As with making any large purchase, when buying a safe, you should be sure to do your research and figure out what the best safe is for your needs. We have many articles included in our website to help you with just this. These are the four factors that are essential to consider before buying a safe. You should never rush into an important decision, so make sure you have answers to all of these factors before buying anything. We really suggest against the impulse buy for something that will protect your most precious possessions.
1. Size or Capacity of the Safe – this first thing to consider is really dependent on what sorts of things you are going to store in the safe. If you are buying with very specific things in mind, you should stack them all up together and measure the dimensions of space it takes us. For good measure, we also recommend that customers add another 25-50% of extra space to account for all the mechanics (that make the inside of the safe smaller than the outside) and for additional things that you may want to add later down the road. It’s far simpler to buy a slightly too large safe now if it means that you can continue using it for some time to come before upgrading to another size.
2. Final Placement of the Safe – this second thing really depends on where you plan to keep your safe. For some people, the room you’re putting the safe in will greatly limit your options. For example, if you want to keep the safe in your office and that office just happens to be at the top of a six-floor walk-up, you might want to go for something smaller. Be aware of how heavy safes are (we don’t want any robbers to be able to make off with them, do we?!) when making your placement decisions. Also note that combination lock and door hinges will add another 2” – 4” to the overall safe size. Be certain that the space you’ve decided on can accommodate this.
3. Type and Degree of Protection – this third thing depends on what you’d like to have protected inside your safe. If your interests lie mostly with very personal items (not necessarily valuable to other people, nor a potential target of theft), you will want to make sure that you purchase a fireproof safe. This will ensure that any non-negotiable paper records (birth certificates, social security cards, marriage certificates) are protected in case of a fire. More traditionally valuable items (that are not as susceptible to perishing in a fire) should be stored in a safe that has been particularly created against burglaries.
4. The Price of the Safe – Finally, the price of the safe is often important when determining what to buy. This is largely determined by the type of safe and the size of safe that you require. As always, beware that deals that seem “too good to be true” are often just that – be mindful of scams.
