A Basic Overview of Home Safes

By Erin Mulfinger

The following article is about safes, home safes and home safe contents: what you should store in your safes, how large a safe should be used to keep your items safely stored, protecting items from fires, burglary, water-damage, via safe usage.

Safes were developed to protect valuables from being destroyed in a fire or other natural disaster, or stolen during a burglary. Home safes can be locked and provide much greater security than simply placing the valuables in a “safe place,” which may actually turn out to not be safe, from any threats to security.

Home safes are used for a variety of reasons. The two main types of home safes are those which protect against theft, and those which protect against fire - fire resistant safes. Many provide protection from both theft and fire. Most safes come with a secure lock, therefore providing some protection against burglary. However, safes have been around for a long time and many thieves are able to break the locks on basic models. Therefore, if protection of very important or valuable items is required of the safe, it is important to buy a safe which is designed specifically for protection against burglary.

There are different types of locks on safes. Some home safes can be opened simply by turning a key. If your family decides to buy one of these safes, be very careful about where you decide to hide the key. Make sure everyone in the family knows where the key is, or make copies for each member of the family to have. There are also home safes which can be opened with a combination lock, built into the safe. With these safes, it is important to change the combination on the lock from time to time for added security.

There are also different levels of protection with fire resistant safes. Usually, the temperature of a house fire is around 1300° F. Paper is destroyed around 451° F. The different levels of protection of the safe are determined by how long the temperature inside the safe stays below 350° F. Some safes maintain this temperature for 30 minutes, some for 60 minutes, and others for 120 minutes. The safe is able to maintain this lower temperature by releasing moisture into the safe. It is important to also maintain fire alarms, so that any fire that may occur in the home is brought to the attention of those inside, to decrease the chances of a fire burning for such a long time that it burns right the safe.

Home security is incredibly necessary with the growing number of thefts and burglaries, and having an in-home safe greatly adds to any other home security already in place.