Understanding the cash rating on your safe

When you’re considering purchasing a security safe to protect the valuables in your home or office, it is important to understand the cash rating, or insurating rating of your safe, it is one of the most important criteria to consider when you’re selecting your safe. 

In a nutshell, the cash rating is a unit measurement used to compare the ability of your safe to survive attacks in terms of dollar value. The term “insurance rating” and “cash rating” are interchangeable. These ratings make it simple to compare different safes and determine the level of security they provide.

The actual amount of physical items a safe can hold, or its volumetric capacity, has nothing to do with its insurance rating. The safe’s level of security is determined by the materials, strength, and locking mechanisms utilised on the safe. 

Due to the density of the concrete built into high-grade safes, they are often heavier. Glass relocking devices, anti-drill plates and other barriers are likely to be included in these high-quality safes. This is true for both new safes and second-hand safes. These barriers will act as a shield to protect the contents you place inside the safe.

This grinder resistant safe can easily survive an attack by a 9 inch angle grinder. This grinder resistant safe also known as a EDF (explosive, drill & force) resisting will resist such attacks  

Many years ago, insurance companies used to publish comments from assessors who were well-versed in safe design and construction on what value they considered a safe should cover. Unfortunately, under the threat of litigation, they abandoned this process and now leaves the safe industry to self regulate. While there is no official agency currently assigned to certify cash ratings on security safes, manufacturers make fair judgement based on industry comparison in order to apply an accurate dollar value on the insurance rating of a safe. The tougher it is for a burglar to crack open the safe, the higher the cash ratings or insurance ratings will be. It is important to note that because cash is easier to steal, the valuable rating is always ten times the cash rating. It is always recommended to consult with your insurance company before buying your safe, in case there is a dispute with the manufacturer’s cash rating. This case is very rare, but it could happen.

Manufacturers have responded to the market demands by creating safes with two distinctive characteristics: the size of the safe and the quality of the safe.

A safe’s size is quite straightforward, it is simple to compare two safes of various size, yet they can have very different cash ratings. As the cash rating of the safe measures how difficult it is to break into the safe, a safe for an example with a $100,000 cash rating would be built to withstand more variety of attacks than a safe with a lower cash rating. A low-grade safe might only be resistant to small hand tools such as small pry bars and small screwdrivers. 

Cheap hardware type safes will NOT protect your valuables. So called fire safes are not suitable for protecting jewellery & gold from theft.

Cash ratings or insurance ratings are normally “stand alone. This means they do not take the alarm system into consideration. Criminals have a limited amount of time, it will be much more difficult for them to break into a safe and escape if it is protected by an alarm system. To protect the cash in their vaults, banks used to rely mostly on physical security. They now use a variety of methods, including sophisticated alarms. 

Clearly, there is a link between the price of the safe and its cash rating. The heavy concrete barrier used in the safe, and the extra security features would add extra cost to the safe.

We listed some examples to show you a comparison of different cash ratings on security safes. Below are two safes that are very similar in size but have very different cash ratings.

KS2-ID
This particular safe has a thinner steel plate front section door – suggest cash rating $50,000.
KCR-2D
This particular safe has a thick (TDR) torch and drill resistant slab section with 4 way moving boltwork and it incorporates hardened anti drill plates. Suggest cash rating $250,000.

If you have more questions about the cash rating or insurance rating of your safe, or if you need help with selecting the safe that best suits your needs, speak to our professional safe expert on 1300 764 971. We stock the largest stock of safes online, you’ll sure find something that ticks all the boxes for you. If you need to relocate, repair, open or dispose a safe, we’re also here for you. We have a group of certified professionals with extensive experience in the relocation, removal, servicing and safecracking of all types of security safes.

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