Gun Safe Test Ratings: Who Did the Testing, and What They Did

Short answer: A gun safe test means something only when you know three things: who ran it, which standard it followed, and what counted as a failure. For burglary, the reference is UL 1037, which rates gun safes as Residential Security Containers (RSC) at Levels I, II and III. For fire, it is UL 72, which gives a temperature class and a time rating. Anything else — ETL verification of a modified test, or a manufacturer's own furnace — can be useful, but it is a different sentence and should be read as one.

Gun safe testing comes in three kinds: independent tests to a published standard, independent tests to a modified version of a standard, and tests the manufacturer runs itself. Listings tend to blur them. This guide separates them so you can read a box or a product page and know which one you are looking at. If you are shopping rather than decoding, our gun safes page puts the categories side by side, and UL-rated safes collects the ones with an independent listing.

Gun safe testing for burglary: the UL RSC test

UL 1037 is UL's standard for antitheft alarms and devices. Its scope also covers Residential Security Containers — what the rest of us call gun safes — at performance Levels I, II and III. UL Solutions lists UL 1037 as the standard gun safes are evaluated to.

Level I is the one most gun safes carry. The requirements, as reproduced in Intertek's notice of the 2016 revision, are specific:

• Time: a 5-minute attack
• Attackers: one operator who is familiar with the safe's construction
• Tools: common hand tools — hammers, chisels, pry bars, punches, screwdrivers, wrenches — plus a small electric drill
• Failure: the door opens, or a 4-inch hand-hole is made in any surface

Five minutes. One person. It's a short scene, written on purpose.

Lighter or portable safes may also be drop-tested onto concrete under UL 1037, and the door must not come ajar. The two primary sources describe the scope of that drop test a little differently, so the product's own listing is the place to confirm it.

RSC Level II and Level III: what changes

The higher levels are not more of the same. They change the people, the tools and the definition of failure. Per the same UL 1037 text:

• Level II: two experienced operators, 10 minutes of net working time, more aggressive tools including power tools. Failure is a 6-square-inch opening through the door or front face. The safe must weigh 750 lb or more or be anchorable, and the lock must be a UL 768 Group 2M or UL 2058 lock.
• Level III: two operators, 10 minutes, and abrasive cutting wheels and power saws added to the kit. Failure shrinks to a 2-square-inch opening, and it counts through the door or the body. Lock requirement: UL 768 Group 1 or UL 2058.

The 2-square-inch rule is the big jump. A Level III safe has to keep a much smaller hole from happening, and on more surfaces. For the full ladder of ratings, including the TL classes used for high-security safes, see our guide to UL ratings for safes.

The fireproof safe test that doesn't exist

Nobody tests for "fireproof". The word has no pass mark. What UL 72 tests is fire resistance, and the label it issues has two parts, according to UL:

• A class — the maximum interior temperature reached during the test. Class 350 (350°F) is intended to protect paper records. Class 150 adds non-paper records, and Class 125 adds flexible computer disks.
• A time rating — how long the product withstood the fire exposure. UL's guide information lists fixed durations, commonly given as ½, 1 or 2 hours and up.

Some products also claim impact resistance. UL describes that test plainly: the safe is tested before and after falling 30 feet, roughly three stories, and then goes back into the furnace for up to another hour. That test applies only to products rated for impact, not to every UL 72 rating.

The current UL 72 is the 17th edition, published January 27, 2026. A listing tested years ago was tested to an earlier edition, which is worth knowing if you compare two products.

ETL verified: a real lab, sometimes a modified test

Intertek issues the ETL marks and is recognized by OSHA as a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL). That's an independent lab. The catch is in the word "modified".

Intertek's verification report for SentrySafe chests and files is a useful example. It covers:

• Fire: a modified UL 72, 16th edition — the fire endurance test only, for ½ or 1 hour
• Water: a modified UL 50E submersion test in 2 inches of water for 24 or 72 hours, with no more than 5 grams of water allowed inside

The UL 72 explosion and impact tests were not part of that verification. That doesn't make it worthless. It makes it a different claim from a full UL 72 classification, and a listing should say which one it is. Intertek's online directory lets you look up the report for a specific product.

In-house fire tests: what a manufacturer's own test tells you

Many gun safe fire ratings are the manufacturer's own. Liberty Safe is open about how it does it: its fire-protection page says the company has fire-tested over 300 safes, following guidelines developed by NIST. Liberty describes ramping the heat to 1,200°F within ten minutes and holding it at 1,200°F for the duration of the test.

That is a real test with a stated method. It is also run by the company that sells the safe. The Marketing Department then turns it into a single number on a sticker, and the sentence about who ran the test is the first thing it trims.

So here is how to write it down when you compare safes, and how I write it on this site:

• Rated: "Class 350, 1 hour (UL)" — an independent lab, a published standard
• Verified: "1 hour, ETL Verified, modified UL 72" — an independent lab, a modified standard
• Claimed: "75 minutes at 1,200°F, tested by the manufacturer" — the maker's own method

Three different sentences. Rated beats claimed, and claimed is still better than a listing that says nothing at all.

Gun safe test standards in law: California DOJ

One state turns gun safe testing into a legal definition. California's Department of Justice sets a gun safe standard with two routes. A safe qualifies if it meets a construction standard — among other things, a combination lock with at least 10,000 combinations behind a drill-resistant plate, at least three ½-inch steel bolts, 12-gauge walls, a 7-gauge door plate or two layers of 12-gauge steel, and protected hinges. Or it qualifies if an NRTL certifies or lists it as meeting the UL Residential Security Container standard.

Storage rules differ by state, and this is not legal advice. California's official page is linked in the sources below.

Here's the catch: tests stop at the door they were given

A test rates the sample in the lab, under the conditions in the standard. It doesn't follow the safe home.

Locks are the clearest example. Since 2023, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced several recalls of biometric gun safes whose locks could be opened by unauthorized users. In June 2024, SA Consumer Products recalled about 133,370 Sanctuary and Sports Afield biometric gun safes for that reason. In January 2025, the CPSC warned consumers to stop using the biometric feature on about 183,000 Stack-On biometric gun safes, pistol vaults and lock boxes; Stack-On did not agree to an acceptable recall. If you own a biometric safe, check its model on the CPSC website.

The second catch: a rating covers what it covers. A UL RSC label is a burglary rating and says nothing about fire. A UL 72 label says nothing about burglary. A safe can carry one, both or neither, and the box will not always make that clear.

Skip it if: when the test label isn't your deciding factor

• You're buying a small handgun safe for quick access. Most of them are not RSC containers. Look at the lock type, the backup and any recall history instead. Our handgun safes page covers that.
• You need fire protection above all. Start with the fire rating and who issued it, then read are gun safes fireproof before you compare burglary levels.
• You need a California-compliant safe. The DOJ standard is the test that matters to you. Check the official page, not a listing's summary of it.
• The safe won't be bolted down. Higher RSC levels assume 750 lb or an anchor. A safe that can be carried off was never going to be attacked in place.

That's how to read the word "tested". Find the line on the listing that names the lab and the standard, then write it down in one of the three forms above. If the line isn't there, ask the manufacturer for the test report before you buy — and if the safe is the RSC kind, bolt it down when it arrives.