What to secure in a home safe, how to equip and buy it?

This is a question to which there is no clear-cut answer. A lot depends on what type of safe you have, what its technical specifications and security features are, and what your needs and preferences are. Home safes can be used to store many items securely:

• cash, securities,
• jewellery, watches,
• documents,
• numismatic collections,
• family heirlooms and other items of sentimental value.

Depending on what items you ultimately plan to keep inside, you should look in different categories.

For securing weapons, just home safes of resistance class S1 – the lowest available on the market – are sufficient according to the regulations. You can find out more about storing weapons in the Ordinance of the Minister of the Interior. On the other hand, if you have some valuable items that you want to protect from falling into the wrong hands, heavier safes, armoured strongboxes with high burglary resistance, are a better option. Finally, for securing money, documents and other papers, a fireproof safe is worth choosing for your home.

Keep in mind that the higher the value of the items stored and the higher the risk of burglary, the higher the resistance class of the safe you need to choose.

The size of a safe basically depends most on what you want to store inside and how much space you have available in your house or office. The choice is wide, you are sure to find something to suit your needs.

A large home safe is rare, mostly for private use customers opt for a small home safe that they will be able to mount in a cupboard without too much trouble, while larger models go to offices, companies, law firms, etc., where more important documents need to be stored.

Note that the external dimensions of a safe and the space available inside are two different things. This is especially true in higher-grade home safes, where the walls and doors are a few centimetres thick. So if you have items with dimensions you are concerned about, check the internal dimensions of the safe, we always provide these in our offers.

Every home safe can be fitted with a range of accessories to improve its functionality.

You can decide which type of lock to choose, whereby the choice of lock type does not affect the level of security of the safe, but is only a way of using it.

Key lock

The key lock is the standard item and the cheapest one. However, key locks are not very convenient, they require a secure place to store the keys (the key itself is long enough to be difficult to carry around), and losing a key results in a cost that reaches the price of an electronic lock.

Mechanical combination lock

This type of lock avoids the inconvenience of a key lock, has its own style and is trouble-free. However, it requires patience and precision. Therefore, if the home safe will be used, for example, to store weapons for self-defence, this type of lock is not the best option.

Electronic lock

The electronic lock is by far the most common type of lock, and for good reason. It is simple and intuitive to use, most does not require mains power, only 9V batteries, and in the case of larger safes it can be fitted with an additional mechanical key to act as an emergency. For your own convenience, it is worth investing in such a product.

Home safes that have fire resistance are a common choice, so it is worth devoting a separate paragraph to them.

Nowadays, both at home and in business, we are surrounded by electronics. Almost everything around us can suddenly start to burn, so when we talk about safes, we point out that the risk of fire is sometimes higher than the risk of burglary. Therefore, if you need all-purpose security, a fireproof safe is the right choice for you.

Fire resistance is a separate characteristic of safes, independent of the burglary and mechanical resistance class. It is expressed in minutes and confirmed by a corresponding certificate. Our product range therefore includes safes in classes:

• LFS 30 in accordance with prEN 15659 – 30 minutes for paper
(available in burglary resistance classes 0-III in accordance with EN 1143-1),

• S60P/S120P in accordance with EN 1047-1 – 60/120 minutes per paper respectively
(available in burglary resistance classes I-II according to EN 1143-1),

• S60DIS/S120DIS in accordance with EN 1047-1 – respectively 60/120 minutes for data carriers
(available in burglary resistance classes I-II in accordance with EN 1143-1 and classless).

Fireproof safes have many advantages. For whom a particular model will work depends on individual needs.

The security level of a safe is influenced not only by its security class and weight, but also by how and where it is installed. A thief will not be choosy and if he manages to take the safe out of the house, its contents will be irretrievably lost, regardless of whether these are valuables or just family heirlooms and a few hundred zloty in cash.

A home safe should stand directly on the floor, possibly on a low platform of a few centimetres at most. Firstly, no space should be created between the safe and the floor that is large enough to allow the possibility of sawing up the anchors. Secondly, if you assume that the safe will have a weight of at least 100 kg, mounting it on a shelf will be unstable and risk being dangerous.

The home safe should be mounted in a place where no cables, pipes or other installations run.

You can read more about this issue in the article:   How and where to install a safe at home?

For the most demanding customers, we offer off-menu solutions. A home safe can not only be a secure place to store valuables, but also an elegant, tasteful and eye-catching interior design element.

A home safe can therefore be varnished in a high gloss or matt finish, or have a customised, sometimes highly extravagant colour. Its interior may include watch winders for mechanical watches, drawers for storing jewellery or numismatic items, and the whole thing beautifully illuminated. You can find a shopping guide for bespoke safes here.

All right, but how do you go about it so that you avoid mistakes and choose the safe that best suits your requirements? There are two possibilities.

Online shop: a simple and modern method through which you can find a wide selection of safes with lightweight construction, mostly in stock. The online shop has safes for storing weapons that meet the requirements of class S1. Keep in mind, however, that you won't come across fire and burglary safes with higher security classes there.

So what if you're interested in fireproof safes or a high-grade home safe, but don't know how to go about it?

The answer is simple – a professional advisor is best placed to help you choose a safe, and this is something that no shop will offer you. Thanks to the many years of experience of both the company and its employees, we offer the only model of cooperation on the market in which every customer is treated individually and the final shape of the contract is discussed from start to finish with a single advisor.

In simple terms, it's about asking questions and finding answers, and the more questions we ask when choosing a safe, the fewer questions you will have in the future. Thus:

• We will discuss your needs: what valuable things do you want to store in the safe, how much space will it take up, how much is it worth? Will it be important documents, or perhaps valuables and money? Or perhaps weapons, laptops or anything else?

• We will point out some risk factors and try to address them by choosing the right security.

• We will define the main dangers: should a safe protect more against fire or theft?

• Before we go for a bespoke safe, we will review the products in stock – your time is valuable to us.

• We will give you any additional information such as the price of the safe, additional services and products, payment terms and available dates.

Choosing a safe for home is not easy, so we warmly invite you to get in touch and take advantage of our advice and assistance in choosing the right product.