Best home safe: Keep your valuables safe and secure

Want to add an extra layer of security to your home? The best home safes will help protect your most precious possessions from theft, loss and even – with the right model – fire damage.

Buying a safe may not feel essential on a normal day where nothing goes wrong, but you shouldn’t be lulled into a false sense of security. When a dark day comes around and your possessions are put into danger, you won’t regret investing in the protection. In fact, if owning a safe stopped you from losing your most cherished items, you’d thank your lucky stars that you’d gone out of your way.

However, having decided that buying a safe is the right decision, you shouldn’t just jump straight in and pick up the first one you see. Instead, make a careful decision based on your personal requirements, which we’re here to help you figure out. Read on for our buying guide and roundup of the best home safes to buy.

Best home safe: At a glance

• Best home safe for the average home: Burton Safes Eurovault Aver | Buy now
• Best medium-value safe: Dudley Europa Grade 3 Size 5 | Buy now
• Best small home safe: Securikey Mini Vault Silver Safe | Buy now
• Best biometric home safe: Burg-Wächter PointSafe | Buy now
• Best affordable home safe: Yale Locks YSB250EB1 | Buy now
• Best fire-resistant safe box: Master Lock Fire Resistant Chest | Buy now

How to pick the best home safe for you

People buy a home safe for different reasons, and understanding your own motivations can help you choose the best home safe to suit your needs and budget. Take a minute to think about your answers to the following questions before continuing to our top options.

How large are your valuables?

Are you buying a safe to simply store some cash and jewellery, or will bigger valuables need to fit in? If you’re intending to squeeze in larger items, such as laptops, cameras and – oh, I don’t know – Fabergé eggs, you’ll want to check out some of the more spacious options on the market. The last thing you want is to get your safe delivered before realising that it doesn’t actually fit what you need it to fit.

How much are your valuables worth?

Once you’ve decided what you’ll be storing in your safe, you’ll want to work the sum total of their combined cash worth. This is so you can work out where the contents of your safe rank on the Eurograde rating scale, which is used by insurance companies to determine what they will insure while it’s locked in a safe:

• Eurograde 0 – Cash rating: £6,000; Valuables: £60,000
• Eurograde 1 – Cash rating: £10,000; Valuables: £100,000
• Eurograde 2 – Cash rating: £17,500; Valuables: £175,000
• Eurograde 3 – Cash rating: £35,000; Valuables: £350,000
• Eurograde 4 – Cash rating: £60,000; Valuables: £600,000
• Eurograde 5 – Cash rating: £100,000; Valuables: £1,000,000
• Eurograde 6 – Cash rating: £150,000; Valuables: £1,500,000
• Eurograde 7 – Cash rating: £250,000; Valuables: £2,500,000

You’ll want to make sure that you buy a safe with the right Eurograde rating to match the valuables you’re putting in there. That way, if you are ever robbed, your insurance company will have to cover the cost.

What’s your budget?

Home safes are available on the internet in all shapes and sizes, and with that vast range of options comes an even vaster range of prices. If you’re able to spend a bit more on a safe, you will probably get more space, more security features and a higher Eurograde rating. But if you’re looking to spend a fairly small amount to protect just a few small items, you should still be able to find a high quality safe to suit your needs.

What type of lock do you need – and how many keys?

Safes either work with a key or with a mechanical or electronic combination lock. With the former, you get the peace of mind that nobody can open the safe without the key, which you keep on your person or in a secure place. With the latter, anyone who knows or can guess the combination can get inside, but that still makes for pretty good security.

Of course, keys can get lost and combinations are forgotten. In the latter case, you might want to keep a note in a secure place (not a Post-it note on the fridge) or see if the manufacturer has an override key.

If you’re the kind of person who’s likely to lose a key, you won’t want to lock up your most valuable and important belongings in an impenetrable safe that only comes with one impossible-to-replace key. Get a safe with a spare key and leave said spare with someone that your trust. Alternatively, choose a safe provider that’s willing to provide replacements if you ever need them. If you have absolute trust in yourself and have never lost a single thing in your life, ignore this paragraph completely.

READ NEXT: The best home security cameras you can buy today

The best home safes to buy

1. Burton Safes Eurovault Aver: The best home safe for the average home

Price: £1,176 | Buy now from Amazon

The perfect home safe for most people is arguably the Burton Safes Eurovault Aver. The Eurovault Aver is available in a range of sizes, security grades and lock types, though this key lock safe has a grade 0 rating on the Eurograde rating scale. This means that insurance companies will cover the contents of your safe up to a cash total of £6,000, along with valuables that have a combined worth of up to £60,000.

The double-walled steel safe boasts laser-cut metal that is 10mm thick and anti-rust treated, and it contains two height-adjustable shelves, which can also be removed if necessary. The lock and bolt-work also have special drill protection, and there’s a relocking device that will secure the door in case of attack.

Key features – Dimensions: 67 x 44 x 39cm; Volume: 71l; Cash: £6,000; Valuables: £60,000; Eurograde rating: 0; Fire resistant: No; Lock: Key lock

2. Dudley Europa Grade 3 Size 5: The best medium-value safe

Price: £2,699 | Buy now from Amazon

If you’re looking to store away large amounts of money or lots of valuables, you’ll want something with a decent Eurograde rating. This safe from Dudley has a middling rating of 3, meaning you’re insured for up to £35,000 in cash and £350,000 in valuables.

They say you can’t put a price on safety, although in this instance Dudley has and it’s a little under three thousand pounds. That said, you get a tough, double-walled safe for that price, with 235 litres of storage space plus 45 minutes of fire resistance. So, you can feel confident in the safety of your valuables.

Key features – Dimensions: 102 x 64 x 71cm; Volume: 235L; Cash: £35,000; Valuables: £350,000; Eurograde rating: 3; Fire resistant: 45 minutes; Locks: 3-way bolts, key lock

3. Securikey Mini Vault Silver Safe: The best small home safe

Price: £275 l Buy now from Amazon

If your home safe needs are on the smaller side, you might want to consider a mini vault such as this Securikey offering, with a cash rating of £4,000 or £40,000 in valuables. It has a combination lock powered by AA batteries, which come included in the price. The code is changeable and the safe will give you low power warnings if the battery is getting close to flat.

Ths safe is secured with an 8mm anti-bludgeon flush-fit door, which has 25mm hardened steel locking bolts. There’s even an internal light that will switch on when the door is open, allowing you to see the contents with ease. This safe is also wall-mountable, adding an extra layer of security.

Key features – Dimensions: 25 x 37 x 27cm; Volume: 18l; Cash: £4,000; Valuables: £40,000; Eurograde rating: Less than 0; Fire resistant: No; Locks: 25mm hardened steel bolts, electronic combination lock

4. Burg-Wächter PointSafe: The best biometric home safe

Price: From £167 l Buy now from Amazon

If you covet that cool spy movie feeling of opening a safe with your fingerprint, you could do a lot worse than invest in one of Burg-Wächter’s PointSafe units. Made in Germany and laboratory tested, these safes boast a solid, single-walled body and a sturdy double-walled door, providing a safe and secure space in which to store your stuff.

As well as being able to recognise a fingerprint, this safe can also be set up with a PIN, while a key is also provided, giving you three different ways to access your stored belongings. This safe is fully wall-mountable and is ideal for storing cash (up to a value of £1,000) and smaller valuables (up to £10,000).

Key features – Dimensions: 25 x 35 x 30cm; Volume: 20.5l; Eurograde rating: Less than 0; Cash: £1,000; Valuables: £10,000; Fire resistant: No

5. Yale Locks YSB250EB1: The best affordable home safe

Price: From £33 l Buy now from Amazon

If you’re looking for a home safe on a budget – a little something that can hold your valuables, without breaking the bank – look no further than this beauty from Yale. It has an insurance approval rating that covers cash up to £1,000 and valuables up to £10,000, and it can easily be fixed to the wall or floor.

You can set a three-to-eight-digit code using the snazzy LCD screen, and there are also spare keys included if you happen to forget that code. The electric bolt mechanism is 22mm thick, the door is laser cut for the minimum gap, and the reinforced hinges really mean business. It may not have all the bells and whistles of the more expensive safes, but this Yale safe will do the trick for most households where there are only a few valuables to protect.

Key features – Dimensions: 20 x 32 x 20cm; Volume: 20l; Eurograde rating: Less than 0; Cash: £1,000; Valuables: £10,000; Fire resistant: No

6. Master Lock Fire Resistant and Waterproof Chest: Best fire-resistant safe box

Price: £60 | Buy now from Argos

Strictly speaking, this isn’t technically a safe but a lock box. But that doesn’t mean it won’t keep your cash or valuables well-protected.

Given its comparatively light weight and carry case design, it’s perhaps not the first port of call for protection against thieves (if you want a safe that won’t be budged, see our Dudley Europa entry). However, with verification from Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and the Electrical Testing Laboratory (ETL), this key-lock chest offers great protection against the most extreme of elements. It’s fire-resistant for 30 minutes at temperatures of up to 843˚C, to protect important documents and valuables as well as digital items such as CDs, DVDs and USB drives, and has also been verified for submersion in water in the case of flooding.

Key features – Dimensions: 17 x 39 x 36cm; Volume: 7.9L; Eurograde rating: N/A; Fire resistant: 30 minutes