- RSC means five minutes against one attacker with hand tools. TL 15 means fifteen against a skilled one.
- The x6 suffix means all six sides were tested, not just the door.
- Class 350 protects paper. Digital media needs class 125.
- Anchor the safe. An unanchored container gets carried away and opened elsewhere.
Burglary ratings
Residential Security Container, usually written RSC, is the entry level burglary rating. It means the container resisted a single attacker with hand tools for five minutes. That is genuinely useful against an opportunist and close to useless against a determined attack.
Above that sit the Underwriters Laboratories tool resistant ratings. TL 15 means fifteen minutes of net working time against a skilled attacker with hand and power tools on the door. TL 30 means thirty. Adding x6 means all six sides were tested rather than only the door, which matters enormously because many safes have thin sides.
Quote the time out loud. A customer who thinks their safe is impregnable and actually owns a five minute container is a customer who leaves it unbolted in a spare room. The number changes their behavior more than any advice you give.
Fire ratings
Fire ratings are a time and a temperature. A one hour class 350 rating means the interior stayed below three hundred and fifty degrees Fahrenheit for one hour in a furnace test. That threshold protects paper, because paper chars around four hundred and five degrees.
Digital media needs far more protection. Class 125 keeps the interior below one hundred and twenty five degrees and controls humidity, because a hard drive or a memory card fails long before paper does. A safe rated for documents will not save a backup drive.
Fire safes also usually work by holding moisture in an insulating layer that releases as steam. That steam protects the contents from heat and can soak them. Tell customers to bag anything moisture sensitive inside the safe, and never to store a fire safe where it can be reached by standing water.
Fire and burglary are different problems
The two requirements pull in opposite directions. Fire protection wants thick insulating material that is light and porous. Burglary protection wants dense steel and concrete composite. A cheap safe that claims both usually delivers a good fire rating and an RSC or nothing on burglary.
Say so plainly. If the customer's real worry is a house fire destroying documents, a good fire safe bolted down is the right purchase. If the real worry is a burglar taking a coin collection, a TL rated container is, and it will be heavy and expensive.
And bolt it down either way. An unanchored safe under a hundred and fifty pounds walks out of the house in a burglar's arms and gets opened at leisure. Anchoring is the cheapest security upgrade in the entire trade.
Common Questions
What does a TL 30 rating mean?
The safe resisted attack for thirty minutes by a trained technician using known tools, in a laboratory. It is a real number and it is also a floor, not a promise about your garage.
Is a fire rating the same as a burglary rating?
No, and confusing them is the most common mistake buyers make. A one hour fire safe protects paper from heat and can often be opened with hand tools in minutes.
Does a heavier safe mean a better safe?
Weight helps because it stops the safe being carried away whole, which is how most of them are stolen. Beyond that, the door and the lock decide the rating.
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