Technology Contractors Daily News

Normally when I think of home safes, I think of small, square and very heavy metal safes for securing away your valuable with a combination lock. But today, in such a fast paced and evolving world, we are not limited by such narrow guidelines. Home safes today come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes, different types of locking mechanisms and are designed to hold different types of items.

There are closet vault home safes that are designed to be installed in between the wall studs, with the door and frame of the safe protruding 2” to provide extra internal depths. These safes are great hidden in a closet or concealed behind a door. Great for small household valuables and firearms without taking up floor space.

You can also get compact home safes that are a top opening security case with a classic slim design. These small safes are only about 9” wide, 7” deep and 2” high. Many have a hole in the back to allow a cable or pad lock to be used to secure the case to most surfaces, enabling the safe to be transportable. Perfect for small items and papers.

Similar to compact safes in size and shape, are desk home safes that are designed to be mounted under a surface. They have a front opening and often include a quick release mounting bracket. Some even have a slide out drawer for easy access to its contents.

Security chests are the most popular forms of home safes. Small and compact, normally take a key lock and easily transported. It is an inexpensive way to protect your families important documents.

A type of home safes that was not needed until recently, are data protection chests. You place your own data storage device (external hard drive, flash drive etc.) inside. The chest has a USB port so that you can hook up your computer directly to the device without removing it from the chest, making it easy to back up you digital files. A special safe for digital media is important because digital media is damaged at lower temperatures than paper media. Besides hard drives, these are perfect for storing memory cards, iPods, CD’s and DVD’s, and digital camera’s.

Of course, after data protection chests, the next logical step was an all-in-one unit, a hard drive that is itself fire resistant and water proof. These devices became a reality just last year.

Not only is there a variety of different home safes, but they come with different types of locking mechanisms. Naturally, there is the old fashioned combination locks that you turn left-right-left, and can consist of a multiple amount of numbers. A variation of turning the knob, is the modern electronic combination safes. You still have to memorize the combination, but you gain access by a push of the buttons. Many smaller home safes, such as the chests, have key locks. These are great for quick access, but don’t lose the key, and it does no good to keep the spare in the safe!

Now, if you are terrible and remembering numbers and afraid of losing the key, then new technology is available for you. As seen in movies and modern, high tech buildings, you can get a small safe (BioVault) that permits access using fingerprint technology. These home safes are easily programmable and can store up to 50 authorized fingerprints in its memory. This is almost a must have just because of its cool factor!

But regardless of what you decide, home safes are necessary for every home, to help protect important documents and valuables. But shop around, and you will be pleased with the variety of sizes and functions of home safes available, and choose the locking mechanism that works best for you!