All About Safes’ guide to buying a fireproof safe for home and office

Keeping your home or office‘s valuables safe from theft is one of the main reasons that people buy a safe. But many insurance companies now insist on a fireproof safe, which is also a better choice if you’re storing irreplaceable paper documents or digital media. So what do you need to know and look for when deciding which fireproof safe to buy?

Here’s All About Safe’s guide to buying a fireproof safe

What are you storing in your fireproof safe?

• Media storage safes: If you need to keep your valuable memory cards or hard drives secure and safe from fire, then you will need a safe designed to hold digital media. Cameras, iPads, laptops and other items like discs and external hard drives are often irreplaceable. Losing that data could be upsetting for years to come. Keeping them safe from theft is important, but in the event of a fire, you’ll need a safe that can withstand intense heat.
• Document fire safes: Marriage certificates, deeds, insurance papers, plans or other important documents are often more valuable to the owner than a thief. Document safes are designed specifically to house documents, flat, organised and safe. All About Safes also have a range of fire filing cabinets for storing more paperwork.

Once you’ve selected which type of storage your safe will need, then you need to consider the fire protection of your safe. Many insurance providers will insist on a certain time for the resistance, so be careful when you select a safe and make sure that it fulfils your needs, as well as satisfies your insurer. A word of caution: Fire ‘resistant’ safes don’t always offer the time and protection that an insurer is after. These safes have the fire protection built into the compound within the door which expands in the heat. Although this will give some protection, it’s not always going to satisfy your insurer or protect your valuables for long enough.

How long are your valuables fireproof for?

• 30 minutes – up to 30 minutes fire protection
• 60 minutes – up to 60 minutes fire protection
• 120 minutes – up to 120 minutes fire protection

Now you’ve decided on the requirements for you, your items and your insurer, you need to look at the size of your safe. If you’re storing documents it’s worth mentioning that All About Safes offer two sizes on all our safes. The internal measurements will tell you if your documents will fill inside – this is especially important if you’re storing documents like marriage certificates which need to lie flat, as these have a pre-set size. All our sizes are in millimetres. If you’re not sure what size you need, call us for advice.

Fire AND security?

You might think that choosing a fire safe means you can’t have a cash rating as well, or that it will mean paying a lot more for your safes. We have some excellent fire security safes which offer both fire and cash protection at reasonable prices. We have some excellent Burton and Chubb fireproof safes for home and office which offer a compact cash rated as well as being fireproof.

What do we recommend as the best fireproof safes?

At All About Safes we stock a large range of Phoenix safes. Phoenix have a excellent range of fire safes which are extremely light and offer great protection in comparison to other brands. Phoenix is a quality known brand and their safes are well-made yet don’t have the high price of their bigger brand competitors. Safes like the Titan, Firefighter and Firefox are all excellent safes and offer fire protection and cash rating from £4000.

Some useful information for fire safes and insurance:

Independent tests for paper documents

• EN15659 LFS 30P: 30 minutes fire protection for paper at temperatures of up to 900oC
• EN15659 LFS 60P: 60 minutes fire protection for paper at temperatures of up to 900oC
• UL 72 Class 350: 60 minutes fire protection for paper at temperatures of up to 900oC
• NT FIRE 017 60P: 60 minutes fire protection for paper at temperatures of up to 900ºC

Independent tests for computer media

• EN1047 60D: 60 minutes fire protection for data/computer media at temperatures of up to 900ºC.
• EN1047 60D: 90 minutes fire protection for data/computer media at temperatures of up to 900ºC.
• EN1047 60D: 120 minutes fire protection for data/computer media at temperatures of up to 900ºC.

Buying a safe can be a confusing decision and often an expensive one. If you need more help or some advice on where to go next, just contact us or drop us a line! Or you can browse our full range of fireproof safes here.