Sizing
Interior Size: Gun safes often have a rating for the number of guns (rifles) that they could potentially hold. That rating will be impacted by optics and if the firearm has pistol grips. AR-15 style firearms often take up the space of 2 or more traditional hunting rifles. In reality about 1/2 - 2/3 the rated number of firearms will fit. We strongly recommend getting a safe one size larger than you think you need to allow room for growth and storage of other assets such as documents and jewelry.
Exterior Size: Gun safes/vaults will generally indicate the height, width, and depth. In some cases the depth does not include the handle or dial which in many cases is around 3". A vault with a 24" body will require 27" of clearance. Depth is important when moving a vault through doorways and up stairs.
Stairs: Large vaults greater than 40" wide usually cannot be installed on second stories where the stairs have a landing (no room to safely turn the equipment).
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Doors and Locks
Locks: The safes we carry use UL 768 Group 2 mechanical dial locks or UL 2058 Type 1 electronic locks on RSC rated gun safes. High security safes with TL ratings will have locks appropriate for their ratings. Sargeant & Greenleaf is the most common manufacturer and has been a leading innovator of locking mechanisms for over 160 years.
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Doors: The doors on higher quality safes and vaults are most vulnerable to drilling. If a hole is drilled in the correct location, a punch can be used to move or break the locking mechanism.
High quality safes and vaults will have a hardened steel plate to protect the lock from drill attacks and re-lockers that will activate in certain cases of attempted forced entry.
Steel Thickness
High quality safes and vaults will usually have thicker steel in the door than the body (sides and top). We recommend a minimum of 10 gauge steel* (0.135" thick) body for safes that are stored in relatively secure locations or where weight is a concern.
We recommend 3/16" thick walls (7 gauge) when the contents have moderate value, when the safe or vault is placed in a shop or garage, and when weight is not a concern.
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For cases where the contents have high value, we can order safes and vaults with up to 1/2" thick steel bodies and up to 4 additional layers of steels including AR-500 (hardened steel) and stainless steel (resists cutting with a torch).
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*A lower steel gauge number indicates greater steel thickness.
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Fire Protection
High quality safes and vaults will have either fireboard or a poured cement in the walls to keep the interior of the safe below 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The fireboard used in inexpensive safes is often X rated gypsum board (fire rated drywall) and rated . House fires commonly reach temperatures of 1500 degrees and can be much higher if flammable substances such as gas or propane are present.
In areas prone to fires, we recommend a minimum fire rating of 90 minutes at 1680 degrees fahrenheit. Installation on a concrete floor against an exterior wall is also recommended whenever possible.
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Fort Knox vaults uses a proprietary fireboard that has additional fibers and additives to reduce shrinkage. The fireboards are stud welded in place to prevent shifting and collapse under high heat. 2 layers of fireboard will provide 90 minutes of fire protection at 1690 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Graffunder vaults have 1-1/2" of specially formulated cement poured between the thick exterior and thinner interior steel walls to provide fire protection.
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