While we may have passed the stage of hoarding toilet paper and hawking hand sanitizer to pay for college, the world is still nutty. Populations are expanding. Home robberies have increased. And, the need to keep you and your loved ones safe is top of mind.
Home safes allow you to securely store a wide variety of valuables, including:
- Irreplaceable family heirlooms
- Important documents
- Expensive jewelry
- Precious metals
- Cash
- Firearms
- Ammunition
There are a wide variety of home safes from which to choose. Use the following tips to select the best home safe for sale that suits your needs.
Top 5 Considerations When Shopping for a Home Safe
One size does not fit all when you’re shopping for a home safe. There are several things to consider, including size, lock style, and portability.
1. What Size Home Safe Do You Need?
Buying too small of a safe is the most common regret we hear from customers. This is because what you’re planning to store in your safe typically takes up more space than expected.
Because unlike a home, there’s no remodeling a safe to get a few more square inches. The size you buy is the size you have — until you upgrade. Home safes typically range in storage capacity from .72 cubic feet to 8.2 cubic feet, depending on the safe’s width, depth, and height. View our full collection of home safes.
2. You’ll Want to Protect Items You May Not Have Expected
Once you start using your safe, it’s easy to realize the value of having your valuables secure and protected. Typically, this results in things you aren’t planning to store inside your safe being moved there.
3. A Safe is a Life-Long Investment. Give Yourself Room to Expand.
Safes aren’t something you replace every year or even every 10 years. In fact, the safes we sell are often passed down from generation to generation. This is a lifelong investment.
But as we mentioned earlier, the biggest regret we hear from customers is that they bought too small of a safe. Roughly 40% of the safes we sell each year are to customers who are buying a bigger safe. Buying a safe bigger than you think you need right now, gives you room to expand as your collection of valuables grows.
4. What Style Lock Does Your Home Safe Need?
Home safes can come equipped with three types of locks:
- Dial locks
- Keypad locks
- Biometric locks
The right locking mechanism is a matter of personal choice. Electronic locks (including keypad locks and biometric locks) can be opened more quickly and are easier to use. This often makes them the ideal choice for those who need nearly instant access to the contents of their valuables.
Dial locks offer old-school reliability and longevity. Additionally, dial locks provide a classic look, a boon if your home safe will be part of your decor.
Another consideration is whether or not you will be opening your safe in the dark. Dial locks are next to impossible to open without some light.
5. Where Do You Want to Install Your Safe?
There are a variety of locations throughout the home to install a safe. This could include, but is not limited to:
- Under the bed
- In the garage
- Within a closet
- In the kitchen pantry
- Beside the nightstand
Selecting the location of your safe will help you determine how big of a safe your space can accommodate. If you are installing a safe in your garage, size is typically not an issue.
However, if you’re installing a safe in a closet, you’ll want to consider its depth. Most closet safes have a body depth of 22 inches to fit within a standard closet. Safes installed within a kitchen pantry or under the bed normally need a clearance of 14 inches or less. So before you start shopping, grab a measuring table and measure the height, width and depth of where you would like your safe to live.
Home Safe FAQs
What’s the difference between a home safe and a gun safe?
While some will claim gun safes are built with heavier and thicker gauge steel, this is false. Any safe can be a ‘home safe’ or a ‘gun safe’. That distinction is determined by how you use your safe.
The difference between a lock box that’s marketed as a ‘gun safe’ and one that’s marketed as a ‘home safe’ is the interior. The interior of a gun safe is designed to hold guns. In larger gun safes, this means the interior offers upright long gun storage for rifles and shotguns.
Can You Use a Gun Safe as a Home Safe?
Gun safes can, and often, are used as a home safe. Because gun safes typically come in larger sizes, they can be ideal for those in need of more capacity. For example, Liberty’s Presidential 50 gun safe offers 18.7 inches of cubic storage. That’s more than double the largest ‘home safe’ in Liberty’s lineup!
Adjustable Interiors Offer More Storage Flexibility
Most gun safes come equipped with an adjust interior (aka a modular interior). These adjustable gun safe interiors make it very easy to repurpose a gun safe into a home safe, as long gun storage can easily be changed into shelving.
Which Fireproof Home Safe is the Best?
No home safe is fireproof because no safe is fireproof. That being said, there are multiple home safes that offer a substantial and reliable fire rating. These are our top two picks for fire-resistant home safes:
- American Security’s BFS912ELP: 80 Min. Fire Rating
- Liberty’s Premium Home Safe 17: 90 Min. Fire Rating
Should You Bolt Your Home Safe to the Floor?
Yes, we always recommend bolting your home safe to the floor. Blotting your safe to the floor offers several different advantages. These include, but are not limited to:
- Extra Layer of Security — Bolting your safe to the floor is an additional layer of security. If you have a smaller home safe, this keeps a burglar from walking away with your safe (and the contents inside). It also makes it harder for a burglar to break into your safe.
- Extra Layer of Safety — Another consideration for bolting your safe to the floor is safety. Bolting your safe to the floor ensures it won’t be able to tip over and fall on you or a loved one.
Will a Home Safe Protect Valuables from Water?
The standard safe is not waterproof or water-resistant. Moisture can get inside, causing mold and mildew to damage your valuables. A dehumidifier can be used to help prevent moisture from accumulating.
The interior of a safe can also become wet when exposed to large amounts of water, such as during a flood or burst pipe. If you are worried about your valuables being exposed to water, a good way to protect them is to use a FireKing SureSeal case. These cases are both fire and water-rated to help keep heat and moisture from entering.
Would a Portable Safe Make a Good Home Safe?
A portable safe, such as Vaultek VT20i, can make a good home safe. Acting as a safe box, these smaller safes are ideal for those who want to be able to take their valuables with them. They can also be an ideal solution for those living in an apartment who might not want to install a safe by bolting it to the floor or wall.