Everything You Need To Know When Selecting A Home Safe

by: Steve Strong

Safes come in all different shapes and sizes and with a host of different security features. Depending on where you want your safe for will influence what type of safe you will require. For the home you will probably be looking for a small scale security safe. The safes can be split into two categories; these are burglary resistant and fire resistant.

Focusing on the burglary resistant safes first these will normally include security and key cabinets. The security safes have different ratings depending on the capacity, the low end range from around 2000 dollars through to 75000 dollars in insurance ratings. This is worked on the capacity of cash and valuables, so for example a low end 2000 dollar insurance rated safe will be insured for the value of 2000 dollars in cash or 40000 in valuables, this will vary depending on the type you choose. The safes will usually be fitted with either a key or electronic combination and the fixing would be to the wall or the floor. Within this range there are many options to satisfy your needs, these will range from laptop security safes to under floor safes.

A very common form of burglary is for the intruder to enter the premises or the house and steal car keys; usually the theft of the vehicle is to order. Many people make this easy for the intruder by having their keys near to the door. It is possible today to buy a key safe or cabinet that can hold your keys in a secure unit that will make the theft of your car keys harder for any intruder. It is also possible to keep your keys inside your security safe to provide additional security. Often the security safes are not fireproof and would not be suitable for storage of important paper documentation. There are many fireproof safes now on the market which are suitable not only for documents but also for data storage.

Data storage safes are common place in business where many organizations need to keep important files secure. Fireproof safes offer a range of protection from 1 hour to 2 hours fire resistance. The safes can protect important data items such as cds, dvds, dat tapes and optical disks. The other fireproof safes are for document storage again depending on the type that you buy the resistance can range anywhere from thirty minutes up to four hours. The smaller models are suitable for home use and start in price at around 75 dollars, making this a very cost effective solution to protect your valuable documents.

When choosing your safe you can have different styles of lock, these include key, electronic and combination locks. On the lower end safes you will most likely have either a key or electronic lock, if you have difficulty in remembering number sequences then it would be advised to choose the key lock over the electronic. Some of the high end safes will have a combination lock that will be set to turns and numbers; these are not normally found on the lower end safes made for the home environment.