Hello again everyone and welcome to another fantastic safe buying guide!
Today we’ll be talking about data/media safes and their purpose and objectives for your collectibles. For those of you who may not have read the other safe buying guide I’ve posted for this site I’ll link it here for reference.
In my first guide I covered everything you need to know about personal safes pertaining to burglary ratings and general theft protection. At the end of that guide I start to touch on fire protection and that’s where this guide takes over.
UNDERSTANDING FIRE PROTECTION:
So before we jump in with both feet, lets review a little bit from my previous guide: “Fire ratings are evaluated by testing to see if safes withstand varying furnace heat for specific amounts of time. For example, the UL Class 350 1-hour fire rating means that the internal temperature of the safe will not exceed 350°F for at least 1 hour when exposed to external temperatures over 1700 degrees. A safe may have a 1-3 hour time classification. Most of the safes you’ll see will post what the safe can withstand externally. But do keep in mind that the internal temperature of the safe is still allowed to hit 350 degrees.”
And this is our jumping off point, understanding that the internal temperature of (most) burglary safes hit an internal temperature of 350. If your curious what your standard PSA slab can withstand in terms of heat I’ve already tested it here and I can tell you right now 350 is much too hot for your collection.
So what does a data/media safe do? Data safes are designed to protect electronic data from fires and floods. Think hard drives, USB sticks, CD ROMS, floppy discs, video tapes, memory cards etc. Data safes are designed to keep the internal temperature of a safe below 150 degrees (sometimes lower) during a fire event. This is accomplished using an internal seal within the safe that is generally water proof as well.
UNDERSTANDING THE OBJECTIVES OF A DATA/MEDIA SAFE:
So that’s it then right? Just get a data/media safe and all your fire/flood/burglary concerns are solved correct? Not quite, as I’ve mentioned in my previous post, we have to understand what we are anticipating as our primary concern. If I’m going to be blunt, there is no single perfect protection method or safe on the market currently that will protect you from every possible scenario. To purchase a data safe is to understand that your primary concern is in fact fire or flood. To purchase a UL TL-15 safe is to understand your primary concern is theft related. They are both safes, they both protect collections, but the objectives they are meant to achieve are different.
* A quick note here, for those of you curious what burglary rating a data/media safe might have it’s generally close to a RSC rating, which is fairly low on the burglary protection spectrum. Important to point out here that each manufacturer is different in terms of protection rating on this spectrum so make sure you call and ask your manufacturer/sales rep before making a purchase so you have a full understanding.
Data and Media safes differ from conventional burglary safes in the following ways:
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Data/media safes are generally nowhere near as heavy as UL TL-15 safes are. This is great if you move frequently (The average person moves roughly once every seven years).
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These safes generally have a smaller foot print so they take up less room if that’s a concern.
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The price point on these safes is much less than your standard heavy duty burglary safe. Generally by a few hundred dollars if not thousands for the bigger versions compared to their UL TL-15/30 brothers.
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Data safes are generally quicker access. The locking mechanism on data/media safes tend to be a keypad or physical key to open. While this may not be ideal for everyone it is a nice convenience feature.
OPTIMIZING PROTECTION:
So I know more than a few of you are probably bummed to know that really great UL TL-15 safe your purchased probably is not going to protect your slabs in a fire. Understandable, it’s a huge bummer but it’s not a total loss.
Something that has been talked about on the forums here, is how to best optimize protection for a collection. While there are lots of different theory’s running around, one that seems to come up most frequently is the concept of a safe, within a safe. Sounds crazy, redundant, and not cost effective and for the most part you are correct. However, this thinking does offer ideas into other forms of protection. Fire proof chests come to mind for an extra security layer inside a safe. Those are much cheaper (and with some much needed testing) could be the answer the community has been looking for.
Another possibility is the FireKing MV1000 Data Media Vault. A very small, relatively light weight (70 pounds) storage container ideal for small, high value collections. These containers can hold approximately 30+ of your favorite slabs with no problem, and will remain protected from fire damage.
My final thoughts here are, again, to revisit what you want to protect your collectibles from. Understanding the risks involved and making an informed purchasing decision. Once you understand your needs, you can better address your concerns. Thanks so much for reading guys!