Residential Safes

When choosing a residential safe, the consumer should pay attention to its anti-burglary rating. For example TL-30 safe can withstand 30 minutes opening or dislocating attempt.

An important factor for safe security is having composite layers – when burglar has to deal with multiple materials he has to have different tool; and because manufacturer will rarely disclose layers setup burglar will never know what tools to have on him.

Another layer of protection is the weight of the safe. The heavier the safe, the harder to remove it from your house.

And finally, it should have the ability to be bolted to the solid floor in order to be secured inside your property.

Depending on your insurance agency policy, they might reduce home monthly rate if you buy and install a high-level security safe. For best discount it should be mounted to the floor, waterproof and fire-rated, ideally having installed alarm connected to your security monitoring company; which triggered if a burglar attempts to crack-open the safe.

Typically bank deposit box is completely falling out of insurance coverage, and there is a cap for home valuables worth covered by insurance. The coverage will automatically increase when you have a safe at your property, and if you list your items you can create a custom coverage quote with your insurance broker.

• Valuables are available 24/7
• Valuables are insured
• You are in control of container size, larger safe gives you more space for storage
• Store any item you need, no limitations
• High-level security safe are fire and water proofed (deposit boxes are not)

If you own a residential safe, these are the valuables recommended to be stored in:

• Important documents like property ownership or insurance policies, vehicle titles, investment and retirement plans
• Passports, IDs and original birth certificates
• Important keys such as keys for bank deposit box
• Passwords to important accounts
• Legal document such as living wills, powers of attorney etc.
• Jewelry
• Coins and collectables
• Cash

The safest place to install your safe is in the corner so it will be supported and protected by two walls. However sometimes homeowners decide to hide the safe is a spot where thieves will usually not look for valuables, such as closet, wardrobe, or even hidden inside the wall.

In any case, it’s best to be anchored to the concrete floor, so the basement would be an ideal choice, or the ground floor of the bungalow house.

If you own jewelry with a value of more than $10,000, or family gold and silver jewelry stock, the best way to protect it is to install a large and high-level security safe, TL-30 and up. (TL-30 means can withstand a 30 min burglar attack). This way your valuables will always be available for you but yet secured from been stolen or lost.

Small jewelry safes could cost anywhere from $800 to $1800

Quality Medium Burglary-Rated Safes should be rated anything from $1,500 to $3,000

Large High-Security Safes rates could range anywhere between $3,000 to $10,000+

Most insurance policies have a limit for household jewelry coverage. However you might consider to request extra coverage for your valuable jewelry, and having a home safe will reduce its rate.

Before putting your jewelry in the safe, store them in separate containers to insure hard gems will not scratch gold or silver parts.

Do not seal jewelry in plastic bags. Some plastics types emit vapors that can pit and discolor metal and corrode the surface of pearls and certain gemstones.

Opals, amber, and pearls should not be stored at freezing temperatures because they may craze. In general organic gems should be stored in a place with steady temperature without ups and downs.

A burglary safe’s definition is a “safe that is able to withstand burglar attack or forced penetration”.
Burglars use a variety of tools to break into safes, including common hand tools, power tools, cutting torches, chemicals, explosives, and a laboratory-tested anti-burglar safes own a special rating (UL-TL score).

This rating provides information on how much time a safe can withstand penetration attack – for example TL-30 means thieves need 30 minutes to crack it open.

Burglar-proof safe is designed to protect valuables from thief’s attacks and categorized in various resistance classes, such as UL, TL, and RSC. The class is determined by various factors, such as the metal thickness, wall composite layers, lock efficiency, safe weight, bolting / mounting option and more.

RSC, or “Residential Security Container” rating is the ability of the safe to hold at least five minutes of heavy prying, drilling, punching, chiseling, and tampering attacks. RSC rating earned by special laboratory testing that uses real life common burglary tools when testers conduct penetration attempt for at least 5 minutes in a row.