Home safes

[myrdale]

Another detail about safes is keep in mind you may need to control the humidity inside of it. This came to my attention about 3 months ago when went to put up a small amount of cash (<$200) I had laying around for a while. Some of the document I had in the fire safe had a wet, almost slimy feeling to them. No visible signs of mold, but still not good. I bought a couple packets of dehumidifier prils and placed in each. For larger safes there are electronic heaters you can purchase to control the humidity.

[myrdale]

To provide some rough idea of scale, these are the two I own.

The fire safe I have all my documents, a little bit of cash, spare truck key, and a hard drive with all of my documents.



Even though the gun safe is sold as an 8 gun safe, you can see with just a shot gun and rifle, it is pretty tight. I also have a camera in the small pack at the bottom.

[srblanco7]

We have a small safe (inherited) as well as a fire box. These are primarily for document storage & safe keeping in the event of a fire.

[Drake3287]

I have that same 200lb Sentry Safe as above which I bought from Costco. I didn't bolt it down for two reasons, one it's no longer fire proof when you drill holes into it and two, it's so heavy no one could realistically walk away with it anyway. It's not like a group of stronger burglars are going to break into my home unlike solo meth heads looking for a quick buck. The BIGGEST issue with these safes, moisture trapped in the safe will ruin anything paper like Passports and other important documents. The one thing I finally found that works is buying a box of DampRid Moisture Absorber bags. They simply hang in the safe and collect the moisture. After a year of using them they do work. They do leave a slight mothball type smell though.

Another tip, check the batteries before they die or get corroded. Common issue.

[rennigade]

Correct me if I'm wrong but those home fire safes are only fire rated for a certain length of time when exposed to a massive fire?

[disneysteve]

Correct me if I'm wrong but those home fire safes are only fire rated for a certain length of time when exposed to a massive fire?

That's correct. The one my daughter got recently is rated for up to 30 minutes at temperatures up to 1,550 degrees.

[myrdale]

Correct me if I'm wrong but those home fire safes are only fire rated for a certain length of time when exposed to a massive fire?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWdGrM9DmA4

Is a good video showing testing. Even then though I suspect house fires may be much hotter and last longer than most fire ratings.

[Fishindude77]

I have that same 200lb Sentry Safe as above which I bought from Costco. I didn't bolt it down for two reasons, one it's no longer fire proof when you drill holes into it and two, it's so heavy no one could realistically walk away with it anyway.

Would be fairly simple to strap the safe down and bolt in place with some heavy steel strapping.

[myrdale]

A couple of other points about bolting the safe down.

A safe like mine that is skinny and tall stands to be top heavy and could be knocked over. The first concern of this is if kids decide to climb on top of the safe it could fall over on them. Second if I was going to break into the safe it would be a lot easier to push over with the door pointing up allowing me to put my entire weight into the pry bar that is going to pop the door. All that said, the bolts I purchased to secure the safe are currently laying on top of it. Directly below the safe it the garage, and it's against the wall. The bolt holes do not line up with a joist so I will need to put some blocking up to bolt to.

A counter point is if you do have a safe that is loaded down, then not only do you have the weight of the safe but also the weight of materials inside holding it down.

[Fishindude77]

I've heard that gun safes are commonly stolen using an appliance cart, then taken back somewhere safe to carefully cut open without damaging the contents.
Most of them can also be pried open with the proper big bars and cheaters.

You won't keep the pros out, but a few precautions will cause the majority of smash and grab thieves to just take the easy stuff and get out.

[Drake3287]

Correct me if I'm wrong but those home fire safes are only fire rated for a certain length of time when exposed to a massive fire?

Yep, these safes won't save your valuables if the house literally burns to the ground like we see on these California Wildland fires which burn everything to ash. Luckily the most common home structure fire is simply a room and content fire which they'll fine in.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

We used to have one but not in this house.