Articles about Fireproof Safes
Home Fireproof Safe Ratings
Each of the ratings can be used for a fireproof safe but it is meaningless unless you specify how long the safe will meet the standard, i.e. 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours.
UL 350 - The safe must keep the interior temperature below 350 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s below the normal temperature for most paper products to burn, char or become useless.
UL 150 is the rating for tapes, cartridges, microfiche, and microfilm. In addition to keeping the interior at or below 150 degrees, the humidity must be below 85%.
UL 125 is the standard for diskettes. In this case, the temperature cannot exceed 125°F and 80% humidity. I have a feeling that this standard is a bit out of date because most people don’t store diskettes anymore.
The external temperature (all Fahrenheit) are the ratings used by UL.
- 1,550 for a ½ hour rated safe
- 1,700 for a 1 hour rated safe
- 1,850 for a 2 hour rated safe
- 1,920 for a 3 hour rated safe
- 2,000 for a 4 hour rated safe
The fireproof safe isn’t removed as soon as the external temperature reaches the designated level. It must be allowed to cool down inside the furnace. UL test are done in furnaces that take up to 68 hours to cool down.
Impact Test
UL also does an impact test on fireproof safes. The impact test doesn’t take as long. The times and temperatures used before the impact test are as follows.
- 20 minutes at 1,460 degrees for a ½ hour rated safe
- 30 minutes at 1,550 degrees for a 1 hour rated safe
- 45 minutes at 1,640 for a 2 hour rated safe
- 60 minutes at 1,700 for a 3 and 4 hour rated safes
The fireproof safe is then taken out of the furnace and lifted 30 feet in the air and dropped onto a pile of bricks. This is done in two minutes. Then the safe is turned upside down and reheat again before it is removed and allowed to cool. The safe is opened and the contents examined. If everything is OK, including no damage due to moisture it is almost ready to be certified.
Explosion Test
An empty fireproof home safe is heated to 2,000 degrees then opened and stuffed with test documents, CDs or other material. The door is shut and he exterior is kept at 2,000 degrees for another 30 minutes. If the fireproof safe hasn’t exploded and the documents are safe after opening it, the safe will qualify for a UL rating.
Conclusion
Since many safes that are sold in the U.S. have been manufactured in Korea or China, you should be looking for either the UL sticker or the corresponding Korean Industrial Standard (KSG-4500).
How to Protect Your Data from Fire
What’s wrong with Fireproof Safes?
There is nothing really wrong with a home fireproof safe. They are well designed to keep paper products from reaching a temperature that will destroy or ruin them. However they will not prevent computer data that you have backed up on CDs, DVD, or even flash drives from being destroyed. They will not protect photo slides and negatives either.
The problem is that we may not understand fireproof or fire resistant ratings that are assigned to safes. There are three basic ratings for fireproof safes by the Underwriters Laboratories. If a safe is rated for 1 hour then it must maintain the internal temperatures below the specified rating for the entire hour.
UL 350 - The safe must keep the interior temperature below 350 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s below the normal temperature for most paper products to burn, char or become useless.
UL 150 is the rating for tapes, cartridges, microfiche, and microfilm. In addition to keeping the interior at or below 150 degrees, the humidity must be below 85%.
UL 125 is the standard for diskettes. In this case, the temperature cannot exceed 125°F and 80% humidity.Humidity and water damage is important if you intend to protect electronic devices like flash drives.
Test Your Own Data Media
If you doubt the need to have a better rated home or office fireproof safe to protect your data, then you can try this simple test.
Find a couple of photo negatives or slide and a print or two that you don’t care about. Get two old CDs or DVDs with some data on them. Put one of the CDs in a jewel case.
Preheat your kitchen oven to 200 degrees and shut it off so the elements don’t turn on. The radiant heat could be greater and cause the plastic to melt even if the air temperature is only 200 degrees. Place both the CD in the jewel case and the other CD on a piece of paper and place them in your oven. Wait a few minute and you can watch the CD in the jewel case curl up. Obviously the data will never be retrieved from it. Remove the other CD carefully that you don’t bend it. When it is cooled you can put it in your computer and see if the data is intact. Sometimes it will be OK.
Now preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Don’t set it on 350 just in case your oven thermostat isn’t accurate. When the oven has reached the correct temperature, shut it off. Insert your photos, slides, and negatives on a piece of paper. Put your good CD back in the oven also on a piece of paper.
You will notice that a negative will almost immediately curl up and be destroyed. The pictures will curl a little and most likely be discolored slightly. The pictures will eventually flatten out again but there will be no hope for the slides or negatives.
The CD will remain flat but the data will be gone. You will likely be able to see bubbles in the plastic of the recording side of the CD.
Alternatives
Here are three alternatives if you want your data protected.
Get a fireproof media safe. It will protect your pictures, slide, negative, CDs, and DVDs. As shown above, a UL 125 rated fireproof safe will protect your data from heat and moisture. While a regular home fireproof safe may protect the data contents for a few minutes, the likely hood that the data will be safe longer than 15 minutes is extremely low.
Benefits of a fireproof media safe:
- The ability to quickly backup to a flash drive and immediately store your data ever night after doing a backup.
- The data is available whether or not you have internet access.
- You don’t have to pay any monthly or annual fees ones you have your safe.
Drawback of a fireproof media safe:
- The biggest drawback to a fireproof media safe is the initial cost. They aren’t cheap.
Use an online backup system. This is a very effective way to ensure that your data is safe. Well, as safe as you can expect when you are using another company to keep your data. If you don’t have very much data, you can find free services on the web.
Benefits of using online backup:
- Your data is kept in a completely different location.
- In many cases, your data can be encrypted for extra safety.
Drawback of using online backup:
- You may need to use special software. Software changes over time and so do encryption methods.
- You may find yourself converting your data or even moving it when a company goes out of business.
- There are annual fees when you have a lot of data and that will cost you more over time than a fireproof media safe.
- You can’t store some purchased software DVDs online. They often require the original DVD to reinstall the software.
- Uploading your nightly backup to the internet is not as fast as saving it on a flash drive.
Rent a safety deposit box at your local bank.
Benefits of a safety deposit box:
- You have maximum protection.
- You have offsite data protection.
Drawbacks of a safety deposit box:
- Limited access to your data. It isn’t there when you need it and you can’t secure it every night.
- Deposit boxes are really small. You can store a lot of data on DVD but you can’t put many slides and negatives in one.
- The costs of a deposit box vary greatly but they also will cost more over time than a fireproof media safe.
Conclusion
Evaluate your situation. If you don’t have much data then online backup may be the best option. If you have a lot of data and you have many purchased software packages then your best option is a home or office fireproof media safe. Whatever you do, don’t be caught with a fire in your home and office and find out that you have lost your data.
Consider one of these fireproof data and media safes.
Bolt Down Your Safe
Most good quality Fire and Burglary Safes have a predrilled hole or holes in the bottom so that they can be secured to the floor. If your safe has this feature, it is to your advantage to bold it down so that thieves can’t haul it away or tip it over to make it easier to break in.
Bolting down a a Fire and Burglary Safe is very easy and quick to do with the right tools.
- A good drill, preferably one that can be plugged into the wall as most cordless drills are a little weak on power (a hammer drill is fastest.)
- A concrete drill bit if mounting the safe on a concrete foundation. (Take the bolt that comes with the safe into the local hardware store and hand it to a salesperson asking if they could get a concrete drill bit appropriate for the bolt.)
- A wood or steel drill bit if you are mounting to a wood floor.
- A black marker pen
- A pair of pliers
- A small hammer
Bolting Instructions for Concrete Floor
- Place the safe where it will be mounted then open the door and find the mounting hole in the center of the safe or each corner, where ever the holes are provided.
- Use the black marker to color the floor where the bolt will go.
- Move the safe out of the way. For carpeted floors, cut a hole in the carpet about the size of a 50 cent piece.
- Drill the hole and vacuum any dust out of the hole. In concrete it will be around 3-4 inches deep.
- Return the safe back over the hole and line it up.
- Push the bolt down through the safe into the hole beneath. Use a hammer if the bolt doesn’t easily fit in the hole.
- Once down and in place tighten the nut on top of the bolt. Use several turns to expand the sleeve on the bolt to grab the walls of the concrete floor.
For Wood Floor
- Follow the same instruction for a Concrete Floor.
- If the sleeve does not grab the subfloor you will need to purchase a molly bolt that will expand below the floor to secure the Hollon safe.
My friend told me a story about the first fireproof home safe he bought. This was several years ago and when even the lower priced safes were very heavy. Since it was heavy and he didn’t want to go through the trouble of bolting it to the floor, he just put it in his closet where it wouldn’t be seen very easily. One night he came home to find that his house had been burglarized. After checking carefully, the only thing missing was his home fireproof safe. He later found the safe in the woods behind his house. Whoever took it used a maul to break through and knock off the back of the safe. Everything that he had put in the safe was gone.
The moral of the story is simple. If you have a home or office fireproof safe that can be bolted down. Do it. If your home or office safe can’t be secured, then you are probably better off posting the combination on the door so that you don’t lose your safe along with everything in it.
Why a Biometric or Fingerprint Safe
Why would you want to have a safe that will open only to your fingerprints? Is it really any more secure than any other safe? Before I discuss that, I’ll briefly review what biometric means.
The word can be broken down into two root words that explain it all. Bio – meaning life or living and metrics – meaning measurements. Biometric then is the measurements of something that is living. In regards to security systems the target of the measurement is usually a person. Biometrics can be used uniquely indentify a person by recording certain attributes.
Fingerprints are probably the most common as they have been used for decades to indentify people. Fingerprints are most useful because they are unique and they are easily accessed. Other things such as retina scans and palm prints could also be used. Voice recognition is also a biometric but may not be as secure since high quality recorders can be used along with software programs to recreate a voice.
Low cost security can be achieved with fingerprint biometric technology. There are a number of safes that use this but it is interesting that you don’t find them on many higher end safes. In a discussion I had with a safe wholesaler, he said that they don’t carry them because they fail too often. It isn’t that they let in the wrong person, but that they fail to recognize an enrolled user. Smudges on the reader, lighting, and other things cause problems. Of course, you won’t hear this from the people who manufacture them. They will simply explain that you must keep the readers clean as well as record more than one of your digits in case you have a cut or bandage that prevents you from opening your safe.
Back to my original question, why do you want to use a biometrics lock to secure your safe? First of all, the technology is cool! You have the money to spare since they cost more. Yes, they are secure. The likelihood of someone being able to fool the reader is very remote, regardless of the TV shows that show it happening. Probably the best reason is that you don’t have to memorize a code. Compared to a manual dial, they are so much faster that it almost pays for the time saved. However, compared to a digital electronic lock, they are sometimes even slower.
Finally, realize that a clever burglar isn’t going to fool around trying to defeat a biometric lock. He will use his other tools to saw your safe in two, demolish it with a crowbar and sledge hammer, or use some other violent but quick way to get in.
Burglary Safe Digital Lock Out Mode
So you have just bought your brand new home or office fireproof safe. The first thing you want to do is open it and see what it looks like inside. You purchased a safe with a digital lock because you heard that they are harder to crack than a manual dial. When it arrived, you quickly unpacked it and glanced at the instructions that said you needed to insert four AA alkaline batteries. So under your breath you mumble that the least they could do is send batteries with the safe. After all, you paid out some big bucks for this safe.
Ok, the batteries are in and you start pushing buttons. You think you remember seeing 12345 somewhere so you enter that. Depending on the type of digital lock you have, it has either some LEDs or a LCD display. Suddenly the red LED lights up (or the LCD says Error.) Ok, try again. Same thing. Maybe it was 54321. No luck! After three or four tries, you notice that the red LED lights as soon as you touch any key.
If you bought a more expensive safe with the LCD display, a red light starts flashing and a very annoying beeping starts. In fact, it is so bad that you pop the batteries out to make it stop. You put the batteries back in and suddenly it starts beeping at you again. Surely something is very wrong.
Where are the instructions? Hopefully you haven’t shredded the packing slip already. Nothing – it just says to enter the supplied code.
You call the company where you bought your safe. They give you the code and send you an email with detailed instructions. This time you install the batteries and start again but the blasted digital lock on your burglary safe starts beeping again. Aaaugh! Pull the batteries and start over again.
The same thing happens. What is wrong with your safe’s digital lock. Your dealer says that they will send out a locksmith, but if they find nothing wrong, you will have to pay.
Before you do anything else, remember that you have already entered the wrong code more than three times. Your digital lock has gone into lock out mode. This means that any attempts to open it, even with the right code will fail. You will have to wait several minutes before you can retry the correct code. Removing the batteries doesn’t help. You will have to wait the full time with the batteries in. Of course, the instruction manual is inside the safe so you don’t know exactly how long to wait. You’ll just have to wait until it stops beeping.
If finally stops beeping. You enter the code provide and you open your safe. Whew! No extra charges for a locksmith.
Wall Safes Do You Want or Need One?
You’ve seen wall safes in the movies or on TV. The gangster moves a picture and reveals a small door with a combination dial safe. He spins the dials a few times and opens the door. Inside the wall safe is a pile of $100 bills or a gun.
The safe you are looking at is seldom what you will find for a home wall safe. The movie set doesn’t have to conform to most building rules so the safes are a lot deeper than what you find in a home. Most non-commercial wall safes are built to fit between the studs in a house. It you want to install the safe in an interior wall, you will not want to get a safe that has an exterior depth great then the width of a stud and the wallboard, which would be about 3.75 inches. Studs in most homes are on 16-inch centers so the exterior width of your safe should not be greater than 14.5 inches.
With that said, some wall safes advertise widths and depths greater than this. The reason is that the measurements are actually for the front plate which extends beyond the inner compartment. Some safes have a greater depth because they conceal the extra space with a picture frame. There isn’t any reason to panic as long as they say the safe is designed to fit between the studs.
The primary reason for getting a wall safe is to provide hidden security. If you can’t find it, you can’t steal anything from it. The secondary reason is convenience. They don’t take up space and most have quick access locking systems, especially the biometric wall safes or remote control wall safes.
A word of warning about home wall safes, if it fits in a wall as I’ve described above, it is not fireproof or fire-resistant. If you have a fire, there is little if any protection.
Which is better, A Firepoof Safe with Digital or Manual Dial Lock?
Why would you want to have a fireproof safe with a dial combination lock? Are these manual locks more secure than the newer digital locks?
Quite frankly, the world is changing and digital is the way to go. They are much more secure than the manual dial combination locks. I recently sold a couple of safes to the army and they required digital locks. There are a lot of advantages to digital locks and there are a few drawbacks. There are few advantages to the mechanical locks.
While many safe companies sell their safes with standard dial locks and charge extra for the digital lock, the digital locks are actually less expensive than the manual locks.
Changing combinations is the biggest advantage to having a digital lock on your burglary safe. It is quick and easy to change the combination. You can also assign different codes for different people. In addition some locks will allow you to view a log that will display which codes were used to open the safe.
To change the combination on a manual dial will require a locksmith. I’ve also read that with proper care and service, a dial safe lock will last a long time. So who do you think will do this proper service? You guessed it. That will require a locksmith.
With a digital safe lock, all you need to do is change the batteries. Oh, yeah, you don’t want to get it wet.
The biggest advantage to the digital lock is quick access. I open my safe at least twice a day and sometimes more. If I had to go three turns to the right, one to the left… multiple times a day, I would go nuts. I have an old safe in the garage with a dial. For years, I left the dial next to the last number so all I had to do is move it slightly and open it. Not very secure.
What about fire? Won’t the digital lock be destroyed? Yes it will. It is also likely that the manual dial will also be inoperable. How do you get a safe open after a fire. You can either get a locksmith or you can watch a video on youtube to find out how to get it open. The better the safe, the harder it will be to open. Any safe that has been through a fire will need to be replaced, so don’t worry about breaking it to open it.
I would always recommend a digital lock. They are becoming the default for some safes with an extra charge for a manual dial.
How to Move a Heavy Office Safe
I often get questions about how to move a large fireproof safe or burglary safe into a house or office. These safes vary in weight from 200 pounds to over 1,500 pounds. My official answer is to contact a moving company. Your dealer may also be able to arrange with the trucking company that delivers the safe or a third party to place you safe where you want it.
I will not advocate use of any of these methods to move a large office safe. I will only comment on the possibilities. It is totally your decision how to move your safe. I’ve been asked if a piano dolly would work. People have asked about tying ropes around the safe and hoisting it with a forklift. Some have tilted the safe, put shims under it, then rocked it back and forth adding shims until they could get a forklift underneath.
I looked up the weight of some Steinway Grand pianos. The ones I saw were between 560 pounds and 990. Upright pianos can weigh between 300 to 800 pounds. A good piano dolly should be able to support the lower range of most heavy safes. The tough part is getting the safe on the dolly and keeping it steady. If the safe is large it would make sense to move it on its side, but would that damage the safe? I would hope not if it is built well.
The biggest danger of doing it yourself is the possibility of dropping the safe or causing damage to yourself. Can you imagine what 500 pounds of steel on top of your toes or fingers would do? Drop it just a few inches and you would probably lose your digits.
This video is amazing. It shows what one person with the proper equipment can do moving a heavy safe. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaBHK5fOa_E&feature=related.
Safe Bouncing
Here is another reason why you don’t want to get a cheap wall safe. You can view this youtube video and watch as the producer opens the wall safe and removes the inside cover from the door. This exposes a bunch of wires, circuit boards, and mechanical levers. Without a word, he shows how the solenoid that holds the locking bolts in place can be bounced up and down. With a hammer, beer can, or almost any object, you can tap on the top of the door to do it. By turning the handle at the same time the safe is easily opened.
It’s pretty obvious that the safe he used is a real cheapo. However, I wanted to see if my safe was as vulnerable. I have one of those inexpensive (not cheap) safes that can be sawed in two with a Skill saw. I have some history with this safe because I opened it one day and the bolts popped out and got stuck. I couldn’t turn the handle and retract the bolts to close the door. The inside door cover is plastic and I was able to cut the plastic away from the bolts to get the cover off and free the jam.
Back to my story, I took the cover off again and examined the solenoid that keeps the locking mechanism from opening. Unlike the cheap safe, this one is mounted horizontal and perpendicular to the door. In addition to this, there is a nylon clip that fits into the locking mechanism that keeps the solenoid from bouncing. The only bad part of this safe is that the clip is what caused the bolts to get stuck in the first place. I’ve learned not to force the handle closed or push on the handle before I hear the solenoid click open out of fear that the safe will get stuck again.
The moral of the story is that you get what you pay for. Get a cheap safe and it can be cracked in a few seconds. Get a better safe and it can get stuck closed. Get a tamper resistant rated safe and you buy much more time before a burglar can open your safe.
Can You Saw Your Safe in Two?
I just finished watching a video on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRTnJVwYkJs&feature=related. It is a video to demonstrate how easily it is to break into a cheap, but popular, fireproof safe. The safe is made of a thin gage steel exterior, filled with what appears to be a lightweight fireproof material and a plastic interior.
The guy gets out his Skill saw (correction, at the end of the video he shows that it is a Black and Decker with a plain old wood blade) and proceeds to saw right through the top of the safe. Dust from the fireproofing flies but the saw easily cuts through the exterior of the safe. All he has to do is rotate the safe and cut the sides and bottom.
A few whacks with a four by four and some tugging reveals the inner plastic lining. The blade didn’t cut quite deep enough to completely slice the plastic lining so he has to cut some more. In approximately three minutes the fireproof safe is completely open.
Moral of the story? If you want to protect your stuff from a burglar, don’t depend on a lightweight safe that you can easily pickup. Get something like a Hollon HS-370E safe that you can first of bolt to the floor so that the burglar can’t carry it away. The Hollon Safe also is has steel both on the inside and outside with a concrete type of fireproofing. I doubt a Skill (or Black and Decker) saw will do much damage to it.
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