The Safety Dance – Buying a Safe
Let’s be honest, you can’t always carry all your guns with you. Heck, I can barely fit my whole collection in the Noobmobile at this point (don’t ever let someone tell you a Mustang isn’t a practical car). Considering that my guns lack the ability to protect themselves, I want them to be safe when I’m not around. If only there were some way to keep them safe. I’m thinking a kind of box with a combination lock on it that is also fire resistant…but what would we call this safety device?
Since I’ve started Free For All Fridays, I’ve noticed certain themes popping up. One of the more common themes as of late has been questions about gun safes. I can’t blame anyone for wanting one. The great thing is, they don’t just keep your firearms locked away as you can store jewelry, documents and other very important items in them as well. In my opinion, gun owners or not, every house should have at least a small safe in it.
If you’re reading this article, I think it’s safe to assume at least one of two things: you’re either a good friend of mine and you’re trying to help pad my advertising impressions (thanks) or you’ve thought about buying a safe and want to know more. To that measure, I’m going to start by talking about what a safe isn’t and what isn’t a safe.
Aside from what you’ve seen in movies (I just realized that I have said that phrase a lot since I started this site), a safe isn’t some impenetrable fortress that only the most experienced thieves wearing full body spandex can break into. Every safe, no matter what, can be broken into given enough time. The very fact that you can open it yourself means that someone else can as well and the same goes for locks and, frankly, every other form of security there is. A safe is nothing more than a deterrent. Most robbers are in for a quick smash and grab and won’t even bother trying to open a safe. Even bank robbers will focus on the cashier drawers and not even glance at the bank’s safe.
Also, don’t confuse a gun cabinet for a safe. Gun cabinets are usually cheap, stamped metal enclosures with a small, key based lock. They are flimsy and can easily be opened with a screwdriver or crow bar. Gun cabinets are there mostly to keep kids from getting a hold of a house’s guns or for temporary storage from an opportunity based snatch and dash theft. They also offer no fire resistance of any kind. Frankly, unless you have a very specific need for one, I would save my money a bit longer and get a full blown safe.
Speaking of money: yes, safes are a bit more expensive. You don’t have to take out a second mortgage to buy one, however. There seems to be this mentality among some bloggers that an item is essentially useless if you don’t spend your life savings on it. Depending on your requirements, that might be true but for the majority of us it just isn’t. Yes, a $5000 CompensatriX Custom 1911 is a well engineered machine but a sub-$600 1911 is perfectly fine for the vast majority of shooters. Same goes for safes. You still want to get the best possible one you can afford but don’t let someone try to shame you for buying a $400 Stack-On safe from your local Academy Sports as opposed to a $35,000 Brown Safe.
So what is the very first step to buying a safe? Most would say “decide what features you want” but I disagree. As far as I’m concerned the most important first step is figuring out where you’re going to put the darn thing. This isn’t some tchotchke that you can stick on a shelf somewhere. For example, my safe is 5 feet tall, 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep (and 500 pounds empty). That’s a small refrigerator, when you think about. It’s not just a matter of where you’re going to put it but how you’re going to get it there. Will there be stairs? Will it fit through all the doorways? Am I going to need to buy some trusted friends a couple cases of beer to get it into my house? Make sure you measure the paths to the final spot as well as the spot itself before you decide. Once you know where it’s going and the dimensions you’ll need, it really narrows down your options.
Also, some suggestions for locations:
- a walk-in closet attached to your master bedroom
- in the master bedroom itself
- nearby to the area where your family tends to converge
Some places I don’t recommend:
- in a garage
- in a bathroom
- outside
- detached garage/workshop
One final thing: most safes these days have plugs inside them to power dehumidifiers, lights and even allow for cell phone chargers and such. Make sure the spot you picked has an outlet nearby because you will more than likely need it.
Once you have your spot figured out, now we can look at features. First consideration at this point, at least for me, is the fire protection. Safes gladly advertise “Can withstand [umpteen hundred] degrees for [whatever] minutes”. Mine, for example, says 1200 degrees for 30 minutes. This is how long the safe can reliably insulate the interior items from the damaging heat under ideal conditions. Depending on how far away your safe is from the typical spots where fires start, 1200 for 30 is usually a good starting point and is pretty standard for safes. If the location of the safe is, for example, right next to the kitchen (where the vast majority of home fires originate from), the safe is going to be exposed to fire for longer so you’ll want to maybe consider a different spot or up that fire rating.
Next, you’ll want to take a look at the door and the locking pins. If at all possible, having bolts that extend from all 4 sides of the door is better than just one side. This makes it harder for someone to get into a weak spot with a pry bar due to one side being “unsupported”. Another great feature of the door that I like is having the hinges inside. Again, the hinges are a weak spot in the door’s design and they would be the first point of attack by most thieves. Having them inside and unexposed just adds an extra layer of security. Some safes also come with an expanding door seal that will automatically expand if there’s a fire. That’s a nice option as well.
Now take a look at the material the safe is made from. It’s it a really thin, flimsy metal or is it some pretty solid stuff? The thicker the steel the better, naturally. Push on the walls outside. Do they flex a lot or is it an immovable wall of shiny smooth goodness? Is the door super heavy? Heavy == good. The interior materials also matter. Flimsy shelves could collapse under the weight of your stuff. Can you configure the interior easily?
Also consider the locking mechanism. Digital locks with either keypads or fingerprint readers are super quick to open but you need to stay on top of the battery life. They can also fail as, well, it is a computer and computers fail. The mechanical combination lock, however, is less likely to fail but I have never in my life been able to open one of those on the first try. Now imagine if I’m trying to open it under stress? Yeah, I’ll risk the digital lock, personally. Your mileage may vary. Some manufacturers, by the way, are now offering combination…uhm..combination locks that have a digital keypad as well as a mechanical lock and you can open it with either. That gives you a nice backup in the event of a catastrophic failure of the keypad.
Finally, something that’s not often spoken about: how is the warranty for the safe? Some safes have a “we’ll cover defects but other than that, best of luck to ya” type of warranty and others take a “we’ll replace your safe if it is damaged in any way, shape or form be it house fire, burglary or you forgot your combination” approach to things. Obviously, you want to look for the latter. Most manufacturers post their warranties on their websites. Research is good; knowledge is cool.
Like a puppy, a safe is an investment and a responsibility. For the price of the average gun, you can protect not only your guns but heirlooms and other personal belongings. Just make sure you do your research before hand and you’ll be happy you did.
Side note: the word “safe” appeared 36 times in this article.
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