What to Look For When Buying a Home Safe
Posted on: 7 October 2015
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A home safe can protect your valuables and also ensure that any guns or other dangerous items are kept away from children. Safes for residential homes are very affordable and easy to use, and they come in a wide variety of styles. Note a few things to look for when buying a home safe so you know you get the right model for you.
1. Interior accessories
It may look very dramatic in the movies when someone opens a safe and there is a gun sitting on a big pile of money, but if you want to store a firearm in your safe, it's good to choose one with an inside drawer or peg to hold that weapon. This will mean less unnecessary handling of the firearm when you want to access papers and money and other such items. It will also keep you from just stacking things on top of the weapon and in turn, making it less accessible if you need it quickly.
It's also good to have an interior drawer with slots that hold jewelry if you will be storing these in your safe. You don't want to have necklaces get tangled together while in the safe, and a small drawer can make it easy to find rings, earrings, and the like. Shelves and drawers can also help you to keep paperwork and items like bonds separate from cash and anything else you plan on storing inside. Rather than opting for a safe that's just a big box, choose one with needed accessories inside.
2. Security rating
To make it easy for a person to choose a safe, they are usually graded with particular security ratings. The higher the rating, the more difficult it will be to break open the safe, but the more expensive it will be as well. The security rating may note how long it would take an average safecracker to open the safe, if the door and walls can withstand being shot at with certain weapons, and if the safe is impervious to flooding and fire damage.
To determine the best security rating, consider where the safe will be stored and what's inside. If your home is in an area with a high risk for fires, you want a higher fire rating but may not need a higher rating for flood risk. If you simply want a place to store a bit of cash and your birth certificate, a very low safety rating might be good, but for storing bearer bonds, heirloom jewelry, and other expensive items, invest in a higher security rating.