Content Value Formula ™

Content Value:

When choosing a safe the buyer must think of a safe as a steel insurance policy. The greater the protection, the greater the cost. What is the value of what you intend to secure in your safe?

Generally speaking, there are four types of content value to consider:

1. Important hard-to-replace documents; titles, deeds, wills & trusts, passports, etc.
2. Items with significant monetary value
3. Possessions requiring owner responsibility; medications, firearms, etc.
4. Items with great sentimental value

With time, a safe owner will accumulate more and more possessions possibly surpassing the protective ability of their safe. A wise safe buyer must provide appropriate content security.

Cost:

How does a buyer determine the quality of a safe? The time-honored adage, “you get what you pay for”, usually applies. In the absence of regulatory testing, cost is generally the main factor associated with product quality: The more something costs, the better it is. With safes however, there are limits to this sage advice. It is possible to put lipstick on a pig. Opportunistic safe makers can doll-up a low-cost safe with “fluff and stuff” that does not contribute to increased content security.

Break-in Resistance:

Not all safes are created equal. This is why we believe you must look beyond the cost of a safe and evaluate its “Break-In Resistance”. Safes vary greatly in weight, steel thickness, and quality of boltworks. In spite of safe makers’ claims such as “The Best Safe on the Planet”, or radio talk show hosts touting “America’s Best”, it’s the amount of steel and strength of boltworks that determine a safe’s break-in resistance.

Unfortunately, all safes can be compromised. Breaking into a safe is a matter of knowledge, experience, tools and time. A $500.00 safe can be opened by amateurs in as little as two or three minutes, while a $5,000.00 safe could take a professional locksmith several hours.

How can a buyer determine a safe’s break-in resistance? Below is a revealing formula that we developed to help provide unbiased comparative values on any and all safes where the following variables are known.

Simply stated:

Break-In Resistance = Weight of Safe x Steel Thicknesses x Boltworks & Door Casement Strength