Today's safes have many
combinations -- of features
By Christine Selvig • Bankrate.com

The biggest risk in getting a safe is that you'll buy the wrong one.

Safes come in all shapes and sizes. Some will bring important papers or valuable company data through a raging fire without a scratch. Others will stand up to the most sophisticated burglar's tools and torches. Wall and floor safes hide their contents from intruders while other safes, bolted to the floor or too heavy to move, offer too much resistance for the ordinary burglar.

Wading through the levels of security and options different safes offer becomes a whole lot easier when you focus on the type of valuable you want to protect and type of protection you need.

If you own a convenience store or small restaurant, for example, you may be looking for a way to protect cash and credit slips your employees collect during odd-hour shifts. A depository safe that allows employees to make deposits to the safe without opening it might provide an answer to your business needs.

If your business is built on information, you might be looking for the type of protection only a data safe can provide.

If your goal is to protect your company's important contracts and agreements, a regular fire safe might meet your needs.

Four types of safes
There are basically four different types of safes offering different levels of protection from burglary, fire or both.

• Fire safes range in size from a small tackle box to a large file cabinet. They can protect your company's valuable papers from a fire as hot as 1,700 degrees. However, they offer little resistance to burglars.
• Burglar safes are rated by their ability to resist tools and torches. For example, a TL15 rated safe will keep a burglar using average tools out of the safe for up to 15 minutes. The TL30 should be able to keep the bad guys at bay for up to 30 minutes. A TR rating reflects an ability to resist the torch. Ratings go all the way up to a TRTL60, which resists both torch and tools for an hour. An "X" in the rating (as in TL15X6) means the safe provides the indicated level of resistance on all six sides.
• Composite safes protect property from both fire and burglars. The price tags on some of these safes can be high. The Hercules CC5428-F composite safe, for example, sells for around $3,000.
• Data Safes, designed to protect backup tapes and computer diskettes, provide more protection than the average fire safe. Keeping the temperature inside the safe lower than 125 degrees and the internal humidity less than 80 percent insures the data on tapes, disks and other computer media goes uncorrupted in the midst of a raging fire outside.

Finding the right model
Knowing the type of protection you're looking for is half the battle. The other half is deciding what model of safe will work best for you. There are lots of different makes and models.

Floor safes, though not generally Underwriters Laboratories rated, offer a degree of protection from both burglars and fires. Sentry, for example, recently advertised its Steal-Safe Floor Safe for $100.

Hoppers and depositories are another possibility for a company, such as a fast-food operation or gas station, that needs to store a limited amount of cash and credit card receipts for short periods of time. These safes have slots or hoppers through which employees can deposit cash and credit card slips without actually opening the safe. Megasafe model MS2 hopper, for example, retails for $195.

Misty Morn Safe Company sells many compact Hayman 210 L1B slotted safes to long-distance trucking companies. These safes, which sell for a little more than $200, are generally bolted into the truck cabs. Truckers can deposit the cash and checks they collect as they travel across the country without opening these safes.

Fires have put an end to many a promising business. While insurance will help replace a company's charred properties, a company's records can be irreplaceable. If you are a small business owner who counts on a regular fire safe to protect your business data, think again. Though a fire safe will prevent your floppy disks, tapes, or CD-ROMs from melting, the data are corrupted when temperatures rise above 125 degrees. When the FireKing's TF125T transformer, which sells for about $260, is put into a regular fire safe, it will protect 80 3-1/2-inch diskettes or 22 CDs.

Installation extras
Prices from most of the safe companies on the Web included standard shipping. Standard generally means to-the-door delivery. Though prices will vary with geography, expect to pay anywhere from $25 to $56 an hour for inside delivery.

Costs for safe installation range from $80 to $400. Expect installation of a floor safe to set you back $200 to $400. A wall safe installation runs about $300. And we got estimates ranging from $80 to $147 to bolt a safe to the floor.

Dealing with a local distributor has its benefits. First, some will install your safe with the cost of delivery, and local companies are there when you need service.

Safes, like most other office equipment, will need service. J.C. Pryor Safe Company in Indianapolis charges $112 an hour for safe work while lock work is charged out at $56 an hour. The minimum charge to change a combination is $77.

Check our out our sampling of prices on safes.

-- Posted: Jan. 31, 2000