TOP-3 Best Fireproof Document Bags | Beneficial Buyer’s Guide

What is the best fireproof document bag? To be really fireproof, the bag should have high temperature tolerance. As a reference, a bonfire can reach temperatures as hot as 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is enough to melt aluminum. The item should be made from fiberglass material and have several layers of protection. Silicone coating makes the material pleasant to touch, which is also important as fiberglass may cause skin irritation. Besides, silicone-coated materials last longer and are better protected from dust. We believe that Aitere 2500°F Fireproof Bag fits these criteria best.

Why have we chosen it? This fireproof pouch measures 15 x 12 x 5 inches, providing sufficient room not just for papers and money, but also for average-sized laptops. Made from three-layer fiberglass, it can stand temperatures reaching up to 2500°F. Reliable metal zipper and silicone coating make it convenient and durable. This model is also waterproof, which prevents damage, should the bag be sprayed with a high-pressure water gun. The product comes with an adjustable strap so you can comfortably wear it over the shoulder.

Buyer's Guide

I want to talk about something that a lot of people overlook, even in the business world. I think we all know that one of the biggest worries when you run a brick and mortar location, aside from burglary, is a fire breaking out. Fires are horrifying, destructive forces. Even with the best fire suppression technologies, you can suffer irrecoverable damage before the fires are out.

Fire suppression systems can often, themselves, also do damage to inventory, documents, and equipment as well. Yes, a lot of modern suppression technologies generally do less damage, but it’s still far from perfect.

I say all of this to come back around to a point here. This vulnerability (along with just convenience and environmental conscientiousness) is why I am such a proponent of absolutely eliminating the need for a hard copy, physical documents for the rest of time. Seriously, with cloud computing systems and the prevalence of handheld devices (and how horrible printers have and continue to be), we should have abandoned the use of paper entirely about ten years ago, possibly before that.

Unfortunately, people older than me (and I’m getting old so that says something) are always stubborn about getting with the times. We’ve all stood in line behind some ancient person who still tries to pay for groceries with a check (seriously, use your debit card), for example. Well, these same old people make most of the laws in the developed world, and these laws still value paper documents over digital versions (in spite of VeriSign and the like) for court-admissibility and the like.

Why Do You Need A Fireproof Bag With A Lock

So, in a digital millennium where most people go months without writing even their signature on a piece of paper, we still have offices stuffed to the brim with wasted trees, pieces of paper which fires and water and silverfish and simply being stacked-upon, destroys them utterly. It’s dumb, but what can you do?

Well, you can at least protect the most important documents with something like a fireproof bag with a lock. We’ve all seen these and not thought much about them – most retail businesses store paper money in these, and a lot of really sensitive documents tend to go into these as well.

The problem isn’t that businesses don’t use these, it’s that they’ve been using the same ones for eons, and the technology behind these has come a very long way. We’re using cheaper paper now, and some of our documents aren’t entirely paper, but also contain heat-sensitive polymers for inks and seals as well, and while older bags did indeed prevent them from bursting into flames, they did little to keep ambient heat from still wreaking havoc on the documents.

I’d like to share with you how these modern bags work, why they’re better, and a story regarding what happens when you don’t use a modern version of this technology. And then, we’ll take a quick look at three of the better ones for prices you won’t cringe at.

Do Fireproof Bags Really Work?

So, these actually work pretty simply. They’re usually shaped something like a Manilla envelope or a traditional courier bag, depending on preference and needed storage capacity for the bag. Some also have the ability to have locks put on them for security as well.

Generally, these are made of a synthetic material that’s not terribly flammable (often a polycarbon blend), with a fire-retardant coating like silicone or something similar. This makes the bag “fireproof”. Now, I put that in quotes because literally, nothing in the universe is truly fireproof – if the fire gets hot enough, for long enough, the document bag and its contents will be incinerated.

However, most structure fires don’t get hot enough, or at least they don’t stay hot enough long enough, for these document bags to fail. There are exceptions if you have really high flashpoint volatiles onsite like some chemicals which cause fires to get insanely hot. This is rare, though.

They also contain an insulation lining, usually more polycarbon blend, which isn’t thermo-conductive. In other words, the heat won’t travel through the material very easily, keeping the documents from suffering secondary damage from ambient temperatures.

If one of these survives a fire, it’ll be time to replace it after, on the wager, but the documents can be safely recovered. The bigger ones could even store SD cards, SSDs and hard drives or data CD/DVDs to help keep copies of data safe as well.

Some Experience

I’ve mentioned in other pieces that for many years, I was basically second in command, in charge of running a very large arcade in suburban LA. We had several hundred arcade cabinets running, multiple ticket/prize games, pinball machines, ski-ball, air hockey, and even a small six-lane bowling alley.

Now, what we also had in another building on the property was a decent-sized 12-hole indoor mini-golf course. It had separate admission, which meant another office with another manager who answered to me, its own safe with money, etc. We had decided to close it down, with plans to retrofit it into an indoor go-kart track. The manager of the golf course, whom I’d had to write up for being rude to customers on multiple occasions, wasn’t going to be kept on for this new service. He did not like this.

You can imagine where this is going – he set the building on fire. If you were old enough to watch the news in LA in the late 90s, you probably remember that fire. The main building survived fine, but the other burned down completely, and almost caused a wildfire – it had been a very dry summer.

The police and fire department quickly determined it was arson, and the perpetrator was arrested. But, I’d been on my boss, the owner, to get new document bags and better safes for the buildings. We lost licenses and certificates and permits in that fire that took us months to replace and cost us a whole summer of not building the (now outdoor) go kart track. We lost a lot of money on that, even though the insurance company compensated us.

Bottom line, get a modern document bag and a good fireproof safe. People are not nice when you let them go.

Top-3 Best Fireproof Document Bags

Below, you will find the TOP-3 best products at a price ranging from $15 to $30. They differ in size and the level of protection, with one of these models having a maximum temperature tolerance of up to 2500°F. While most of the fireproof money bags protect the items inside them from a fire, there is a model designed for storing Li-ion batteries and electronic devices, preventing combustion in case of an explosion.

COLCASE Fireproof Pouch, 15 x 11 Inches

These are going to be pretty straightforward reviews because aside from form factor, these are fairly differentiated mainly in form factor. This one here by COLCASE is your modern, bog-standard envelope-style document bag.

It can withstand pretty high temperatures, the material isn’t unpleasant, and this would’ve been nice to have when that fire occurred.

Features

• Material: Silicone-coated Fiberglass.
• Size: 15”x 11”
• Waterproof: Yes.
• Temperature Tolerance: 1000 deg. F (550 deg. C). That’s HOT.

Performance

Despite being fiberglass, it’s not unpleasant to the touch, and it’s not too stiff to easily work with. Few fires get as hot as 1000 degrees, so you know your documents are safe.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Affordable.
• Large size (for documents).

Cons

• It makes itself look important, which may tempt thieves.

Conclusion

For just protecting some documents, this is definitely it.

Aitere 2500°F Fireproof Money Bag (L-Gray)

Aitere is probably not a name you’ve heard unless this is an industry with which you often deal. But they do have quite a reputation for good security and fireproof bags, and this one’s quite durable, tolerating insane exposure to heat and water alike.

This one’s also nice and roomy, giving you more space to protect other valuables like data storage and valuables as well.

Features

• Material: Silicone-coated Fiberglass.
• Size: 16”x13”x1.4”
• Waterproof: Yes.
• Temperature Tolerance: 2500 deg. F. Holy crap, what gets this hot?

Performance

I think I like this one the most, given it tolerates levels of heat that structure fires rarely achieve, and it’s convenient to carry. It’s also harder to steal something this obvious, and the space in it is nice.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Very tough.
• Easy to carry.
• Lots of room.

Cons

• A little pricey and the strap is a little short.

Conclusion

I think this is what I would have chosen for our arcade if it existed back in the day so, yeah, I recommend it.

ENGPOW Fireproof Explosionproof Lipo Safe Bag

I’ll be honest, I couldn’t find a whole lot on ENGPOW or their Lipo series before this product was offered. I like the design of it, I like the neutral black color, I like the double zippers, and it definitely boasts some decent heat protection. This is really meant for batteries, though.

Features

• Material: Silicone-coated Fiberglass.
• Size: 10.2”x5.1”x5.9”
• Waterproof: Yes.
• Temperature Tolerance: 1000 deg. F. Not half bad.

Performance

This is really meant for batteries, but documents and valuables will fit in it in a pinch. It’s cheaper than the previous model, which is also nice.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Versatile.
• Affordable.
• Decent-looking.
• Double zippers.

Cons

• Company has no real reputation good nor bad.

Conclusion

I’d say this might be an alright compromise, it’s pretty versatile, despite not really being a document bag per se.