7 Best Document Safes [Fireproof]
A safe is a great way to store your valuables and keep them protected in your home. But a large safe isn’t always practical for a number of reasons.
If you want to have a good place to store important and invaluable documents, you may instead want to look for a document safe that is fireproof.
Large and robust safes are great, but if you only want to store important documents, there’s no need to get a huge safe that takes up more space than it has to. This is when a document safe can be greatly convenient. And the best part is that many of these safes are also fireproof, which adds an additional layer of security. A document safe is usually compact and portable. They are made to store important documents, passports, and other important belongings that may be impossible or extremely difficult to replace.
There are plenty of things in our life we want to protect that perhaps aren’t valuable to the public, but are extremely valuable for you, including things like photos, birth certificates, and so on. But most people do not keep these items stored in an appropriate place and regret it dearly when something happens. The good news is that a document safe is the best solution for just that.
In this article, we are listing the best and most popular document safes specifically made for storing important documents, which are also fireproof to keep your documents safe at all times. Further on, we’ll also go into detail about everything you need to consider when choosing the perfect document safe for you and your needs.
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Best document safes
Let’s have a look at the best and most popular document safes on the market.
SentrySafe CHW30220 Fireproof and Waterproof Box
The SentrySafe CHW30220 is a practical safety box that is built to endure 1/2 hour at 1550°F and keep your valuable documents and small valuables protected in the case of a fire. The box is also waterproof and verified for 72 hours of submersion.
It is constructed with a fireproof lock that uses a tubular key lock for extra security. This also helps prevent the lid from opening. The box is small and compact but can still fit A4-sized papers. SentrySafe is one of the most well-known brands on the market so you can be sure that you are getting a high-quality product.
Because the same is compact, you can easily take it with you, for example in the car.
Dimensions: Exterior: 16.5 inches W x 14.8 inch D x 7.6 inch H; Interior: 12.6 inches W x 9.2 inch D x 5.4 inch. Weighs 24 pounds
First Alert 2030F Fire and Water Safe
First Alert 2030F is a robust document box that is built to store slightly larger documents and objects as it has a greater height than some of the other safety boxes. Furthermore, it is fire-resistant and built to withstand temperatures of 1,550 degrees F for up to 30 minutes. It is also built with a waterproof seal which helps keep the inside dry and ensures that it doesn’t leak water. The water resistance is great for keeping your valuable documents safe in case of a sprinkler system activation or a fire hose, for example. The contents are also kept safe even when fully submerged.
The safety box has a clamp-style latch with a key lock to ensure it is kept closed at all times.
Honeywell Safes & Door Lock chest
The Honeywell Safes & Door Locks is a convenient safety chest equipped with wheels for easier transportation. It also has a 30-Minute UL Fire protection rating for up to 1550°F as well as a 24 Hour waterproof seal to keep the contents dry, able to remain dry even when submerged 39 inches underwater.
The chest is equipped with a key lock system.
Honeywell is one of the most popular and well-respected companies and manufacturers of safes and safe boxes, so you can expect to get a high-quality and long-lasting safe that provides ultimate protection for your valuables.
Exterior dimensions: 15.7 in H x 16.9 in W x 12.8 in D.
Honeywell Safes & Door Locks
This is a robust molded chest with fire-proof properties that has a 30-Minute UL Fire protection rating for up to 1550°F. The safe is also constructed with a waterproof seal that keeps it waterproof for 24 Hours, even when submerged 39 inches / 1 meter underwater.
It is suitable for storing documents and smaller valuable items, in particular USB flash drives, etc. It is built with a key lock system and is made to fit 10 envelopes and more. It also has a handle for easier transportation.
If you want a practical yet robust safety box that you can take with you, this is definitely a great choice.
Exterior dimensions: 7.3 in H x 12.4 in W x 9.8 in D.
SentrySafe CHW20221 Fireproof Waterproof Box
The SentrySafe CHW20221 is a compact safety box with fireproof properties and UL classification to endure 1/2 hour at 1550°F. It is suitable for documents and other personal items. It can hold an A4-sized paper. The box is also made to withstand 72 hours of water submersion in the event of a flood, sprinkler activation, or fire hose.
It is constructed with a tubular key lock to prevent the lid from opening.
Exterior: 15.4 inch W x 14.3 inch D x 6.6 inch H; Interior: 12.8 inch W x 8.5 inch D x 4.4 inch H. Weight: 20 pounds
SentrySafe HD4100 Fireproof Safe Waterproof Safe
The SentrySafe HD4100 is a larger safe box that can ensure 1/2 hour at 1550°F and is made for storing documents and smaller valuable items. It is also waterproof for 72 hours of water submersion and able to withstand sprinkler activation, flooding, or fire hoses.
The safe has a flat key lock which keeps the lid closed at all times as well as captured fire insulation. For better storage of your valuables, it has built-in straps. The box can be equipped with letter-size hanging files
Exterior: 15.5 inches W x 13.5 inch D x 14.3 inch H; Interior: 12 inches W x 8.1 inch H x 11.5 inch H. Weight 39 pounds.
SentrySafe 1170 Fireproof Box
If you want a document safe but need something bigger that can store more and larger documents. The safe is classified to endure 1/2 hour at 1550°F and has a flat key lock to keep the lock safely closed.
The interior also has an organizing system for better organization of your documents. The safe has an in-lid organizer and accommodates 40 standard hanging folders.
Exterior: 15.3 inch W x 12.1 inch D x 13.6 inch H; Interior: 12 inch W x 8.5 inch D x 10.4 inch H. Weight: 28 pounds
Buying a document safe – what to think about
Not all safes are created equal. In fact, they vary quite a lot. In build quality, size, performance, and in purpose. Whether you just want to keep your documents safely stored and organized in one place, protected from fire, or water, a document safe is, at least in my opinion, a must-have. We store our valuable documents around the house in the belief that nothing will ever happen. And in most cases, it doesn’t. But those that have once had their house burn down, had a giant water leakage, or anything else that may damage irreplaceable or extremely valuable documents only make the mistakes once.
With so many different document safes on the market to choose from, you might be wondering which document safe you should opt for. Let’s look at the most important things you need to take into consideration.
Quickly summarized, the things you want to keep in mind are:
- The external size
- The internal size and room
- The weight
- The quality – how robust is it against attempted break-ins?
- Is it waterproof and fireproof?
- Is it portable? Portable can be both good and bad. If you want to carry it with you, it’s great, but if a thief finds it, they can easily take it with them.
The benefit of a document safe is that it is compact and easier to use compared to a regular safe. But at the same time, both have their own pros and cons and the obvious benefit of a regular safe above a document safe is that it is much more robust and secure against break-ins. A document safe can be opened much easier than a regular safe, and because of their, in general, lighter weight, it’s easier for thieves to bring one with them.
Protection against water and fire
One of the primary reasons why people opt for a document safe is to protect them from potential water and fire risks. Different safes have different performance and resistance levels when it comes to these capabilities. Just make sure that you look closely at the safe’s performance in these areas.
Some safes can be completely submerged underwater whilst others can only handle water for a shorter period of time. In the same way, some safes are built to withstand fire for several hours, but most are somewhere around the 30-minute to 1-hour range.
Furthermore, the way you lock your document is also important. Whilst the lock isn’t as tough and durable as on a standard safe, they do vary in quality and robustness. Therefore, you want to make sure that your safe has a good lock. Some safes use keys, but others have digital access with a pin code or fingerprint.
The external size
The size of the document safe will always be an important consideration. There are two questions that dictate the size you need: how many documents do you need to store and how big are they? And where will you keep your safe and how large can it be to fit? You want to choose a safe that can store all of your documents so you won’t have to store some of the documents elsewhere just because you cannot fit them. Or, buy a larger safe further on.
Furthermore, you need to consider where you will store the safe. If you have limited space, you need to make sure that the safe is small enough to fit where you intend to store it.
The internal size and room
This ties together with what we discussed earlier about the size of the safe, but the fact of the matter is that a large safe doesn’t necessarily have to mean a larger interior. Some safes may just have a bulky design with thicker walls. This is why you need to look at the internal dimensions before deciding to ensure that you can fit all your documents.
The weight
The weight of the document safe is an important factor for two reasons. The heavier the safe, the more difficult it will be for someone to steal it and take it with them. At the same time, if you plan to move the document safe yourself or even carry it with you sometimes, it is more practical to have a lighter safe. Consider which of these is most important for you. In general, because people store documents that are important but perhaps not valuable to someone other than you, the greatest risk isn’t that someone will steal them.
The quality – how robust is it against attempted break-ins?
Naturally, a document safe is not as robust as a regular safe that can weigh hundreds of kilos and be constructed with extremely thick metal doors. With that said, if you do want to store valuables, you should probably look for a regular safe instead (read our guide to the best safes here). But if you’re just storing documents, the resistance against break-ins will not be as important. However, with that said, some document safes are relatively robust and still offer good locks and robustness considering what they actually are. But as mentioned, document safes are not built to be as robust as regular safes since they are built for different purposes.
When it comes to the locking mechanism, different document safes have different designs and functionality. Some document safes are designed with keypads that let you input a code for entry and others use key-based locks. Regardless of the locking mechanism, you do, however, want to make sure the door cannot be pried open.
Is it waterproof and fireproof?
If fire resistance and water resistance aren’t as important to you, you can just opt for a document safe that you deem appropriate but without thinking about its resistance. But our advice is that if you are going to buy a document safe, you should look for one that is also fireproof and waterproof. It adds a greater sense of security and will help keep your valuable documents in case the worst would happen.
It’s important to highlight the fact that a safe is truly never fireproof. A good fireproof safe will (in the best case) keep your valuable items safe until you can collect it or the fire is put out. But it is important to keep in mind that there will always be a limit to how long a safe can hold up. Therefore, you want to take them out as soon as possible.
Furthermore, it is advised that even if your document safe is waterproof, you should keep it stored above floor level to keep it from flooding.
Organization
If you’re storing a lot of different documents and items, it is convenient to have different compartments that help you organize them better. Most document safes come with compartments but far from all. If you need, you can buy compartments to insert into the document safe or look for one that has it.
