A gun safe is a great investment as it can prevent gun accidents from occurring, protect against theft, and can keep valuables safe from water and fire damage. Not all gun safes, however, are of the same quality which makes you wonder if a gun safe has a cash rating?
Gun safes do have a cash rating. Cash rating refers to the maximum amount of money an insurance company will cover, payout, for the contents of a safe if and when said content is compromised. Insurance companies provide higher coverage (“cash rating”) for the content inside a high quality safe versus that of a poor-quality gun safe.
Before purchasing a gun safe and its insurance coverage (cash rating), it is important to know about the different types of gun safes that are manufactured, as well as the requirements needed for a gun safe to be labeled as high quality. Continue reading to learn about the variety of gun safes available and how they are rated by the experts.
The Type of Gun Safe Purchased Will Affect the Cash Rating
One size does not fit all. All gun owners have particular needs when it comes to buying a gun safe. Certain factors such as gun size and type, number of guns to be stored, and storage space available heavily contribute to the type of gun safe that matches the gun owner’s needs.
Here is a list of ten types of gun safes:
- Biometric Gun Safe: This safe allows you to use your own fingerprints as your unlocking code.
- Fireproof and Waterproof Gun Safe: This safe protects the valuable items stored inside the safe from water damage and high heat temperatures.
- In-Wall Gun Safe: This safe is directly installed into a wall, therefore, it is designed to be stationary.
- Hidden Gun Safe: This oneis a safe that doesn’t look like a safe. It often looks like a regular piece of furniture so that it won’t attract any attention.
- Car Gun Safe: This is asmall mobile safe. A car gun safe is normally designed for a single handgun.
- Under Bed Gun Safe: This particular firearm safe acts like a sliding drawer to hold the owner’s guns underneath a bed.
- Heavy Duty Gun Safe: This type of safe weights around 1200 lbs.
- Corner Gun Safe: This safe is specifically designed to sit directly in the corner of a room.
- Truck Gun Safe: These safes are designed to work with specific models of trucks. They turn the console into a built-in gun safe.
- Nightstand Gun Safe: This is a hidden gun safe that provides quick access through its design which makes it look like a regular nightstand.
These different types of gun safes provide gun owners with a variety of sizes and designs from which to choose. While the amount of space available to store the content and the design of the safe is certainly vital for a gun owner, the most important criterion for gun safe’s cash rating is its construction. A safe is rated based on the thickness of its body and the door.
What are the Ratings Issued by Insurance Companies?
Here are the ratings used by insurance agencies for gun safes, from least to most secure:
| Rating | Safe Body Thickness | Door Thickness | Tested By Third Party |
|---|---|---|---|
| B. | Safe body is less than ½” thick | Door is less than 1” thick | No |
| C. | Safe body is at least ½” thick | door is at least 1” thick | No |
| E. | Safe body is at least 1” thick | Door is at least ½” thick | No |
What does TL-15 mean on a safe?
In addition to the width of the gun safe’s design, another criterion used to rate a safe is if has been tested by Underwriters Laboratories. Underwriter Laboratories, or UL Solutions, “delivers testing, inspection and certification services, together with software products and advisory offerings” to their customers. They perform various tests to examine a safe’s performance against attacks.
The better a safe performs in a test, meaning the more difficult it is to break into, the highest its rating will be.
UL ratings are based on burglary resistance testing and fall into two categories: burglary-resistant safes and residential security containers.
The burglary-resistant safes’ ratings are TL-15, TL-30, TL-15×6, TL-30×6, TRTL-30, TRTL-15×6, TRTL-30×6, TRTL-60×6, and TXTL-60×6.
The letters “TL” refer to the safe being attacked using tools on its door or face; the number 15 refers to the number of minutes an attacker has to break into the safe.
The letters “TL” means a torch was used in the attack; the two numbers and the multiplication sign such as 15×6 refer to the safe being attacked on its door, face, back, bottom, top or sides.
Next, there are the residential security containers’ ratings: RSC level 1, RSC level 2, and RSC level 3.
Each level has a different number/code due to the amount of people that attack the safe, ranging from one person to two people, and the amount of time the attack lasts, starting with RSC level 1 with an attack lasting 5 minutes, moving up to RSC level 2 lasting 10 minutes, and RSC level 3 which entails an attack against the safe performed with added tools lasting 10 minutes.
Can you keep money in a gun safe?
Gun safes can be used to store other valuables, such as money, inside. However, it is important to note that certain elements, for instance, fire can damage a safe and its content.
Therefore, it is crucial for the gun safe’s owner to research well the quality of safety offered by the gun safe before purchasing, for example, the temperature and time a safe can withstand being exposed to fire before the content inside it can be damaged.
Conclusion
Learning about a gun safe’s cash rating helps potential gun safe buyers make an informed decision. All of the elements of a gun safe that a potential buyer considers such as storage space, design, testing performed, and rating, add up to the one purpose of purchasing a gun safe: to keep valuables such as a gun protected.
