Home & Garden Personal Safety & Security

Understanding Which Safe Is Best For Your Needs

There are many differences between the security and convenience of a free standing burglar safe and a wall safe, A Wall Safe can be concealed or hidden behind a large wall painting, cabinet or a wall panel and therefore is not easily found.
Becauseit islocated at a higher level off the floor,the access to this safe is easier.
Wall safes are also easy to install.
But to their detriment, they are commonly not very large, and therefore usually does not offer much storage.
They are generally only 3-1/2 inches thick because of wall thickness limitations.
Only a few manufacturers make a wall vault with a decent fire rating, and those safes require a depth of 15 inches, which most homes cannot accommodate.
In general.
it is not a good idea to store more than $5000 in content value in a wall safe because the wall and door thicknesses are relatively thin.
Free standing safes come in three distinct styles: a burglar safe, a fire safe or a burglar fire safe.
For this article we will compare a burglar fire safe to the wall safe.
A burglar fire vault can store a much higher content value because the construction of the walls and door is much heavier and impervious to burglars and fires.
Many free standing safes have an Underwriters Lab Burglar and Fire rating.
These safes weigh much more than a wall safe, and if properly anchored into a concrete floor, will resist burglar attacks much better than a wall safe.
Burglar fire safes are themost common type and will offer 1 hour to 2 hours of fire rated resistance.
Whereas most wall safes have no fire rating and little resistance.
A free standing safe with a TL-15 or above burglar rating are a much better choice for protecting valuables that exceed $5-10,000 dollars.
On the other hand, a free standing safe is not as convenient to open and close.
The user has to bend over to turn the combination or the electronic lock.
They are much harder to conceal than a wall safe, but with clever thought, these too can be concealed behind a sliding panel or door.
Heavier free standing safes, such as TL-15 or TL-30 rated safes cost more to deliver and install due to their weight and size.
No matter which type of safe you select, think about what you will be storing and forhow long.
Wall Safes are popular for "temporary storage" before an event.
So, if you want to store a valuable piece of jewelry overnight before you wear it, then a wall safe may be the right solution.
However, if you have a valuable piece of jewelry that you want to keep secure at ALL TIMES, then a free standing vault with the proper U.
L.
Burglar rating would be a better choice.


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