Decent home safes?

SiD the Turtle · 23 Mar 2017 at 12:44

Hi folks,

Had a near miss the other night: was burgled, house turned upside down but arrived just in time for them to bolt empty handed. They made short work of the filing cabinet which luckily was just full of paperwork, though to be fair you only need a screwdriver to lever those things open.

So looking for a safe that I can bolt into the floorboards or wall, has a surface area just over A4 size so I can squeeze the laptops in it and preferably fireproof.

Where do I begin? I hear a lot about digital safes being easy to breach, so I guess an old fashioned key or combination lock?

aardvark · 23 Mar 2017 at 15:30

have a look at the chubb website - they make some decent ones, although you might struggle to get one that small.

and yeah, you would need to bolt it into a wall/concrete - wood floor would be useless and only destroy your floor when they nick it.

Luke · 23 Mar 2017 at 16:42

Combination and electronic safes are no use whatsoever. Stick with keyed locks only. Security through obfuscation is the best way - keep it hidden.

Luckystrike123 · 23 Mar 2017 at 17:30

A left field suggestion - look at gun / ammo safes.

Won't be fireproof but difficult to steal from without heavy duty equipment.

Haze · 23 Mar 2017 at 18:21

Moses said:
Why? If it's bolted down, what proportion of burglars have the skill and time to get into them? Or are they comically easy to break into?

or come back, when they know they have something worth stealing

VincentHanna · 23 Mar 2017 at 18:49

I always assume burglars are more likely to home invade and hurt you to get at a safe that potentially has lots of expensive stuff in.

Rroff · 23 Mar 2017 at 18:58

Moses said:
Why? If it's bolted down, what proportion of burglars have the skill and time to get into them? Or are they comically easy to break into?

Dunno but we used to have a medium price mainstream electronic/combination safe at work for fuel cards and stuff - one temp demonstrated that you could open it quite trivially :|

muon · 23 Mar 2017 at 19:13

Surely its better to stop them getting in at all? How did they break in?

Mikeyboy · 23 Mar 2017 at 20:47

How much are you willing to spend?

Cheap safes are crap, and are nothing more than a thin steel box with a poor lock, be it key or combination. Fire proof safes are not as secure as safes that are designed to keep expensive items in. The walls look thick, but usually have thick insulation sandwiched between two thin steel walls.

Decent safes have double lined, filled walls and hardened anti drill plates around the lock mechanism and thick doors, but are expensive. Digital combination locks are fine, if manufactured by a reputable company (LaGard, Gardall, S&G to name a few). Manual dial combination locks are pretty damn secure, and difficult to manipulate without the correct equipment, but these are slow and require someone to remember the combination as well as the sequence. This gets easier and faster with a lot of practice.

Don't get a combination safe with a key override. Defeats the purpose.

Key locks are also secure, if they are long, double bitted and the lock is set deep within the door. I hate carrying more keys than I have to, so prefer combination personally.

Another thing to remember, if you want to push the boat out and get a 'proper' safe, is the weight! Some are so heavy, they don't need to be bolted down. Getting them up stairs is an issue, as most delivery companies won't even entertain the idea, which means expensive on site delivery costs. Want it upstairs? Prepare to pay for the privilege, and no chance of putting it on floorboards.

You get what you pay for when it comes to safes.

The_One · 23 Mar 2017 at 20:56

put your expensive stuff in a box in the loft they wont go searching up there

leemk · 23 Mar 2017 at 21:11

When i was renting a house in the 80's it came with a massive 4ft chub safe in the cellar , only thing i kept in there was my birth certificate and passport.
Got burgled and the house trashed (was at uni then so it was already trashed anyway) , they never got in the safe but also afterwards i coudnt get in it due to them trying to jimmy the lock.
So if you live in a house in Ardington Road in Northampton and manage to open it can i have my birth certificate please.

Also i could probably carry a A4 size safe home to open at my leisure .

one like this so i can vouch on there strength.

SiD the Turtle · 24 Mar 2017 at 00:11

Cheers for all the replies guys, that's given me some food for thought.

And yes I'm working to secure the house from any other burglars (just moved in so still identifying the weak spots) but as I've found out, if they want to get in they will

Just working on a combination of deterring them in the first place, but then something fairly secure to protect the important stuff if they decide its worth the effort and risk to break in.

joeyjojo · 24 Mar 2017 at 08:20

leemk said:
When i was renting a house in the 80's it came with a massive 4ft chub safe in the cellar , only thing i kept in there was my birth certificate and passport.
Got burgled and the house trashed (was at uni then so it was already trashed anyway) , they never got in the safe but also afterwards i coudnt get in it due to them trying to jimmy the lock.
So if you live in a house in Ardington Road in Northampton and manage to open it can i have my birth certificate please.

You never got it open??