Was Safe shopping recently and found some interesting stuff

[Julian]

So I've been looking for a small safe to install in the house to protect valuables that we use and dont want to put into our safe deposit box and learned some rather alarming things about the biggest vendor out there...Sentry safes. It turns out that the bulk of safes sold by Sentry are only Fire and Water protection safes and not theft prevention safes! Now they don't clearly state this in any way, and only doing research online did I discover this!

How to open a Sentry safe in 1 second

So I continued my research and discovered that many safes are just fire safes and that you need to look for B or C rated theft safes if your plan is to keep your valuables SAFE from THEFT.

Of course after finding this out I thought to myself...I'll bet someone on the forum could have told me this without me doing any research!

So anyone got a recommendation for a 1.7Cubic foot (or thereabouts) theft safe?

 

[Bruce]

I would not consider a 1.7 foot safe for theft protection. The fact that it is locked does not accomplish a lot when someone carries it away.

If you have room buy a big, heavy old safe and bolt it down somewhere. If not buy a gun safe as they are readily available and inexpensive and bolt it to the floor and studs. You can even add sand bags or lead tire weights in the bottom to make it hard to carry away.

Bolts make it harder to remove the safe but I can't imagine not being able to pry a 1.7 foot safe from its mounts.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Locally, there have been a lot of robberies where the crooks walk in and load up anything they want(including safes) into the victims car in the garage and drive off into the sunset. The key is to have layered security as no one device or system is fool proof. Your first layer should be a fence, dogs or motion activated flood lights. Your second line of deterants are alarm system signs and having the alarm system tied to a cellular call out device. I'm rambling on .... you should visit your local locksmith store and see the safes that they recommend. There are many excellent safes on the market just don't go to big box stores. Location of your safe is key, everybody puts it in the master bedroom closet. Think outside the box! With layered security and a hard to spot safe you will be golden and give the cops time to arrive before the bad guys defeat all of your layers.

 

[Julian]

All great ideas....I knew I'd get some! Thanks!

 

[ChrisM]

I say go with a round combination style floor safe.

 

[rkluck]

I bought a gun safe about three years ago for the same reasons. We have a small safe and knew it would be easy to carry off. As suggested above find a safe that can be bolted or somehow connected to a wall or floor. I put our safe (very large) inside the coat closet and bolted it to the walls. I figured that would be one of the last places some one would even look for stuff. Also there is no room to get to anything but the front. I placed it on top of treated 4x4s so if the place was flooded (water leak or fire) the water would not even get close to it. One other note to consider when you have a water tight and fire proof safe is you have to do something to keep the moisture out. I bought some of these water absorbent beads in a can that change color when they are saturated. This takes about three months. I take the beads out and put them in the oven at 200 for about 2 hours to get the moisture out. So far it has been great and even went through a broken water pipe two years ago (the big freeze down here) with no problems.

 

[Julian]

All the retail safes can be bolted down to both the back and sides, and I was only expecting this to slow down a thief, but I didn't expect it to have no slow down effect all all (ie can be opened in ONE SECOND--faster than if you have the combo!). I was just looking for something to store mostly semi valuable jewelery that has more sentimental value than real value. I'd also put in small electronics that don't go on vacation with us.

 

[rkluck]

I needed a place to keep my guns and then added all the other stuff as well. I even keep important papers etc. there and the spare fobs for the vehicles. Having had the unfortunate experience of being robbed I am a little sensitive to making sure my stuff stays my stuff. One other thought for a small safe is to build a hidden spot of it. We went through this thinking and then went to the bigger safe. We had planning on simply cutting a hole in a good place (again the coat closet) which had room under the stairs. We were going to make the entry pretty much unnoticeable. We had thought about putting it behind some pictures etc as well. Not a fancy swing type picture but you would simply have to move the picture to get to the safe. Just some more thoughts to consider.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

I just got an email from TacticalWalls.com they have some cool stuff to hide guns but they are not locked.

 

[Big Shasta]

I just got an email from TacticalWalls.com they have some cool stuff to hide guns but they are not locked.

They are nice....not securely locked though. I'm sure with one swift motion, the magnetic latch could be defeated.

As far as safes, you can't beat a liberty. They are pricey but warranty and quality is awesome. Plenty of youtube videos of people trying to get in them. Mine is 800lbs empty. I bet it's more than double that with my contents. Nobody is carrying that away.

http://www.libertysafe.com/

@Julian Take a look at this one:

http://www.libertysafe.com/safe-premium-home-safes-ps-26.html

 

[Julian]

Thanks @Big Shasta ! I knew someone would have a good recommendation here!!!