If you are wondering if it’s worth buying a safe for home use, then this article will outline the pro’s and con’s of buying and owning a safe for your home.
Rewind the clock a few years, and a home safe would almost be exclusively for businesses and the very rich.
Fast forward to present day, and modern home safes are inexpensive, easy to use and install, and are a very practical and sensible addition to any home.
Having a home safe is a great way to improve your home security in general, as it gives another layer of defence against the theft of your valuable possessions.
Below is a simple guide and considerations surrounding buying, owning and using a safe for home use.
Table of Contents
Pro’s Of A Home Safe
The first pro of having a home safe is the most obvious pro – a home safe is going to protect your valuables, cash and important documents safe against theft.
If you are unfortunate enough to experience a break in at your home, then having your valuables locked away in a safe is exponentially more secure than if they were not locked away at all.
And this point goes for even the cheapest safe, available on websites like Amazon or eBay.
And when we think about what a safe is, and how the average burglary or break in is performed (very few tools or equipment, in and out time of under 12 minutes), we can see that a safe will keep these valuables protected based on the fact that it will take longer to break into a safe than 12 minutes, and any attempt of breaking into a safe that is in situ will create a lot of noise.
And that’s two things criminals don’t have and dont want during a break in; they want to be in and out as quick as possible (the more time they spend the greater the chance of getting caught) and of course they want to be as quiet as possible.
The other massive plus of having a home safe is that it also gives you a place to store valuables that protects against environmental factors, such as heat, water, light, dust, damp and smells.
Some safes a fire rated, meaning the contents of that safe are protected against fire and heat up to a certain temperature and to a certain timescale – a little bit like a fire door.
And some safes are even water rated – meaning that some safes will keep the contents of that safe dry and protected.
Summary
Here’s a summary in bullet point form of the benefits of having a safe in your home.
- A safe help protect valuables, collectibles, items of sentimental value, jewellery, expensive electronics and gadgets, cash and important documents and media from theft.
- A safe gives you one secure location in your home for valuables, so there’s no more hiding expensive watches in a drawer in one room, and a piece of gold in a drawer in another room.
- A safe can also help protect the same things from things like fire, flooding, damp, light and any other environmental factor.
- A safe helps keep its contents exponentially more secure than if you had no safe at all.
- A safe gives you peace of mind that valuables are locked away in a secure environment.
- Entry level, standard safes are inexpensive.
- Home safes are easy to fit and install yourself.
- A home safe comes with variety of entry methods such as standard key, code, keypad and even fingerprint entry.
- Your insurance premium may be cheaper if you have a home safe (check with insurer).
- Specialist safes are available for other uses, suh as garage safes and van safes.
Con’s Of A Home Safe
With so many pros and positives, how could there possibly be any negatives?
Well, as with anything, there are con’s associated with having a safe in your home.
The biggest con is space and location of the installation.
Most home safes at the cheaper end of the spectrum are small and lightweight. They must be secured down to the floor, inside a cupboard or to a wall for the effectiveness of the safe. Otherwise, the safe could simply be lifted out of the property and taken away to a location where the criminal has more time and a place where noise of breaking into a safe is not a problem.
A lot of people bolt safes down inside of built in wardrobes, or in kitchen cupboards. There’s a number of places where installing a safe is recommended, and some spaces where it’s not recommended, but the main point here is that a safe should be bolted to something, especially if it’s a small and light safe.
The other con of having a safe is the practicality of having a safe, and then being disciplined to use it time in, time out.
It can be a pain in the backside if you constantly need to go to the bedroom wardrobe, input a combination code, then resecure it everytime you need something from it.
A lot of people will buy a home safe, but then given time, they’ll bypass using it for speed or convenience.
Another con is access to the safe. What if you forget the comination code? What if you lose the key? Well, it’s going to mean more expense as you will need to get a professional in, or the manufacturer, to help you regain access.
The final big con surrounds what happens if a burglar finds a safe that is located downstairs, and you are asleep upstairs.
Are they going to come and confront you, and try and force you to open the safe against your will? Perhaps if you didn’t have a safe, you would not be put in a danger situation like this, and it is a worry in some people’s minds.
But as you can see, there are far less con’s than there are pro’s to owning a safe and having a safe for home use.
Summary
Here’s a summary in bullet point form of the con’s of having a safe in your home.
- Location could be a problem, as some people do not have the space for a safe.
- You need to be disciplined to use a safe, and use it without fail no matter how inconvenient it may be.
- Worry over losing the key or forgetting the code.
- Potential of forcing a person to open up a safe.
- More robust, feature rich safes can become expensive.
Should I Buy A Safe For Home Use?
Home safes are inexpensive, easy to install and is a great way to provide a central location or hub to store all types of valuables, including cash and documents.
Every home in the UK should have a safe for home use, and are a great option for enhancing the security inside your home. However, don’t neglect the security outside your home either. Something like a home DIY security system will deter a criminal from even attempting to enter your home in the first place, so do think about that and your other security arrangements before investing in a safe.
If you haven’t got a safe for home use, start by checking this handy guide on the best safe to buy for you and your home.
More Information on Safes
I hope you’ve found some use from the article looking at the best safe for home use, and if you did find it useful, why not take a look at our article on the best 5 home safes for UK homes?
The article looks at the best safe for home use, and includes everything from safe ratings, how they are tested, how they are made, to the best safe to buy in your circumstances.
Stay Safe. Stay Secure.
