Q: With so many gun safes for sale having so many different fire ratings, can you explain a gun safes fire rating?
A: The fire rating will be the amount of time a safe can endure a certain temperature while keeping the internal temperature below 350 degrees. Paper starts to char at a temperature of just 400° F. For this reason, most producers choose 350° as the maximum internal temperature the contents of a safe can reach for the time period that they specify for each safe. Throughout testing, safes are heated to a given temperature, usually between 1200° F - 1400° F, for as much as four hours then cooled naturally. To be able to pass the fire test, the safe’s contents should at no time during the test go above 350° F. This ensures that important paper documents won't be destroyed by the intense heat of a fire. Some home and office safes are produced specifically to hold media (cd’s, data drives, and so on) and so their internal temperature should stay beneath 125° F because media tends to melt at a much lower temperature. If you are planning on storing any kind of media in your gun safe, we recommend putting a separate media safe inside your gun safe. One important thing: typically, cheap gun safes for sale in big box stores have very, very poor fire ratings-and frankly, this is why they are so cheap.
Q: What quantity of fire protection do I need?
A: You will find numerous factors that you should think about when choosing a fire rated safe. Most safes fire ratings start at 30 minutes and as more fire insulation is added, the quantity of time a safe can withstand a certain temperature is elevated. Consumer gun safe fire ratings top out at about 2.5 hours. When deciding just how much fire protection you require, ask your self a couple of of these typical concerns:
How far away is my house from a fire department?
Am I putting this safe inside the house or in a basement?
Do I have an excellent deal of trees, brush, together with other natural fuels near my house?
Am I in an region of high fire danger?
Can insurance replace the items which are in my safe or are they irreplaceable?
There are numerous sources of info for this topic on the web, but most of what I’ve discovered points out that the typical home fire burns for 27 minutes at 1100° F. If your specific situation puts you in a a lot better or worse scenario than the “average”, you are going to wish to choose a fire rating based on that info.
Q: Why do those with gun safes perform different fire tests?
A: Unlike the fuel standards we have at gas stations or the electric ratings we have on appliances, there's no governing body when it comes to fire ratings on safes. Because of this, numerous safe producers can make bogus claims, but within the occasion you ask the difficult concerns and do your research you're in a position to generally sniff out a phony safe. Some great questions to ask when researching a fire safe:
What's becoming used as the fire insulation? Fireboard or composite material?
How numerous 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's utilized to stop smoke and heat from obtaining inside the safe. Some manufacturers use Palusol, other people use a generic brand, but they all function using the same idea. When the seal is heated up from a nearby fire, the intumescent seal expands and seals the safe door shut. This might also maintain some water out, nevertheless it does not make the safe waterproof.

You can find some great Browning gun safes here.