Home Safes That Help You Protect Your Valuables
At Guardian Safe and Lock, we’re in the business of helping you protect your valuables and important documents from the unthinkable. While there may be many home safes for sale in Houston, not all of them may be right for your home. With all the sizes and features on offer, it can be a headache trying to find the perfect home safefor you. So what should you look for when purchasing home safes?
What are the Best Home Safes?
The first thing to look at when deciding on home safes is their size and volume. Most safe types are appropriate for a home, from simple lockboxes to larger-sized gun safes. The best way to future-proof your purchase is to look for extra space. It’s better to have a home safe that has more volume than you need now than replacing it quickly and wasting money. In Houston gun safes are commonly used as a home or commercial safe.
Depending on what you need to have stored in your safe, you should also think about features such as shelving, lighting, and finish. If you’re storing guns, consider the number of barrel rests or holsters included with the safe. While you can add more extras down the line, it can save you money by checking for optional features that come with home safes.
The least crucial but still important to remember things are options such as finish, colors, and lighting. While these options may not add to the security of your valuables, most people buy home safes intending to keep them for years, decades, or a lifetime.
How to Choose Home Safes
As we noted earlier, most types of security safes are appropriate for residential use. The type best suited for you just depends on the content you want to put in it.
Lockboxes and pistol safes are the right fit for someone looking to protect handguns, important documents, or family photos, though large home safes provide much more added security due to their bulk. On top of hundreds of pounds of weight, these home safes can be bolted into the foundation of your home, making them nearly impossible to move without having the combination or code to access them.
Wall safes are also an option to consider. These mid-size home safes can be embedded into an internal wall of a home, only allowing their faceplates to be exposed. These can be hidden with photos or other wall decorations, stopping would-be criminals from even knowing you own a safe. Gun Safes are a must-have for someone who owns firearms. These home safes not only keep hundreds of dollars of weapons and ammunition safe from theft and fire, but out of the hands of children.
Fireproof Safes and Ratings
House fires are another common risk a homeowner can face, and there are ways to guard against it. Some home safes are made with internal materials that prevent intense heat from damaging their contents. The durability of these home safes under heat stress is called a fire rating. These ratings are measured by temperature over a period of time. They are assigned by the Underwriters’ Laboratories, the authority in the United States for these ratings.
Safes are declared fireproof safes at a rating of UL2, which equates to being tested for one hour at 1700 degrees Fahrenheit. Any rating below this is only fire-resistant. It may seem like finding a safe at a rating of UL2 or higher is important, but most house fires only burn at about 700 degrees and tend to burn themselves out after 20 minutes.
Therefore; most fire-resistant safes are your best option for protection from house fires, as their rating still easily surpasses the heat and time of the average.
Fire safes also have a seal that can expand when heated, keeping smoke from damaging valuables or documents inside. This seal also makes the safe slightly water-resistant under these conditions. Though, a truly waterproof safe can be a bad idea under the heat of a house fire.
This is because with nowhere for moisture inside the safe to escape, pressure builds and can create a pressure bomb inside the safe. This could damage more than the property stored in your safe, putting yourself or your loved ones at risk.
Securing a Safe at Home
The majority of house safes in Houston are secured with either an electric or mechanical combination lock. Some can be biometric safes and read fingerprints, and a few are even opened with simple key-driven locking bolts. The idea behind deciding which type of lock to have on your safe is to balance quick access with the right level of security.
Be aware that some home safes may come equipped with an override key. This may be convenient for someone forgetful who loses their combination or access code but makes the safe much easier to break into or drill with power tools.
Another deciding factor that you should consider when purchasing a home safe is the types of anti-tampering measures the safe has. A heavy steel door on a home safe provides pry resistance, so the safe can’t be brute-forced open from the door.
A good safe will also have multiple anti-tampering features such as hardened steel plates and relockers that trigger when the safe is under attack. Hardened steel plates are tempered and used to slow down anyone who is attempting to drill open the lock body of your safe and gain entry. They greatly reinforce the safe where criminals may attempt to break in to bypass the security.
A relocker is triggered when someone is either drilling into or banging on the safe. When someone is trying to force their way into your gun safe by drilling and breaking it, it sets off the relocker; which is a solid steel bolt that drops into the railing of the safe. This blocks the bolts from being able to slide back and forth and open the safe.
Commercial Safe Company Near Me
Whether you’re storing important documents, guns, jewelry, or any other valuable, Guardian Safe and Lock has a solution for you. We carry reputable, trustworthy home safes from brands such as Gardall, Amsec, Hollon, and Hayman. From fire to theft protection, you can have peace of mind knowing what’s important to you is safe.
Give us a call, or stop by our showroom and have the best Houston Locksmiths in the security industry to help you find the right safe for your home. Don’t take chances with your property, let us help you keep it safe.