6 Important things to Look Out For when purchasing a Safe

Have you recently acquired something of high value and want to keep it safe at home? Probably a diamond or a really expensive piece of jewelry?

When considering how to secure your valuables, it’s important to understand the limitations of home safes. Important things to look out for when purchasing a safe include its fire rating, lock type, and size. However, to be honest, home safes are not the best options for items like these. An ideal place for your precious jewelry or other valuables is a bank. They offer more protection than home safes will.

Home safes are ideal for storing items you want to keep secure and accessible. But if you want to keep items such as tape, hard drives, DVDs, documents, certificates, and records that are near impossible to replace, home safes offer the type of protection you’re looking for. When selecting a safe, it’s crucial to consider important things to look out for when purchasing a safe, such as its fire resistance, size, locking mechanism, and durability.

While inexpensive compared to banks, they offer adequate protection for birth and death certificates, passports, important documents, electronic storage media, or even ammunition you’ve acquired to defend your home.

What to Look Out For when Purchasing a Safe

Choosing a home safe can be quite tricky, but if you know important things to look out for when purchasing a safe, the process becomes easier. By understanding key factors such as size, fireproof ratings, and lock types, you’ll make a more informed decision that suits your needs.

1.     The Size

For starters, you need to know the size of your safe. Stacking the items you’ll put in the safe in a neat pile and measuring the size of the pile, both height and width, is an easy way to determine the size of the safe. When considering important things to look out for when purchasing a safe, make sure to add a bit more height to the dimensions. This is because, as time progresses, chances are you will acquire more valuable documents for yourself and your family. You don’t want to leave the safety of your future documents to chance.

2.     Protection

It’s most likely your main concern for choosing a safe is fire. Good thing most safes protect from fire and theft, some also throw in water protection into the mix.

Safety from Water

Choosing an appropriate safe for your documents can depend a lot on where you live. For instance, if where you live is prone to flooding, your best option for a safe that is also water resistant.

Safety from Fire

When considering important things to look out for when purchasing a safe, it’s crucial to prioritize fire protection. In case of fire outbreaks, paper documents must be safeguarded from temperatures exceeding 350 degrees. Choose a safe whose internal temperature remains below this threshold during a fire accident. However, if you plan to store tapes, hard drives, or other electronic storage media, note that these items cannot withstand temperatures above 150 degrees. For such items, look for safes explicitly designed to maintain lower internal temperatures. This information is typically provided in the safe’s specifications.

Safety from Burglars

Most house safes are built to withstand burglars. When considering important things to look out for when purchasing a safe, keep in mind the ratings for burglary resistance. Here’s what Consumer Reports says about safes: “Independent ratings for burglary resistance are less common for home safes than for ones made for commercial users, such as jewelry stores. To determine their burglary-resistance ratings, UL testers go at safes with tools, torches, and even explosives, Drengenberg says. A TL-15 rated safe, for example, can withstand an attack of at least 15 minutes using common tools.”

3.     The Lock Style

Keep an eye on the kind of locks or the locking mechanism your preferred safe comes with. When considering important things to look out for when purchasing a safe, it’s generally good to opt for safes that come with two locks. These types of safes provide the best level of protection against thieves.

4.     How Portable It Is

Home safes are basically of two types: the Portable and the Unmovable types. While there are portable options available, it’s better to go for safes that aren’t portable to lower the chances of theft – portable safes face a higher risk of being stolen since they are easily movable.

5.     Let it be Within Your Budget

Protecting your valuables is an investment you are making, not just for the present but for the future. For this reason, you need to pick the best safe that falls within your budget. Opting for a low-grade safe when you could have afforded better is a bad idea. You might say “with luck nothing is going to happen”. But are you willing to depend on luck for the safety of your documents or storage media? Of course not. Murphy’s Law states that if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. And a lot of things can go wrong. Make the investment.

6. What do others say about the dealers

When considering important things to look out for when purchasing a safe, it’s vital to go online and search for reviews on the dealers and manufacturers. More often than not, the opinions of others who have used the safe you are interested in will provide honest reviews about the product. That way, you will know what you’re getting into. Aside from the sales talks, features, and benefits of the sale, find out how it really performs in service.

If you need more information about making a choice on what safe to buy or need professional help with safe installation, don’t hesitate to contact us.