Choosing a Safe....

No one ever thinks they will be the target of burglary or fire until it happens, and by then it is too late to take the necessary steps to protect homes and businesses. Even a good insurance policy cannot replace your most precious items or sensitive paperwork once it has been stolen. A security safe or fire safe is a valuable investment and offers you peace of mind as well as security, should you be one of the many unfortunate people that will one day need it.

There is a bewildering array of safes and cupboards to choose from, so in order to buy the correct safe to meet your needs the first and most important question is what do you intend to store in the safe and what protection will the item require?

The three main categories of safe protection are:

Security Safes – protection for cash and valuables such as jewellery or electrical equipment.

Fire Paper Safes – protection for any type of paper documents from fire damage.

Fire Data Safes – protection for computer media such as disks and back up tapes from fire damage.

In some cases safes will offer protection from more than one category and our Data Combi range offer all three types of protection in one safe. However you should always consider the primary protection required as the most important factor. Below we will go into more detail as to the differences between categories and the pros and cons of each.

You should also consider the way the safe will lock as there are various options available for all types of protection. You can choose a traditional key lock, mechanical dial or the most popular method, electronic keypad requiring PIN code entry. There are time locks, key and combination, and even dual locks that require two people present to open the safe.

Security Safes

Security Safes vary by what is known as "cash rating" which gives you a good indication of how secure the safe in question is, although this rating applies only if you have installed it correctly and according to the manufacturer's recommendations.

The cash rating is determined by the manufacturer taking into account several factors including the thickness and strength of the walls and door, the security and complexity of the lock and bolt mechanics, the resistance the safe has to being moved, and the overall build quality. Generally the higher the cash rating a safe has, the more secure the safe will be.

As an example a safe with a cash rating of £2,000 indicates that you can store up to £2,000 cash or up to £20,000 worth of valuables (multiply the cash rating by 10 when storing jewellery or other non-cash items). This means that your insurance company should insure £2,000 in cash or up to £20,000 worth of valuables overnight. It is important to check with your insurance company if you have a specific high-value item that you wish to store, as it is not unusual for insurance companies to require your safe have a higher cash rating than the actual cost of the item.

Once you have decided on the appropriate cash rating and lock type you should then consider where the safe will be located as insurance companies generally insist on the safe being bolted to the floor or a solid wall.

The manufacturer makes this part easy by providing reinforced pre-drilled holes in the base of the safe allowing the safe to be secured to the floor from the inside. Some safes also include pre-drilled holes in the rear of the safe allowing a wall fixing although this is less common.

Fire Paper Safes

Fire Paper Safes designed to protect paper from fire must undergo rigorous testing to ensure the internal temperature of the safe does not exceed 177°C. At temperatures greater than this paper will combust and be destroyed. Unlike a security safe, fire safes do not necessarily include a cash rating as the primary protection is from fire rather than theft. As a result this type of safe should be gauged by its fire rating which will be given in minutes and shows the length of time a safe will provide fire resistance. Fire ratings for paper vary from 30 minutes to an incredible 3 hours.

You should also note that to provide this level of protection from fire and heat the safes are designed with fire resistant material in the safe walls and as a result internal capacity is reduced.

Another issue with fire safes for paper is the lack of anchor points. Due to the resistance to heat many fire safes do not allow the facility to bolt the safe to the floor as there are no pre-drilled holes in the base or rear of the safe. Certain models are available which include pre-drilled holes and therefore allow for bolt down fixing but the maximum protection is reduced to 60 minutes.

Fire Data Safes

A Fire Data Safe is specifically designed to store irreplaceable computer media and back-ups, such as  DAT tapes, CD ROMs, Zip drives, negatives and VHS tapes. Fire data safes are suitable for any valuable plastic or man-made materials.

As with a fire safe for paper a Fire Data Safe must undergo rigorous testing but to a more stringent level as computer media is more vulnerable to heat than paper documents. Fire data safes offer greater protection from fire than fire document safes, as they maintain a temperature of 52°C or less for a specified time period. At temperatures greater than 52°C computer media can become corrupted or be destroyed. Fire ratings for data vary from 60 to 120 minutes.

A fire data safe doesn't only protect your media from fire, however. Plastic-based materials require protection from humidity as well as from high temperatures. A fire data safe offers protection against rising humidity levels, liquid and from other dangers like magnetic contamination, dust and smoke which are all potentially damaging for electronic equipment and disks.

You should also pay extra attention to the internal dimensions to ensure that you choose a safe with enough capacity to meet your needs. Because of the demands of insulation, this type of safe is often considerably smaller inside than you would expect when given the external dimensions.

As with fire safes for paper, fire safes for data also lack anchor points in the base of the safe. Due to the resistance to heat NO fire data safes include pre-drilled holes.  There are limited options available if the safe requires fixing to the floor but one manufacturer has designed a plate that can be fixed to the base of the safe allowing a bolt down installation. You could also opt for a chemical installation where the safe is fixed to the floor using industrial strength bonding.