Guide

How long does an autodialer take on a Group 2 lock?

The honest answer has two halves: what it takes on average, and what it takes in the worst case. Both are below, with nothing rounded in our favour.

Two AutoDialer V4 units mounted on test plates in a workshop, with opened combination lock bodies on the bench — Timing figures come off test plates like these, where the same lock can be run again and again.

The short answer

On a three-wheel Group 2 lock, the coarse sweep across the entire range takes about 50 minutes, and that alone opens most safes. Across real jobs the average opening time is around two and a half hours.

That average is lower than the table below might suggest, and the reason is simply where the correct combination tends to fall. The machine scans in a defined order, and most combinations turn up well before the end of it. Only the unlucky ones require the full sweep at a fine step.

The full figures, three-wheel lock

These are maximum times — how long it takes to cover the whole range at that step if the lock does not open earlier.

Step	Full sweep, 3-wheel
5.0 (coarse)	about 50 minutes
2.5	about 7 hours
2.0	about 12 hours
1.5	about 28 hours

Read them as ceilings, not expectations. The practical sequence is to run step 5.0 first, and only drop to a finer step if it finishes without opening.

Close-up of a combination lock wheel pack held in the hand, next to a lock mounted on a plate — Three wheels or four is a question you answer by looking. Every extra wheel multiplies the range the machine has to cover.

Four-wheel locks

A four-wheel lock has far more combinations, so it takes considerably longer. At step 5.0 the full sweep runs about 16 to 17 hours.

We do not publish figures for four-wheel locks at steps 2.5, 2.0 or 1.5, because we have not measured them. Scaling the three-wheel numbers would be a guess, and a guess about how long your job will take is worth nothing to you. If you need a four-wheel estimate for a specific job, ask and we will tell you exactly what we do and do not know.

Why the machine does not switch steps by itself

When a sweep finishes without opening, the operator presses STEP to the next finer setting and runs again. This is a deliberate choice rather than a missing feature: dropping from step 5.0 to 1.5 automatically could silently commit the machine to a run of more than a day. That decision belongs to whoever is paying for the time.

The order that works in practice: finer step first, then a slower speed setting, then re-check the lever position. If none of that opens it, the lock's internal mechanism may genuinely be damaged, which is outside what any dialling machine can solve.

A large floor safe standing open, the AutoDialer V4 still attached to its dial — The hours run while you do something else. This is how the job ends — door open, lock untouched, still working.

Why the hours matter less than they look

All of these are unattended hours. The machine runs on 24V DC at under 30W, stays around 40–45°C, and is designed for twelve hours or more of continuous running. You mount it, start it, and go and do other work. If the power drops out it saves its position every minute and resumes from there instead of starting over.

Compared against drilling, the fair comparison is not "50 minutes versus 7 hours". It is "a few minutes of your labour and an undamaged safe" against "a few hours of your labour, a replacement lock, a door repair, and a certification you no longer have".

Not sure whether it covers your lock?

Send a photo of the dial and the lock model. We'll tell you honestly whether the AutoDialer V4 handles it before you spend anything — and if it doesn't, we'll say so.

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