5 Best Fireproof Safes | 2019 Beneficial Buyer’s Guide

Security is of paramount importance. It always has been, but it seems like in modern time, it’s an increasing concern. Security isn’t just a measure against crime, there are a host of other disasters that could result in the loss of valuable or important things. These include fires, floods, quakes, even possibly acts of terror or warfare. This is why a fireproof safe is a very good idea.

What is the best fireproof safe? The product should be made by a brand-name company with the use of quality materials. It is important that the unit can be easily hidden and does not take up space. As for the locking mechanism, a turn-key option should be preferable as relying on the memory is not practical. Whereas writing the numbers down will only compromise the security. Apart from being fireproof, the unit should be waterproof and ensure safe temperatures for digital media. We believe that Sentrysafe Chw20221 fits these criteria best.

Why have we chosen this model? It is produced by Sentrysafe, a well-known company on the market that is internationally present. The unit is fire and waterproof and designed to maintain the required temperatures for CDs, DVDs, and USBs. With the size of 0.28 cubic feet, it is portable and easy to grab so you can travel with it comfortably. An added benefit is an in-lid organizer that makes documents and other small things readily available.

This guide will tell you about TOP-5 best fireproof safes available for average users. You will learn about the way they work, the different types available, and what to look for them. The guide also discusses the strong and weak points of these products and features a comparison chart showing the main characteristics of the best fireproof safe boxes. Some of them are more portable while others are more reliable. Depending on your needs, you will find here the right option for you.

What You Will Learn From This Guide:

• How does a fireproof safe work?
• What are the types of fireproof safes?
• What to look for when buying a fireproof safe
• TOP-5 best fireproof safe boxes

How Does a Fireproof Safe Work?

Fireproof safes are, of course, not invulnerable. Severe enough temperatures or concussive force could destroy or damage them enough to be opened.

A good example is that, in a lot of science fiction, these fireproof compartments and safes are found to have survived apocalyptic events such as nuclear war, global natural disasters, and so on. Put frankly, unless buried very, very deeply, nothing survives severe events like this.

Fireproof safes are really designed to withstand structure fires, or the fires brought about by traditional incendiary detonations (bombs, flame throwers, and so on). When it comes to severely weaponized forms of combustion, few consumer fireproof safes can withstand a concentrated assault, but they are generally capable of withstanding acts of terror or simple structure fires.

They achieve this by being made of advanced polymer materials that not only hold up to tremendous heat and pressure, but minimally conduct said heat. This means that while the safe is exposed to intense heat, the contents ideally are not. The result should be a safe that, once cooled, will still open effectively, and precious items inside be perfectly intact.

Of course, this depends on the materials. Some materials, while very flammable, aren’t readily ignited without an open flame or very high temperatures. These include things like paper, cloth and the like. Other things can be ruined by non-combustive ambient heat. These could include some more fragile electronics, photographs, some jewelry alloys, optical discs (CDs/DVDs), and so on.

Usually, the interior of these safes never reaches a temperature that can ruin these heat-sensitive things, but if it’s a severe enough fire, one hot enough to melt iron and steel, your CDs and other data storage devices, while intact, may still have been rendered inert or unreadable. Fires this hot are rare unless the result of directed weaponized sources.

What Are the Types of Fireproof Safes?

Safes in general come in many forms, so why wouldn’t fireproof ones? In truth, most safes worth much are fireproof these days, as that tends to be the bigger challenge for them to face, rather than being burglarized.

Safe cracking is a skill, a specialized one that isn’t taught by academic institutions, and the criminals capable of doing this, and without being caught in the act (which also means overcoming security systems) are relatively rare themselves.

Safes tend to take one of four forms, those being a suitcase-like portable design, which is handy for smaller things, being so easy to move, and providing a very secure way to transport valuables. Others are squat, heavy boxes about the size of a small mini-fridge or microwave. These have a front-facing door. They can be moved, but have serious heft.

For larger quantities or larger things, safes more closely resembling large furniture or appliances are commonplace, offering shelves and other compartments for nice, organized storage. These tend to be refrigerator-sized monstrosities, really not pleasant to move.

Finally, there are ones intended to hide, being put in walls behind pictures or mounted inside cabinets or closets. These exist, and they are very common.

Across these are two other big differences, and within one of those, also a range of distinctions. Some are digital – and yes, fireproof digital systems do exist, though they often have a turnkey secondary way to open them if the electronics are damaged.

Non-digital/electronic ones vary by way of the type of lock. The stereotype of a combination lock is in fact common, though these are increasingly vanishing in popularity because frankly, and anyone who remembers their highschool locker will attest to this, combination locks suck. Other locking mechanisms include keys, slot-combinations (rolling dials), and combinations of these.

What to Look for When Buying a Fireproof Safe

What should you look for in one of these? Obviously, there’s more to these than movies, cartoons and popular fiction would imply. Let’s take a look at some of the concerns, and what impacts them. This will vary from one person to the next in some ways, so don’t be too worried if some of these concerns are more or less important to you.

• What are you storing? – This does matter. If you just have a few small valuables, and some important documents, one of the suitcase style safes is generally sufficient. You can easily hide it, and it’s not taking up space and providing difficulty that it doesn’t need.

• How do you feel about numbers? – This is all about your lock choice. If you’re anything like me, you can’t remember numbers, having to look your own phone number up in your phone’s contact list, to give it out. Combination locks are just the absolute worst for people who can’t remember these sequences well. This means you’ll have to write it down, which compromises its security. Combination locks are also fiddly, even today, meaning if you needed into that safe in a hurry … well you can imagine the problem there.

• Where do you live? – Are you legitimately worried about attempted burglaries, more so than usual due to your location? Safes that are easily hidden are going to be a priority for you in this case, and by no means should you use an electronic one unless it ties into your security via IOT, allowing for notifications when tampering is tried.

My Personal Experience with Fireproof Safes

All our family albums, many mementos and other heritage things only of value to us, were lost when the seventy-year-old LA Victorian home we lived in caught ablaze. Everything was lost that wasn’t in the basement, detached garage, or that safe.

Later in life, when girlfriends and friends have asked to see pictures of my family, or my sister and I as children, have always had to be disappointed, as all our memories before I was about ten, went up in ash.

Yeah this is depressing, but it brings home an important point – make sure you have safe storage not just for obvious valuables and important documents, but any memories you might mourn losing. Trust me.

TOP-5 Best Fireproof Safe Boxes

Below, you will find the TOP-5 best products within the price range from $14 to $220. While some models resemble a suitcase, others look rather like a folder that is easy to carry. All these models are waterproof and portable to a varying degree. They differ in capacity and purpose of use: there are items intended for keeping documents there and the safes for keeping cash. This review will help you choose the best fireproof safe for home and office.

Best Fireproof Waterproof Safe | Sentrysafe Chw20221

This is a prime example of the clamshell suitcase form factor I mentioned in descriptions. Something similar to this (albeit less refined) survived the fire in LA when I was young, with nothing in it suffering any ill effects.

This is a tough, heavy little safe, but it will certainly withstand most non-absurd sources of heat or impact. A friend of mine, and a former expert burglar, now works as a security tester after serving his time. He’s told me these little key lock safes may not look like much, but they’re very hard to break into as well. Actually, this model is the best fireproof safe under 100.

Features

• Space: 0.28 cubic feet.
• Form Factor: Clamshell suitcase.
• Locking Mechanism: Turn key.
• Waterproof: Absolutely.
• Portable: Yes.
• Electronic Components: None.

Performance

I remember helping my step dad move ours around a few times, and these puppies, albeit portable, are still heavy. I remember it being empty once and landing on his foot too, and it was the only time I ever heard him say “the queen mother of all dirty words” in front of my sister or mother as well.

But, bulkiness and minimal lock aside, these can withstand a serious house fire, as well as pressure from earthquakes bringing walls down on them, and good luck picking the lock or prying it open.

I wish we’d had two or three of these rather than one, our family memories would still be intact. This was a time when digitizing such things wasn’t a thing you could do.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Affordable.
• Fairly easily portable.
• Very tough.
• Waterproof.
• Secure.
• Sentry reputation of excellence and security.

Cons

• Kind of heavy.
• If you lose the key, you’re screwed.
• Not much space.
• The safe itself could be stolen, which may not aid an unskilled thief, but still means you’ve lost your valuables.

Conclusion

If you’re storing small, important things, this is a good safe by a good company, and I’m comfortable recommending it. So this is also the best small fireproof safe. But, make sure you hide it well, if you’re worried about burglaries, as it could be stolen itself, as I said, and regardless of they can open it, your things are forever gone.

Best Fireproof Document Safe | SentrySafe HD4100

This is another offering from Sentry, who really are a respected, sought after company for these devices. In fact, three of the five we’re looking at are from Sentry, which should say something.

This one is similar to the last one, though designed more for storing organized files of significant importance. This may seem like a dated concern with the digital world, but there still remain certain hard copy documents that aren’t valid when digitized. This one’s a bit bigger, and the arcade I once ran had a safe like this. Same safe, just an older revision of it.

Features

• Space: 0.65 cubic feet.
• Form Factor: Clamshell compartment.
• Locking Mechanism: Turn key.
• Waterproof: Absolutely.
• Portable: Yes, albeit with some effort compared to the smaller one.
• Electronic Components: None.

Performance

Some documents can’t be stored digitally, such as diplomas, certificates, signed documents, sealed contracts, and the like. This means that, for all our modern world, documents still have to be kept safe from fires.

This Sentry safe is designed with file folders in mind, and as a result, is really more for small offices or businesses, though it’d work fine, minus the dividers, to store photographs, hard drives, CDs, jewelry, money or any other smaller important things.

It’s got a beefier lock, and is harder to move in a stealthy, hurried way, meaning that despite being portable, it’s not that easy to take off with this.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Affordable.
• Fairly easily portable.
• Very tough.
• Waterproof.
• Secure.
• Sentry reputation of excellence and security.
• Provides great organization.
• Tough lock.

Cons

• Kind of heavy.
• If you lose the key, you’re screwed.
• Unless you’re storing documents, this safe would be a disorganized mess.
• While not easily taken off with, this safe could still be stolen by thieves in the night, as it’s still fairly small and portable, when hoisted with determination.

Conclusion

For storing important documents, or a lot of small things that needn’t be organized neatly, this is a good safe. The one we had at the arcade worked fine. We had a break in once, and you could see scratches where they’d tried to get into it. Oddly, there was nothing valuable in there, merely important for administrative things.

Best Large Fireproof Safe | SentrySafe SFW123FUL

This is our last Sentry model on this list, because our last two aren’t actually safes. This is what most people picture when they think of a not-hidden safe. It’s a big thing, comparatively speaking, with organization shelves, humidity control, excellent waterproofing, and a seriously secure door and lock.

The buttons on it wouldn’t stand up to a fire, but it provides more analog ways of opening it should this happen.

Features

• Space: 1.23 cubic feet.
• Form Factor: Standard.
• Locking Mechanism: Digital keypad.
• Waterproof: Absolutely.
• Portable: Yes, albeit with some effort compared to the smaller one.
• Electronic Components: Digital keypad and lever release.

Performance

This is a typical safe, and things like this are what are usually pictured in common media, and for a reason. This is ideal for people who have various small things they wish to keep safe, such as jewelry, data storage, documents, and even cash.

This thing is very heavy, and it’s not likely to be directly stolen. It’s also easy to hide one of these, and digital keypads are very hard to crack. Damaging and disabling them severely just locks them even more, which is the one flaw in their fireproofing – they can be hard to open if the fire damages the keypad, requiring an electronics expert to get the buttons to push afterward.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Affordable.
• Very tough.
• Waterproof.
• Secure.
• Sentry reputation of excellence and security.
• Provides great organization.
• Digital pad is pretty much impossible to crack, despite what cyberpunk media would have you believe.

Cons

• Without power, these are troublesome.
• If the fire damages the keys, it can be a menace to open it, but it’s not impossible.
• Moving these is not fun.
• A bit excessive for most people in all reality.

Conclusion

If you need this much organized space, this is a great safe. The digital lock is pretty much impossible to crack with any practical means, and you can enjoy some real peace of mind from that. Just remember, if the pad is damaged, it can be a problem, and depending on power has its inconveniences, given no infrastructure on this planet is immune to power outages.

Best Portable Fireproof Safe | Happigo

Alright, this isn’t really a safe so much as a fireproof safeguard. These pouches are usually used to store money, and anyone who’s worked in retail has dealt with these in some form in the past.

You can put a lock on them, but they can be easily stolen, and gotten open in the long run. They’re tough, it will take some effort to rip them open, but it is possible, so this is really ideal only as an extra guard against fires, and not for security.

Features

• Space: N/A.
• Form Factor: Zipper pouch.
• Locking Mechanism: No locking mechanism present.
• Waterproof: Absolutely.
• Portable: Yes, it’s designed specifically for that.
• Electronic Components: No electronics present.

Performance

These honestly aren’t that secure, as they can be stolen, they can be cut open once taken offsite, and their appearance screams “I have money and valuables in me”. So, you certainly can’t rely on these for security, in and of themselves.

What these are really meant for is just a transport that does take some effort to get open, meaning you’re committing to it, which ensures employees behaving themselves. It’s also very resistant to flames, which adds an extra layer of protection when they’re in safes that could still get hot inside.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Silicon coating means the material isn’t at all irritating.
• Spacious, for a pouch, and made of durable materials that do take work to get open.
• You can choose your type of lock to put on these, as long as it complies with zippers.
• This isn’t at all expensive.

Cons

• This isn’t that secure, as it could be easily stolen, and opened with some effort.
  • It’s not very rugged, so fragile things shouldn’t go in here, despite it claiming to be ideal for phones.

Conclusion

If you’re not foolish enough to rely on this as a security measure, but rather a safety implement, you’ll be quite happy with this pouch. We used a similar one to take our money to the bank at the arcade, from the change machines and the little snack bar.

We kept a padlock on ours, but I always felt it probably was more a show of effort than something that’d really keep a thief out of it.

Best Fireproof Safe For Cash | JUNDUN

This is similar to the previous one, though this one honestly isn’t quite as comfortable to handle. However, the cloth is very tough, and I’d say the zipper on this one is a bit better. The trick is, this is manufactured in China, and Chinese products are popular due to their affordability, which can lead to some cut corners and waiving of manufacturer responsibility.

Features

• Space: 13.4x9.4 inches approximately.
• Form Factor: Zipper pouch.
• Locking Mechanism: No locking mechanism present.
• Waterproof: Absolutely.
• Portable: Yes, it’s designed specifically for that.
• Electronic Components: No electronics present.

Performance

Like the previous one, it’s important to note that this isn’t that secure in and of itself, as it can be stolen fairly sneakily, all things said and done. But, like the previous one, it provides added security, and allows for safe transport. It’ll make it through a mild to moderate fire intact, with money being unharmed. Cards may demagnetize, and circuits may melt though, so this is absolutely no substitute for a proper fireproof safe.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Silicon coating means the material isn’t at all irritating.
• Spacious, for a pouch, and made of durable materials that do take work to get open.
• You can choose your type of lock to put on these, as long as it complies with zippers.
• This isn’t at all expensive.

Cons

• This isn’t that secure, as it could be easily stolen, and opened with some effort.
• It’s not very rugged, so fragile things shouldn’t go in here, despite it claiming to be ideal for phones.

Conclusion

These are, as I said, a good additional fire protection utility, but are absolutely not a good security measure. All businesses tend to use these, and if they’re smart, they’ll use one that can stand up to some punishment and tampering without too much trouble. For that, I recommend this or the previous one, no problem.

FAQ

Which fireproof safe is best?
Depending on what you have, anything by Sentry is excellent.

How to make a fireproof safe?
You can’t. This requires advanced materials and manufacturing.

How long does a fireproof safe last?
Decades or even centuries if you take care of them.

Will a fireproof safe protect a hard drive?
Generally, but don’t. Use SSDs if you must store such things.

How to open a fireproof safe?
If you don’t have the key or know the password, you can’t. That’s the point.

Pros and Cons of Using These Products

Pros

• Prevents acts of terror or other disasters from erasing your valuables.
• Prevents theft.
• Works well with valuables insurance.

Cons

• If you lose the key, or the power fails, you’re basically screwed.
• Nothing is fireproof if the fire is hot enough.

Conclusion

I am positive one or more of these will suit your needs, unless you have gigantic things to store. But let me leave you with an important suggestion – if it’s that valuable and dire, it probably shouldn’t be kept onsite, but rather in a safe deposit box. They’re not that expensive.