Safe Opening & Combination Change: what to note first

Decades of daily use have left the law firm's old dial safe drifting: the numbers line up close to where they should, never quite enough to drop the bolt.

Worth answering before the call

Roughly how old is the safe, if you had to guess? Has the safe ever been drilled or serviced before? What brand and model is the safe, if you know it?

How often should a safe combination be changed?

There is no fixed schedule; the sensible trigger is a change in who knows it, such as an employee or manager leaving, rather than a set number of months or years. A combination that has only ever been known to current staff generally does not need changing on a routine basis, since the lock itself does not wear out from correct use the way a mechanical part might.

How is a new combination actually chosen and set?

You choose the numbers yourself, within whatever range and spacing that lock's rules allow, rather than being handed a default sequence. On a mechanical lock the locksmith uses a manufacturer change key to reset the wheel pack to your chosen combination; on an electronic lock the new code is entered directly through the keypad or a connected programming tool. Either way it is tested several times, door open and then closed, before the visit is considered complete.