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So that it doesn't get stolen along with the money.
Two years ago, thieves broke into my apartment and stole all my savings.
Since then, I keep amounts larger than 10,000 rubles either on deposit or on a bank card. But the fear of burglars has not gone away. Therefore, I bought a safe to store important documents and valuables. Before buying, I reread everything that was on the Internet, consulted with specialists and pestered consultants in stores.
In this article, I will tell you which safe is best to choose to install at home, and what to pay attention to when buying.
Installing a safe like in a movie, in a wall in a multi-story apartment, will not work everywhere: the partitions are thin and you risk making a hole into the next room. It may be possible to make a niche in the outer wall: you can measure its thickness in the area of the window. Remember that there may be electrical wiring under the plaster, and the wall itself may be made of plasterboard.
I was stupid and started looking for a place for the safe after the purchase. I was lucky: it fit perfectly on the bottom shelf of the desk. It turned out that some manufacturers specially adjust the dimensions of office furniture to the standard dimensions of safes.
There are eleven classes of resistance to hacking. Any class can be hacked, but a zero class will take a safecracker 30 minutes, and a tenth class will take at least 15 hours.
You most likely won't find safes with burglary resistance higher than class 5 on the open market. As the consultant in the store explained to me, they are expensive, the demand is low, so it's easier to order directly from the factory.
You can find out the resistance class from the seller. Starting with the third burglar resistance class, the class will be indicated on the certificate, which is in the box with the safe. The higher the class, the more expensive the safe will be.
For home use, a safe of the first or second class will suffice. The average price of such items on the market starts from 20 thousand rubles. The third class is recommended for jewelry store storage. Higher burglar-resistance classes are used in banks.
The Russian Association of Safe Manufacturers and Suppliers has developed special recommendations on how much cash can be kept in a safe depending on the burglary resistance class. It is not recommended to keep money in zero-class safes.
Some safes may have another separate metal box inside that can be locked with a key. This compartment is called a treyzer. The lock and door of the treyzer do not have powerful protection; their purpose is to delay a burglar for a few extra minutes. Safes with treyzers are suitable for gun owners: according to the law, the gun itself and ammunition for it must be stored separately.
The walls must be thick; in fire-resistant safes they resemble a sandwich in cross-section: between two layers of steel there is concrete or quartz sand.
Door hinges in safes are not always hidden inside. In heavy safes above the second burglar resistance class, internal hinges may not withstand a door weighing 300 kg, so they are installed outside. In this case, the deadbolts - the latches of the safe lock - must lock the door from each edge of the door.
The joints and seams on the body are not visible, and the gap between the door and the body should be as thin as possible to make breaking in more difficult.
The thickness of the door should be twice as thick as the thickness of the walls.
If there are several locks in a safe, they can be of the same or different types. All are considered reliable, but each has its own drawbacks.
To open a combination mechanical lock, knowing the code, you need to spend about three minutes. This is too long if you use the safe often.
The keys to a regular mechanical lock can be lost, and the code to an electronic one can be forgotten. Restoring both is possible, but it costs money.
An electronic lock, unlike a mechanical one, runs on a battery. If it dies, the safe will not open itself, but your code will remain in memory, and you will still be able to open the door. To do this, you will have to connect an external power supply to the lock - there is a special niche with emergency terminals on the outside. They need to be taken out and connected to a charged battery, and then enter the code. The door will open, and the batteries can be changed.
I don't trust electronics, so I bought a safe with two mechanical key locks. If you lock both of them, the door can only be opened with two keys. But if you close the safe with one turn of one of the locks, it will also be locked, but less securely. This method is convenient for those who use the safe constantly. I don't keep the keys together: the first one is securely hidden at home, and the second one is on the keychain with the keys to the apartment, which I always keep with me.
If you lose the keys or forget the code, then for money the representatives of the manufacturing company will be able to carefully open the safe, and you will be able to continue using it. The keys can be restored by the manufacturer, since each lock has its own individual number.
Don't keep cash in your safe every day. The less often you need to access your safe, the better. There's less chance that someone other than you will get hold of the codes or keys.
Don't write the safe code anywhere. Just don't.
Don't keep unnecessary things in the safe: bank cards, memorable letters, trinkets dear to your heart. Thieves will try to take the safe, it would be a shame to lose these things along with the money.
In case of fire, leave the safe. Life and health are more important than any valuables stored in the safe. Do not waste time evacuating valuables if everything around you is burning.
Two years ago, thieves broke into my apartment and stole all my savings.
Since then, I keep amounts larger than 10,000 rubles either on deposit or on a bank card. But the fear of burglars has not gone away. Therefore, I bought a safe to store important documents and valuables. Before buying, I reread everything that was on the Internet, consulted with specialists and pestered consultants in stores.
In this article, I will tell you which safe is best to choose to install at home, and what to pay attention to when buying.
Decide on a location
To prevent burglars from stealing the safe along with its contents, it must be either large and heavy, or attached to a wall or floor. Before you go shopping, think about where you will put it. A small safe under the bed should be bolted to the floor. In a closet, it will have to be attached directly to the wall so that thieves do not saw out a piece of furniture along with the safe.Installing a safe like in a movie, in a wall in a multi-story apartment, will not work everywhere: the partitions are thin and you risk making a hole into the next room. It may be possible to make a niche in the outer wall: you can measure its thickness in the area of the window. Remember that there may be electrical wiring under the plaster, and the wall itself may be made of plasterboard.
I was stupid and started looking for a place for the safe after the purchase. I was lucky: it fit perfectly on the bottom shelf of the desk. It turned out that some manufacturers specially adjust the dimensions of office furniture to the standard dimensions of safes.
Select a safety class
Not every metal box with a lock is a safe. The box can be anything, but to be called a safe, it must meet certain industrial standards and pass tests. All safes in Russia must undergo certification, according to the results of which they are assigned a certain class of resistance to burglary.There are eleven classes of resistance to hacking. Any class can be hacked, but a zero class will take a safecracker 30 minutes, and a tenth class will take at least 15 hours.
You most likely won't find safes with burglary resistance higher than class 5 on the open market. As the consultant in the store explained to me, they are expensive, the demand is low, so it's easier to order directly from the factory.
You can find out the resistance class from the seller. Starting with the third burglar resistance class, the class will be indicated on the certificate, which is in the box with the safe. The higher the class, the more expensive the safe will be.
For home use, a safe of the first or second class will suffice. The average price of such items on the market starts from 20 thousand rubles. The third class is recommended for jewelry store storage. Higher burglar-resistance classes are used in banks.
The Russian Association of Safe Manufacturers and Suppliers has developed special recommendations on how much cash can be kept in a safe depending on the burglary resistance class. It is not recommended to keep money in zero-class safes.
Some safes may have another separate metal box inside that can be locked with a key. This compartment is called a treyzer. The lock and door of the treyzer do not have powerful protection; their purpose is to delay a burglar for a few extra minutes. Safes with treyzers are suitable for gun owners: according to the law, the gun itself and ammunition for it must be stored separately.
Rate the appearance
I bought myself a fireproof safe of the second class of burglary resistance. It looked quite reliable. As it turned out later, some external signs really indicate quality.The walls must be thick; in fire-resistant safes they resemble a sandwich in cross-section: between two layers of steel there is concrete or quartz sand.
Door hinges in safes are not always hidden inside. In heavy safes above the second burglar resistance class, internal hinges may not withstand a door weighing 300 kg, so they are installed outside. In this case, the deadbolts - the latches of the safe lock - must lock the door from each edge of the door.
The joints and seams on the body are not visible, and the gap between the door and the body should be as thin as possible to make breaking in more difficult.
The thickness of the door should be twice as thick as the thickness of the walls.
Which lock to choose
Safe locks must have a deadbolt locking system. Deadbolts are thick metal cylinders with a diameter of 20 mm. In burglar-proof safes, they rotate when an attempt is made to saw them off. The lock itself can be of three types:- mechanical key,
- mechanical code,
- electronic code.
If there are several locks in a safe, they can be of the same or different types. All are considered reliable, but each has its own drawbacks.
To open a combination mechanical lock, knowing the code, you need to spend about three minutes. This is too long if you use the safe often.
The keys to a regular mechanical lock can be lost, and the code to an electronic one can be forgotten. Restoring both is possible, but it costs money.
An electronic lock, unlike a mechanical one, runs on a battery. If it dies, the safe will not open itself, but your code will remain in memory, and you will still be able to open the door. To do this, you will have to connect an external power supply to the lock - there is a special niche with emergency terminals on the outside. They need to be taken out and connected to a charged battery, and then enter the code. The door will open, and the batteries can be changed.
I don't trust electronics, so I bought a safe with two mechanical key locks. If you lock both of them, the door can only be opened with two keys. But if you close the safe with one turn of one of the locks, it will also be locked, but less securely. This method is convenient for those who use the safe constantly. I don't keep the keys together: the first one is securely hidden at home, and the second one is on the keychain with the keys to the apartment, which I always keep with me.
If you lose the keys or forget the code, then for money the representatives of the manufacturing company will be able to carefully open the safe, and you will be able to continue using it. The keys can be restored by the manufacturer, since each lock has its own individual number.
Safety rules when using a safe
Do not use the safe in front of strangers, especially couriers, cleaners and any other people you see for the first and last time in your life. A dishonest courier can take advantage of the situation. If you meet a courier in your apartment and want to pay in cash from the safe, prepare the money in advance.Don't keep cash in your safe every day. The less often you need to access your safe, the better. There's less chance that someone other than you will get hold of the codes or keys.
Don't write the safe code anywhere. Just don't.
Don't keep unnecessary things in the safe: bank cards, memorable letters, trinkets dear to your heart. Thieves will try to take the safe, it would be a shame to lose these things along with the money.
In case of fire, leave the safe. Life and health are more important than any valuables stored in the safe. Do not waste time evacuating valuables if everything around you is burning.
