You want to make certain that a fireproof home safe really would protect your valuable documents in the event of a fire. Here are a few things to look for to make sure. First, the safe should carry a fireproof rating. Ratings are typically given in hours, such as a 1-hour fireproof rating. This means that the safe has undergone a certain test - it was subjected to an actual 1700 degree F fire for a period of 1 hour, and the temperature inside the safe never got above 350 degrees F. This is a low enough temperature to prevent permanent damage to documents and other valuables.
To make sure the rating is valid, examine the safe. You should see extra thickness in the door and walls due to the fireproof insulating material, and their should be a special seal around the door that expands when it gets hot - this keeps the water used to put out the fire from getting inside the safe. Finally, you might also want to consider getting a fireproof home safe that has a burglary rating as well. Then you can rest assured that your valuables are safe from fire and burglars as well.
One Response to “What to look for in a fireproof home safe”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
May 18th, 2010 at 11:45 am
It should probably be noted to the first time home safe hunter that fire resistant safes are not built to properly save media (i.e. DVD, CD, Magnetic Media, etc) from fire damage. Magnetic media includes hard drives, magnetic strips on credit cards, cassettes, VHS tapes, or the like. If you plan to store this type of media from fire damage then a “media safe” is the answer.