Purchasing Your First Safe With Confidence
Making the decision to purchase a safe for your home will never be one that you regret but selecting the most appropriate one for your needs is not always straightforward. Coming in so many shapes, sizes and price ranges, the choices can be baffling, and since a good quality safe is an investment, you don’t want to make the wrong choice.
Here are a few considerations to make when purchasing your first safe:
What size of safe do you need?
Think carefully about what you plan to store in your safe; for expensive or sentimental jewellery or a few pieces of important paperwork, a smaller safe may be enough. However, if you have lots of pieces of jewellery or other collectible items that are precious to you, a small safe will not cut the mustard. Many of us possess at least one gun, and if you have several, then your needs will entirely be different, and you may want to purchase a safe specifically designed for keeping firearms safe, secure and free from the risk of theft.
Most manufacturers will recommend that you buy a safe that is significantly larger than what you think you will need. While a larger safe will naturally cost more (maybe not as much as you might expect, though), if it can store all the necessary items in it, then it would be well worth the investment.
What type of protection are you looking for?
Safes are generally listed as being either fire resistant, burglar resistant or both. Coming with a range of ratings, fire resistant safes may cost more, but will offer you a much higher level of protection for your valuable items, especially when it comes to important documents.
Burglar resistant safes typically contain both a key and combination lock, are incredibly weighty and may be bolted to a wall or floor for extra security.
Many say (and understandably so) that a safe offering a higher level of resistance to both fire and criminal intent is the best investment. These safes are usually free standing but can be secured to the floor if necessary and give you around an hour of fire-resistant protection. How much the contents of your safe are worth to you, will depend upon how much you want to spend on a burglar proof safe; the higher the value of your safe’s contents, the higher the burglar rating should be.
Since purchasing a safe for your home is often considered to be a one-time investment that should last you for many years to come, you’d be wise to assess your needs and budget very carefully. Talking to your local safe or lock specialist would be a wise move, and they can even help you to buy and fit the safe of your choice.
