Things To Consider Before Buying A Safe

Safes are an excellent way to secure your personal, confidential, or valuable items. This not only keeps them safe from intruders, but many safes can protect these items from things like fire and flood. Here are some things to consider when shopping around for a new safe.

Decide What Type of Protection You Need

One of the first decisions to make when you are shopping for a new safe is to decide what your priorities are as far as protecting your items. Some people have paper items they want to keep in the safe, such as birth certificates and wedding certificates, therefore fire protection is a priority. Others are storing their valuable jewelry, so security is the main protection they are looking for. You might also want to get a safe offering water protection in case there is a flood. Keep in mind some safes will offer all types of protection, so that is also something to look for.

Look at the Security Rating

When you are getting a safe specifically to secure items from potential thieves, or even from children you want to keep out of your gun safe or valuables safe, you should be looking at the security rating. The rating is printed on the box or package of all safes and tells you exactly how secure it is, which is how difficult it would be for someone to break into that safe. The ratings vary based on the thickness of the body and door of the safe, the type of lock, and what tools would be required to get into the safe without a key.

Think About the Type of Lock

Even fireproof and water protection safes are also providing protection and security from people you don't want gaining access to your personal belongings. You should look closely at the type of lock when deciding which safe is best for you. There are combination locks, though these might take a little longer to get into. Key locks are good because they are relatively easy for you to gain access to in a hurry, but if you lose the key, there is the risk that someone else has found it. Some locks are digital, where you enter a numeric code. While there is the risk that someone can guess the code, you can change it periodically for extra safety precautions.

It is a good idea to think about how quickly you would need access into the safe in an emergency as well when deciding on the locks and type of safe. For example, if you are locking up guns, you might have an emergency where you need to get that gun right away. This might determine which lock is best.