Jewellery Safes - Which One to Choose

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Before purchasing a security safe to store and protect jewellery you should take the precaution of having an up to date valuation of your jewellery, because it may well be worth a lot more than the original purchase price, especially if the collection includes antique or high quality jewellery items.

Once you have this valuation then the choice of safe becomes a lot simpler. You may have noticed that most security safes are graded by what is called an Insurance Cash Rating – this is basically a way of distinguishing the level of security that is offered by each safe. The entry level cash rating is £1000 and at present the highest insurance cash rating is £150,000. However, for storing and securing jewellery Insurance companies, as a general rule, agree that a 10x multiple of the Cash rating is fine. Therefore, for say a £4000 Insurance Cash Rating, the Valuables or Jewellery Insurance rating would be 10x that figure - £40,000.

There is one important point to consider before you dive in and spend your hard earned cash – Insurance companies may sometimes request you purchase a higher grade safe than you would normally expect due to any of the following reasons: your Post Code area has a higher risk than the average; you or your address has a high claim history; or the safe you have chosen is not a model that has a recognised test certificate.

Security Test Certificates for Safes in the UK

Association of Insurance Surveyors (AIS) logo Safes are given an Insurance Cash rating either by having been independently tested by an approved testing laboratory or by passing a manufacturer’s own internal valuation. Lately some UK insurance companies are insisting that higher valued jewellery must be stored in a safe that has a valid independent test certificate, which has been approved by the Association of Insurance Surveyors (AIS) – so before you buy check with your insurer, because placing your valuables in a safe that has not been approved could invalidate your insurance cover.

The most common test certificates approved by the AIS are the EN14450 standard – S1 gives a £2000 cash rating and S2 offers a £4000 rating, and the Eurograde standard EN1143-1 which offers 7 grades from Eurograde 0 that offers a £6000 cash rating to Eurograde 6 which offers a £150,000 cash rating. We would strongly recommend that any person wishing to store jewellery that has a valuation of less than £20,000 should purchase no safe with a cash rating less than £2000. And preferably choose one with at least the S1 test certificate.

So which Jewellery safe should I choose?

Here are my recommendations according to the Insurance Cash and Valuables ratings detailed above.

Jewellery Valued up to £20,000

Chubbsafe Water 30 Security Safe Check out either the Chubbsafes Water 30 Security Safe with a Key operated lock or its companion with an Electronic lock. The Chubbsafes Water range of safes have a £20,000 valuables rating and are AIS approved.

Jewellery Valued up to £40,000

Securikey Mini Vault Fire Safe There a number of safes in this category to choose from, but I will suggest 3 different models to suit all budgets.
The entry level model would be the Securikey Mini Vault Gold that is a well made safe that has a Manufacturer’s insurance rating of £4000 and has both a key and a digital locking versions and is available in 3 sizes. The Size 0 Electronic can be viewed here.

Burton Torino Gold Safe The best all round safe would be the award winning Burton Torino Gold, which is tested to EN14450 – S2 and approved the AIS – both key and electronic options are available in 4 sizes 0 our best selling home security safe.

Chubbsafes Cobra For a really heavy weight option you could select the Chubbsafes Cobra – S2 and AIS approved and weighing 2-3 times the weight of normal £4000 cash rated safes.

Jewellery Valued up to £60,000

Burtonn Eurograde 0 Home Safe 1E

Burton Home Safe 1E Electronic Grade 0 Fire Security Safe

Basically any AIS approved Eurograde Safe with a Class 0 EN1143-1 test certificate suits the bill, but for value for money you can’t beat the Burton Aver range. View here.

For Jewellery Valued to higher values you will require Eurograde safes tested to EN1143-1 to the following grades:

  • Jewellery up to £100,000 – Eurograde 1
  • Jewellery up to £175,000 – Eurograde 2
  • Jewellery up to £350,000 – Eurograde 3
  • Jewellery up to £600,000 – Eurograde 4
  • Jewellery up to £1,000,000 – Eurograde 5
  • Jewellery up to £1,500,000 – Eurograde 6

Just one final point to comply with your Insurance policy is that all safes that weigh less than 1000kg must be bolted down according to the manufacturer’s instructions. BE SAFE NOT SORRY!

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