Lock Boxes: Small, Portable, and Honest About It

A lock box is a portable box with a lock, and that's the whole job

A lock box is the smallest thing on this site that locks. It's usually a steel or composite box with a hinged lid, a key, combination, keypad or fingerprint lock, and sometimes a carry handle or a point for a security cable. It sits on a shelf, in a drawer, or in a car.

What a lock box does well is control access. The medicine stays shut. The spare cash stays shut. The passports stay in one place. What it does not do well is resist someone who has time and is allowed to carry it away, because it weighs very little.

Our table covers small portable lock boxes for valuables, documents and medicine. Key-only lockboxes that hang on a door for realtors and short-term rentals are a different product, and they're not included. If the main job is cash, our money lock boxes page narrows the list. If it's a pistol, see handgun lock boxes.

Who a lock box is for, and who should skip it

A lock box suits a specific set of problems. Most of them are inside the household, not outside it.

Good fits:

• medicine that should stay away from children, teens or visitors
• a small amount of cash, spare keys or a passport
• documents you want in one closed place, and grab-and-go in an emergency
• a single handgun during travel, where local rules allow it
• a dorm room, a shared house or a rental where you can't install anything

Skip it if:

• You need burglary resistance. A box someone can lift is a box someone can carry off. A safe that's heavier and bolted down is the tool for that. See our safe boxes page.
• You need fire protection for paper. Look for a fire-rated document box with a stated rating instead. Our fire-rated document boxes page lists them.
• You're storing several long guns. That's a gun cabinet or gun safe, not a box.

A large lock box is still a lock box

"Large lock box" usually means a bigger interior: room for a letter-size folder, a stack of medicine bottles, or two handguns. It's still portable, and it's still judged on its lock and its material. Past a certain size and weight the product turns into a small safe, and the specs that matter change with it. If you're looking at a large lock box because you want more security, compare it against a small safe that can be bolted to the floor.

What to look for in a lock box: the lock, the backup and the box

Three things decide whether a lock box is useful: how it opens, how it opens when that fails, and what it's made of.

The lock and the backup

• Key lock. Simple, no batteries. The weak point is the key: where it lives, and who knows.
• Combination or keypad. No key to lose. Check how codes are changed and whether the keypad needs batteries.
• Fingerprint (biometric). Fastest for one person. Check how many fingerprints it stores and what the backup is.

Every electronic lock needs a backup, usually a key or an override code. Check where the battery compartment sits. If it's inside the box, a dead battery means the backup key is your only way in, so the key has to be somewhere you can find it and a child cannot.

Material and steel gauge

Lock boxes are made from steel, aluminum or plastic composite. For steel, the gauge number runs backwards: a lower gauge is thicker. Under the federal U.S. Standard Gauge, 16 gauge is 0.0625 in and 14 gauge is 0.0781 in. A listing that names the gauge is telling you something. A listing that says "heavy-duty steel" is telling you how it feels about itself.

Tethering and mounting

A lock box with a slot for a security cable, or pre-drilled holes to screw it to a shelf or a vehicle, is harder to walk off with. A cable doesn't make the box stronger. It makes leaving with it slower.

Fire and water ratings, if any

Many lock boxes have no fire rating, and that's fine for a medicine box. If a box claims one, it should name three things: the time, the temperature or UL 72 class, and who tested it. UL 72 Class 350 ratings are intended to protect paper records. Some fire and water claims on small boxes come from a lab's verification of a modified test method; Intertek's verification for one manufacturer's chests and files, for example, used a modified UL 72 fire endurance test and a submersion test in 2 inches of water. Read which test it was.

Burglary ratings

Gun safes are rated as Residential Security Containers under UL 1037. Under that standard, portable containers are also drop-tested onto concrete, and the door must not come open. Most lock boxes aren't RSC-rated, and they don't claim to be. If a box does carry a rating, the label names the standard. Our guide to UL safe ratings explains what each label means.

Small lock box for medicine: keep it closed and out of sight

This section is about children's safety, so it's plain.

CDC's Up and Away campaign says medicines and supplements should be kept out of reach and sight of young children, in a spot too high for them to reach or see. It also says never to leave medicines out, for example on a kitchen counter, and to ask visitors to keep bags or coats that contain medicine up and away.

A lock box adds a lock to that advice. It doesn't replace it. For medicine, the useful specs are:

• Interior size that fits the original containers, since CDC guidance is to re-close safety caps after each use
• A lock adults can open quickly, such as a keypad or key, so the box actually gets used
• A key or code kept away from the box, where children won't find it
• A place for the box that is itself up high and out of sight

If you share a home with teenagers or have frequent guests, the same steps apply. The box protects what's inside only while it is closed and locked.

Lock boxes for a handgun: what the box can and can't do

This section is about firearms and children, so it's plain.

A lock box can store a handgun so that people who shouldn't have access don't. The Department of Justice handout on safe storage, from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont, says to keep firearms unloaded and locked, with ammunition locked separately, and to keep keys and combinations out of children's reach. It also says that hiding a gun is not safe storage.

California's Department of Justice keeps a roster of firearm safety devices certified for sale in the state. If you're buying a lock box for a handgun in California, check that roster and your state's official guidance. Storage rules differ by state.

How to read the lock box table

The table lists every lock box we track that fits the rule above. A dash means the value isn't confirmed by the manufacturer or the listing; it doesn't mean zero.

A few ways to narrow it:

• Start with interior dimensions. Find the largest item you'll store and cross off every box it won't fit.
• Then the lock type. Decide who needs to open it and how fast. One person, daily: a keypad or fingerprint lock. Occasional access: a key may be enough.
• Then the backup. For electronic locks, check that a backup key or code exists and where the battery sits.
• Then fire, only if it matters. For medicine and cash, a fire rating is optional. For irreplaceable documents, it isn't, and a fire-rated document box may be the better product.

Rated and claimed values appear as they're stated. A fire rating with no named lab is a manufacturer claim, and the table shows who said it where we know.

Pick the box that fits the job, then put it somewhere sensible

Measure what goes inside. Choose the lock the people in your home will actually use. Then decide where the box lives: up high and out of sight for medicine, cabled or screwed down for cash and documents, and locked every time for a firearm. Keep the key or code somewhere other than next to the box, and check the price once you've narrowed the list.