Protect Your Laptop from Scoundrels
This dorm room safe lets you lock up your laptop so you’re not an easy target.
Are you looking for a way to secure a laptop and a few valuables in a compact, discreet safe? Or do you have a college student or family member looking to protect a few valuables while away at school and in need of a dorm safe?
We’ve been selling safes since 1988 and Liberty’s Personal Home Safe is one of the few American-made laptop safes for dorm rooms we’ve seen. It’s also a solid solution for an office or apartment. That being said, there are other dorm room safes from which to pick and we want you to make the best decision possible.
In this post, we’ll offer our honest review of the Liberty Personal Home Safe, including:
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Key Features of the Liberty Dorm Safe
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Where to Install a Dorm Room Safe
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What a Dorm Safe Isn’t Good For
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Dorm Safe FAQ
Key Features of the Liberty Dorm Safe
Size
The Liberty Personal Home safe is 16.5” tall x 7.5” wide x 20” deep. This is roughly the size of a large computer tower. Weighing in at 30 pounds, it’s not a light safe for its size. But it could still be easily carried by most college students.
SecuRam Electronic Lock
It features a SecuRam electronic lock with a digital keypad for quick access. The easy-to-change battery ensures you won’t get locked out of your safe, even if the battery dies. You want to stay away from electronic locks with backup keys as they’re very easy to defeat and unreliable.
Anti-Theft Features
This safe has dual locking bars and a reinforced design to protect against theft. Additionally, it comes with a Security Cable so that it can be secured to a sturdy fixture.
Optimized Storage Compartments
The Personal Home Dorm Safe also features an easy slide-out system so you can access the storage area. Designed with students and professionals in mind, it includes a designated laptop holder on one side and three tiers of storage shelves on the other. These shelves are perfect for small items such as your passport, wallet, camera or jewelry.
Where to Install a Dorm Room Safe
This personal home safe is particularly ideal for those living in a small space, such as a studio apartment or college door room. It would even fit great in a van! Thanks to its relatively slim design, it takes up minimal floor space and can be comfortably installed in a variety of places, including:
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Under a Desk
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Under an Elevated Bed
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Inside a Closet
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Under a Vanity Sink
Installation Considerations
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Bolting Your Safe — This safe is tall and narrow. To keep it from tipping, it should be bolted to a solid surface. It can be bolted at the base or the back of the safe.
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Securing to a Sturdy Object — To provide the highest level of security, we recommend using the provided security cable to connect your safe to a sturdy object.
What a Dorm Safe Isn’t Good For
The Liberty Personal Home Safe isn’t designed to hold high-value items or laptops with extremely sensitive data. While this safe is excellent at reducing the chance of a grab-and-go robbery (common in college dorms), you wouldn’t want to bet the bank on it protecting your valuables against a serious attack.
If this is a concern, we’d recommend looking at a higher-end safe that’s aligned with the value you’re protecting. These safes will be quite a bit bigger, heavier, and more expensive — as they offer more fire and theft protection.
For example, American Security’s BF1716 could hold a small laptop and additional valuables. Offering 0 minutes of fire protection and extreme pry-resistance, this is an incredibly solid safe. It’s also more than 400 pounds and would be difficult to simply carry out of (or into) a dorm room. This is generally overkill for a college student, but would be an excellent choice for a working professional who is required to lock up their laptop.
Dorm Safe FAQ
How much does the Liberty Personal Home Safe cost?
Liberty’s Personal Home Safe is $249. If you plan to store a gun in your safe, this would be a tax-free purchase in Washington.
PLEASE NOTE: We are not recommending you take a firearm to a college campus. Before you take any firearm to a college campus, thoroughly reference the rules and regulations.
I can’t bolt a safe in my dorm room or apartment. What’s a good alternative?
Dorms and apartments are temporary residences. Just like painting your dorm room or apartment is typically frowned upon, so is bolting something to the wall or floor. If this isn’t in your best interest, Liberty’s HDV-500X Biometric Vault is a solid alternative that won’t tip, but can still hold a full-size laptop.
Should I hide my Personal Home Safe?
Popular wisdom says that you can’t steal what you can’t see. Installing your Personal Home Safe in a discrete location can offer an extra layer of protection.
Can I charge my laptop in my dorm safe?
Liberty’s dorm safe is not equipped with a power outlet like many of our larger safes. If you wanted to get tricky, you could run a charging cable through one of the small holes designed for mounting your safe or drill your own, but we would likely recommend turning your laptop off and charging it when it’s not in the safe.
Should I store my thesis in a dorm room safe?
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to store a copy of your thesis in a dorm room safe. That being said, we’d recommend having a backup copy somewhere else (like in the cloud). When it comes to something as time-intensive as a thesis, you want to back that puppy up! (It’s not just theft you want to think about. We have one staffer who almost lost her thesis to an apartment fire!)
Can NW Safe ship a dorm safe to me directly?
We sure can! Dorm safes are easy to ship. We can send them to any destination, whether the University of Washington, Washington State University or my alma mater Menlo College. (Go Oaks!)
Should I take my dorm safe home over Christmas break?
You can do whatever your heart desires with your dorm safe, but we wouldn’t go to the trouble. However, we would unload it. You’ll likely want to have your laptop during the break.
Purchase a Liberty Dorm Room Safe
If you or someone you know needs to secure a laptop and a few valuables from grab-and-go robberies, Liberty’s dorm safe is an excellent option. This discrete safe can offer an extra layer of protection, helping prevent the headache of a lost laptop — the most critical tool for any college student.