Buying a Safe - Start With The Basics

Picking a safe for your home or business can leave you scratching your head with so many different options and brands to choose from.

We always advise our customers start with the basics and by answering a few key questions you can narrow down the search making the whole process a lot simpler.

Go through the following quick steps and you’ll be on your way to choosing your new safe in no time at all.

1. Insurance Cover

Have you been told by your insurance company that you need a certain cash cover or do you have a figure in mind that you’d like to be covered for? Either way once you have a figure you can narrow your search down straight away. If it’s not money but valuables you need to put in the safe then the simple rule for working out how much each safe will store is to times the cash rating by 10 to get the valuables rating. For example if you have £60,000 worth of valuables you want to lock away you need to get yourself a £6,000 cash rated safe.

We regularly get calls from customers you have been told they need a £5,000 rated safe and in this instance we’d always advise looking at £6,000 rated safes instead. There is much greater selection of £6,000 rated safes to choose from and usually they are a lot cheaper than the small range of £5,000 safes on the market. So please bear this in mind if your insurance company tries to steer you towards a safe with this cash rating.

2. Size

Next you need to work out where in your property the safe is going to go. Common places people keep their safe include wardrobes, garages or basements and some even get them built into the walls or installed underfloor. Ideally you need to bolt your safe in place either via the floor or against a wall so you need to pick a part of your home that will allow the safe to be bolted down.

Within each insurance rating there are always lots of sizes to choose from and you’ll always find the dimensions of each safe displayed online so you can see what will fit into the space you have. Please note that you may need to allow for extra depth on some models for protruding electronic locks, hinges or handles.

3. Key or Electronic Locks

Once you’ve picked an insurance rating and a size you’ll need to choose what type of locking you’d like on your safe. The majority of the leading safe manufacturers will offer each size safe with key or electronic locks.

Electronic locks tend to be more expensive but they also come with benefits you don’t get with key locking safes. In most cases it just comes down to your personal preference and what you’ll feel most comfortable using on a daily/weekly basis. For more on the differences between key and electronic locks and the pros and cons of each type click here to read an article dedicated to this subject.

4. Which Brand?

Finally all you need to do is pick a brand and then you’ll be left with only a handful of safes to choose from which all meet your needs. If you’re new to the world of safes then there will be a lot of brands that you have never heard of before and some may sound familiar.

The best reassurance we can give you is that if the safe has achieved a good insurance rating then you know it will have been tested to a high standard meaning you can trust the safe and in turn the brand. Also here on eSafes we make sure to only supply safes from reliable and high quality manufacturers so our customers enjoy an excellent journey and end product.

To make it a bit easier we pulled together a collection of quick Brand Introduction pieces here on the blog which give you a quick rundown about their history and best-selling products.

If you require more information and help in choosing a safe please give us a call on 0800 7832328 and our staff will happily talk you through the process.