horizontal), and use of shields can all be used to produce more favorable ratings. Furnace ramp-up times, thermocouple placement, the addition of water, safe position (vertical vs. Each manufacturer tests its own products at different laboratories to varying standards. Unfortunately no universal standards exist for fire testing in the safe industry. If your insurance company requires you to store your guns in a safe, check to see if they require you to have a UL tested and rated safe.Ī great explanation of the difficulty in rating fire safes is provided by the Champion Safe Company:Įxamine fire test claims made by safe manufacturers can be confusing and misleading. Hertiage Gun Safes uses a company called ITR. Omega Point Laboratories also used to be a top rating agency but they were purchased by Intertek in 2005. The two primary rating agencies are Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and Intertek Group. Preferably, you want a safe that has been independently tested by a major rating agency. It is also not uncommon for them to do no fire testing at all. Many safe manufacturers do their own fire testing. So, let's take a look at how this translates into your gun safe purchase. Once the fire is discovered, reported, the fire department gets to the fire, sets up and begins to put out the fire, you are talking a fairly lengthy period of time. The average fire department response time to get to a fire is approximately 5 minutes on the east coast and slightly longer in the west. The fire typically reaches that temperature within 10 minutes. The average residential fire burns at approximately 1200° F. Here are the best practices for making sure you get the right fireproof safe. This is a direct mischaracterization of the safe's fire retardant capabilities. The problem is that the insulation may be UL rated, but the safe has not been tested. To make matters even more confusing, some safe manufacturers state that a safe has "UL listed" insulation, or something to that effect. Even independent laboratory testing can vary. Interestingly enough, determining a safe's fire retardant capabilities can be somewhat difficult. Thus, fire protection for a safe is arguably even more important than preventing theft because it is the more likely loss scenario. By comparison, there were 56,409 home burglaries in 2009. In 2009, there were 377,000 residential fires in the United States. Now that you know what to look for to protect your safe from the bad guys, let's look at a more probable foe: FIRE. They are really cheap stuff, I would never recommend them as BI4L material.ĭuring my research, I came across some interesting stuff and here are some considerations on fire safety: Also, check YouTube for several videos showing how easy it is to open safes like Sentry. ClothingĪm in the process of purchasing a safe, and have researched the issue a bit: be VERY weary of claims on fire rating, just watch the first of the videos in this page to get an idea of what I mean. The mods are somewhat flexible with the rules as long as the OP explains in the comments. Please remember to abide by Reddiquette.To make it easier for the community to help, also include your budget (if any) and what country you are buying in.Ħ please be descriptive with your posting, posts must include the products brand, years owned or date of purchase, circa the decade is acceptable on items older than 1990Ĩ /r/BuyItForLife is not a place to advertise your business or sell your product. Requests Must be flaired with the request flair and if you are satisfied with the answers please mark the post as such.Ģb be sure to first use the search bar and check the sidebar before making a request. Products that are well-made and durable (even if they won't last a lifetime) are accepted.Ģa Requests are posts where you are looking for help/recommendations on a certain type of a product or Opinions on a certain item. For practical, durable and quality made products that are made to last.ġ This is a subreddit emphasizing products that are Durable, Practical, Proven, and Made-to-Last.
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