There is a wide variety of safes and they all offer a variety of protection. When most people think of purchasing a safe the first thing that comes to mind is knowing they can securely protect all their valuables. Purchasing the wrong safe can end up being very tragic. A lot of people buy a safe under the impression it would withstand almost any brute force attack, but sometimes later discover it is nothing but less than a five minute task to break in.
We here at A & A locksmiths offer many locksmith services in the Philadelphia area. One of the services we deal with is opening and repairing safes for homes and business'. With our experience comes the knowledge of the importance of getting an adequate level of security and protection to meet your needs weather it is intended for your home or your office.
So for starters, what is a safe exactly?
A safe isn't just a regular metal cube. Safes are made to resist a wide variety of attacks weather it is brute force, an experienced safe burglar or other elements such as fires and floods. The main goal is to keep your valuables protected. The level of resistance a safe offers depends on many factors and there is a vast difference between a safe ranging at $100-400 and much higher quality safes costing well over $1000.
In general most safes are made of metal, the higher grade safes also combine steel in their design. A safe with the minimum burglary rate would need to have a door made of solid steel with a thickness of at least half an inch. All safe doors swing outward, therefore the hinges are mounted outside the safe in most cases. A higher quality safe will have additional deterrents to keep the door securely in place and make the task of cutting or breaking off the hinges much more difficult. These safes will also be designed with the door being flush to the rest of the case making it very difficult to pry open and other brute force attacks. Once again the resistance level a safe offers will depend on its design and the quality of its construction as well.
Before purchasing a safe we suggest you make a list of the valuables you plan on storing in your safe. Doing this will allow you to get a better idea of the dimensions you will need as well as the value of the contents you plan to protect.
The next things you'll need to ask yourself is what are you protecting your valuables from? Are you protecting from theft only? Or is protecting in case of a fire important to you as well? If burglary is all you are worried about you don't need a fireproof safe. But if you want to protect against both, getting both a fire rated and a burglary rated safe is the way to go. This of course depends on the contents of your safe; if your items can withstand a fire such as gold and other metals, there is no need for a fireproof safe.
Another important issue you will have to figure out is where will you keep your safe? On the one hand, you want to keep your safe hidden and out of reach for potential burglars, on the other hand you want to keep things convenient to use. The trick is to figure out a place that is a combination of both. Keep it out of sight, but also make sure you can use your safe on a daily basis without it becoming a real headache and annoyance.
Last but not least, safes come with all types of locks to choose from. Your choices will range from basic mechanical combination locks to electronic/digital locks and nowadays even some manufacturers offer biometric locking systems. These locks have various ratings and the least you should ever get would be a UL listed Group ll lock. When it comes to choosing a combination dial or an electronic lock, it's mostly a matter of your personal preference. They both pretty much offer the same level of resistance against brute force attacks. There although one thing that electronic lock has an advantage over the dial, and that is that it will "shut down" if anyone was to try and guess the code a few times, whereas a dial could be tried endlessly. As far as reliability goes, mechanical dials are great. Keep in mind that electronic locks require batteries to operate. A lot of people have a hard time operating a dial and find it easier to use a keypad instead. Changing the combination on a mechanical dial is something only a safe technician should do for you. Whereas changing the combination on an electronic keypad is something you can usually perform yourself without any special tools.
