Gold & Silver Bullion Stolen! This is not a security safe.

How to chose the right security safe for your place?

Don’t do what these Queensland residents did, and buy a cheap safe to store $20,000 of gold & silver bullion.

Recently a Brisbane family arrived home to find their place had been ransacked, including the easy break-in of their cheap safe.

Safes are truly the cheapest form of insurance, if you buy the right one!

We would strongly recommend starting to look at safes of a reasonable size (one 500 – 600mm high) for good storage space of your valuables, and your starting price price should be in the vicinity of $1,000.

Otherwise you are really only buying a glorified cash box (there are a few exceptions for quality steel plated safes under $1,000 but generally they have a very small storage capacity.

What are the security aspects of a safe?

The safe body:

single walled, double walled or triple walled safes

  • overall thickness of the safe body
  • torch & drill resistance of the body material
  • fire resistance of the safe body fill
  • quality of the build, by this I mean the welding quality and quality of the joins

The safe door:

  • thickness of the door
  • the quality of the hinges to resist attack
  • dogging security to support any hinge attack
  • drill resistant hard plate to protect safe locks and relocking devices
  • relocking devices?
  • over-ride opening locks… some people want these but for me it means another weak point vulnerable to attack

The safe lock:

  • quality brand
  • digital vs dial vs key locking safe locks
  • choose a digital safe lock for;
    • convenience and speed of opening,
    • particularly if opening the safe multiple time a day or week
    • if you require special functions & features such as time delay or multiple user codes or audit trail
    • keyless entry
  • choose a dial safe lock for;
    • you fear electronic locking devices
    • less chance of someone trying to manipulate the lock
    • mechanical reliability
    • keyless entry
  • choose a key lock for;
    • simple opening procedure
    • can’t remember codes (dial or digital)
    • but be sure to secure the safe key when not in use
    • unfortunately safe keys are normally larger than our standard home keys
  • Posted on 16-01-14
  • Posted in Safes