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Champion Safes
Champion Safes have an excellent reputation amongst gun collectors. These gun safes offer good solid construction and multiple storage options depending upon your specific needs. Its higher end models have lots of steel so expect them to be a bit pricey.
Like Fort Knox Safes, these gun safes are only offered through authorized dealers. This can be good and bad. Often, some states are only served by one or two dealers, so you may have to travel a bit to see the safe before purchase, if this is important to you.
Also, comparison shopping will require a lot of effort by you. You can’t just click on a few websites to get an idea of pricing. Personally, in today’s day and age, I find this to be a bit annoying.
BUT, despite this annoyance, they do make a good safe. Also, I did have the occasion to speak to a factory representative and I found him to be accessible and very knowledgeable about the product line. Not only that, but he was very nice and professional.
This may seem fairly basic, but for a lot of safe companies it is not. In fact, as mentioned in other reviews, some safe companies don’t even include a company phone number or address.
Anyway, let’s talk about Champion gun safes.
There are 4 main Series of gun safes offered by Champion Safes, each of which I will cover below. They also offer an entry level stripped down safe called the Model T, in honor of the old Ford Model T. It isn’t fancy, but it has the basics kind of deal.
Key Champion Safe Advantages:
- Warranty: Covers fire and break in protection. They will repair or replace the damaged safe. The key is that they will pay for shipping (both ways). A lot of other companies have the same warranty, BUT you pay to ship the safe to and from the manufacturer. Obviously, shipping a 500 to 1,000+ pound item can get a bit pricey. (FYI – The Model T only has a 5 year warranty).
- Fire Protection: In my safe buying guide, I am generally critical of companies that do their own in house fire testing. I must say that Champion Safes does an excellent job being forthcoming about their fire testing. They provide all of the temperature results for each gun safe. They are the only safe company I am aware of that is as forthcoming.
Champion Safes Criticisms:
- Optional Equipment: Champion does offer lighting and dehumidifier kits, but they are additional add on accessories. It would be nice, at least on the higher end models, to have these items standard.
- Cost: As stated above, in today’s day and age, it would be nice to have a more transparent sales process.
2012 Update
Not much has changed in 2012. As of April, we are still waiting for the product catalogue to be released, but most safes are unchanged. The company did add a new sized model to the Trophy Series (TY42). Also, several series had their fire ratings updated by the company, mostly for the good.
The biggest change to the product line was the addition of a new safe called the “Big Yellow Safe”. Apparently, this behemoth is the largest gun safe available on the market. It weighs 4,000 pounds, comes in 10 gauge steel, and you need a forklift to move this bad boy around! Champion has not yet released full details yet, so I will keep you posted when I learn more.
Champion Safe Models:
Model T Series
Henry Ford once said that you could get the Model T in any color you wanted, so long as you wanted the color black. The same goes for
this Model T, it comes in one size and one color (gray).
The Model T is the most basic safe made by Champion. It certainly does not have all of the great features that the
better models have, but it still is a Champion. I certainly would much rather have this safe than any model made by Sentry.
For the price, it still has decent steel (12 gauge), good size locking bolts (1 inch) a decent fire rating (45 minutes at 1325° F) and a UL RSC Rating.
Model:
- Model T (24 gun capacity)
Hopefully, you enjoyed my reviews on Champion Safes. If you own or purchase a Champion gun safe, please let me know how you like it.