Why buying a safe can be confusing and complicated? As a Locksmith with 14 years of experience I can tell you, that buying a safe is not a simple task. "What size do I get?"
"what shape?"
"Floor Safe or Above ground safe?"
"What material?"
"Digital keypad or a mechanical dial?"
"B Rated?"
"C rated?"
"RSC (Residential security container)?"
"E rated?"
"which area do I store the safe?"
Obviously you would want the most secure safe, but how secure is secure enough?
Pretty much the higher the letter the more secure the safe is, but ill go into details in a little bit.
when it comes to security the 2 most important things are to keep the safe hidden as much as possible and to make sure it is bolted to the ground.
"B Rated" safes are made with at least a 1/4 inch thick body and a half inch thick door, since B rated safes are not put through certified tests, the buyer should look at the lock mechanism and Re-lockers before buying the safe.
"C Rated" safes are a little stronger with a half thick body and a 1 inch thick door, therefore harder to bypass, or break open, plus they have a hard plate which makes them really difficult to drill.
Again these safe's don't go through certified testing so look at the re-lockers and bolt works before purchasing.
Then we take 1 step up to the "U.L" certified safes.
U.L is short for "Underwriters Laboratory" these guy's are engineer's who's job is to try and breakthrough the safe in a certain amount of time and with common tools.
So if a safe has rating of "T.L 15" that means that it withstood 15 minutes of these same engineers to try and get the safe open.
Now you must remember, these are guys that know what they're doing!
A safe with a TL 30 rating means that it withstood 30 min of trying to gain entry by these engineers.
Some safe's are heating to 1500 degrees then get hoisted 30 feet up in the air by a crane just to be dropped in order to know if the doors would fly open, then they get cooled down again and heated up again to make sure the contents on the safe such as paper won't burn.
Working as a Locksmith in Corona, CA I get asked a lot " What safe should I buy?".
I try to explain to them that cheap safes are easy to break open, especially if they're not bolted to the ground.
We are Corona Locksmiths and if you have any question's you can call us anytime.
regarding purchasing and installing your new safe.