Practical Tips For Choosing A Good Home Safe

home safe

A home safe is an important, once in a lifetime purchase. Your valuables deserve proper protection and these tips for purchasing a home safe should help you out.

Buying a home safe is usually a purchase you only need to make once, as these secure storage solutions do not go out of fashion or wear out. However, in order to benefit from the wonderful advantages of owning a safe, you will need to consider a few aspects that should help you make the right purchase. Start by answering a few critical questions.

What Do You Plan On Storing In Your Safe?

The answer to this particularly explicit question should help you determine whether you need a fire-proof safe, or you can opt for a regular safe.

Fire ratings for safes, go by the hour. For example, a home safe that has a one-hour fire rating can keep the contents inside the container safe from flames for one hour. These ratings are issued as a result of careful testing

  • If you need to store your precious collection of stamps or computer backup disks, you will need to opt for a media safe that can endure up to 58 degrees Celsius during a home fire. Anything above this temperature will completely destroy your stored media, along with the ink on your stamps.

  • If you plan on keeping your petty cash and jewelry in a safe, a secure container should suffice. This solution is ideal for keeping curious children hands away from the contents of a simple safe.

  • Consider the insurance rating that safes come with. They feature a recommended maximum cash amount holding for a certain safe. In other words, how much money you should expect to safely store inside a safe that costs x money. A cheap safe purchased from a local hardware store should not be expected to protect $100,000. It's just common sense.

Also, by knowing exactly what you plan on using your safe for, you will also know what size to focus on.

Buy The Next Size Up

This is an old trick that should come in handy when shopping for a home safe. Figure out the volume or bulk of items you plan on storing inside your new safe, then buy the next size up. Chances are, you will continue to place valuables in it as time goes by and you will need more space. Be proactive and buy a bigger safe than the one you actually need at the moment. Don't be forced to cramp up items inside or leave out some of your prized possessions simply because you have no more room for them.

Fire rated safes need to be at least 100mm less than the outside since the walls' and door's thickness are required to respect specific anti-fire requirements.

Use A Solid Installation Spot For Your New Safe

Simply buying a safe and putting it on your living room floor will not do much for you. In order to fully benefit from owning a safe, you will actually need to install or bolt it into a solid and sturdy surface. You don't want a potential neighborhood burglar to sneak into your home and take off with your safe on their way out. Talk to a reliable locksmith for homes and ask them to come over and mount your safe for you, if you need an extra hand. A concrete floor and chipboard floors are good options. Keep in mind you can also glue a safe down using powerful adhesive used by constructors if your floors are made of timber.

Choose a good safe of the right size and bolt or glue it to the floors in a room or use the inside of your bedroom wardrobe for a more hidden location.

Who Will Operate The Safe?

This question will help you opt for the ideal locking system for your safe. It could range from a simple key to a mechanical combination lock, digital combo locks or even time delay lock systems. If an elderly person will use the safe, you could opt for a simple digital combo lock with a code that can be easily reset.

The popular round dial that defines mechanical combo locks is probably the most common solution for a safe. It's the one we see most in the movies, with bank clerks or mobs turning a set number of times left and right to a number until the safe opens. These locks are known for their sturdiness and reliability. They require no batteries to function and you can choose your favorite numbers for the combination. Just keep in mind you might need to have a small degree of experience to dial a safe open, along with good eyesight and decent lighting in the room.

You can also opt for a keyed safe, even though keeping the key to a safe on your keyring may draw the attention of the wrong people. Unfortunately, these keys have a specific design, so they are easy to recognize. Hiding them somewhere inside the house means risking a burglar finding them in case of a break-in.

If you are looking for a safe for your office needs, where your staff will also need to gain access to the container on a regular basis, opt for the key and combo mix. At the end of the day, the manager can spin off the unique combination only he knows and render the staff's keys useless.

For companies with a large number of employees and expensive assets and files that need to be guarded against threats, a time delay lock is the best approach. Banks also rely on these safes for their advanced security features. Get ready to use a digital combination lock with a code that needs to be entered in order to initiate the delay period. This could last anywhere between 2 to 30 minutes. When the time is up, you will have a clear window of time in which you will be prompted to enter the code to open the lock.

A top-quality safe can last many lifetimes, just remember to have the keylocks and mechanical combo locks serviced every 5 years.

For more information, or for help with installing or replacing your home safe contact our residential locksmiths today!