What Type of Home Safe is Best for Me?

When keeping valuables in your home it is often a smart idea to have a safe to protect them from potential damage, theft, or destruction. Many people realize this and purchase some form of a safe for their own homes. However, purchasing a safe may not be as easy of a decision as you may think. There are many different things you should consider when deciding on what type of safe to purchase and oftentimes, people end up buying a safe that does not properly suit their needs.

What Are You Trying to Protect From?

As simple of a question as it is this one is really vital when attempting to choose the right safe for you and many times, this is where people make their mistakes. People oftentimes want a safe just to store a few valuables, but you need to consider what you will be storing and what you want to protect these goods from.

• Burglary safe- This type of safe is great for protecting your valuables from the average home invader. These safes usually feature thick solid steel walls and doors and should be rated to withstand at least 15 minutes of attack from common burglar tools. The safe you purchase should have at minimum a ½” thick solid steel door and a ¼” thick solid steel body. It is recommended to anchor down your burglary safe by bolting it to the ground. This makes theft of the safe even more difficult for burglars and will help deter this from happening. The big problem with these safes, however, is that they do not protect well from fire damage.
• Fireproof safe- The number one concern of most people who own safes is fire damage and that is why these types of safes are fairly popular. Fireproof safes are actually fire resistant meaning that they can withstand excessive heat for a certain period of time. When purchasing a fire safe make sure that it guarantees fire protection for at least 30 minutes, and if you plan on storing papers or documents in the safe then make sure that the internal temperature will not rise above 350 degrees Fahrenheit. These safes do a great job of protecting paper documents and cash, however, they are usually very thin and offer little protection against burglary. Therefore, it is recommended that you do not store high value items in these types of safes.
• Burglar Fire safe- Today, the most popular safes used in homes are Burglar Fire (BF) safes. These safes offer the best of both worlds excellent protection from both burglary and fire damage. Many people want to protect their paper documents along with their valuables and using a BF safe is by far the best way to do so. BF safes have protection ratings with suggestions as to how much the value of your content stored in the safe should be. Make sure you purchase your safe according to how much value you plan on storing in there. These safes tend to be pricier than the above options, but this is because they offer more protection. Like many things in life, you get what you pay for when it comes to home safes.
• Data/media safe- If you intend to store any form of media such as CDs, photos, flash drives, hard drives, etc. then the safe options above will not be a viable option for you. Data and media are extremely sensitive to heat and humidity and regular fireproof safes will get too hot inside and ruin your data in the case of a fire. Data/media safes will stay below 135 degrees Fahrenheit during a fire and will keep your data intact. They do not offer a great deal of protection from burglars, but you could purchase a small data/media safe or lock box and place it inside of a burglar safe if you are really looking for that extra protection.

Home safes are extremely valuable because they can protect the most important items and documents in your life from destruction and loss. Don’t make a mistake when buying a home safe, be sure to call or come into our shop today so we can help you choose the right safe for you and your family.