Do you need a college dorm room safe?
If you or a family member is going off to college soon then you may be thinking about a list of essentials to get and for those of you who are worried about having your valuables stolen in the very open dorm rooms a safe may be on your list. Most students attending college will be taking with them many valuable items, especially electronic equipment such as laptops, mobiles, ipods etc. When you leave them in your room you will want them locked up properly to prevent anyone from stealing them.
You may be thinking that no one would steal from a college dorm room because students are recognized as being quite poor on the whole. This is the wrong kind of thinking as students are among the most likely to become victims of theft and theft from dorm rooms is not uncommon as you have all these valuable items laying around.
Pre-existing college security measures can be great at preventing theft and nowadays there are CCTV cameras, multiple locked doors to get through and sometimes key card access to the building. But these won’t stop other students’ friends having access to your room and if someone steals your key off they will find any excuse to get inside a building.
Having a general safe or just a laptop safe in your room that is secured with a high strength security cable can mean that even if people get into your room then they cannot take anything important if you have put it away.
It is always good practice to be vigilant with your safety and valuables and although some colleges offer a security box for hire these aren’t normally available in your room.
The Best Types of Small Safe for Your Room?
There are three types of small safe that can be good for a college dorm room, depending on how much money you have to spend will depend on what you ultimately decide to buy.
Different types of locking mechanisms have different costs with the standard key opening safes the cheapest and then moving up to PIN code locks and finally the most expensive are biometric fingerprint locks.
Biometric locks offer the highest and easiest to use security but you can do just fine with a standard key locking or PIN code safe.
Personal Gun Safes – Buying this type of safe to use just for valuables and electronic equipment is a good idea as they offer great security and space for items. There are usually different versions of the same safe available with a different locking mechanism so you can get a cheaper version than the biometric ones reviewed on this site if you follow the links in the articles.
Lock Boxes – Another option which is an alternative to a safe is just a box with a big padlock on, obvious downsides to this are that someone can just bolt cut the padlock quickly.
Laptop safes – There are locking cases that are a medium between cheap lock boxes and full on safes, the larger ones can be used to store a laptop, usually the most expensive and valuable electronic item a student has as it will contain their work too.
What features to look out for a college room safe?
Security Cable
The Number 1 priority feature you need to look for when getting a safe is compatibility with a security cable. If you can use a security cable it means you can hook it to your bed frame or a metal radiator, something that is essentially immovable. This is because if you don’t bring your own furniture to college then you can use the existing furniture in the room to secure it down so no one can carry it off, as what is the point of locking your stuff away if someone can just walk off with the whole thing. If you do bring your own furniture to college then you can secure it to the inside of a drawer so it is hidden and immovable.
All Metal Sturdy Construction
All metal construction, some of the really cheap ends of the market use plastic parts for the construction of the body and locking mechanism, these are easily broken and snapped given enough motivation, so to prevent that you should look for a fully metal constructed safe. The drawback of this is that the product will be a bit heavier but once you are all set up after moving in day then you won’t have to worry about moving it again.
Conclusion
We hope you have more of an idea about why you may need a secure safe for your room, and what to look out for when trying to decide what to buy.
There are several gun safes complete with security cables that could be used as a good safe in the dorm. See the GunVault range listed on this site as a good starting point.