Recommendations for a home safe ?

[DoctorSpazz]

Throwing around the idea of picking up a home safe to store some documents and jewellery.

Any recommendations on what to look at and what to avoid ?

Thanks


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[Uncle Meat]

A few years ago I bought a used Banham floor safe for about £400. It's about the size of a shoe box.
It took me ages to fit. There are 4 large bolts that go from inside the safe into the floor joists (my house is 110 years old so the joists are super thick!!)
I also set it into the floor beneath a chest of drawers which hides it from view.
So far it's served its purpose.

I would suggest spending as much as you can comfortably afford.
Fireproof safes are always a best bet for obvious reasons.
Buying a used safe can save you quite a bit of money and are every bit as good as a new one. If buying used make sure you get 2 keys (one spare)

Best piece of mind i've ever had.

I hope some of that helps.

[Tools]

Get a safe that you can bolt to the floor or wall.

Having a safe that anybody can conveniently pick up and walk away with is not usually a good choice.

[Greg 59]

Steer well clear of the brands you see in hotel rooms. They can be opened with a coat hanger

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[brandrea]

Alternately, you could consider a bank safe deposit box. That’s where we keep our papers and precious belongings. YMMV

[Brew]

If your jewelry is insured, the policy may specify how covered items must be stored.

I picked up an inexpensive safe that should be bolted to the floor. I used it before it was bolted, so I hid it in the house. Got back from vacation and . . . . you guessed it . . . . forgot where I put the damned safe . . . .

[swils8610]

Heavy and big as possible and it needs to be anchored to the floor.


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[HHIslander]

I've got a large Liberty safe that I use to store watches etc. and some cannot be mentioned here items. I recommend them if you need to go big.

[214270Explorer]

Originally Posted by HHIslander

I've got a large Liberty safe that I use to store watches etc. and some cannot be mentioned here items. I recommend them if you need to go big.

We have two of the six foot Liberty Lincolns. Marvelous protection and excellent value for the cost. Hard to beat, and they also look great and have good specs.

I will pass along what I learned over time and what SAFE's SALES PEOPLE WILL (or should) tell you:

"Purchase the largest <and most secure> that you can afford because YOU WILL GROW INTO IT."

We learned this from 'things' we accumulated over the decades, unexpected inheritance, etc. (That is why we now have two safes.)

Bolting down is a no-brainer regardless of the safe's weight or size. It is only a few dollars extra.

[Gab27]

Avoid the marketing hype of fake safes, which is like 99% of the safes marketed to consumers.

What kind of protection do you want? A safe that measures its armor in gauge is not really a safe...it's a locking box that looks like a safe that might keep people out for a few minutes with basic hand tools, or might not.

Do you want MEANINGFUL security? (Class B is arguably the MINIMUM, which is loosely defined as 1/2 inch of plate steel on the door and 1/4 inch on the body, or a composite equivalent)
Do you want fire resistance? (if so, do you want a safe that can protect documents if the house flat out burned to the ground)

And, for the love of God, don't store watches in a 'gun safe' unless it happens to be one of the very few high security gun safes. The side armor on many of these safes is often so thin that hand tools will quickly penetrate it.

[Gab27]

Originally Posted by Uncle Meat

Buying a used safe can save you quite a bit of money and are every bit as good as a new one.

I would argue used is better than new as you can get so much more for the money. For a quarter of the price of a Sub, you can get a used safe that is capable of withstanding a highly skilled, multi-person, powered tool attack long enough for law enforcement to respond to the alarm (i.e., safes with a tool-resistant UL rating.) It won't look pretty, but it will keep damned near anyone out and if your house burns to the ground the contents will be protected (electronics would likely be damaged/destroyed though). For that matter, there are some TL-15 safes using composite fills that one can get new starting in the 2k range for smaller sizes.

[M45]

Liberty fat boy Jr. Can be bolted to the floor and is reasonably fire resistant.

[tmmii]

I had a simple eBay safe that I had bought back in 2006 or so. The keypad just went out last year. Of course when that happened the key part literally fell apart when I tried to open it. That being said after getting my grinder out and cutting it open to get to where I could open it took significantly longer than the time the average burglar is in a house. On top of everything I doubt anyone would ever be able to find it. Leave some cheaper but expensive looking watches or even a fake big name watch in the sock drawer and if anyone ever gets in they’ll grab those and run to their couple hundred dollar payday. I did learn how strong two lag bolts can be when I tried to just pry the thing out.

I know it wouldn’t be hard to get into my house, however the door is always locked (keypad that I lock when I walk out to go check the mailbox), alarm, and cameras that go to the cloud.

I think it’s more than just having a safe.

[shredder]

TL30 rated safe for me. The bigger the better. And bolt it down.

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[S1mplee]

Liberty safes aren’t that great. Get you at least an AmSec. Tested both at a dealer and the Amsec is way heavier duty.

[Gab27]

Originally Posted by S1mplee

Liberty safes aren’t that great. Get you at least an AmSec. Tested both at a dealer and the Amsec is way heavier duty.

AmSec has a really wide range of products, from fake safes with only 14 gauge sidewalls (that a hammer can break through) up through venerable TL30X6's (true safes mandated to certain build specs that survived a two-person skilled attack using powered cutting tools for 30 minutes, which was performed six times in total to attack each side of the safe). AmSec's BF/BFII, RF, AMVAULT lines are all notable as they are all real safes.

Liberty's most armored model isn't even close to being a Class B safe IIRC, which is arguably the minimum for an entry level security safe that protects against hand tools. They are great as gun safes, but they do not have sufficient armor and they do not have sufficient fire protection for the storage of higher dollar valuables (including the watch collections that many members here have.) Their marketing is the epitome of 'fake safe hype.'

[HHIslander]

Originally Posted by Gab27

AmSec has a really wide range of products, from fake safes with only 14 gauge sidewalls (that a hammer can break through) up through venerable TL30X6's (true safes mandated to certain build specs that survived a two-person skilled attack using powered cutting tools for 30 minutes, which was performed six times in total to attack each side of the safe). AmSec's BF/BFII, RF, AMVAULT lines are all notable as they are all real safes.

Liberty's most armored model isn't even close to being a Class B safe IIRC, which is arguably the minimum for an entry level security safe that protects against hand tools. They are great as gun safes, but they do not have sufficient armor and they do not have sufficient fire protection for the storage of higher dollar valuables (including the watch collections that many members here have.) Their marketing is the epitome of 'fake safe hype.'

I have a Liberty after researching them all. I came to the conclusion that if someone wants to get into your safe, they are going to get into your safe. Period. AmSec, Brown, Liberty, etc. it doesn't matter. The only difference is the minutes it will take. If they have the time to take 20 minutes getting into it, they have the time to take 30 minutes. I have the highest end Liberty gun safe and it meets all I could need in terms of fire and protection.

Amsec's customer service was lacking to say the least, I looked at them. Liberty was far more customer oriented and the "bang for the buck" factor easily won out. A Liberty safe is more than sufficient to deter the typical burglar who is looking to grab and go. There is a reason why Liberty is the #1 seller.

Our choice came down to a Brown Safe that was far more secure and went for 30K, or a liberty for 1/5 of that price. We live in a gated community with our own fire and police, we have other types of security in this house too. I couldn't justify the extra cost.

The picture you posted with a Liberty safe with the side blown out could be ANY safe.

[pickettt]

Location, location, location.

[Gab27]

Originally Posted by HHIslander

I have a Liberty after researching them all. I came to the conclusion that if someone wants to get into your safe, they are going to get into your safe. Period. AmSec, Brown, Liberty, etc. it doesn't matter. The only difference is the minutes it will take. If they have the time to take 20 minutes getting into it, they have the time to take 30 minutes. I have the highest end Liberty gun safe and it meets all I could need in terms of fire and protection.

Amsec's customer service was lacking to say the least, I looked at them. Liberty was far more customer oriented and the "bang for the buck" factor easily won out. A Liberty safe is more than sufficient to deter the typical burglar who is looking to grab and go. There is a reason why Liberty is the #1 seller.

Our choice came down to a Brown Safe that was far more secure and went for 30K, or a liberty for 1/5 of that price. We live in a gated community with our own fire and police, we have other types of security in this house too. I couldn't justify the extra cost.

The picture you posted with a Liberty safe with the side blown out could be ANY safe.

If you're happy with it, that's what matters. You know your specific security situation better than I do, and they do have a nice finish and outstanding customer service.

I assume you were looking at something other than the Brown HD? (Presumably one of their jewelry safes?) The HD isn't that expensive in its base TL-15 format and it is a lot of safe for the money. $30,000 is torch and explosive resistance territory.

AmSec's customer service is definitely not very good, and that goes for not just end consumers but ADs as well.

[MrGoat]

I waited till I found a jeweler that went out of business and purchased a few safes. They’re nothing like what you would find in anything beyond a safe store and were much cheaper.


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[RichM]

Nmd

[HHIslander]

Originally Posted by Gab27

If you're happy with it, that's what matters. You know your specific security situation better than I do, and they do have a nice finish and outstanding customer service.

I assume you were looking at something other than the Brown HD? (Presumably one of their jewelry safes?) The HD isn't that expensive in its base TL-15 format and it is a lot of safe for the money. $30,000 is torch and explosive resistance territory.

AmSec's customer service is definitely not very good, and that goes for not just end consumers but ADs as well.

AmSec was actually what we wanted at first. If the customer service experience wasn’t so bad, we’d have one. Their products are more secure and “tougher” than Liberty, no question about that.

You’re right about the Brown, I am presuming you are in the industry? It was the Man Safe 6024. It had the ballistic armor option, fire protection upgrade, glass breakage, everything you could get. It was configured for ~$35k but they offered a discount. A lot of that was cost was a little exorbitant, 16 winders, leather interior, etc.

We decided to put a Liberty in a tiny space hidden behind an alpha mirror door from hideaway doors, a Brown was overkill for that.

[Ghost410]

My answer is always amsec bf

[Larry302]

Sturdy .
They don’t advertise much, no dealers , they ship direct , way more safe for your money .
Bodies start at 3/16 steel, but you can order up to 3/8 .

Just a vastly better safe for the same money as many sold in box stores . They don’t try to fool folks by making them with 10 live bolts an inch thick, but are just short stubs, and inside the door they’re welded to a thin piece of soft metal that bends ,when a pry bar is used in the jam .But then you can’t even slip a dime in their jams let alone a pry bar .

Your safe should be out of view, nobody should know about it . Mine is in a room,that nobody knows is there it’s a thin room six feet across, and the door is not a door….

[Gab27]

Originally Posted by HHIslander

AmSec was actually what we wanted at first. If the customer service experience wasn’t so bad, we’d have one. Their products are more secure and “tougher” than Liberty, no question about that.

You’re right about the Brown, I am presuming you are in the industry? It was the Man Safe 6024. It had the ballistic armor option, fire protection upgrade, glass breakage, everything you could get. It was configured for ~$35k but they offered a discount. A lot of that was cost was a little exorbitant, 16 winders, leather interior, etc.

We decided to put a Liberty in a tiny space hidden behind an alpha mirror door from hideaway doors, a Brown was overkill for that.

I was! When I was a younger lad long before my back issues, I previously worked two different places that did safes. One did Heritage and later Liberty (among other names) and one did AmSec, dealing more heavily in used safes and commercial sales. AmSec is a very interesting company because of how wide their product range is, making products that range from terrible to very good.

I can understand not wanting to spend $30k. Brown's luxury safes are really nice, but, like Graffunder, their finishes commend such a huge premium that they are often out-pricing many safes with six-sided torch protection. I've really come to like Brown's base TL-15 HD and I imagine they've sold a ton of them given how much safe it is for the money.

It sounds like you got the perfect placement. It's definitely optimal when we can hide these things to prevent them from even finding the safe. Even if a smash and grabber who will never make it inside of the safe in a million years takes a go at it, as you know they will still generally damage the safe enough to need service.

[Gharddog03]

https://www.sturdysafe.com/

[Moondoggy]

False bottom in a trash can, no home intruder looks there, oh also make sure you have a safe that can be removed in about 10 minutes.

[47Fountain]

About 6 months ago, I installed an in floor safe encased in concrete. It has a fair amount of internal space of two feet by 16 inches. Walls & floor are qtr inch thick solid steel, door is two inches thick on gas struts & internal hinges, Waterproof & air tight also. Dial/combination safe, no hokey digital keypad wanted. Took about 4 hours to cut the floor, dig out, line the opening in plastic & concrete in. The bottom floor kicks out three inches on the sides so it cannot be pried up out of the concrete, it's a step the concrete is poured over. I also sprayed a thick layer of cosmolene on the sides & bottom before installing. 140 lbs of concrete to finish off. Love it. Better than any bolt down safe you can ever have.

[Blansky]

Originally Posted by pickettt

Location, location, location.

Exactly.

Or buy some insurance. Or an alarm system.

And store your documents away from your house. Fire ratings are bogus.

If you have something that somebody wants bad enough, do you really want them to instead wait until you or your family are at home to rob you.

In my opinion safes are merely the illusion of safe.

[rushca01]

Sturdy safe here, owned it for about 12 years and have moved it 3 times……