Fireproof home security ratings: how to determine if your safe is fireproof

Do you want to fly a safe?

With these tests for your home's fireproof safe, it could explode. This article tells you how to test a home fireproof safe to determine if it meets the fire resistance rating standards set by The Underwriters Laboratories. Note that I use the term fireproof interchangeably with fire resistant, technically they are not interchangeable. I also recommend that you do not try this in your own home. It is too expensive and dangerous.

Necessary material

1. You will need a minimum of two identical homemade fireproof safes. You will need a third home fireproof safe if you want to do the explosion test for yourself.

2. Select some documents that you can use for a test. Make sure it's something you can save, but don't use blank paper; otherwise, you will not know if it is readable or not. I have contemplated using my degree in electrical engineering. I have not used it in years. If you are testing a media safe, you may want some CDs that you received for Christmas and that you cannot support. Try a flash drive and a memory card too.

3. You will need an oven large enough to heat one safe at a time. If you've seen MacGyver or Team A, I'm sure you can improvise. Otherwise, check out a local ceramic oven.

4. Get protective equipment. The oven gloves will not work well by opening a safe that has been heated to 2,000 degrees F.

5. Somehow, you will need to find some thermometers and recording devices that let you know the internal temperature in the fireproof safe. I don't think an Oregon Scientific weather station will work unless you are testing the UL 125 classification. You will also need to measure humidity.

6. You should also measure the external temperature of the safe. Good luck finding a cheap thermometer that reaches 2,000 degrees.

7. Oh, I almost forgot. You will probably need a small crane to raise your fireproof home to 30 feet in the air while it is still hot. A quick release will also be needed for the drop test.

8. At the end of the drop test, you will need a pile of bricks in a cement slab.

Ratings

Assuming that you have been able to assemble all the previous material, it might be good to find out what the different UL classifications mean and the criteria that will determine a successful test. Each of the ratings can be used for a fireproof safe, but it makes no sense unless you specify how long the safe will meet the standard.

UL 350: the safe must keep the indoor temperature below 350 degrees Fahrenheit. That is below normal temperature so that most paper products burn, burn or become useless.

UL 150 is the classification for tapes, cartridges, microfiche and microfilm. In addition to keeping the interior at 150 degrees or less, the humidity should be less than 85%.

UL 125 is the standard for floppy disks. In this case, the temperature cannot exceed 125 ° F and 80% humidity. I have the feeling that this standard is a bit outdated because most people no longer store floppy disks.

Heat test

The first test is to see if your home's fireproof safe will protect the contents for the specified period of time. It should start at normal room temperature and humidity. Load your safe with your test material and take it to your oven.

Heat your oven to the following temperatures (all Fahrenheit) for the test you want to run and then place the safe in the oven. Be careful, when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into a superheated oven, the boys assigned to the task were killed by heat.

or 1,550 for a ½ hour rated safe

or 1,700 for a 1 hour rated safe

or 1,850 for a 2-hour classified safe

or 1,920 for a 3-hour rated safe

or 2,000 for a 4-hour classified safe

Leave your home fireproof in the oven for ½ to 4 hours. Here comes the kicker. Do not remove the safe after the allotted time, simply turn off the heat and let it cool inside the oven. If you have a really good oven, like those with UL boys, that would take up to 68 hours.

You must record the indoor temperature during the heating and cooling phase. If you pass the rating, your home's fireproof safe voided the test. When it cools enough to open it, you should check the content of the test to make sure it is still fine.

Impact test

I think the heat test was a bit boring. The impact test is much more fun and does not take much time. For this test, you need your second fireproof safe in the home. Start as before but the times and temperatures in the oven will be shorter.

or 20 minutes at 1,460 degrees for a ½ hour classified as safe

or 30 minutes at 1,550 degrees for a classified safe hour

or 45 minutes at 1,640 for a 2 hour rated safe

or 60 minutes at 1,700 for a safe rated 3 and 4 hours

This part sounds like a television show. Now you have 2 minutes to remove the safe from the oven, lift it 30 feet in the air and drop it on your pile of bricks. If you can see the inside through the cracks or the door, your fireproof safe rejected the second test. However, if it still looks good, it's not over yet.

Turn over your safe and reheat it. This time you can take it out of the oven and let it cool. Open the safe and examine the contents. If all is well, including the damage caused by moisture, it is almost over.

Explosion proof

If you are a fan of Mythbusters on television, then this has the potential to be the most fun. If you only bought two safes, you will want to do this before doing the drop test.

Start with an empty fireproof safe. Heat it to 2,000 degrees, then open it and save the test documents, CDs or other material very quickly. Slam the door and keep the outside at 2,000 degrees for another 30 minutes. If your safe has not exploded, it is almost over. Once you have cooled down enough to make sure you can handle it, open the fireproof safe in your home and make sure your documents are still fine.

Congratulations, you have just shown that your home's fireproof safe is in fact fire resistant.

Mythbusters Test

None of their safes are already good, so this is for those who like to see how things explode. Get a dynamite cartridge and … No, I'm not going there. Someone could accuse me of endangering people.

conclusion

It is much cheaper and safer to look inside your safe and see if it has an UL label.

Discover How YOU TOO Can Easily be a Video Occupation Quizzer Effort Remunerated To Behave Video Games at Domestic!: Click Here