Depository Safe Buying Tips
A depository safe
(also known as a deposit safe, or drop safe) is a special purpose safe used mainly by businesses for high usage scenarios. They generally have multiple compartments that can be individually locked allowing varying levels of access. Deposit Safes also commonly incorporate one way slots or rotary drop hoppers that allow small item deposits without needing to open the safe.
Click here to view our depository safe page.
Pros - Great if you need a safe that grants multiple levels of access restriction, or that allows for quick deposits.
Cons - Unnecessary for most home owners who rarely require multiple access doors.
These safes usually don’t provide fire protection.
Depository Safe Safe Specific Buying Tips:
- Consider incorporating a silent alarm - Silent hold-up alarm locks are recommended to allow employees to notify the authorities when in a hold-up situation.
Click here to learn more about our silent signal alarm feature.
- Consider using a time delayed entry lock - An electronic time delay lock can help prevent burglars from obtaining the safe contents by demanding that the safe be opened. This type of lock operates by starting a timed countdown (user defined delay period) once the correct combination has been entered.
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Go with an internal rotary hopper when possible - Internally mounted rotary hopper units provide more burglary protection than a top mounted or exposed rotary hopper.
- Rotary hoppers are preferable to slots when feasible because they prevent ‘fishing’ of the contents.
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Consider an internal locking compartment - Internal locking compartments are affordable, safe, and can be added to our depository safes in a variety of configurations.
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Go with an Electronic Lock - Electronic locks speed up access and save money when there is high employee turnover, by allowing employers to easily change the lock’s combination without the assistance of a locksmith.
General Safe Buying Tips:
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Check for a thick solid steel door and walls: It is essential that the safe you purchase has both a solid steel door and walls of substantial thickness. Without this base level of steel protection, any safe can be opened within minutes despite the hoopla of additional advertised protection features. While the majority of top selling safes on the market tout a plethora of protection features, virtually all fail miserably in this essential area.
The safe you choose must have at minimum a ½” thick solid steel door and a ¼” thick solid steel body.
Steel is very expensive and heavy, vastly increasing the safes build cost and the cost of shipping overseas to the reseller. As a result, nearly all oversea manufactured safes (and even many local built safes) cut these costs by making their safes with thin sheet metal wrapped around various forms of drywall to give the appearance of a robust safe. Click here to learn more.
Be highly suspect if the safe manufacturer or reseller doesn’t state solid steel or lists "composite" for their wall or door material as this can be anything from sheet metal wrapped around wood to sheet metal and drywall.
Also be on the lookout for safe sellers that list just ‘door thickness’ rather than the barrier material type and thickness as this is a recent trick many underhanded safe marketers employ. By listing the total thickness of the safe door including the safe dial, barrier material, airspace, inner bolt work, etc.... the provided figure can sound quite impressive while actually preventing the buyer from obtaining any solid information on how thick the barrier material actually is or what it's made of.
Click here to learn more about the industry recognized protection rating systems.
For details on the protection levels offered by Brown Safe... click here.
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Stick with a UL approved lock - Always check that the safe you plan to purchase has a UL approved Group 2 lock or better. The three dependable lock manufacturers are LaGard, Sargent & Greenleaf, and Kaba Mas. These are the only lock manufacturers that produce locks guaranteed to provide decades of trouble free operation.
If you decide on a safe without a UL approval, there's a 95% chance the safe's lock comes from China. The vast majority of safe manufacturers who equip their safes with "their own" lock brand also use Chinese locks. While highly affordable, Chinese built locks are highly undependable and are prone to early failure.
We routinely receive calls from agonizing safe owners permanently locked out of their safe by a malfunctioning Chinese lock. Opening these safes is generally a very costly and time consuming ordeal as it's nearly impossible for even a licensed locksmith to obtain accurate blueprints to aid in a clean repairable entry into the safe. Most safe owners in this unfortunate position opt for the faster and less expensive forced entry option. The safe is rendered unusable after a forced entry and the owner is stuck with a hefty bill and in the market for a reliable and secure safe... many current clients sought out our company after experiencing one or more highly unpleasant lockouts with inferior safes.
To view details on our UL approved electronic keypad lock, click here.
Click here to view info on our combination dial lock.
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Avoid fireboard or drywall based fire safes: Although fire safes constructed with fireboard, drywall, fiberboard, or other panel based insulation materials make up the majority of safes sold today, they provide inferior fire protection when compared to true composite fire safes or composite clad fire safes.
More importantly, these panel based safes provide fire protection at the cost of highly reduced burglary protection. The majority of fireboard style safes provide little to no burglary protection. Click here to learn why.
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Consider entry convenience: A safe that is slow to open or access is a safe you are less likely to use. Adding an electronic lock can make opening the safe quick and easy, as well as enabling the user to reset the combination when needed without the aid of a locksmith or combination kit. For the ultimate in user convenience and security, a high grade biometric lock can't be beat.
Click here to see our electronic lock offering.
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Check for re-lockers: All quality safes should have re-lockers to help ensure the safe remains locked in the case of a burglary. Re-lockers are hardened pins that are triggered, in a variety of ways during an attack, and cannot be retracted without hours of drilling. The number of re-lockers on a safe will range from 2-10+ depending on the size and burglary grade of the safe.
Bear in mind, re-locker pins only prove useful when the safe has a substantially thick steel door and walls. Most safes today are equipped with two or more re-locker pins. But on a steel deficient safe, these pins along with the locking bolts simply tear or bend right through the safe's thin door jamb by prying on the safe door with nothing more than a common crowbar.
Click here to learn more about our glass plate re-locker system.
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Consider a custom safe: Does the size of your chosen safe make best use of the space it's occupying? Is the interior layout of the safe well suited to your needs? In many cases there's room for improvement and this is where a custom safe is worth consideration. Brown Safe is one the only safe manufactures in the world to offer fully customizable safes. Custom sizes, finishes, and interiors are available at a very reasonable price point. We can work with you and/or your interior designer, architect, and carpenter to ensure a quality safe built to your exact specifications.
To go to our custom depository safe page...click here.
Installing a Depository Safe:
- Use Epoxy when anchoring - Safes placed in restaurants or other high moisture environments should be bolted down with epoxy anchor bolts to prevent excess water from degrading the bolts.
- Anchor it - Always bolt your safe down. While you may think there’s no way anyone will manage to wrangle the safe out of your house when it takes specialized machines and muscle to perform the installation, never underestimate the resourcefulness of highly determined burglars.
Concrete provides the most secure anchor, so it is the preferred surface for mounting your safe. Remember though, an inaccessible safe receives rare use... so if you have to place the safe in a location that's far out of the way in order to mount to concrete, reconsider.
Always mount using 1/2” concrete bolts or larger, and use more than one bolt. Four mounting bolts are ideal.
When anchoring to a wood floor, whenever possible, anchor one or more bolts into a foundation support beam rather than just the plywood floor.
- BSM provides custom mounting systems for vehicle installation.
- Watch for medium wall gaps - When possible, avoid anchoring the safe near a foundation wall in a way that creates an 8” to 18” gap between the wall and safe. Gaps smaller than 8” are ok but with slightly larger gaps it is possible to leverage the safe away from the wall using a car jack, ripping the safe’s base anchor bolts out from the flooring.
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