It can sometimes be an overwhelming process to search for the right safe. Remember that a safe is designed to keep your precious items, so it’s important to do a proper investigation before you decide to buy it. Unfortunately, there is a lot of conflicting information on the internet when it comes to purchasing the right safes.
While you can know some of the features you want in a safe, it can be hard to know exactly what makes it suitable for you. That said, a good safe needs to protect your valuable items. This is the reason why reputable safe suppliers make sure that they give you the necessary information so that you can make an informed purchasing decision. This article is a guide to help you buy the right safe.
Understanding gun safes
It’s always important to purchase a safe that is bigger than you think you want. Many people realize too late that they purchased a safe that wasn’t large enough. Besides this, you need to think about the valuable things you intend to store in the safe in the future. Simply put, a bigger safe is always a good deal when you want to have a safe.
You can find safes in Perth that come in different sizes and styles. For example, some safes are made of just thin metal gun cabinets, but they don’t have burglary or fire protection. Another thing you need to consider before purchasing a gun safe is the thickness of metal, construction, fire rating, and type of locking system.
In the past, gun cabinets were usually made from glass and wood. With the glass, it means that you could show the guns to people. Today, you need to have an excellent gun safe designed to protect your guns and other valuable items. It’s important to avoid gun safes that are made up of thin metal cabinets as this may not protect your guns.
If you are searching for a gun safe on the market, you will realize that many low-end gun cabinets tend to have thin metal bodies made from either 16 or 18 gauge steel. With a large screwdriver and a standard hammer, you can easily break this gun cabinet. Remember that a high-quality gun safe needs to have at least 12 gauge steel. Alternatively, the body of the gun safe can use between 10 and 7 gauge steel.
Another important feature in a gun safe is the door construction. It’s a good idea to choose a gun safe that has a minimum of ¼” of solid plate steel or even composite equivalent. If you desire to get a more secure safe, then look for the ones with doors that are at least between 3/8 and 1/2″ steel plate.
It’s worth noting that it’s important to purchase a safe that has a security rating that is higher for the content value. Depending on the items that you want to protect, you need to consider the security rating. There is a wide range of things that you can choose to protect including important documents and high-value items. In such a case, you may need to get a well-constructed composite safe.
When you can use a wall safe or hidden safe
Whether it’s a hidden safe or a wall safe, they are usually good ones for storing large valuable items. A wall safe refers to a small safe that you can conceal and tend to take up a small space. These safes also have some limitations, especially when it comes to fire resistance and burglary.
A wall safe is also usually made up of thin gauge metal. Also, they are not suitable for storing a lot of money, gold, silver, coins, or any high-value jewelry. This is because people can easily access your items when they decide to see your wall to get the safe.
By now you may be wondering why a wall safe is not ideal for keeping these items considering that the other safes tend to be in plain sight. Well, remember that burglars already plan to check in these odd places, such as refrigerators, closets, ovens, and mattresses for any hidden valuables. The best way you can use a wall safe is to store prescription medicine so that children, family members, or employees cannot access them. For high-end jewelry, you can keep them for a short period as long as your business or home has a burglar alarm system.
It’s also important to consider the fire rating of the safe. Fire ratings are usually overlooked, though they should be one of the crucial considerations. It’s a good idea to buy a gun safe that has a fire rating of at least one hour. This is because safes that have a fire rating of less than one hour may not offer enough protection to survive a normal business or home fire.
This is why you should not spend your cash on a safe that cannot protect your valuables like guns during a fire. In case you don’t have enough money to purchase a safe that you desire, then choose another safe that can still offer the longest fire protection depending on your budget.
You can also find some fire-rated gun safes that can protect your important documents. Therefore, if you decide to buy a gun safe to protect your documents, then look for a gun rating of at least one hour or more.
Keep in mind that you can’t find a safe that is fireproof. Instead, many safes are fire-resistant, so they can resist heat and smoke over a certain period like between 30 and 60 minutes. It is this resistance to fire that can protect your valuables like paper documents from smoke and heat damage.
Because fireproof safes are made from very thin metal, it makes them vulnerable to burglars. The metal is designed to withstand fire, but it can be easily sawed or cut using simple materials. Therefore, you should avoid keeping high-value things like a lot of cash, precious metals, and many more.
