The decision has been made – there will be a safe in your home or business. You can choose from many models on the market, but not all of them will be the best solution for you. However, the answers to the following questions will make the selection easier. It is worth answering them, regardless of whether it is your first or second purchase.
1. What do you want to secure?
Probably valuable and expensive items. However, this is a broad category and your needs vary greatly. If you have valuable watches, a safe equipped with rotators is the optimal solution. There is also no shortage of solutions on the market tailored to other needs, such as those related to the storage of electronic data storage media or long and short weapons. You can also opt for deposit and burglary safes or fireproof cabinets for hazardous materials.
2. What security class?
The higher, the better for the items you want to protect from damage or unwanted action by third parties. Standards, set by independent inspection and certification institutions, provide information on the burglary resistance of safes. Their decisions are made on the basis of tests with various tools. If burglary protection is not enough for a client, he can choose products which also offer protection against fire, smoke and fire extinguishing fluid. There are different fire resistance classes, for example safes that guarantee 120 minutes fire resistance for data carriers.
3. Where will you put the safe?
Some people need it at home, others at work. It is certainly worth refining your answer, thinking about a particular place in a particular room. There are compact safes, free-standing safes, wall safes and floor safes. The first ones are usually small and can be installed e.g. in furniture. The choice between the latter two categories should already be made at the property design stage. Of course, later installation in the floor or wall is also possible, but means additional expenses.
4. What size of the safe?
There will probably be more and more items that you want to secure this way. It is good to bear this in mind even before choosing a safe. Its capacity can be a dozen or a few dozen, but also over a thousand litres. Sizes vary greatly, some models are more than 20 cm high, others – about 2 m. As for the width, it is sometimes about 30 cm, but also over 1.2 m. Depth? Sometimes 25 cm, sometimes more than 70 cm. More demanding customers will certainly like the safe room (strong room), the dimensions of which can be adapted to customer requirements, and which can be several hundred m2 in area.
5. Which lock in the safe?
This is where manufacturers give their customers plenty of choice. If you pay attention primarily to the price, then your interest will be a key lock. It is the cheapest and, in addition, easy to operate and use. However, not everyone considers this option in the face of the need to hide the key, which can be easily forged. A much higher level of security is provided by safes fitted with electronic or biometric locks, which are convenient to use and affordable. An alternative are mechanical combination locks, which are quite demanding when it comes to their operation, but ecological (we do not consume electricity and do not use batteries).
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How do you choose the perfect safe for your home and what should you look for?