Large Safes for Home: Size, Fire Ratings and the Delivery Route

A large safe holds the whole household's paperwork, and then some

A large safe is a home or fire-rated safe with room for more than a few envelopes. Our line is an interior of 2 cubic feet or more. That's a practical cut, not an industry standard: below it are the small safes and safe boxes people keep on a closet shelf; above it are safes that stand on the floor and usually stay there.

Large home safes typically hold:

• hanging file folders and binders of documents
• jewelry boxes, watches and collectibles
• cash, passports and spare keys
• hard drives, photo albums and other media
• small handguns or ammunition, in safes not built specifically for guns

If you're storing long guns, the sizing works differently. Our large gun safes page covers those, sorted by advertised gun capacity. If you're looking at the other end of the scale, see small safes.

Who a large home safe suits, and who should skip it

A large safe suits a household that wants everything important in one place, protected by one set of ratings.

Good fits:

• documents for a whole family, kept in folders rather than folded
• a mix of paper, valuables and media that would fill several small boxes
• a home office or a small business run from home
• anyone who's outgrown a document chest and keeps adding to it

Skip it if:

• Your floor or route can't take it. A large safe is heavy, and it has to get to its spot.
• You only need to protect passports and a few certificates. A fire-rated document box may be enough. See fire-rated document boxes.
• You're mainly storing long guns. A gun safe is the right shape.
• You rent and can't anchor anything. A large safe that isn't bolted down still resists carrying, but it can be tipped or pried at the base.

What to look for in a large safe: interior, fire rating, burglary rating

Three numbers decide most large safe purchases: the usable interior, the fire rating, and the burglary rating. Weight comes along whether you want it or not. Kevin, our hypothetical burglar, has a pry bar and somewhere else to be; a large safe that's bolted down gives him a reason to go there.

Interior size, not exterior size

Fire insulation and steel take up room. A safe's exterior dimensions and its interior dimensions can be far apart, so compare interiors in inches and cubic feet. Check:

• Shelf height against your tallest binder or box
• Interior depth against hanging file folders, if you use them
• Door opening against the widest item, since it can be narrower than the interior

Buy a size up from what you need today. Safes tend to fill.

Fire rating: class, time and who tested it

UL's fire label has a class, the maximum interior temperature reached during testing, and a time rating, how long the safe withstood the fire. The current UL 72 scope says what each class is for:

• Class 350: intended to protect paper records
• Class 150: paper and non-paper records
• Class 125: also flexible computer disks

Time ratings come in fixed steps, for example ½, 1 or 2 hours. Some safes are also impact-rated: UL tests them before and after a 30-foot drop and then returns them to the furnace.

A fire rating with no lab named is a manufacturer claim. Some claims come from a lab's verification of a modified test, such as Intertek's verification for one manufacturer's chests and files, which used a modified UL 72 fire endurance test. That's different from a full UL 72 classification. Our fire-rated home safes page lists safes by rating.

Burglary rating

• UL 1037 Residential Security Container (RSC). Level I means the safe resisted a 5-minute attack by one person with common hand tools and a small electric drill. Levels II and III use two people, 10 minutes and more aggressive tools.
• UL 687 TL classes. TL-15, TL-30 and up, for higher-security safes. A different class of product.

A UL RSC rating is burglary only. It says nothing about fire, which is rated separately. Our guide to UL safe ratings explains each label.

Steel and weight

Steel gauge runs backwards: under the federal U.S. Standard Gauge, 10 gauge is 0.1406 in and 14 gauge is 0.0781 in. Weight follows steel and fire insulation, not size alone. Liberty Safe notes that some larger safes weigh less than smaller ones because they use thinner steel. Weight is a clue, not a rating.

Getting a large safe home: the route, the floor, the anchor

The most common large safe problem isn't security. It's getting it into the room.

The route. Cannon Safe says to measure doorways, hallways, staircases and turns along the delivery path. Measure the safe's exterior with the handle and hinges included, then compare it with the narrowest point on the way in.

The floor. Think about where the weight sits. A slab floor in a basement or garage is the simplest case. Upper floors and older framing are worth a closer look before delivery. Our guide on how much a safe weighs gives example weights from manufacturer spec pages.

The move. Large safes are often delivered by freight. If you're moving one yourself, our guide on how to move a safe covers dollies, stairs and what not to lift by.

The anchor. Bolt it down. Most large home safes have pre-drilled anchor holes, and the manual names the hardware. Our guide on bolting a safe to the floor covers concrete and wood.

Match the safe to what's inside it

The contents decide the rating. A large home safe often holds a mix, so the strictest item sets the bar.

• Paper only. Deeds, certificates, cash, passports. A UL 72 Class 350 rating is the class intended for paper records. Pick the time rating that fits how long a fire could reach the safe.
• Paper plus photos, film or tapes. Class 150 covers paper and non-paper records.
• Disks and other sensitive media. Class 125 is the strictest class. If a listing says "media" without a class, it's a description, not a rating.
• Jewelry, watches and collectibles. Burglary resistance matters more than fire class. Look for a stated burglary rating and plan the anchor.
• A mix of everything. Some owners keep a small media-rated chest inside a larger safe. Check the interior can fit it.

Our media safes page lists safes with the strictest fire class.

How to read the large safe table: medium, full size and the rest

The table lists every home and fire-rated safe we track with an interior of 2 cubic feet or more, sorted largest first. A dash means the value isn't confirmed by the manufacturer or the listing.

"Medium size safe" and "full size safe" aren't standard terms. Different brands draw the lines in different places. Use cubic feet and interior dimensions instead:

1. Interior first. Filter out anything too small for your largest item.
2. Fire rating next, matched to what's inside: paper, or paper plus media.
3. Burglary rating, if theft is a concern. Note whether it's a rating or a description.
4. Exterior size and weight last, checked against your route and your floor.

The best large safe for one household is the wrong one for another. A safe for paper documents and a safe for jewelry and hard drives may need different fire classes. The table shows which is which.

Measure the stairs, then pick the rating

Before you compare a single model, measure the narrowest doorway on the delivery route and check the floor where the safe will stand. Then filter the table by the fire class your contents need, compare interiors, and plan the anchor bolts before the truck arrives.