A safe is a container which can be locked to prevent valuables from being lost, damaged or stolen. They are made from tough metals such as steel or iron to prevent the contents being accessed by anyone other than the owner or those granted access. They can be locked in a number of ways and this determines the type of safe. The traditional locking safe needs a key. Other types are , a keycode safe, which can only be opened by putting in the correct alphanumerical code. These type of safes also allow the owner to change the code whenever they wish. There are also biometric locks. These are the latest technological breakthrough, they open the safe when identifying the correct thumbprint, retina scan or facial recognition.

Safes vary greatly in price. The reasons for this are the different levels of security and the levels of protection. The higher the level of security and protection, the higher the price.

At the lowest level, safes protect items from theft. moving up they then protect from fire, humidity, dust, water, chemicals and some are even bomb earthquake resistant. These high protection safes are given ratings. The higher the rating the better it should perform. The ratings refer to the amount of time (in minutes) the safe remains intact during any given situation. Although these ratings are provided through thorough testing every individual safe is unique and the ability is has to protect your documents or valuables is only ever known when it is put to the test. Hopefully that would never happen but obviously all valuables do need to also be insured because of this. » Read more: Understanding Different Types of Security Safe