• Safe-Buying-Guide_Letter-from-ownerSafe buying guide
  • Safe-Buying-Guide_ProtectionLevelSafe buyers guide with protection level ratings
  • Safe buyingTipsSafe buying guide
  • Safe-Buying-Guide_ballistic armor protectionwatch how Brown Safe's ballistic steel performs
  • Buying a safe with fire protectionLearn about fire protection for safes
Safe Buying GuideProtection Level RatingsSafe Selection HelperSafe Buying Tips
Customer Comments

Buyer Beware! Are You Purchasing a Real Safe?

Above all else, safes are first and foremost about protection.

Sadly, the current safe market is oversaturated with inexpensive "safes" that provide no substantial protection. Outwardly, these safes can appear very robust, sporting massively thick doors with oversized locking bolts prominently protruding in all directions. Simply removing the door panel on these imposters reveals the ugly truth... The "massively thick" doors are household drywall panels wrapped in sheet metal, while the prodigious locking bolts terminate the moment they enter the door and are held in place by pencil-thin fasteners.

These "safes" can literally be pried open within minutes by inexperienced criminals using nothing more than a pair of common crowbars. Owning one of these safes is worse than having no safe, as the unit actually aids the criminal by grouping all the household treasures into one easy-opening storage box.

When you buy a safe, you're entrusting the manufacturer of that safe with the most precious items you possess. You're putting your faith in the builder that their claims of protection are true, that the safe you're purchasing will adequately protect your cherished items to the best of that manufacturer's ability. Those who routinely fabricate and sell these imposter safes do more than a disservice; they are committing the ultimate industry sin by abusing the buyers trust and exposing them to potential pain and heartache.

Brown Safe has never engaged in this practice, nor will we ever, and we are disgraced by those who do. We take great pride in producing the most rugged safes in the industry. We build every safe by hand in our U.S. factory.

For your own peace of mind, we highly recommend you spend the time to research prior to purchasing a safe, as the market is riddled with inferior units. While outrageously inexpensive or imported safes are a true cause for suspicion, high-priced luxury safes can be just as insecure as their cost-cutting counterparts. A very good starting point for safe research is right here in our Safe Buying Guide section. Once you've familiarized yourself with safes and their protection levels, you'll understand why the flagship safe produced by the majority of manufacturers is where our base unit begins.

Sincerely, Fred Signature

Frederick Brown - Owner, Brown Safe Manufacturing

NOT ALL SAFES ARE CREATED EQUAL

As innovators within the safe industry for 35 years we have grown accustomed to unscrupulous companies continually stealing our ideas and passing them on as their own using grossly inadequate materials and cheap components, but the true victims are the consumers if their safe fails to perform. An informed decision is always the best decision. Here's a side by side comparison of a few claims other companies make vs. Brown Safes.

They may copy our look, but not our quality.

….look a little deeper and you'll find it's like comparing apples and oranges.

Customer Comments

 

Standard Protection Level

If they carry a recognized security rating at all, then it is generally an RSC rating - the same protection level a household file cabinet carries. A Residential Security Container (RSC) protection rating simply means it can withstand an single unskilled attacker with a screwdriver for five minutes.

Our base level safe carries a protection level greater than the highest protection level generally offered by our competitors. A TL-15 rating means that even an assisted expert safecracker with intimate knowledge of the inner working of the safe and special tools cannot gain entrance to the safe in less than 15 minutes.

Fire Protection

They use different fire ratings and temperatures to hide their ineffective fire retarding ability. Often reducing the temperature so that more time of protection can be claimed. A common material used in these "safes" is simple household drywall, which offers only limited fire protection and no security at all.

We've developed a proprietary fire resistant composite and construction method to encase the solid steel core safe which greatly reduces heat transfer to the interior and protects contents for at least an hour and a half at a minimum of 1700 degrees Fahrenheit.
This cladding also offers additional burglary protection as it literally chews up carbide drill bits and saw blades.

Warranty

The competition's cost-cutting measures mean they produce a safe which simply won't last. A limited one year warranty for an item intended to protect your most treasured valuables raises questions regarding the ability of the product to perform its stated function.

We stand behind every safe and vault door we build, including every component of it. This covers the entire safe, including the lock, bolts, etc. It is a true 50 year warranty. If there is a problem with your safe we want to know about it, and we will make it right...Period.

Steel Construction

There's no substitute for steel. It's the number one defense for keeping out an attacker. Anything less than a ¼ inch thick can be easily pried open in minutes. Be wary of builder's claims of "overall thickness" as this is a common technique disguised to hide the fact it's no more than two thin pieces of sheet metal with "burglary resistant" material, drywall, or air in-between.

The construction of a safe's door and walls is the most critical line of defense. One substantially thick steel door and five thick steel walls are the only fundamental means of preventing a determined criminal from gaining entrance. The minimum amount of steel used in our safes is often more than the competition offers even on their highest rated safes.

Lock

Residential-Grade Lock

They use a residential-grade lock made from inferior electronic components which they've continually claimed for years to be "pending UL Type 1 listing".

U.L. Type 1 Commercial-Grade Lock

We only use high-security U.L. Rated commercial-grade locks with top-of-the-line electronics.
All of our locks meet both U.S. and European ratings.

Mirror

Small Cheap Mirror

Their mirrors are thin and cheaply-made. The result is a reflection that is too small and unclear to be useful.

Full Length Mirror with Beveled Edges

We source substantially thick high-quality glass mirrors that run the full length of the interior door space so that it is both functional and distortion free.

Lighting

Common Rope Lighting

This is the same generic rope lighting you find at any hardware store. The result is an exposed light source and brackets with poor light quality.

Flush-Mounted LED Lighting

The lights we use are commercial-grade Hera ® LED jewel lights that cast a beautiful soft glow and help accentuate your safe's contents. They are both well-crafted and highly efficient.

Fabric

Partially Covered in Cut-Rate Fabric

The majority of their safes don't include full fabric lining, and if they do, it is limited to the shelves and is often a poorly made automotive fabric.

Fully Lined in Velvet or Ultrasuede ®

The entire safe interior, shelves, and drawers of our safes are completely fabric lined in your choice of multiple colors in either soft velvet or luxurious Ultrasuede ®.

View a Review of the Top Rated Gun Safes Here

A No-Nonsense Comparison of the Top Freestanding Gun Safes of 2016

Customer Comments

Now that you know what to look for in a quality safe, you'll want to know how to select the right safe for your needs.

So just what kind of safe should I be looking for? What and who should it protect me from? What items should I be protecting? Where should I put the safe? How do I know the safe will do its job?

If you're seeking advice to these and other common safe questions, then we're here to help. This guide is filled with qualified answers to general safe questions and will even provide useful tips for the more studied safe expert.

This guide is intended to offer solid advice when buying a safe from any manufacturer, not just Brown Safe.

Here are the steps we suggest when deciding which safe is right for you:

Decide on a safe type - Our Safe Buying Tips page is a very handy aid in quickly defining the primary differences in all popular safe styles. It's the perfect guide when initially deciding which type of safe is right for you.

Learn the lingo - Read through the information in our Safe Terminology 101 guide, which quickly distills confusing safe terminology into easily digestible terms. We give common safe terms and their definitions in plain English, so it's easier to understand a safe's true capabilities or deficiencies.

Make a list of requirements - Once you understand the common safe terms and you've read through the pertinent information for your chosen safe type, you should have enough info to start your personalized list of safe requirements. To add definitive values to your requirements list, you can follow links within this guide to our own safe information pages where cold hard facts and figures are always available.

Be sure to take a look at the Protection Levels page as it identifies the key requirements to look for in any well-built safe.

Our Safe Buying Tips page is a great resource, providing highly helpful purchase suggestions for all safe types.

Compare safe builders based on your requirement list - We know we build the best, but you don't ...yet. So don't just rely on our word; compare your list of requirements to other safe builders. In this way you can appreciate the true superiority of a Brown Safe, along with having the pride and security that comes from knowing your cherished valuables are fully secured by the toughest safe on the block.

Unfortunately, researching the competition can be one of the more time-intensive steps in this process, as many safe builders don't readily provide the core information that reveals a safe's true ability to protect. Instead they use their own brand of confusing, information-deficient terminology to obscure the true protection level their safe offers.

Our Competitor Comparison page is a great time-saver, as it provides a direct comparison of the most important safe figures from a wide selection of top-selling manufacturers.

Despite the hoopla of high-protection features a safe company claims to have, any safe worth considering must have at least ¼" solid steel body and ½" solid steel door or better. If you settle for a safe with less steel, you are exposing all valuables you store within to SERIOUS risk of theft.

Make an informed decision - At this point you are no longer one of the countless uninformed victims that unscrupulous safe builders rely on to generate a quick buck at great personal risk to the buyer. You are now armed with enough knowledge to make an informed purchase about one of the most important assets you will own.

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