Re: Safe dilemma, what would you do?
I disagree with almost everyone here. Everyone here is making the argument of getting a bigger safe NOT for security reasons, but purely convenience. A smaller safe allows one to install it into a concealed area of the home not open to general traffic or visible through windows. The idea that you want to buy the bigger safe placed in a garage in an obvious manner means you place sheer convenience ahead of actual security. Purchasing a safe should be an investment in the overall security picture, not creature features unless you have other security measures working in parallel, like reinforced windows and doors, alarms, neighborhood watch, etc.
Get another safe later if you need the room to expand into. Security is not a "one time investment" based on storage space. Security is an investment based on security provided.
You can do one of two things:
Store all your eggs in one giant basket in the garage, a typical location for many gun safes because of the "buy big" mentality (and home improvement tools). This makes a thief's job easy, if he is the type willing to invest the time to break into a gun safe.
Buy one safe now that is inconspicuously placed in the home, and get another safe in the future when expanding to split your eggs in two baskets. Assume a thief somehow knows you have two safes, not just the one safe he found first. It still forces a thief to spend at least double the time to successfully break into both safes to steal the same amount of goods if he was determined that he wanted it all.
Think about a catastrophic fire. Do you stand a better chance of items surviving in two separate locations in the same fire or all items in one location?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I don['t know about "ALL ' safes, but mine has a key back up, should the digital lock ever fail. I simply pop the electronic keypad off, and the keyhole is behind there. I keep the spare keys in two separate locked places. </div></div>
Those locks are typically Chinese-manufactured and not UL rated. A reputable manufacturer like S&G, Kaba Mauer, or LaGard doesn't make such a unit. A UL-listed security-key lock used on a typical safe is typically $200 for the lock alone and the keys are $50 each, and they're typically 4-6" long and double-bitted. That's in addition to the $200-500 for a credible, UL-rated digital lock. I have a hard time believing a typical gun safe actually has $400+ in locks installed on it. This is what a high-security key looks like:
