Home safes are special devices used to store valuable items such as money, jewellery, documents or weapons. Home safes can be built into a wall, floor or piece of furniture, or be free-standing and portable. Home safes vary in their level of security, fire and water resistance, capacity and method of opening. Some home safes have a mechanical or electronic lock, while others require a fingerprint scan or PIN code. Home safes are an important part of protecting property and privacy at home, as they prevent theft, burglary or damage to valuables.
What is a home safe used for?
You can use a home safe to store many items that you fear losing. A small home safe provides basic protection against attempted burglary, but if you want to store more valuable items, jewellery, larger cash or items of sentimental value such as family heirlooms, then it is worth thinking about a slightly larger and heavier safe. The burglary resistance class will depend on the value of the items stored.
If the home safe is to be used for storing documents, it will be worth taking care to provide effective protection against fire. We offer products that provide effective protection from 30 to 120 minutes. Fireproof safes can protect not only important documents, but also data carriers.
Small home safes
Most customers assume that a safe for their house should be as small as possible. A popular idea is to buy various types of cassettes or so-called furniture safes. However, cassettes weighing several kilos or more do not provide any protection against theft, and the feeling of security is an illusion masked by the lowest price. On this point, we recommend our other article on safes from DIY stores.
Home safes can be small, compact, suitable for installation almost anywhere, and have a high burglary resistance or fire resistance class. In this case, the home safe will have a capacity to store 2-3 files and the weight of the safe will start at 100 kg.
Home safe – free-standing or wall-mounted?
The majority of safes on offer are free-standing safes that can be mounted to the floor or wall. Such a product provides the highest level of security as it is armoured on all sides and its weight is higher. The range of free-standing safes is more extensive, with higher burglary and fire-resistant models available. Mounting to the floor is the most robust, and you can additionally mount some safes to the wall.
However, if your living space does not allow you to place a safe, you will also find wall safes on offer. Such safes are built into a hole in the wall, thus saving space. However, remember: a wall-mounted home safe will be smaller, lighter and generally provide more basic protection for your valuables.
Home safes with a key or electronic lock
The type of lock used does not affect the security of the safe. A key lock is standard in every safe. The biggest, and only advantage of this type of lock is the lowest price. The keys, especially for products with higher burglary protection classes, are long and bulky. If a key is lost, making a spare one is an expensive and lengthy process.
Therefore, the most common type of lock chosen is the electronic lock. It provides convenient access to the safe, its operation is simple and intuitive, and it does not require a power supply, as it runs on batteries. If the batteries run down, you can easily replace them with new ones.
For larger safes, it is possible to equip the safe with two locks: an electronic and a key lock, and you can do this in two ways:
• the key lock will complement the electronic lock, you will have to open both independently to open the safe,
• the key lock can act as an emergency key, which you will use if the electronic lock fails.
You can find quite a lot of material on different types of safe locks in our blog, such as: Overview of popular locks in safes.
Jewellery safes
Although home safes, especially fireproof safes, are bought to store documents, more and more valuable items such as jewellery, watches or other valuables are becoming a priority.
In order to store jewellery securely, a home safe should have an extremely high burglary protection class. The aforementioned cassettes will work the opposite of their intended purpose here – instead of protecting, they will attract attention. Such a product should therefore be sufficiently heavy and decently mounted.
Jewellery and valuables safes can also be personalised with drawers with appropriate compartments to display the more valuable objects.
Home safes versus exclusive safes
Even small home safes can be made in a way that not only provides security, but is also pleasing to the eye.
The product is based on a safe from the standard range, but both the interior and exterior are developed together with the customer and adapted to individual requirements on request.
From the outside, personalisation means choosing not only the colour of the paintwork, but also its texture: from classic powder coating to our own soft-touch, with a slightly suede-like feel, matt or high-gloss.
And inside you can put whatever your heart desires, colloquially speaking. The interior of the safe is made of natural wood, veneer, alcantara or other upholstery; we fit drawers, lockers, handles or whatever the customer desires, and, of course, we illuminate the whole thing. Take a look at the catalogue and the page dedicated to the Signature and Exquisite lines.
Summary
Home safes are actually numerous product categories with varying features, purpose, size, weight and price. The wide selection can seem daunting, so if you can't decide which safe best suits your needs, contact us. We'll tell you everything we know about safes, help you choose the right model and look for the optimum installation location.
