Having an affordable gun safe might not be sufficient to ensure the security of guns and other valuables if your safe isn’t fireproof. To keep away from anxieties everybody wants to have a fire-resistant gun safe. But the matter of fact is that, owning a fireproof gun safe cost you a higher amount of money.
Let’s assume you’re very serious about your gun’s safety and agreed to spend more on fireproof gun safe. But the question is “do the fireproof gun safe really works”? All of your money and valuables could be damaged because of having low graded safe.
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What does fire rating really mean?
Fire Rating means the period of time a fireproof safe can withstand against a fire-resistant test. There’s a number of ratings to measure the fire-resistant ability.
Class 125:
Class 125 rating means the temperature inside the safe must be below 125 degrees Fahrenheit during the fire for a specific period of time. Class 125 2 hours means temperature must be below 125 degrees inside the safe at 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. Keeping the low temperatures inside the safe will help protect valuable papers, documents, etc.
Class 150:
Class 150 rating is very useful for storage media. A film can be distorted at a temperature above 150 degrees. This rating means the temperature will stay below 150 degrees Fahrenheit. A Class 150 2 hours means temperature must stay below 150 degrees for 2 hours at 2000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Class 350:
Class 350 rating ensures that the temperature will stay below 350 degrees. This rating is required for documents and papers. As temperature above 350 degrees, documents start igniting. A Class 350 4 hours means temperature must stay below 350 degrees for 4 hours at 2000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Why burglary test is important along with fire rating?
Fire rating is used for fire rating and doesn’t provide any certification for burglary test. So, it’s important to have different burglary test rating. For your understanding two burglary ratings are also depicted below:
B Class:
B Class rating is developed by the insurance industry to measure the ability of the safe to be protected from the burglar. This rating refers that steel construction of the door is not less than 1 inch thick and the body is not less than ½ inch thick.
C Class:
C Class rating is also developed by the insurance industry as a standard to protect burglary attract. This rating ensures having steel construction of door not less than 1 inch thick and body not less than ½ inch thick.
Do Fireproof Gun Safes Really Work?
A fire could damage anything in the world. Nothing is fireproof. However, under certain circumstances, fire can be resisted for a specific period of time at a certain level of temperature. But the fact is, ensuring fire protection for a long time requires skill, professionalism, and cost.
Numerous companies come with fireproof gun safe to protect your guns along with valuable from fire but the truth is most of them are worthless and don’t work properly. So before purchasing a fireproof gun safe, you should be careful about their built quality and performance.
Most of the gun safe companies are manufacturing fireproof gun safe without maintaining proper Underwriters Laboratories (UL), US fire resistant testing authority, standard. They are conducting fire resistant testing by their own method or by independent third party.
But the problem is that most of the third parties are paid by them for conducting the test. So, it’s very difficult for them to be neutral.
How do you choose a good quality fireproof gun safe:
It’s really very difficult to know how your gun safe will perform in case of fire. You can’t afford to test that as it involves tiresome work and cost. However, you can choose the best fireproof gun safe based on some factors. UL rating for fire safety is the most trustworthy among the users who are conducted by US authorities.
Various rating is used to measure the performance of the gun safe. Class 350 1 hour rating is used to certify that the internal temperature of the safe will not go beyond 350 degrees for one hour. And Class 350 2 Hour means the temperature will not go beyond 350 degrees for two hours.
Another important fact to consider is to know the thickness of the wall construction. Best performing gun safes are constructed by double steel walls and cement inside there. That means it will help protect valuable inside the safe from heat and fire. As anything above 350-degree temperature means your valuables inside the safe will start to burn.
Most of the manufacturers are currently using a fireboard or drywall instead of concrete between walls to protect the fire. Fireboard releases moisture when got fires which help keep temperature cooler inside the safe. The thinner the layer of the fireboard, the longer they could protect the valuables from fire.
Limitation of fireboard and drywall:
Drywall or fireboard is mostly made of gypsum. One of the main problems is that it requires a chemical named formaldehyde which itself can corrode your guns, steel, copper, and nickel. One the other hand, drywall could resist the fire for a certain time but could not stop the fire from damaging. The main purpose of using drywall is to slow down the ferocity of the fire. However, the performance of the drywall and fireboard can be increased by using a glass fiver.
Conclusion:
A fire could damage gun safe even if it is fireproof. If the temperature of the fire is very high it could damage valuables inside a fireproof gun safe. Nevertheless, best rated fireproof gun safe could resist or slow down the ferocity of the fire for a long time.
But finding the best quality fireproof gun safe is really difficult among a large number of manufacturers. As most of the companies are not following the fire rating standard because of the high cost involves.