Since we're talking about fire safes lately, I thought I'd point out that, like everything else, you need to be a smart shopper. Use the consumer guides, but here is some info about the fire-proof testing from Liberty Safes. The gist according to them is that some companies overstate their fire worthiness by doing things like counting furnace temperature ramp up in the time or not considering the internal temp of the safe. Regardless of whom you buy from, it's good info for when you shop. Check how they test or at least who does it.
Go through the links in the frame on the left:
Comparison of fire testsBetter still, a picture is worth a thousand words:
Liberty fire testingWe did wind up getting a Liberty from a place in SB. They were showing at the LA County Fair (of course with a LACF show price). Actually, we were on our way to see a competitor from our online research, but saw their booth before and stopped to look. I'm glad we did. No high pressure sales, lots of info. Before we bought we cruised around looking at the competitors and were glad we didn't buy from them as, once you knew what to look for, they were of obviously lesser material and construction quality.
One other thing, if you get a larger floor safe and wish to store plastic-based items like film, floppy disks, etc. that you should really buy an additional small fire safe like they have at the dept stores to put these materials in and then put the small safe in the larger one. While Liberty is rated to 350deg and good for paper, plastics will deform at that temp and need extra protection. As mentioned in another thread, these might best be archived in duplicate elsewhere.
