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Old July 22, 2010, 08:17 PM   #3
James K
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Join Date: March 17, 1999
Posts: 24,383
Just about any safe can be opened by an experienced person with enough time. The key word is time. Most home safes are made to deter the drugged up neighbor kid with tire iron who just wants something to pawn so he can buy more of the good stuff. And most home safes will resist that kind of attack until the kid gets nervous and goes away to steal a purse or some other easy target.

But against a professional burglar, no home safe will stand up long. Some salesmen will emphasize the bulk of a safe, hoping the buyer won't realize that the bulk is asbestos for fire resistance, not steel.

Some folks go to another extreme; a poster on another site said nothing less than 3 inches of hardened steel armor plate was adequate. He avoided questions on availability, weight, and cost. On the other hand, a fellow I talked to planned to buy one of those safe doors to put on his storage room. The storage room walls have two layers of 3/8" dry wall that anyone can put his fist through, so I doubt the steel safe door will really keep his possessions very secure.

There is also the point that in many cases, fire is more of a danger than burglary, and most decent safes (excepting modular ones) provide fair to good fire protection.

Jim
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