be challenging I think and it should be enough to deter the casual thief or child from getting into something they shouldn’t. –fingerprints were simple to program and opens just about every time, the keypad combo was a little tricky to program but works well after you get it done it seems to be a good safe / lockbox but measure carefully and round down (its smaller than it sounds)– don’t forget to allow for the door opening size as well.

Gr8 sizeFingerprint doesn’t read 8 out of 10 times

Although this is a excellent safe, finger print and keypad work excellent light everything is fine. But when I ordered I marked that the item be shipped in a package which it did not come in, also as I took the safe out of the box I noticed that the key pad was scratched up. I was disappointed in that. This would have gotten a 5 star but those scratches screwed things up. really needs to inspect the items more often.

At this price, you get what you pay for. If you have extremely valuable things that you need to store, then you need to get a better safe. This works for my purposes. You have to take extra measures to secure it. It’s not hefty and someone could just carry it off to crack later. I have a shelf built up against a closed that I use for this. I bolted it to a shelf and then framed it in, just making it that much more difficult to get into to steal. It works well, is simple to set up, and is pretty secure. You’ll need to bolt it down to something at the bare minimum

Purchased one of these for pistol, fingerprint scanner was biggest reason. Saw reviews. Safe that arrives was obviously not 100% new. Batteries were still packaged (new batteries?) but other things were already opened. Fingerprint scanner was DOA. No red light, would not accept programming, would not do anything.Programming the pin code was simple enough, but I wanted the scanner to work so I contacted Viking via their website. Went unanswered for about a week, so I sent an email notifying them that the website submission had received no reply. I got a response in a couple days, generic response that was obvious they sent out instead of reading my email describing the issue as their email dealt only with battery check, and troubleshooting the keypad.Little back and forth but in the end they sent me a replacement they assured me would be tested before shipping. It showed up today and no issues at all. Scanner works, programmed for my wife and myself, pin code changed, works fine. They said I could keep the 1st safe and they also increased my warranty to 2 years. Very nice of them to do that I must admit.

I very much appreciate the addition of a keypad as well as keyed entry in case the biometric doesn’t work. I followed the recommendation of others to program the same finger in slightly different angles and I have had excellent success with gaining consistent access using the biometric scanner.If you plan to put in a vertical (foam) pistol rack note that you likely will have to take the shelf out which was fine for me.Overall a excellent product at this price point!

The safe has a nice ability to read my finger.

For the money, this seems like a excellent safe. The steel is think and the gap around the door is tight (as advertised) to make it harder to pry open. The setup was simple when following the instructions. It came with bolts to attach it to the floor or wall. Any safe is only so secure but this one seems head and shoulders above other safes in this price range. I am pleased with this purchase and will strongly consider this brand if I need another safe in the future.

It was larger than I anticipated so I sent it back. But it appeared to be very good build.

biometric scanner works well as long as you pay attention to finger placement, the more fingerprints you store, the better it reads, gets you in 95% of the time, and if it doesn’t, it just takes an extra second to redo. Thought this product would be heavier, although it’s probably heavy enough. Don’t expect this safe or any other to add protection to your valuables, unless you bolt it down correctly, that being said, there are 2 holes on the back and 2 on the bottom. I think it would have been a better idea to have 4 holes on the back and bottom, as 2 allows a little bit of flex when someone my size tries to rip it from the wall (try as I did, I couldn’t). Carpeting is nice, interior light and adjustable shelf is a nice touch. The door is mounted such that if you install the safe on a level surface, when it unlocks, it gently swings open, negating the need for a handle. The mechanism is motorized, which is probably the most important part of it, many other safes (like the Harbor Freight, and many on ) use the same poorly designed mechanism… If you hit them on top, or bump them as you turn the opener, they can be opened by hand, with no experience. Check YouTube, you’ll see. All in all, pretty good. Had some scratches on the back from the factory, but no biggie.