The superheroes of home safes – Home safes review

The home safes market is flooded with choice, and there are some fantastic safes available for you to buy for your home. Whether you need cash cover, fire protection or simply a nice budget safe for the bedroom you really are spoilt (and so probably confused) with choice.

So where do you start? How can you make sure that you select the right safe for you and that it fits all the criteria whilst still being a solid safe for the money? At the end of the day a safe is for your home security and whatever choice you make the quality and security should be high on your wish list.

So we’ve decided to review three of our favourites and show the difference between them. All these safes are under £400, lightweight and perfect for home security.

Superhero 1 – Burton Eurovault Aver S2 (size 1E)

New to the safe market in 2014 this Burton home safe is taking the market by storm. This little safe is one of our top sellers at All About Safes and we’re not at all surprised.

The Burton Aver S2 comes with a multitude of honour badges and the front is littered with reasons to buy it. It’s Police approved, AiS approved, cash rated at £4K and weighs in at 15KG. Impressive stuff from Burton and we’ve blogged recently about its qualities.

The main features of the Burton Eurovault Aver S2:

• Police approved
• AiS approved
• £4,000 cash rating
• Sleek design and electronic locking
• Base and back fixing with bolts supplied
• Removable shelf
• Internal size 220 x 270 x 195mm (HWD)

One of the main reasons this safe is doing so well is the price. In a price-sensitive area, Burton knew that they had to compete on price as well as on features. This well-constructed and well-protected safe comes in under the £200 mark. It’s great value and a great little package too.

Superhero 2 – Chubb Fire 20E

Chubb Safes are one of the biggest names in the business and their Elements range is a big contender. The Chubb Fire is a little more expensive than the Aver S2 but it also comes with fire resistance, ECB-S (European Certification Body GmbH) certification against burglary, interior lighting, live locking bolts and anti-drill plates.

The main different is that the Chubb Fire has combined protection. This means that they offer your valuables protection against theft (up to £4k in cash or £40K in valuables) and fire protection. If you have valuable documents that are irreplaceable then theft cover is not enough. Protecting your documents in the event of fire is the way to go.

The Chubb fire is slightly heavier and more expensive than the Burton due to the fire protective walls but is still a perfect home safe. Weighing in at 52KG and just over £350 it’s a great home safe for the money.

The main features of the Chubb Safes Fire 20E:

• ECB-S approved for burglary
• AiS approved
• £4,000 cash rating
• Fire protection for paper
• Sleek black design (more subtle for the home)
• Electronic locking
• Removable shelf
• Internal size 185 x 334 x 290

We like this sleek and solid superhero safe from Chubb and if you’re looking for a combined security safe for your home then you can’t go wrong with the Fire range in the Element collection.

Superhero 3 – Sentry Safes home safe OA3817

Sentry Safes are an American brand and specialise in fire safes. The OA3817 may not have the most catchy name, but it does have a long list of features. The Sentry is the biggest safe of our three superheroes but you get so much more with it.

How about this – fire protection for up to 120 minutes and water resistance for up to 24 hours! This Sentry safe doesn’t have as high a cash rating as the other at only £2,000 cover but it does have some neat tricks inside.

The main features of the Sentry Safes OA3817:

• 120 minutes fire protection
• 24 hours water resistance ( stood in 8” of water)
• £2,000 cash rating
• Multi-user LCD electronic display
• Internal key rack to hang your keys on
• Door compartment for small items
• Metal handle with 6 live locking bolts
• Internal size 349 x 319 x 302

The protection from fire and water is strong with this safe but with that you get less on the cash rating. Sentry is a well-established brand but we do find that people like to ‘buy British’ and that often goes against Sentry, which is a shame.

So which one is best?

Well it kinda depends on what you need it to do.

For the popular £4,000 cash cover you’re obviously going to have to choose the Burton or the Chubb and then based on value for money the Burton will win in most people’s minds.

For fire cover the Sentry wins hands down and the added bonus of waterproofing is very much swinging the vote in its favour. The lack of the £4,000 cash cover (a popular cover with insurance companies) may go against it in the final vote though.

For a combined safe with fire and cash cover the Chubb Fire is your best choice. Fire resistant and a £4,000 cover gives you the best of both worlds.

For value for money it has to be the Burton though. They’ve managed to cram so much into a sub £200 safe and it’s hugely popular at the moment. It’s a great little home safe that gives you cash cover, has a sleek design and is light enough to carry up to your loft or bedroom too.

So the choice is yours!

We love all three of these safes but ultimately your choice should be based on your needs for your safe. Cash cover is often a deal breaker, and pay attention to the size too. We’ve listed the internal sizes here to show what you could fit inside them as it’s easy to focus on the exterior sizes. The fire protective Sentry safe is larger outside but the thick wall means the interior will have less space than you’d think.

Always make sure that the weight is suitable for your positioning (we’ve listed sub 60K safes here which are great for most places) and also make sure that you bolt down lighter safes as they’re easy to carry away. All these safes come with a fixing kit for your home.

We have plenty more information and can help you choose what’s right for your home. Please do contact All About Safes if you need help choosing your superhero safe!