First off, I’m not going to tell you how to break into a vault door. Because I’m on the side of the good guys. I’ve been building and designing security products my whole life. I have vault doors, home safes and safe rooms at almost every institution in the USA. That is why I won’t reveal to anyone how to break a vault door. But I can tell you what criminals do to “attempt” to bust in your vault. I will also reveal to you how I reinforce my vaults to stop them. Let’s go!
1) The Lock. Many security products are secured with simple overseas rotary locks or pad locks. These locks can be penetrated by punching the lock or cutting the padlock. These locks have no relocking devices. A relocker is an independent spring-loaded device that will lock up your vault in case the lock is removed. If the lock is defeated, the relocker will fire and fall into your bolt system. Because it’s spring-loaded, you can’t push the vault on it’s side an defeat the relocker. Also, the relockers are inside the door and unable to be seen. This makes it nearly impossible for a safe crack to defeat. Because they can’t see it! Our relockers are very thick, 1″ x 5″ in total thickness. The only way to defeat the relocker is to drill or cut it out completely. But because it’s so thick, it make is very messy to achieve. As a rule of thumb, the longer and wider the relocker the better. Tell your vault door salesman you want the largest one they have. It shouldn’t cost much money. If they say you can’t upgrade the relockers, chance are they are buying their vault doors from China. Buy a 100% made in US vault door. THey’re the best.
2) Get a thick, solid steel Frame. When attempting to break into a vault, 50% of the time, crooks will try to pry the door open. That’s why vaults have up to 25 bolts in the door. But don’t forget a thick frame if just as important. It’s actually the most important feature when it comes to stopping pry-ins. If you have a lot of bolts with a super thin vault frame, it’s the frame that bends and allows are crook to pry your door open. It’s my opinion, if you’re going to trouble of building a great vault room, buy a vault door with a thick 1/2″ steel anti-pry frame.
3) Only 2% of Crooks try to cut your vault door open. With little time to spare, safe cracks will try to cut the whole center part of your vault open with a saw. Sometimes they will even try to torch that whole chest plate area open. If your vault has no extra steel in that center area, you’ll in a world of pain when you get home from vacation. You might find all your belongings stolen. But if you buy from a reputable vault door company, chances are they will build your vault with extra steel in the center 1/3 area of your vault door. For example, we use an additional layer of 1/2″ steel in the center part of your vault door where all your major moving parts are located. That way, if a crook cuts through the center part of your vault, they will be confronted with ANOTHER 1/2″ STEEL PLATE. That will stop 99% of crooks in their tracks. So make sure you have a good chest-plate in your vital cut areas. It could save your butt in a professional attack.
4) Hard plate. The most vulnerable part of your vault door is the area around your lock. If it’s drilled, you want extra steel there to slow down a “punch out attack.” That’s why having a good, anti-drill hard plate is crucial. Making a thief drill your vault door for hours and hours is very demoralizing. It’s the kind of thing that will make them stop and go home. We suggest using at least 1/2″ hard plate with a good, hard Rockwell rating of 70. If you order a vault with 1″ thick hard-plate that will take a criminal hours to drill through with a standard drill. When you buy your vault door, ask for 1/2″ hard-plate minimum, but also tell them you want to have a “rear plate of steel behind your lock.” This will slow down crooks punching out the lock. It shouldn’t cost more than $50.
5) Stainless Steel. You will always come across a vault door enthusiast who will say, “Any vault can get penetrated. All you need is a torch and some time.” If you have a good 1/2″ plate of stainless steel in your vault door, torching your vault becomes nearly impossible. We suggest only needing a ‘”spiderweb” of stainless steel every five inches “inside” your vault door. So if a crook tries to fire up a torch and cut his way in, the torch-resistant stainless steel will stop him.
6) An explosives sticker. Many clients store ammo and gun powder in their vault rooms. This make it extremely dangerous for a crook to cut into your vault room. If a crooks torch ignites explosives or black powder in your vault, it could explode and kill the thief. The worst part is it will destroy the contents of your vault. That life-threating danger keeps would-be crooks from cutting into vaults. You can use this fear to your advantage. By putting an explosives sticker on your vault door that reads, “Danger. Black powder inside. No cutting. Not responsible for death or injury.” This will scare the heck out the toughest of thieves.
7) Thick Steel. The best way to protect your belongings is by building your vault door with super thick steel. For example, if you build a vault door with 3″ thick steel, chances are nobody’s getting in. It’s simple too thick to be penetrated with a torch or grinding wheel. The problem with thick steel is the vault is very heavy and harder to install. It’s also very expensive to put that kind of steel in your vault door. Since 99% of crooks only cut into the center area of your vault door, we suggest only adding extra steel to the center, vital cut area of you vault. Most vault companies will charge you $600 to add super thick steel in the chest plate area.
8) Alarm Systems & Vibration Sensors. Having a strong vault door is crucial. But if you have a great alarm system, chances are the alarm company will know the crooks are in your house long before they fire up their drills. If you have over $500,000 worth of belongings in your vault, we also suggest a motion detector that you set when you leave your home. A nest camera that feeds straight to your cell phone is awesome too, and inexpensive. If someone walks in front of your vault, it will send you an immediate alert. And if you want to get really over-the-top, screw in a “vibration sensor” in your vault door. It will send you a text if someone drills, cuts and tampers with your vault in any way.
This concludes our “How crooks attempt to break into vault doors” article. If you have any gun safe, home safe or vault door questions, please call us at 800-266-7150. One of our vault door salespeople will answer all your questions. Remember, when buying a vault door, you only do this once. Get exactly what you want. It’s not easy to remove a 1500lbs vault and ship it back for an upgrade. Thx Sportsman Steel Safes.