Security

Buying the right safe can seem like a hopelessly daunting task.  You’ve researched the confusing multitude of different fire and burglary ratings, but still aren’t sure what safe is right for you.  You know you want some fire protection and, of course, good burglary protection.  The TL-rated safes seem like overkill, more fit for commercial duty at a bank or jewelry store rather than the closet in your master bedroom.  It doesn’t help that the TL-rated safes you’ve seen all have price tags in the several thousand dollar range or higher!  So it looks like an RSC (Residential Security Container) burglary safe is what you’re after.

There is only one problem.  The market is flooded with dozens of different RSC rated burglary safe models.  Additionally, the UL (Underwriters Laboratories) RSC rating encompasses a huge range of different levels of security.  The RSC rating is a basic burglary certification that means a validated safe can successfully resist entry for a minimum of 5 minutes with small, common hand tools.  However, the RSC rating is a minimum bar, and the next highest UL rating – TL-15 – is a true commercial safe rating.  There is a massive gap in between the UL RSC and TL-15 ratings.

But not all RSC certified safes are equally secure though.  Some RSC burglary safe models are head and shoulders above others.  Knowing which safes are at the very top of the RSC category is vital if you want to protect your valuables without spending a small fortune on a TL rated unit.  So I’ve put together a list of outstanding RSC safes that I call “RSC+” safes.

Although not nearly much money as TL rated safes (which generally start at over $2,000 and rapidly increase in price from there), RSC+ safes are still expensive compared to poor-quality, inferior RSC safes.  You do get what you pay for with safes!  Please note that all prices given are current MSRPs as of 2016.  These RSC+ safes are sometimes available at discounts, so with a little persistence you may be able to buy one for less than the listed price.

1) The AMSEC BF Series

The first high quality RSC+ safe to consider is the AMSEC (American Security) BF Series.  This superlative RSC safe has a 3-1/2″ thick door consisting of a solid 1/2″ steel plate reinforced with a proprietary fire and burglary resistant amalgam.  The door also has a 1/4″ thick carburized hardplate to hinder attempts to drill the lock.  The body is constructed of two 1/8″ thick inner and outer steel plates that enclose 2-5/8″ of AMSEC’s proprietary fire and burglary resistant amalgam.

The AMSEC BF Series is proudly made in the U.S.A and is one of the few RSC safes in the market today with true “B”-rated burglary construction!  It is fire certified to withstand temperatures of 1700 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour.  Pricing starts at $1,350, making this safe a good value for those looking for serious, yet still affordable protection.  AMSEC also has an excellent line of BF gun safes for those with larger storage needs, although they are not built to exactly the same specifications as the smaller BF line talked about here.

2) The Sturdy Safe Stainless Steel Cube

The next excellent RSC candidate is Sturdy Safe’s Model 2020, otherwise known as The Cube.  This robust safe is fully constructed from stainless steel.  Stainless steel is uniquely suited for use in safes because it is exceedingly difficult to cut or drill with power tools due to its extreme work-hardening characteristics.

The Sturdy Safe Stainless Steel Cube has a body made from 3/16″ thick 304 stainless steel while the door is forged from a solid plate of 1/4″ 304 stainless.  The door also sports an 8″ by 12″, 3/16″ thick stainless steel plate welded over the core of the locking mechanism, making the total stainless steel thickness in this area an impressive 7/16″.  An anti-drill hardplate comes standard too.

Don’t let the relatively thin steel gauges of the Sturdy Safe Stainless Steel Cube deceive you into thinking this safe isn’t incredibly rugged, either.  Stainless steel any thicker than 1/4″ is so tough that it is usually fabricated via industrial plasma cutter!  As an added bonus, stainless steel is also cutting torch resistant, eliminating yet another avenue that sophisticated criminals sometimes use to crack safes.

The Stainless Steel Cube is priced at $1,562 including optional ceramic and glass fiber fire insulation.  Sturdy Safe makes no time or temperature claims related to the fire resistance of its safes.  If you don’t want or need fire insulation, the price is even lower.

Sturdy also has larger gun safe models, although they do not have the option of full stainless steel construction like The Cube.  All of Sturdy Safe’s products are fabricated onsite in Fresno, California.

Please note that as of July 2016, it appears that the Stainless Steel Cube has been removed from Sturdy Safe’s website.  It may still be possible to order this safe by special request, however.

3) The Gardall GBF Series

The last outstanding RSC+ safe I’d like to highlight is the Gardall GBF Series.  This American made burglary & fire safe has a “B”-rated door, containing a total of 1/2″ of solid steel along with fire resistant material.  The door also contains a drill resistant hardplate.  The body is composed of an outer 1/8″ steel plate enclosing 2-1/2″ of fire insulation and another inner metal shell.  These safes have been fire rated for 1 hour at 1700 degrees Fahrenheit.  Starting at $1,423, the Gardall GBF Series offers substantial fire and burglary protection at a reasonable price point.

Even though the preceding three safes are significantly less expensive than most TL-15 safes, their $1,350 and up price range may still be beyond the means of some people.  Therefore I’m going to list a few other safes that are a bit cheaper.  Although not quite on par with the top tier RSC+ safes in terms of security, the following RSC burglary safes still deserve an honorable mention.

4) The Hayman MagnaVault EX Series

Our first alternative is the Hayman MagnaVault EX series.  These stylish safes sport a 4-1/2″ thick door and 2″ body manufactured from a proprietary fire and burglary concrete composite.  They also have between 3 and 5 hardplates that guard the boltwork against drill attacks.  Additionally, these Hayman safes have been fire tested to withstand a 1,200 degree Fahrenheit inferno for 105 minutes.  The formidable Hayman MagnaVault EX series easily exceed UL’s minimum RSC requirements.  Pricing starts at a modest $1,225.

5) The AMSEC CSC Series

The next possibility is the AMSEC CSC series.  These economical safes have a 4-5/8″ door with a fully 2″ thick defensive layer composed of inner and outer steel plates sandwiching a proprietary fire and burglary resistant material.  The body is manufactured from two sheets of 2.5 millimeter (0.098 inch) thick steel enclosing 2-2/3″ of fire/burglary composite.  The AMSEC CSC series is also fire certified for 2 hours at 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pricing starts at an almost unbelievably low $795, which is only possible because the safes are produced offshore.  Although manufactured in China, production is strictly monitored by safe industry veteran AMSEC, ensuring a consistently good quality product.  The AMSEC CSC Series represents exceptional value in an RSC burglary safe for those who cannot stretch their budget.

6) The Sturdy Safe Cube (popular package)

The final runner up in our RSC contest is Sturdy Safe’s Cube again, this time without the all stainless steel construction.  The “popular package” option on The Cube comes with a 3/8″ thick steel plate door and a 4 gauge (0.2242 inches thick) steel body.  It also includes the same 8″ by 12″, 3/16″ thick stainless steel door plate found on the Stainless Steel Cube version, located over the locking mechanism to deter drilling or torch attacks.  As always, an anti-drill hardplate comes standard.  Fire protection is the same as on the Stainless Steel Cube as well.

Pricing begins at $1,270, without the optional fire liner.  Sturdy Safe’s “popular package” Cube may not have specifications that are quite as jaw-droppingly impressive as its all stainless steel big brother, but it is still quite intimidating on its own.

The six safes listed above are all high quality products that will provide you with decades of top-notch fire and burglary protection.  They are definitely not your average RSC safes.  I would be comfortable storing $40,000, $50,000 or even as much as $60,000 worth of valuables in the AMSEC BF Series, the Sturdy Safe Stainless Steel Cube or the Gardall GBF Series in a residential setting.

The other, less expensive RSC safes listed above – the Hayman MagnaVault EX, the AMSEC CSC series or the Sturdy Safe “popular package” Cube – could reasonably accommodate $30,000 to $40,000 worth of cash, bullion, jewelry or investment-grade antiques.  These RSC+ safes may seem expensive to the uninitiated, but a good safe is worth every penny of its price.  A cheap $500 RSC burglary safe from Wal-Mart or Costco could end up costing you far more in the long run.

If you are interested in additional information on RSC burglary safes, then I recommend two other articles I have written on the topic: Understanding Hand Tool Safe Cracking and Understanding Power Tool Safe Cracking.

There is something undeniably impressive about a private residence with a wall safe.  It elicits images of an eccentric billionaire in a luxury penthouse cackling maniacally as he opens a hidden wall safe to carefully remove his secret plans for world domination.  However, wall safes aren’t often recommended these days.

This is due, in part, to the proliferation of cheap, cordless reciprocating saws (Sawzalls) at home improvement stores.  A smart burglar who knows the location of your wall safe could, theoretically, break into your house with a reciprocating saw and cut your wall safe from its 2×4 studs in only two or three minutes before disappearing into the night with your safe (and all the valuables inside).

Of course the truth is a little more complicated than the simplistic scenario laid out above.  For one thing, it ignores the greatest asset of a wall safe – concealment.  A burglar cannot take what he cannot find.  And wall safes excel at not being found.

In addition, it is the uncommon criminal that brings power tools to a burglary.  Even cordless reciprocating saws start feeling heavy after a while.

And assuming you haven’t told the entire neighborhood you have a wall safe – and, by extension, something worth stealing – it is highly unlikely that a burglar randomly targeting your house would bring power tools.  Having said this, it would still be wise to limit the value of the contents you put into a wall safe to perhaps $10,000 to $15,000 for the very highest security models.

A far more likely attack against a wall safe would be a pry attack using a crowbar or large screwdriver.  Luckily there are burglary resistant wall safes that excel against this type of attack.  Two examples are the Hayman WS-7 and Gardall SL6000-F.

Both of these wall safes have 1/8 inch steel walls and 1/4 inch solid steel, recessed doors.  They are made to fit into walls constructed with 2×6 lumber and would offer excellent burglary-resistance against the average smash and grab thief.  Gardall also manufactures another model – the Gardall SL4000-F – that is identical to its big brother except it is made to fit thinner walls constructed with 2×4 lumber.  All three models currently sell for between $350 and $450.

If you really want to feel like a James Bond villain though, the finest wall safe available by far is the Amsec WS1214E5.  This unit weighs a hefty 86 pounds and requires 10 inches of dead space behind a wall for proper installation.  It has a 3/16 inch steel body and a massive, recessed 3/4 inch solid steel door for maximum burglary protection.  In addition, this stylish, all-black model comes standard with a digital lock with an illuminated keypad.

The AMSEC WS1214E5 is the Cadillac of wall safes and will easily resist the most violent pry bar or sledgehammer attacks (assuming your wall studs survive).  Of course, buying the best comes at a price, in this case about $700.

Gardall, AMSEC & Hayman Wall Safes for Sale on eBay

(This is an affiliate link for which I may be compensated)

Keep in mind that all the wall safes I’ve talked about so far have been burglary-resistant models that provide no protection against fire whatsoever.  However, AMSEC also produces an Underwriters Laboratories (UL) certified wall safe with a one hour fire rating, the AMSEC WFS149.  This unit weighs 106 pounds and needs a full 16 inches of wall depth for installation.

Because of this space requirement, the WFS149 may not be an option for every homeowner.  It is important to note that while the AMSEC WFS149 is the gold standard of fire protection for wall safes, it provides only modest burglary protection.  Prices run from about $350 to $450 depending on whether you choose a digital lock or dial combination lock.

Wall safes have been unfairly maligned and don’t deserve the poor reputation they have acquired in the security industry.  Of course, like all safes, they do have their limitations.  Wall safes provide relatively little storage space, typically between 0.25 to 0.75 cubic feet.  They should also not be used to store extremely high value items due to their inherent design limitations.  In addition, there aren’t any wall safes that perform well in both burglary and fire protection, so you will also have to choose which kind of protection is most important to you.

On the other hand, wall safes combine the very best aspects of concealment and ease of accessibility.  If a wall safe’s placement is well-chosen, it will almost always be overlooked in a burglary.  And if it does happen to be discovered by a thief, the higher security units furnish substantial burglary protection, provided power tools aren’t involved.  Prices for wall safes are usually lower than for freestanding chest safes too.  And really, what other type of safe can make you feel like an evil genius conspiring to take over the world?

Choosing a home safe to store your growing collection of investment-grade antiques is a wise decision.  A safe is an economical alternative to insurance, providing decades of protection via a one-time payment – the purchase price.  However, the kind of safe you buy is incredibly important.

There are a lot of safes on the market – mostly imports from China – that are poorly constructed using sub-standard materials.  These inferior safes will not live up to their security promises.  To have peace of mind, it is necessary to purchase a safe that excels in three critical attributes: a tight door gap, high-quality welds and good bolt support.

When a safe is compromised in a home burglary, it almost always happens via one of five different ways.  The most prevalent method involves a thief removing a safe that hasn’t been properly bolted down to the floor and opening it later at his hideout.

The next most common way is a brute-force pry attack against the door.  The third way is a brute-force sledgehammer attack against the door or body of the safe.  The fourth technique employs power tools like angle grinders or circular saws against the body of the safe.

The final and least common attack uses a cutting torch to cut a hole in the safe.  The last two methods mentioned – power tools and cutting torches – are relatively rare and tend to only be used by professional or semi-professional gangs who like to hit commercial rather than residential targets.  So the illicit entry methods we have to primarily guard against in a home safe, assuming it has been properly bolted down, are the two brute-force possibilities: pry attacks and sledgehammer attacks.

Door gap is one of the most easily discernible build quality aspects of a safe.  As the name implies, it is the space between the door frame and the edge of the door when the safe is closed.  The tighter the tolerances and overall build quality of a safe, the tighter the door gap will be.

Unfortunately, with the proliferation of cheap Chinese import safes, the door gap on the average safe available in most big box stores today is atrociously wide.  Wide door gap makes a safe much more susceptible to a pry attack because it is far easier to insert the edge of a large crowbar or breaker bar into such a large space.

A secondary concern is that an excessive door gap can render an otherwise fireproof safe extremely sensitive to heat and smoke in the event of a fire.  For example, a mid-sized home safe with a door 18″ wide and 20″ high that has a fairly modest 1/8″ door gap exposes 7 square inches of net opening around the perimeter of the door.  This is a fairly large area that cannot be easily sealed in the event of a fire, exposing the interior contents of the safe to damaging smoke and heat.

And door gap can easily be substantially larger than 1/8 of an inch.  In extreme cases door gap can even approach an outrageous 1/2 inch wide!  Conversely, you may barely be able to slide a credit card into the door gap of a very well built safe.

The next important aspect of home safe construction is weld quality.  A safe is essentially just a steel box that has been welded together.  So weld quality has important implications for the security of a safe for obvious reasons.  If a safe is constructed with cheap, flimsy spot welds instead of more expensive and robust continuous welds, it is far more fragile overall.  This makes cheap, improperly welded safes very susceptible to brute force sledgehammer attacks.  In extreme cases, a poorly made safe can literally disintegrate into its component steel plates during an aggressive sledgehammer assault.

The final crucial characteristic of safe construction is good bolt support.  The bolts engage the door frame of a locked safe, preventing the door from opening.  However, many import safe manufacturers have resorted to saving money by making these bolts too short and anchoring them to an inadequate 12 gauge (0.1046 inches thick) or thinner steel support bar.  These shortcuts are generally not visible to the consumer unless the inside door panel is removed to allow inspection of the interior boltwork.

Instead, these unscrupulous safe companies will manufacture safes with large numbers – sometimes dozens – of bolts to give the impression of being pry-proof.  However, the number of bolts is largely irrelevant to the security of a safe.  Generally only two or three bolts are really needed to properly secure the door of a well-designed and manufactured safe.

Inadequate boltwork or bolt support makes a safe extremely vulnerable to pry attacks.  Short bolts mean the door frame can often be bent far enough out of line for the stubby bolts to clear the damaged frame.  And a flimsy supporting bolt bar will usually fail from prying well before its attached bolts.  On the other hand, a high quality home safe with long bolts and good bolt support is quite resistant to pry attacks, even with only two to four bolts securing the door.

A high quality home safe can be a great complement to an impressive collection of fine art or antiques.  It can provide protection against both theft and fire while also giving you peace of mind.  But it is vitally important that you buy a safe with a tight door gap, high-quality welds and good bolt support.  These attributes often make the difference between a good safe that will perform exactly as you expect it to and a poor safe that will fail just when you need it most.

Congratulations!  You’ve finally started on the long journey toward becoming a connoisseur of fine art.  You’ve begun a collection of pocket watches with elaborate gold hunting cases, medieval French illuminated manuscripts or sleek, vintage mid-century fountain pens.

But with a new collection worth potentially thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars an important question needs to be asked.  How do you intend to protect your new investment?  Protection for a collection of art or antiques comes in three basic forms: insurance, safe deposit box or home safe.  Each of these different forms of protection has its own pros and cons.

Insurance is something most of us are familiar with, whether in the form of car insurance, health insurance or homeowner’s insurance.  You can also use insurance for protecting your art or antique collection in much the same way.  You pay a monthly (or sometimes annual) premium to an insurance company in return for protection against theft, damage or destruction of your collection up to a certain dollar amount.

Insurance protects against a broad range of dangers while allowing you to openly display your collection without fear of loss.  The big downside to insuring your collection is that it requires a recurring monetary outlay to keep the policy in force.  This usually amounts to anywhere from 0.5% to 2.5% of the market value of the collection every year.

So if good investment performance is one of your primary objectives, then insurance starts looking expensive because it reduces your annual rate of return by the same amount.  It is also important to note that a typical renter’s or homeowner’s policy will not cover an art or antique collection; a special policy or rider must be procured.

A safe deposit box is another reasonable option for protecting your art, antiques or bullion.  These small steel storage units are typically found in a dedicated room inside the main vault of a bank.  They have the benefit of being very secure as banks generally employ rigorous security measures against theft.

A safe deposit box requires an annual rental payment – although these payments are usually quite reasonable at $40 to $300 per annum, depending on the size of the box.  Consequently, safe deposit boxes can be quite efficient when the collection you want to protect is very compact with a high value density.  Precious metal antiques such as gold coins, jewelry or silver flatware are excellent candidates for storage in a safe deposit box.

On the downside, safe deposit boxes are inconvenient to access and aren’t FDIC insured in case of bank robbery or fire.  Also, if a financial crisis ever forces the Federal government to declare a bank holiday, the valuables in your safe deposit box could be rendered utterly inaccessible for a time or even subjected to confiscation.  This scenario – though unlikely – actually occurred in 1933 during the Great Depression when gold was nationalized in the United States.

A home safe is another option for protecting your art or other valuables.  It is very important to differentiate between the cheap, imported fire safes that are commonly sold at big box stores and a real security safe.  A true home security safe will have an Underwriters’ Laboratories rating or an insurance company B or C construction rating.  These ratings, in ascending order of security, are:

Residential Security Container (RSC) – Successfully resists door entry for a minimum of 5 minutes with small, common hand tools.  Value storage guideline: $2,500 to $60,000, depending on build quality.

B-rating – Door constructed of at least 0.5 inch thick steel and walls of at least 0.25 inch thick steel.  Value storage guideline: up to $20,000.

C-rating – Door constructed of at least 1.0 inch thick steel and walls of at least 0.50 inch thick steel.  Value storage guideline: up to $50,000.

TL-15 – Successfully resists door entry for a minimum of 15 minutes with common hand and power tools.  Value storage guideline: up to $200,000.

TL-30 – Successfully resists door entry for a minimum of 30 minutes with common hand and power tools.  Value storage guideline: up to $350,000.

RSC rated safes are the absolute minimum level of protection you should consider for a home safe and may not be appropriate for high value collections.  Not all RSC safes are created equal however; a broad range of protection levels are encountered within this rating.  A very high quality RSC safe can even exceed a C-rated safe in terms of security.  It is also vital to understand that while some gun safes carry the RSC rating (and are therefore acceptable for storing lower value collections) most gun safes do not have a UL rating and should therefore be avoided.

B and C rated safes are mid-range safes that tend to be ideal for residential settings.  Their solid steel construction means they will defeat smash and grab thieves with ease.  TL-15 rated safes, in contrast, are jeweler’s safes with significantly higher security than a B or even C rated safe.  TL-30 rated safes are commercial grade safes.  These incredibly robust safes – although usually found in businesses that deal in high value goods – can still be purchased by private individuals.

Most UL rated burglary safes are also fire rated for anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours.  Safes start at about $500 for a simple B rate unit without fire protection and extend up to $10,000 (or more) for large, TL-30 rated units.  A high quality safe can also easily weigh over 1,000 pounds, so don’t forget to budget extra for professional installation.  Although the up-front costs are higher, a quality home safe will not only keep your valuables easily within reach but also protect them for decades to come.

Ultimately, how you go about protecting your art collection will depend on your individual circumstances.   Do you want to be able to openly display your treasures?  Then a dedicated insurance policy is your best option.  Do you live in an apartment with limited space?  Then consider a safe deposit box.  Do you want to protect your antiques for the lowest cost over time?  Then a home safe may work for you.  In the end the right choice is the one that works best for you.