Home safe recommendations

[rwsaunders]

I bet that the collective has some advice regarding the purchase of a home safe...thanks.

[bking]

When you've considered everything you want and everything you think you'd put into it and you've chosen the safe that will last you for years...go one size bigger...maybe two.
That's my advice.

[AngryScientist]

Ahh that moment when @rwsaunders realizes what his stash of shiny silver campy parts are worth :)

[claritycycler]

Short utube vid on what not to buy, watchable at 1.5 speed.

[j44ke]

If you are getting it installed, use a reputable company with a solid reputation in your community. Due some background checks. My grandparents got wiped out two weeks after their safe was installed. Same company did the house security, door locks and the safe. They just opened the doors, turned off the security and opened the safe. Quite a few pieces of family history, photos and documents, some going back to the 1700’s and valuable to no one except our family - gone.

Based on that and a couple other experiences - which might be common sense but I hadn’t thought about them until our house got burglarized - things that need safe-keeping might not be best kept with other items that need safe-keeping. Do you want the jewelry with important documents? There are differences in types of value and (bureaucratic) difficulties associated with loss/replacement that might mean dividing up safe-keeping items and putting them in different places. There are valuables you might want to keep from getting stolen and others that you want to keep from getting damaged and/or lost. One is security, the other is archival. And there are things you might never need to access and others you or an emergency contact might need to get to without a lock in the way.

[gt6267a]

If you are getting it installed, use a reputable company with a solid reputation in your community. Due some background checks. My grandparents got wiped out two weeks after their safe was installed. Same company did the house security, door locks and the safe. They just opened the doors, turned off the security and opened the safe. Quite a few pieces of family history, photos and documents, some going back to the 1700’s and valuable to no one except our family - gone.

Completely amplifies my concerns about security systems, cameras, etc. Every time we turn on the alarm, we notify a company / someone that we are not home. IOT thermostat reports back to the mothership the house is in away mode (even if its selected autonomously, its usually right). In home security camera sees and hears us, probably not hard to watch us go out the back door or notice the sound motion / sound in the house has stopped.

For your grandparents theft, presumably the police were called and evidence shared. Was there an arrest or five? Was anything returned / found?

[vertical_doug]

I recommend a safe deposit box at your bank for documents. For jewelry, watches, I'd just have a hidey hole in the house.

Sadly, my parents have a story like j44ke. And we have neighbors in Bronxville, where a wall safe did not offer any protection.

[rwsaunders]

Thanks folks...I've had a SD box at the bank for a number of years where we've kept birth certificates, bank docs, etc. Thought that it'd be nice to have easier access to some of that information at home, but I'd be worried just to keep it in a file cabinet. In regards to the 10-speed Campag parts...

[vertical_doug]

Thanks folks...I've had a SD box at the bank for a number of years where we've kept birth certificates, bank docs, etc. Thought that it'd be nice to have easier access to some of that information at home, but I'd be worried just to keep it in a file cabinet. In regards to the 10-speed Campag parts...

Easier access for you, means easier access for someone else too.
just say'in, and just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they are not after me.

[Too Tall]

I contacted an old school Lock and Safe Company. What I wanted was a salvaged gas station safe. They are 800lbs cubes of steel with a round door. If you look hard enough you'll find one. These are not "fireproof" however it is easy to put documents etc. inside a fireproof envelope or box inside the great big old safe. These safes have easy to understand dial combinations that can be set for your own combo.

You'll need to hire a stevedore to move it ;)

[j44ke]

Completely amplifies my concerns about security systems, cameras, etc. Every time we turn on the alarm, we notify a company / someone that we are not home. IOT thermostat reports back to the mothership the house is in away mode (even if its selected autonomously, its usually right). In home security camera sees and hears us, probably not hard to watch us go out the back door or notice the sound motion / sound in the house has stopped.

For your grandparents theft, presumably the police were called and evidence shared. Was there an arrest or five? Was anything returned / found?

It was some extension of organized crime that came through the area, set up shop, hit a number of people and then disappeared. The local muscle was caught, but management was elsewhere. All the "worthless" family stuff was likely destroyed and everything else was out of state probably before they even realized the break-in had occurred.

[j44ke]

I contacted an old school Lock and Safe Company. What I wanted was a salvaged gas station safe. They are 800lbs cubes of steel with a round door. If you look hard enough you'll find one. These are not "fireproof" however it is easy to put documents etc. inside a fireproof envelope or box inside the great big old safe. These safes have easy to understand dial combinations that can be set for your own combo.

You'll need to hire a stevedore to move it ;)

That's the stuff.

[rwsaunders]

Funny that TT mentioned an old bank safe, as we work for quite a number of financial institutions and we are always removing older safes and other banking equipment for upgrades. A "small" cash safe (26" x 26" x 26") in the banking world weighs around 820# and I once removed and relocated a vault door from the 1920's that tipped the scales at over 18,000#.

[j44ke]

This looks nice enough to have bolted to the living room floor. Talk about easy access. Just don't forget the combination.

[Mabouya]

Just don't forget the combination.

In the movies the safe-cracker member of the gang is usually able to open that sort of combo lock in less than 3 minutes. I wonder how realistic that is.

At work we're going to these (with electronic locks, instead of the old mechanical ones): (GSA approved)

https://hamiltonproductsgroup.com/pr.../4-drawer.html

[Tom]

"Same company did the house security, door locks and the safe."

It doesn't help now, but that's why at work we make sure no one person can do a privileged operation from start to finish. They call it separation of duties. This account is a reminder to stay conscious of that kind of stuff in our own private business.