More Q&A with the Gun-Safe-Guru. This part of the gun safe buyers guide will focus specifically on the fire ratings for gun safes.
Q: Can you explain a gun safe fire rating?
A: The fire rating is the amount of time a safe can endure a certain temperature while keeping the internal temperature below 350 degrees. Paper begins to char at a temperature of just 400° F. For this reason, most manufacturers choose 350° as the maximum internal temperature the contents of a safe can reach for the period of time that they specify for each safe. During testing, safes are heated to a given temperature, usually between 1200° F – 1400° F, for up to four hours then cooled naturally. In order to pass the fire test, the safe’s contents must at no time during the test go above 350° F. This ensures that important paper documents will not be destroyed by the intense heat of a fire. Some home and office safes are made specifically to hold media (cd’s, data drives, etc) and so their internal temperature must remain below 125° F because media tends to melt at a much lower temperature. If you’re planning on storing any kind of media in your gun safe, we recommend putting a separate media safe inside your gun safe.
Q: What amount of fire protection do I need?
A: There are many factors that you should consider when choosing a fire rated safe. Most safes fire ratings start at 30 minutes and as more fire insulation is added, the amount of time a safe can withstand a certain temperature is increased. Consumer gun safe fire ratings top out at about 2.5 hours. When deciding how much fire protection you need, ask yourself a few of these common questions:
- How far away is my home from a fire department?
- Am I putting this safe inside the home or in a basement?
- Do I have a lot of trees, brush, and other natural fuels near my home?
- Am I in an area of high fire danger?
- Can insurance replace the items that are in my safe or are they irreplaceable?
There are many sources of information for this subject on the Internet, but most of what I’ve found points out that the average house fire burns for 27 minutes at 1100° F. If your particular situation puts you in a better or worse scenario than the “average”, you’re going to want to pick a fire rating based on that information.
Q: Why do safe manufacturers perform different fire tests?
A: Unlike the fuel standards we have at gas stations or the electric ratings we have on appliances, there is no governing body when it comes to fire ratings on safes. Because of this, many safe manufacturers can make bogus claims, but if you ask the tough questions and do your research you can usually sniff out a phony safe. Some good questions to ask when researching a fire safe:
- What is being used as the fire insulation? Fireboard or composite material?
- How many layers of fire insulation and on how many sides?
- What is the warranty and does it cover fire damage?
- Does the safe manufacturer have any BBB complaints?
Q: What is a Palusol door seal?
A: A Palusol door seal is a brand of intumescent door seal that is used to prevent smoke and heat from getting inside the safe. Some manufacturers use Palusol, others use a generic brand, but they all work using the same concept. When the seal is heated up from a nearby fire, the intumescent seal expands and seals the safe door shut. This can also keep some water out, but it doesn’t make the safe waterproof.