Hi, I'm looking to purchase a fire resistant safe.. but have a few questions. I've looked at a few different ones, and most of them say
1/2 hour but some of the more expensive ones say 1 hour. Is it worth spending the extra cash for the 1 hour? To me even 1 hour is way too short to withstand the heat from a house fire. Any thoughts? Do these safes actually work, or are they false security?
My safe is an gun cabinet, and is 1.5 hour rated and the lowest rated for explosions, internal type. I do keep ammo in it so that was an issue for me. If your really concerned get a safety deposit box at the bank.
If you never have a fire, they are all a waste of money. If the high heat lasts less than 30 minutes, the added cost of a 1 hour is wasted. If it protects your valuables in a fire, it is cheap insurance.
In most cases, house fires are put out in a short time. You may be a ble to find some statistics on that. You probably also want to find the best spot in your house that would see the least damage, such as a low corner of the basement, far from the heater and oil tank.
I have a friend who's house caught fire in the basement, all told the whole basement was gutted and rebuilt. nothing structural but everything on the surface was replaced his computer was downstairs with all this personal banking. the monitor melted, but the hard drive inside the computer worked fine when he put it in a diff computer. so, depending on the size of the fire you may not need to spend the extra money, a smaller fire may not damage anything, while a large fire will not let you rescue anthing regardless of what you use
my thought is that if the fire has been burning for 1 hr the fd may not be able to put a fire that has been burning that long out, and instead they would just contain it. meaning that, everything would be toast by the time the fire was put out. I'd personally go for the off site backup, get that stuff in a safe box in the bank
Right.. obviously as the other poster mentioned... if you really want safety get a safety deposit box. As you state.. if the fire doesn't last 1 hour the cost is wasted. What I'm wondering is, will a 30 minute safe actually live through a house fire, or not? I live in the city so response time should be fairly fast.... just wondered what people's thoughts were
Do you think safety box is safe at your bank? Take a look at this happened in Asia.
do a little googling and get a better understanding of exactly what the ratings mean. here's a start:
randy
It is really difficult to say. Fires are not all the same. The times indicated are based on a standard test, but homes don't always product the standard fire.
Another consideration is the amount of protection the contents need. Paper may need one level of protection, diamonds can handle more heat, and computer disk less.
I have a one hour safe. I got it cheep at a garage sale. It should provide a little better protection than the 30 minute types. It is my understanding that the 30 minute types are rather marginal.
And some banks have been known to look through the boxes. Happened here in town a few years ago. Best protection against lost records is multiple copies at different locations. Of course, if you're storing cash, there's no such thing as backup copies.
Bob
buy a small safe keep it handy in your bedroom when you smell smoke, toss it out the window
make a box out of CaSO4 2H2O (gypsum) ie: Sheetrock Sit that box over your safe. Notice the H2O, gypsum contains chemically combined water (about 50% by volume). It'll help keep the safe cool for a bit longer than you think until that water evaporates out and it cracks and the box falls apart.
The average house fire lasts less than 1/2 hour. Rarely would a single family home burn for more than an hour, assuming you're in a reasonable response time for a local fire company.
Yes they work. Not as well as using a safe deposit box, but better than putting important papers in the top drawer in your kitchen cabinet.
Jeff
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