Home Safes|Home Security Advice

The Varieties Of Home Safes

Home safes provide an excellent means to protect your belongings whether they are of monetary or sentimental value from theft. They should be considered as part of a home security system and you should not assume that because you have just a safe that your possessions are heft proof although a safe does go a long way to preventing this.

There are five main types of safe that are currently available, the floor safe, the in-wall safe, the freestanding, the diversion safe and the fireproof safe. I shall briefly discuss the advantages and uses of each.

The floor safe is generally bolted into the floor either to concrete in your basement of the joists between your floorboards. They are of a thin design to accommodate the need to fit between these joists. The advantage of these types of safes is that it is often difficult to remove them or dismantle them giving them a good deal of protection for your belongings. It is best to conceal these safes properly and not simply place a rug or piece of floor art across them, as most people usually do. Obtaining a special panel to blend the safe into the floor or covering with a mechanically movable piece of furniture is a much better disguise for concealment.

The wall safe is fitted into the wall, again like the floor safe they are small in design to easily fit into the wall. The quality is which they are installed into the wall is critical for their effectiveness. These safes offer many unlocking systems ranging from a key lock on the cheaper versions through digital combinations and including biometric identification on the top end models.

These types of safes are often concealed by painting or wall art which are the first point of call for most thieves and as such placement behind a sliding panel or a bookcase is a better option.

A freestanding safe is resistant to theft due to its heavy weight, they generally are not fixed to any object and as such with the right tools can be removed from their location and opened at leisure, although models such as those for placement within closets do come with fittings to be able to affix them to the floor.

Diversion safes are inexpensive types of safe they provide reasonable protection some if only due to their cosmetic design and are designed for smaller items such as hard drives and items of reasonably expensive jewellery. They are compact in size and are often able to be placed within a desk draw or on a shelf. Common types are those designed to look like a household item such as a tin of beans or an electrical socket. Various types of locking systems can be used with these although most do not have any and are purely used to disguise their true function

Fireproof safes are generally designed to house guns and ammunition such is their need to be sheltered from naked flames. These safes come in many different designs and sizes to house all the types of guns available on the market.

Most commercial safes on the market are rated by the Underwriters Labs they give you guidelines on safe itself and rate the safety features of the specific models ensuring you can find out all the relevant information pertaining to that particular safe.

The main decision to make on which safe to buy is heavily dependant on the location of where the safe will be, once you have decided this you will have narrowed down the options available to you with respect to the categories mentioned above.

When finalising your decision on which safe to buy you should consider how the safe rates with respect to the amount of resistance they can endure when subjected to repeated tampering and break in attempts. In testing the attempts are made after 15, 30 or 60 minute time intervals.

The effectiveness of resistance to fire is also key, UL also provide notes on how well certain materials fair during fire surrounding the safe and also how the safe performs if the safe is dropped should the fire result in the supporting item fail to support the safe.

How the safe reacts to external conditions is also a factor, the damage the safe will incur as a result of damage by water or dust could be a crucial feature depending on the location of your safe.

The final piece in the puzzle is the locking mechanism, as mentioned briefly before there are several types of mechanisms used in safe design. The cheaper models use a key lock whilst others mechanisms such as a combination, the ones most used in movies that require a dial to be moved several times to several numbers in order to unlock the safe, an electronic pad that requires a digital code to be inputted, a digital card or the biometric mechanism. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages and none are full proof.

When deciding which home safe to choose from you should consider all the factors above in addition to the type of contents you wish to store in the safe along with ensuring you know roughly how much you want to spend. Ensure that the amount you spend is reasonable when compared to the cost of the items it will house.

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