While most home safes don't carry a rating for burglary resistance, they do, as a practical matter, provide some protection. A TL-15 rated safe, for example, can withstand an attack of at least 15 minutes using common tools.
To determine their burglary-resistance ratings, UL testers go at safes with tools, torches, and even explosives, Drengenberg says. Independent ratings for burglary resistance are less common for home safes than for ones made for commercial users, such as jewelry stores. "Fires tend to move through a home, so 20 minutes is about the average in a room or an area." Generally speaking, 30 minutes should be sufficient, Bonsib says. This information should be on the safe itself, and you might see it on the packaging as well.įor home safes, 30 minutes of protection is most common, although you can also find safes that offer one or more hours' worth, typically with higher price tags. Computer disks and DVDs are even more sensitive, so if that's what you'll be storing look for a safe whose interior won't exceed 125 degrees. If you plan to store old tape recordings or 35mm slides, however, you'll want a safe that's rated not to exceed 150 degrees inside, he says. For example, safes rated to protect paper documents shouldn't get any hotter than 350 degrees on the inside during a fire, according to John Drengenberg, consumer safety director at UL in Northbrook, Ill. UL and Intertek rate fire-resistant safes in terms of what type of material they'll protect and how long they'll protect it. How real is that risk? The National Fire Protection Association says that during an average lifetime, there's a one in four chance of experiencing a household fire large enough to warrant calling the fire department. 1 concern of most buyers, according to Greg Bonsib, director of brand management at SentrySafe, a major manufacturer in Rochester, N.Y. Here are some of the ways they evaluate them:įire is the No.
We don't test safes here at Consumer Reports, but many are tested by independent organizations such as Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and Intertek (which uses the ETL mark). Most home safes are designed to protect their contents from fire, theft, or both.
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