Home safe recommendations

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k1wi

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#138892 21-Jan-2014 08:36

I was wondering if anyone had some recommendations for getting a home safe and where to look for one. Obviously I'm looking at a good quality safe, preferably with a keypad entry, but it doesn’t need to have lots of bells and whistles…

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#970412 21-Jan-2014 08:43

I'm interested in this too. Small document safes are cheap enough on trademe, but once you get large enough to store things like a few digital SLR cameras they get pretty expensive.

The jeweler I used for my wedding has a safe that's around a meter square. It was installed using a forklift.

I wonder if building something into a cupboard would work as well as a commercial safe? Strong wood, metal sheet lined, but I guess having the locking mechanism internal rather than a padlock would be difficult and rather important.

BlueShift

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#970415 21-Jan-2014 08:45

I've seen them at Mitre10 Mega, but I'd assume you'd be better off going to Chubb or other professional locksmiths. Depends also on the size you require, and the level of uncrackability.

k1wi

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#970417 21-Jan-2014 08:48

Actually, since doing a little googling, I realise that I need to consider the importance of fire safety vs burglary vs both...

MikeB4

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#970418 21-Jan-2014 08:49

we have a Yale Homesafe it is fireproof, keypad with time lock. It did not cost a lot.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

mrdrifter

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#970421 21-Jan-2014 08:53

I have a very large fireproof safe that makes for a very fun time when moving house, but for something smaller I would recommend having a look at the Yale document or data protection safes, I have had a look at these in person and they are very well made and meet a number of standard for protection of items. I believe Chub sells these in NZ.

timmmay

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#970429 21-Jan-2014 09:00

The Yale Fire Safes look good if you want something bigger than papers, passports, and jewelry. Their home safes look a little cheaper, but don't advertise fire protection. They look heavy enough that you may need to pay an installer for the larger ones, especially to get them attached to the floor - they wouldn't be that hard to put on a trolley and walk away with.

TBH I'm personally not super worried about fire protection, more against burglary, though I guess fires are worth protecting against too since it's not a huge additional cost.

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sidefx

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#970447 21-Jan-2014 09:12

I imagine a safe is the sort of thing you buy once and should last for decades though. When compared to the price of a new TV\Computer\etc I guess they're not that much. I'm curious how bullet proof the electronic components are though - seems like introducing electronics into the mix might affect longevity?

I'm also curious if\how those yale fire safes do bolt into the floor? Open safe and bolt from the inside?

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andrewNZ

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#970448 21-Jan-2014 09:13

I've wanted a safe for a while, I haven't done any serious looking, but I got the impression that if you can't bolt down a fireproof safe (at least not most basic ones). you can't have holes in a fireproof safe.

That leaves me with a dilemma, I want a fireproof one, but it's as good as sticking your valuable stuff in a bag labelled "valuable stuff". A thief is going to take it and try to break into it somewhere else.

MikeB4

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#970450 21-Jan-2014 09:14

andrewNZ: I've wanted a safe for a while, I haven't done any serious looking, but I got the impression that if you can't bolt down a fireproof safe (at least not most basic ones).
That leaves me with a dilemma, I want a fireproof one, but it's as good as sticking your valuable stuff in a bag labelled "valuable stuff". A thief is going to take it and try to break into it somewhere else.

Our safe is bolted to the floor

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

andrewNZ

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#970453 21-Jan-2014 09:16

KiwiNZ:
andrewNZ: I've wanted a safe for a while, I haven't done any serious looking, but I got the impression that if you can't bolt down a fireproof safe (at least not most basic ones).
That leaves me with a dilemma, I want a fireproof one, but it's as good as sticking your valuable stuff in a bag labelled "valuable stuff". A thief is going to take it and try to break into it somewhere else.

Our safe is bolted to the floor

That clarifies things a bit then, thanks.

k1wi

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#970454 21-Jan-2014 09:16

For fitting guide I guess it should be similar to the one on this page, which has bolts through it, but it's possible it's not a fire safe:

http://www.yalelock.com/Yale/Yale_co_uk/Product%20Instructions/YALE_Safes_User_Manual_UK.pdf

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timmmay

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#970460 21-Jan-2014 09:21

Yale firesafe fitting guide (PDF) - includes bolting it down to a concrete floor, which doesn't help people in wooden houses much. More documents here. I guess with a wooden safe you just bolt it to the floor?

MikeB4

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#970467 21-Jan-2014 09:28

k1wi: For fitting guide I guess it should be similar to the one on this page, which has bolts through it, but it's possible it's not a fire safe:

http://www.yalelock.com/Yale/Yale_co_uk/Product%20Instructions/YALE_Safes_User_Manual_UK.pdf

It is a fire safe and it is bolted to the floor

http://www.yalelock.co.nz/Yale/YalelockNZ/Product/Safes/Fire%20Safes/Yale_Fire_Safe_Fitting_Guide.pdf

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Talkiet

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#970489 21-Jan-2014 09:47

I went through this a couple of years ago and ended up with a nice, medium sized Chubb cheap off Trademe. There are 3 main types of safe in terms of fire protection.

- No specific fire protection. These are often suitable as gun safes or for items like jewellery. Can have thin walls to the point they might just be thick sheet steel.
- Fire Safe. Lots of insulation in the walls. Can usually be bolted down (Mine is in this category). Good ones will specify how long they can keep internal temperatures down to a set temperature given a specified external fire temperature.
- Data Safe / document safe. Similar to fire safes, but far more focus on insulation than security. Often these come with relatively basic locks and are primarily designed to protect against fire instead of burglars. These often have a separate sealed internal chamber as well as the main safe. These can only sometimes be bolted down.

Any safe is better than no safe, but don't rely on a fire safe to keep DVDs or hard drives with important material on them safe for example. The HDDs I keep in my safe are stored inside a waterproof box with dessicants in it - although that precaution is more about getting the data back after a tsunami takes out the house :-)

Cheers - N

ps. I have an online backup to the US as well - I'm not really relying on the safe to save my data from a Tsunami :-)

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

andrewNZ

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#970493 21-Jan-2014 10:11

Perhaps it was data safes I was looking at. I definitely remember something about heat being transferred into the safe via holes or steel bolts passing through the body.

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