I have a fire safe I was talking to the owner at my coin shop I go to and he said not to put it in there the reason (he said) was because if my house catches fire, the safe will release liquid to keep whatever is in it from burning(like if my house is burning my COINS are going to be the one thing I'm worrying about) anyways, what would happen to the coins because of this, would they be safe it I put them in Airtites first? stainless
I never heard of a safe releasing liquid to keep the contents from burning. But, I'm not an expert on safes either. A safe will protect its contents up until a certain degrees, usually stated on the box the safe comes in or the pamphlet that comes with it. After the inside of the safe reaches that temperature, the inside of the safe is kind of like an oven and will melt whatever is in there, plastic first, so your slabbed coins, proof sets and so on, would be the first to be ruined. This is what I know to be true about safes, other opinions may vary.
If you have a dry basement, a fireproof safe down will provide a lot of protection from fire. Truth is, the world is a dangerous place and coins can be lost or damaged by theft, fire, water, dampness and many other circumstances. There is no 100% guarantee that anything will work. Use your safe and keep it hidden and hope for the best.
Basically what Indianhead and Cloupsweeper said. Use it and hope for the best. I've seen proof sets that were in safes in bad house fires. Not pretty.
Sold Browning safes for ten years, and have looked at other major manufacturers products at other shows....I have been away from that biz for the last few years, but at that time the word "fireproof", like "waterfproof", was thrown around much too loosely. Unaware of any safe that releases liquid, typically the materials used in construction were the deterrent, like ceramics. Fire safes give the fire department more time to put the fire out before things inside go poof. Like I said that was 5-6 years ago, maybe things have changed now.
I believe some of the smaller portable fire/water safes have a foam sort of strip around the edges. When they get hot they expand and prevent water from getting in the safe. All UL rated fire safes should have the temp and time rating on them somewhere. I don't know if this will actually work, but personally I have a huge fireproof gun safe in the basement (just under 600 lbs empty). From there I have most of my stuff sitting on shelves, but I also have a smaller fire/water proof safe that fits in there as well. I keep my most valuable documents, currency, and a few higher prices coins in there. I'm not sure if it will work, but here is my thought... The large safe will prevent most of the heat from getting in there for a while. If that temp gets compromised I am hoping that the smaller safe will still last a while after that since the internal temp of the large safe should not get critically hot until a while has passed - thus giving me a little longer for the most critical documents/coins. Anyone follow my though process there? Like I said I do not know if it would actually work, and I hope I never have an opportunity to test it.
There are safes, those that are rated as fireproof, that do release 'stuff' to keep the contents from burning. Better that than a blob of junk silver.
Fire resistant (no such thing as fire proof) safes are designed to keep the interior temperature below a certain level while everything outside is burning. And it does it with water. The safe recommended by insurers is a "2-hour" safe. That basically means it can protect the contents for 2 hours at an outside temperature of something like 1,800 degrees (I forget the exact number.) The interior temp will go up to something like 300-350 degrees. That's plenty good to prevent melting. So the concern is how to prevent the moisture from doing damage. Of course at that temp the water will not be liquid; it will be steam. (That's how it keeps the temp down inside; it takes a LOT of heat to vaporize water, so the heat is vented off as water vapor.) To protect against unwanted toning in the hot, moist environment put your stuff in sealable containers such as Tupperware-type things. I say "Tupperware-type" because you obviously have to concern yourself about plastic containers that have PVC. But the container will be able to withstand 300 degrees without catastrophic failure. Microwave safe containers should work well. Glass cointainers would be a consideration too.
