Home safes are a great way to secure expensive or cherished family items and should be required in any home or apartment. Should anything happen to your home you will have the peace of mind of knowing those photos, legal contracts, passports or family heirlooms remain safe and secure. The vast array of home safes available on the market can be mind-boggling though to the uninformed consumer. Not all safes are the same; they often come in many sizes, prices and protection levels.

When Buying a Home Safe:

• Consider what items you are trying to store and protect. Different items will need different types of protection. Legal contracts, passports and other paper documents often need fire protection. Digital storage media such as CDs, DVDs, hard drive will need specific fire protection provided by data safes. Family heirlooms and jewelry will need burglary protection from prying thieves.

• Identify the class rating and fire rating that best suits your needs. Burglar-resistant safes come with two types of rating: a class rating and a UL rating. The class rating system, from 1 to 5, is based on the home safe’s resistance to attack given its door and wall thickness and design. The UL rating shows resistance to specific types of attack: DR (drill resistant), TR (torch resistant), TRTL (both torch and tool resistant) and X6 (bankers and jewelers safes). Fire ratings come with two numbers: the first one is the maximum internal temperature of the safe, and the second one refers to how long the safe was tested, e.g. a 350F 1h fire rating means the safe was tested to maintain a temperature under 350 degrees Fahrenheit for up to an hour.

• Determine where the safe is going to be. Next, where are you going to put your safe? You may want to consider a wall safe or a floor safe to be installed inside a wall or into the floor. Also, keep in mind most burglary safes and guns safes are best bolted to the floor. You will also need to take into account the size of your home safe: a small safe intended to store passports and digital media will easily fit on a shelf. A large gun safe to secure rifles and other firearms might be several thousand pounds and be best located in the basement of the house.

• Figure out your budget. Last but not least, how much are you willing to spend? Small inexpensive safes will cost less than a hundred dollars but provide limited protection. High-end safes will cost several thousand dollars and provide outstanding protection. Think of it as an insurance policy and decide for yourself how much you are willing to spend today to avoid potentially losing your most important documents and family heirlooms in the event of a fire or a burglary.

Buy a home safe here.