So true. I just found out in the hard way, by letting the battery in a home safebox expire. I cannot find the physical key and the electronic lock does not work without power. I will have to call some specialists to break in.
I'm sure you had an array of considerations when buying an electronic safebox, but this is the bottom line as to why I would never buy one.
As a programmer my day job is "this isn't working the way it's supposed to, lets figure out why and fix it." I can't fathom ever wanting to deal with that stuff when I get off work. A lock and key have been working just fine since the Roman times, it's relatively easy to conceptualize how it works, the things you can troubleshoot on it is a relatively short list, the UX surface area is small and predictable (it's just a lock and a key). I could go on for a long time. If something got along just fine before bluetooth and wifi existed then I never want to own a version that requires bluetooth or wifi.
A lock and a key has other failure modes. I broke a key in a lock more than once in my life. I also once accidentally fouled up a lock with some kind of dirt/fluff that it stopped working with the key.
First look up the manual to make sure the battery isn't replaceable from the outside. My fire safe has an electronic lock, but you can replace the battery by twisting off the face of the lock (which isn't obvious from looking at it)
I have a safe with an electronic lock. The batteries that run that lock are on the *outside* of the secure area. There's a little plate you can slide off and fish out the battery pack. That's how it's supposed to be done.
