High-Security Residential Safe
Thanks to the heavy construction and fire insulation, AMSEC’s BFX safes offer a strong defense against burglary and fires.
A quality safe provides peace of mind, organization, and helps ensure your valuables don’t fall into the wrong hands. Too often well-meaning consumers purchase a lightweight entry-level safe — unaware it will likely fail in the event of a serious break-in or fire. The AMSEC BFX provides a level of security and fire protection that consumers should expect and demand when purchasing a quality high-security gun safe.
The NW Safe family has decades of experience selling safes. Our opinions and recommendations are based on seeing hundreds of safes go through real-life fires and break-ins, in addition to factory and 3rd party testing. While we’re undeniably in the business of selling safes, our goal is always to help our customers find the best product to meet their needs.
In this post, we’ll share a transparent review of American Security’s BFX series. It will include:
Who is American Security & What Sets Them Apart
America Security was founded in 1946 as a commercial safe manufacturer. For decades, it has dominated the market for American-made commercial safes. When it decided to enter the gun safe market, it started with this simple question: What do we do better than the rest of the industry?
The answer? Concrete-filled safes.
Most safes are constructed from a single exterior layer of lightweight 12- or 14-gauge sheet metal with layers of sheetrock as its fire insulation. This approach can be effective. But in our opinion, it is a compromise that puts cost control ahead of security and fire protection. The double steel walled body of the BFX is a superior design and what it really sets itself apart from the industry standard.
BFX Gun Safe Construction & Security
The American Security BFX Series is what we would classify as a high-security residential gun safe or home safe due to its heavy construction and fire insulation.
AMSEC BFX Body
The BFX Series' body is made by combining two interlocking exterior and interior steel shells. These pieces lock together by force with a laser-cut tab system. The bodies are then completely welded together. Although this extra step is not technically needed to hold the safe together, it helps seal the safe's poured fire insulation (more on this later).
The two shells combine to form a nearly ¼ inch-thick steel barrier, which is 2 to 3 times thicker than the industry standard for safe bodies. This design helps create a stronger, more rigid, safe body and frame. This design has a positive effect on every aspect of the safe’s security from cutting and prying to even fire protection.
AMSEC BFX Fire Insulation
The BFX has a proprietary, seamless poured fire insulation called DryLight. This design eliminates gaps commonly found in traditional sheetrock-filled safes. While DryLight is a concrete-based mixture, it was specifically designed as a lightweight alternative to the high-strength concrete fill found in Commercial TL Rated safes.
DryLight was developed to make the BFX series safes light enough to be safely installed on a typical home's wood subfloor and second-story. It also allows installers to navigate stairs safely with a BFX.
AMSEC BFX Door Construction
Traditionally, the safe industry has been dominated by two door designs: plate steel doors and formed doors. The advantage of a plate steel door is its rigid, pry-resistant design, but it lacks fire insulation. The advantage of formed doors is great fire protection, but they often lack the rigidity and strength of a traditional plate steel door.
When researching safes, be cautious of formed doors. They often look impressive, but upon further inspection, you’ll learn they are simply a flimsy, lightweight shell filled with fire insulation. The BFX door combines the best of both designs. It features a solid ½” plate steel door in front of a formed pan filled with the same fire insulation found in the body.
The last section of the door is the bolt guide, which is 11 gauge steel welded directly into the ½” plate. This creates a single solid structure. The bolt guide is a channel construction, meaning the locking bolts are supported at two points, making the bolts more rigid in the event of a pry attack. The bolts themselves are 1.5 inches in diameter and three inches in length, bolted directly to a thick plate steel mechanism.
At NW Safe, we display our BFX6030 with the boltwork cover off. If you are looking at safes in person, we urge you to ask to see the safes mechanism. Keep in mind that most covers are simply held on with a handful of screws and in many cases, need no specialized tools to remove. So, if you’re at a store and they refuse to show you what's under there, proceed with caution.
American Security BFX Series Fire Rating & How Testing is Performed
The AMSEC BFX series has a Fire Rating of 120 minutes at 1200°F, certified by ETL.
ETL-Intertek is one of the industry’s leading independent laboratories for gun safe fire testing. When comparing the fire ratings of other safes, be sure to weigh reports from independent laboratories against unverified factory testing or un-tested claims.
Unfortunately, the safe industry has no set standard when it comes to fire testing. As a result, many (if not most) fire ratings are unsubstantiated claims.
Here are two key testing factors we’d encourage you to know when verifying a fire rating:
1. How fast does the furnace reach the testing temperature?
In the case of an ETL test, the furnace reaches 1200° within 8 minutes. We’ve seen tests take over 20 minutes to reach the same temperature.
2. Where is the temperature probe placed?
The ETL places testing probes at three different levels within the safe. However, in most cases, the one that matters most is the highest probe. ETL places the top probe 7” from the interior ceiling of the safe. Many competitors can be 2-3 times this distance from the top of the safe. Remember, the lower the temperature probe is placed inside the safe, the more misleading the rating will be.
Cost of AMSEC BFX Safes
The BFX series is available in 6 different sizes. The price ranges from roughly $5,000 to $10,000.
This is a full-featured safe, which means many of the luxury items are included in the price, such as interior lighting. Personalization choices include:
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Gloss Finishes
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Choice of Lock
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Optional Interiors
These customizable options are about the only things you’ll need to consider that can increase the cost.
Interior and Storage Capabilities of AMSEC BFX Safes
The modular interior of the BFX Series can be easily adjusted to hold long guns or converted to an all-shelf interior. The door panel, more so than any other gun safe, is best suited for firearms owners. It features the ability to store 1-2 long guns on the door panel. Adjustable pistol holsters and pouches designed for pistol and rifle magazines also come standard on the door panel.
If you intend to use this as a home safe and need little to no firearms storage, several optional interiors are available. An all-shelf interior can be ordered, which removes the center divider found in the standard interior, creating full-width shelving. For those storing jewelry or paperwork, an optional cabinet interior can be ordered with the ability to still have side shelves or long gun storage.
Purchase an AMSEC BFX Series Safe
The BFX series is a perfect fit if you want the highest amount of security and fire protection in a safe that’s still light enough to be placed on a typical wood subfloor. This isn’t an entry-level safe designed for someone with a few thousand dollars and nothing of sentimental value to protect.
But if you have a large amount of cash, precious metals, jewelry or irreplaceable items of value, this safe would be a solid option.