Recommendations for a Safe - Heavy, Fireproof, No Electronics, Big Enough to Store a Few Hard Drives and a Small Amount of Cash

CascadeHush on 20/05/2025 - 10:41
Last edited 20/05/2025 - 10:42 by 1 other user

I'm looking for a safe to store a small amount of cash, maybe some personal documents, and a couple of hard drives.

Priorities are as follows, in decending order of importance:

  • Budget $800 but prefer to obviously spend less
  • Something that is going to last (does anything last anymore) i.e. mechanical parts that don't wear out quickly
  • No electronics
  • I rent and don't really want to bolt it down, so something heavy that can't be easily carried away
  • Prefer key and combination, but key alone would be okay
  • Fireproof as long as possible within budget

The closest thing I've found is this, which seems to tick all the boxes:
https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/karbon-hul…

It's a brand I've not heard of, which worries me. Also some of digital lock stuff they make seems to be, lets be nice and say 'built down to a price to appeal to ignorant consumers.'

Also I'm in Tasmania not near a major city so officeworks is a good option for delivery.

Home & Garden Safe

Comments

  • MS Paint on 20/05/2025 - 10:47
    +3

    that can't be easily carried away

    This safe has a weight of 33 kg. Mrs Paint weighs 50kg and I can carry her to the kitchen around no problem.

    • CascadeHush on 20/05/2025 - 11:35

      Well assuming a thief only has 2 arms and a limited amount of time… everything is relative. If I were a thief I'd be grabbing the PS5, laptop, gaming PC… before a 33kg safe but maybe a thief would take their chances lugging a 33kg safe assuming it's worth a lot more than it really is.

      The main point of including this was that you can buy small lock boxes or cash boxes that someone could easily pick up with one hand and I just don't even see the point of those at all. May as well just keep your money in a jar.

      • Chandler on 20/05/2025 - 12:50

        maybe a thief would take their chances lugging a 33kg safe assuming it's worth a lot more than it really is.

        The Reddit thread would be worth more than the PS5, laptop and gaming PC combined!

    • plmko on 20/05/2025 - 12:24

      If you think dead lifting a 33kg safe is the same as lifting a 50kg person you're going to have a massively bruised ego after.

      • MS Paint on 20/05/2025 - 12:38
        +1

        I'll just be sure to use my knees

      • CaptainJack on 20/05/2025 - 13:56

        If I were a thief I'd just bring folding trolley and a box to chuck things in. But they regularly lift ~200 kg motorbikes into the back of vans, no way a 30kg safe is going to stop them.

        • Hirolol on 21/05/2025 - 13:36
          -1

          if you were a thief i doubt you would be intelligent enough to come prepared with a folding trolley.

  • pscac001 on 20/05/2025 - 11:15
    +3

    a couple of hard drives.

    Just FYI, "fireproof" (for x mins and y temp) generally means that it won't reach the ignition point of paper. Hard drives (especially spinning rust) may fail at much lower temperatures.

    If your data is important, you need an offsite backup.

    • CascadeHush on 20/05/2025 - 11:40

      it would be one backup in the chain, but yeah, I get that it's probably a long shot that they would survive a proper fire. It's why 'fireproof' is low on the list.

    • cfuse on 22/05/2025 - 07:30

      Fires are one of the most common data recovery scenarios there are.

      Just because the user has a dead drive on their hands doesn't mean the data is gone (it just means it suddenly got very expensive to access).

  • jv on 20/05/2025 - 11:16

    and a Small Amount of Cash

    How small?

    • MS Paint on 20/05/2025 - 11:18
      +1

      exhibit A

    • CascadeHush on 20/05/2025 - 11:30

      probably less than $1000 most of the time but to me that's a lot of money to be lying around

      • joka on 20/05/2025 - 11:43
        +9

        Just be sure to have a valid answer when the bank asks why you have cash at home.

    • Chandler on 20/05/2025 - 12:50

      $3.50

      • Hirolol on 21/05/2025 - 13:37

        tree fiddy?

        • Chandler on 21/05/2025 - 14:03

          God Dammit Hirolol, I ain't gonna give you no tree fiddy.

  • Benoffie on 20/05/2025 - 11:31
    +1

    Buy secondhand. For $800, youll get a decent size/weight, good insurance rating

  • joka on 20/05/2025 - 11:31

    But you'd surely want one which you could pick up and run with if there was a fire? Fire safes are only usually rated for half an hour. Suggest something like the Sentry Chest Medium or Sentry Chest Large.

    • CascadeHush on 20/05/2025 - 11:38

      If I was going to be grabbing anything in the case, assuming I had time to do so, it would be my bag with my wallet, keys, spare glasses, etc, and my desktop PC

  • 87percent on 20/05/2025 - 11:39

    safe deposit box at a bank?

    • Benoffie on 20/05/2025 - 14:59

      Getting rare and expensive. Mine are around $420pa each

      • TheOtherLeft on 21/05/2025 - 11:21

        I pay <$200/yr in sydney for a small safety deposit box

        • Benoffie on 21/05/2025 - 11:28

          Mine are M size. Biggest available. Have 2.

  • Nutrino on 20/05/2025 - 11:55

    No electronics, just hard drives.

    • joka on 20/05/2025 - 12:03
      +1

      lol! the 'no electronics' is referring to functionality of the safe, it needs to be manual, no digital keypad or fingerprint sensors…

  • pegaxs on 20/05/2025 - 12:43
    +3

    Used office fire safe. Scumtree or Fartbook are your friends.

    I would be looking at safe brands like "Chubb" or "CMI" and that have locking gear like S&G combination locks and/or Ross lever lock instead of cheap, crappy "Sandleford" safes with cheap combination locks and regular keys. NO fire safe should have ANY electronic locking mechanisms.

    • Worf on 20/05/2025 - 15:03
      +1

      Plus one for cmi safes and s&g combo lock… had one in the past well made. Semi regret selling it many years ago

  • Downvoter on 20/05/2025 - 13:15
    +1

    I hid cash in ziplock bags in my dogs 20kg bag of food during Covid. /tinfoil

  • Brightland on 20/05/2025 - 14:20
    +2

    Have look on eBay, marketplace or estate auctions. You can find old safes that businesses used to use. We've got a couple of old Simpson & Son and a Chubb (my husband is weird and has a collection, there's stuff in them but nothing overly valuable). He got one a while back on eBay for $150 - the auction house they used for the estate refused to take it because they couldn't move it and they seller just needed to get rid of it. They might be a bit bigger than what you need it for though…

    A good locksmith can also make you spare keys - ours loves seeing old keys and the last time we needed some made he had the apprentice do it for free!

  • pharkurnell on 20/05/2025 - 16:49

    If you look at bunnings, take time to check reviews…. they werent flash when I looked

  • oscargamer on 20/05/2025 - 17:29

    Used big safe from FB

  • HomerJ on 21/05/2025 - 07:59
    +1

    I'm pretty sure I've had the listed safe for 17 years - Bought from Bunnings (from memory) - Model YB-500A

    Looks like they have rebranded it for Officeworks Exclusive
    https://www.sandleford.com.au/hulk-keycomb-fireproof-safe

    It's pretty heavy, need to use both combination and key to open.

    No fire test - but generally, never had an issue with it

    • CascadeHush on 21/05/2025 - 10:40

      Thanks for being the only person who actually responded with and actual recommendation for a safe. Not to diss the discussion, which has been interesting…

  • Not SkyNet on 21/05/2025 - 08:17
    +2

    OK the Problem you have is that storage of some of the items will not work (without proper planning), but fireproof safes glaze over that fact.

    Fireproof safes love to use "marketing" and base their claims off paper only.

    Paper documents in a Fireproof safe are fine as their ignition point is around 218-233 °C but HDD you don't worry about the components but more the solder which drops down to 183-220 °C melting point or lower depending on the solder used (used to be higher when we had lead in it) and then we hit our Australian polymer notes which have a melting point of as little as 120 °C melting point (remember when you put those chip packets in the oven and got mini packets so imagine mini notes ) so you need a safe that its internal temp does not get above 120 °C to be safe in the safe.

    So you need a Fireproof safe rated at 120 degrees for x number of hours OR to save a bit of money on the safe look at internal fireproof pouches for the cash and HDD as these can be rated as high as 1100 °C and are usually water resistant (most safes are not so if hit with a firehose will destroy a HDD hell even paper documents sometimes)

    So my recommendation looks at a medium rated fireproof safe (a good safe of this range will be heavy due to its insulation) and then store items in it with fireproof bags to make sure they are safe.

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