Buy a Safe: When you buy a safe its important to consider brands, what you are protecting, and of course the value you are getting for the money.  Lets begin by talking about Safe brands.  Very popular and good quality are Adesco, American Security, Cobalt, Hayman, Hollon, Inkas, Mutual Safe, Protex and others. (I am not including the gun safe companies in this article).  Some of the brands to cautious of are Mesa and American Security  (the model to beware of is the MFL2014E…Mesa claims its a B-Rated Safe but its not. In fact it should be a 1/4 inch or .25 thickness of steel but is only .10 thickness of steel making it split very easy when under attack) Other brands to be cautious of are Sentry, First Alert, Honeywell, and Bunker Hill.  All of the promise the world but really don’t deliver once tested. Every once in awhile these brands will make the evening news and the news team will do an unscientific little fire test in the parking lot of their station and they never seem to hold up as well as the package says they will.

Buy a Safe:What do want to protect and from whom or what. Lets be honest, nobody from the movie Ocean’s Eleven is going to break into my house and try to crack my safe. The police can tell me that its going to be a drug user and a quick smash and grab through my back door or window.  The burglar is not bringing tools. If does use tools he is using mine from the garage. So I would want to get a good quality Fire & Burglary safe. I may want a TL-15 if I was keeping a value of $75k or more. (I don’t. So I won’t!) The main reason for the TL-15 is my insurance company may want me in order to write insurance policy. Or I may just want that little extra protection because I’m paranoid. (don’t tell my wife I admitted to this)

Safe:Value and brands. My favorite is Hollon Safe for value. I get a great price from them for being such a large dealer and I pass that savings onto you. Some other brands that are also good values and quality for the buck are like Hayman Safe. Though Hayman is more toward the higher end of my value chart they do have a great designs that rate high in my value meter. Another good company is Mutual Safe and Cobalt Safe.  Low on my value meter but are very popular are Amsec or American Security.(everyone thinks these are made in the USA but I have seen them rolling off the line in China…so that just makes them over priced for what you get) Protex is another popular brand but I don’t like 30 minute fire rated safes(all fire safes should be a minimum of 1 hour…and once you see a house on fire you will understand) and there burglary protection leaves me wanting more steel…and for the price its just not worth it for me.  When it comes to the First Alert safes, their advertisement says you can bolt down the fire proof models but I have one in stock with wheels that are welded to the bottom and no way to remove them or bolt down. (whats up with that?)

Safe Update:Sisco products which used to liscense the name Honeywell Safes has sold to First Alert. And First Alert only liked their name so they have dropped the Honeywell name. Well, an old employee liked the Honeywell name and picked it up and is currently sticking it on Chinese safes. So you will now see First Alert safes and Honeywell safes on the market. The quality of both is about the same. Good fireproof but no real burglary protection.

I get a load of questions these days regarding “Is it made in the USA?”  Most safes are not.  Even the ones that say “Made in the USA”.  Remember, there really is nobody to slap a hand that advertises that but gets it brought into the USA.  I do know that Hollon Safe still does assembly here in the USA…they get thier box made overseas.  But they use a Sargent and Greenleaf dial that has been made in Kentucky and they install it in Texas. Gun safe companies in general are the worst about saying thier product is made here but importing from China. 

I hope this helps in your search for a safe. Please feel free to call us with any questions. We consider ourselves one of the few real and honest resources for safes on the market today.