Choosing The Right Safe

Your choice of product depends on what you want to protect and the type and degree of protection you need. Cash Safes are used to protect cash or valuables such as jewellery. They can also offer a high degree of protection for laptop computers or important documents such as passports. You need to decide on the level of security you want and the whether or not you would like built in fire resistance. A good indication of the level of security that a safe offers is the manufacturer's cash rating. This takes into consideration factors such as the thickness of the safe's walls, lock and bolt work, and construction of the safe. As a guide, the higher the cash rating the more secure the safe. A safe will not offer any fire protection for paper documents unless specifically designed to do so.

If you primarily want to protect documents from fire and pilferage then look in the Fire Protection section of this site. These cabinets typically offer one or two hours fire protection. Locking systems do provide protection from theft but normally do not offer the same level of resistance from attack as a Cash Safe does.

Computer media requires specific protection and needs to be stored in a purpose built Media Cabinet. Most computer disks and tapes should not be exposed to temperatures over 52°C or humidity over 85%. Data Protection Cabinets therefore offer a high level of fire resistance combined with protection from damaging magnetic fields, dust and pilferage.

Cash Ratings

All cash ratings quoted are the manufacturers recommended cash ratings. A cash rating is the amount of cash for which an insurance company will offer overnight cover. The actual amount of cover can vary between insurance companies and locations and may be higher or lower than recommended rating. If this is important to you, you should check what cover your insurance company will offer. The recommended rating is on the basis that the product is installed according to the manufacturers instructions.

Fire Resistance

Fire resistance is usually measured by the number of minutes a safe or cabinet has been tested to protect its contents when exposed to fire. The longer the period in minutes, the greater the fire resistance offered. This rating is normally obtained by measuring the internal temperature of the safe whilst being exposed to temperatures around 1,000 C in a furnace. The critical temperature before paper records char or combust is about 177 C. Computer media cabinets, however, are tested to maintain internal temperatures below approximately 52 C - which is the maximum temperature most media manufacturers recommend.