Collection: Fire & Burglary Safes

How to choose a fire & burglary safe

A dual-rated safe answers two different threats with two different parts of its construction, and it is worth understanding which one you are actually buying for.

Start with the fire rating

Fire ratings are measured against paper. A 1-hour rating means the interior stays below roughly 350°F — the point at which paper chars — for one hour in a test furnace. Hayman's FlameVault FV-132, FV-137 and FV-151 models carry a 1-hour rating at 1750°F; the FV-261, FV-275, FV-288, FV-2100 and FV-2120 step up to 2 hours at 1800°F.

Two hours is not simply "twice as good." It matters most where a fire will burn longer before it is controlled — a commercial building, a rural property with a long fire-service response, or a home with a large fuel load. For a suburban house within a few minutes of a station, a 1-hour rating is usually proportionate.

One thing every buyer should know: a fire rating protects paper, not electronics. Hard drives, USB media and photographic prints degrade well below 350°F, often nearer 125°F. If you are storing backups or photos, put them in a media-rated insert inside the safe rather than loose on a shelf.

Then look at the burglary side

"B-rate" describes construction, not a timed test: a body of at least 1/4-inch steel and a door of at least 1/2-inch steel. That is a meaningful barrier against the pry bars and hand tools used in the overwhelming majority of residential and small-business break-ins. It is not the same thing as a UL TL-30 rating, which is an independently tested resistance to a professional attack — if that is what you need, see our High-Security TL-30 Safes.

Dial or electronic?

Models ending in -C use a UL-listed mechanical combination dial; models ending in -E use an electronic keypad. The dial needs no batteries and is unaffected by a power cut, but it is slower to open. The keypad opens in seconds and makes managing several users straightforward; codes are held in non-volatile memory, so a dead battery locks you out only until you fit a new one. Households opening a safe weekly usually prefer the dial; businesses opening one several times a day almost always prefer the keypad.

Fire safes that also hold firearms

If long guns are the point, the Ozarks, BlackHills and Rockies series in this collection are built around gun racks rather than shelves — from the 11-gun OZ 5518 E up to the 45-gun RK 7242 E. Rated gun capacity assumes standard-profile long guns with no optics; scoped rifles and wide-forend shotguns take noticeably more room, so plan on roughly two-thirds of the rated figure in practice. Browse the full range in Gun Safes.

Before you order

Check three things: that the delivery path, doorways and turns can take the safe's exterior dimensions; that the floor can carry its weight, which runs from under 100 lbs on the compact models to well over half a ton on the large gun safes; and that you have allowed clearance in front for the door to swing fully open. Every product page lists exterior and interior dimensions, weight and clear door opening.

Frequently Asked Questions