Install in an accessible location: All too often safes go unused when they are located too far away to be conveniently accessed. Many times a new safe buyer will over think the planned location for their safe, locating it in some cleverly concealed location or disguising the safe behind false doors or walls. While concealing your safe is fine, don’t do this at the cost of overall convenience or the safe will likely fall out of use over time. It’s far better to be storing your commonly used valuables in a not so hidden safe than to have these items left out for easy pilfering. Rather than outthinking the burglar along with yourself, rely on the safe to perform its job of protection and place it in a location that is likely to get the most use.  If your home is burglarized, a well built burglary safe will faithfully protect your contents.

Check for a thick solid steel door and walls: It is essential that the safe you purchase has both a solid steel door and walls of substantial thickness. Without this base level of steel protection, any safe can be opened within minutes despite the hoopla of additional advertised protection features. While the majority of top selling safes on the market tout a plethora of protection features, virtually all fail miserably in this essential area.
The safe you choose must have at minimum a ½” thick solid steel door and a ¼” thick solid steel body.
Steel is very expensive and heavy, vastly increasing the safes build cost and the cost of shipping overseas to the reseller. As a result, nearly all oversea manufactured safes (and even many local built safes) cut these costs by making their safes with thin sheet metal wrapped around various forms of drywall to give the appearance of a robust safe.

Judge a safe by its weight: Weight is one of the biggest factors when determining the base ability of a safe to protect from both burglary and fire.
Steel is heavy, a quality safe with solid steel walls will weigh substantially more than a flimsy safe fabricated by wrapping sheet metal around insulation panels.
High density concrete based amalgamate is heavy. A concrete amalgamate based composite fire safe will weigh substantially more than a safe that uses insulation panels.
Steel and high density concrete amalgamate together are really heavy. A true burglary safe with solid steel walls and concrete amalgamate fire cladding often carries three time the mass of an equivalent size safe constructed from sheet metal and drywall panels. These are the safes to look for.

Avoid fireboard or drywall based fire safes: Although fire safes constructed with fireboard, drywall, fiberboard, or other panel based insulation materials make up the majority of safes sold today, they provide inferior fire protection when compared to true composite fire safes or composite clad fire safes.
More importantly, these panel based safes provide fire protection at the cost of highly reduced burglary protection. The majority of fireboard style safes provide little to no burglary protection.

Consider entry convenience: A safe that is slow to open or access is a safe you are less likely to use. Adding an electronic lock can make opening the safe quick and easy, as well as enabling the user to reset the combination when needed without the aid of a locksmith or combination kit. For the ultimate in user convenience and security, a high grade biometric lock can't be beat.

Stick with a UL approved lock: Always check that the safe you plan to purchase has a UL approved Group 2 lock or better. The three dependable lock manufacturers are LaGard, Sargent & Greenleaf, and Kaba Mas. These are the only lock manufacturers that produce locks guaranteed to provide decades of trouble free operation.

 

BSM Public Relations Contact
Lynel Brown: (760) 233-2293
Fax:(760) 233-2297
Email: lynel@brownsafe.com