Complete Guide to Choosing the Right Home Safe
When it comes to keeping your most prized possessions safe, a home safe is one of the best investments you can make. It’s a simple, reliable way to secure everything from important documents and emergency cash to family heirlooms and precious jewellery.
But with so many sizes, features and options available, how do you know you’re making the right choice when choosing a safe for your home? If you find yourself feeling out of depth when browsing home safes, let us help you.
In this guide we’ll cover:
- How to determine the right size for your needs
- Key features to look for in a home safe
- How to compare different home safes
How to determine the right size for your needs
There are multiple things to consider when choosing a safe for your home, and one of the most important is size. You want to make sure your safe is big enough to store all of your valuables, that it fits into a suitable space in your home, and that there’s some spare capacity should you wish to store more in future.
Here’s how to ensure you get a safe that’s the right size:
Make a list of everything you plan to store in your safe
This list will be different for everyone, meaning there’s no one-size-fits-all answer we can provide. Instead, we recommend making your own list. Make sure to include things like:
You might also want to gather all the items together so you can visualise how much space they take up.
Factor in room for growth
We wouldn’t recommend buying a safe that only has enough space for what you plan to store right now, as it’s more than likely you’ll accrue other valuables over time - whether it be more important documents, or other high-value items. Having spare space in your safe means you can store more items without having to buy a new, larger safe.
Think about where the safe will go
Safes come in an array of sizes, from small ones that tuck into the back of cupboards to large free standing safes. The space you have available for your safe will determine the upper boundary of suitable sizes, so it’s worth measuring the area you plan to put it. Then take a look at our range of home safes and see which options are an appropriate size.
Key features to look for in a home safe
With the right size figured out, it’s time to look at key features. As well as the obvious one (a door with a solid lock) there are many features that determine how secure your valuables will be when inside a safe.
Locking mechanism
Safes can come with many different types of locking mechanism, each offering its own benefits:
Our range of home safes includes combination locks, dual locks, electronic locks, and key locks.
Insurance rating
Insurance rating determines how much an insurer will be willing to insure the items inside a safe for. The insurance rating should exceed the combined value of everything you plan to store in your safe.
Our range of home safes includes insurance ratings from £1,000 to £100,000.
Fire rating
Paper burns at around 223°C, and fire rating refers to how long paper items in a safe will be protected from setting alight if a safe is surrounded by flames. If you plan on storing valuable paper items, look for a high fire rating.
Our range of home safes includes paper fire ratings from 25 to 90 minutes.
How to compare different home safes
Comparing different safes is a lot easier when you know what you’re looking for, and we hope this guide has been informative in helping you to better understand safe sizes, features and options.
With this information you can compare safes with reference to your specific criteria, increasing the chances of finding something that will keep your valuables safe and give you peace of mind for years to come. To find your perfect safe, head to our home safes page and use our sophisticated filtering options to help you narrow down your choices.
We also recommend looking for safes that meet the following criteria:
- Industry certified: we offer a range of AIS Approved Safes that are certified as suitable for home insurance purposes
