I'm starting to think that it might be a good idea to have a home safe where I can keep my passports, bundles of foreign currency and hand gun & ammunition 'safe'. Maybe a couple of watches too, if there's room.
Safes appear to be one of those areas where there's no good independant advice online, so it's all a bit of a minefield. I think I want a firesafe, I think I want an electronic keypad (though are the keypads fire proof?) rather than key operated (because where do you keep the key?), and I definitely want something that can take A4 documents.
I know where it's going to go. Are party walls two bricks deep? Don't want to drill through to next door :-).
I was forced into a new safe recently due to Watch insurance, I didn’t buy a fireproof safe, but in terms of value a £1000 cash value safe offers £10k watch/valuables cover and a £2000 cash value safe gives £20k cover. Sorry it doesn’t help on fire proofing but may be useful for your valuables hopefully.Originally Posted by hogthrob
MarcJ is in the trade so I’d get him to steer you right.
Passports (plural), foreign currency, hand gun and ammo ? Are you some sort of 007?
A mechanical combination lock is the better option too many have had the electronic lock fail. Not all safes are made equal you need to research before buying such as thickness of metal gauges, fire proofing methods etc. Don't rely on the safe seller to give you what you want plenty of resources on line to learn before you buy. Good luck in the hunt Gordon.
There have been a few threads on this in the past. As said not all are equal, even an electronic key pad safe has a key (as an override in case the batteries go flat). If you have the space have a look at a home office approved gun safe. They tend to be cheaper than most off the shelf examples and are larger and more secure, they often come with a lockable ammo safe inside so you can be double sure anything of value is almost impossible to get to.
They are bolted to a solid internal wall like any other safe.
The best and cheapest safes are the old office safes that are made out of 2" or 3" thick steel. No scrote will ever get into one of them. It took 3 men to get mine into the house.
The only disadvantage is that insurance companies won't pay up if some one actually managed to get into them as they are non approved but the chance of that happening is almost zero.
Did mine . Nice bolted into the wall. Party walls are usually 2 bricks deep.
Problem is however good the safe is, the thief or thieves can just steal it and open it at there leisure, obviously with the exception of floor safes built into the house.
Also any burglar will just get you to open the safe anyway. I've heard they can be very persuasive.
Aye, apparently you've a job on keeping people quiet when they've got bolt cutters around their fingers...
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Buy a cheap safe, bolt to wall in a discreet but not too hidden place.
Put all your valuables somewhere else, well hidden.
I use a shotgun cabinet. Bolted to the floor and wall and locks with two heavy duty locks.
You can have the bank of englands old vault and you will open it as soon as they put your wifes fingers in pliers, go for a concealed option, multiple if possible. A shot gun cabinet is not good for higher value items. Of course a mega safe is great for when you are not home, but they can come back when you are.
A home safe isn't generally of much use when you are home as any burglar brazen enough to gain entry in that situation will have little difficulty in getting you to open it.
It's when you're not home you want it to be secure as statistically that's when you're most likely to be burgled, make sure any safe is either bolted down securely enough that it can't be pried out with sledgehammers and pry bars, or heavy enough that it can't be moved.
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