If you are in the market for a home safe, you probably already know that Liberty is one of the best manufacturers in the market today, and that there are a lot of different Liberty safes available. But just because you know you want a Liberty, how do you choose which one? Here is a quick look at their entire line of safes and what you get each time you step up to a more deluxe and expensive model. Right now we will just look at what you get in the way of fire protection, and will look at security and style upgrades another time. Just remember, each time you upgrade to a more deluxe series, you get all the qualities of the previous series, plus the upgrades.
For basic information, BTU is a measurement of how much heat a safe can take. To understand the Liberty safe model numbers, the first letter or two refers to the safe series, and the number to the size of the safe.
Liberty's most basic safe with fire protection is the Economy safe. It has 55,000 BTU's and offers 20 minutes of fire protection. However, Liberty considers the Centurion series as their entry level safe. There are four models total in the Centurion series, the standard models: CN17 and the CN20, and two Centurion Deluxe models: CN23 and CN30. Though the deluxe models offer some security upgrades, all models include the same fire protection:
A 62,000 BTU fire resistance rating
It offers 30 minutes of fire protection in a blaze burning at 1200 - 1400 degrees Fahrenheit
It has 5/8" fireboard, 1 layer in the walls and 2 layers in the ceiling, door and doorjambs.
If you step up to the Colonial series, there are two models: CO23 and the CO30, and you get a total of 8 feature upgrades, three of which upgrades are in fire protection:
The BTU rating increases by 18,000, for a total BTU rating of 80,000.
The fire rating at 1200 - 1400 degrees Fahrenheit increases from 30 minutes to 45 minutes.
There is more fireboard, 2 layers in the walls and 3 layers in the door, doorjambs and ceiling.
The next series up is the Franklin. It has four models: the FR17, FR25, FR35 and FR50. There are a total of 12 feature upgrades in the Franklin Liberty safes, and two of them are fire upgrades:
Increase in total BTU's to 83,000.
Fire protection for a full hour at the same temperatures.
Liberty safes most popular series is the Lincoln. There are three models within the Lincoln series, the LX25, LX35 and LX 50. With the Lincoln there are 14 feature upgrades, three of which are fire related:
An even higher fire protection time of 90 minutes.
Higher BTU's: 95,000.
More layers of the 5/8" fire board: three layers in the walls, door and doorjambs, and four layers in the ceiling.
Liberty safes ultimate series in safes are the Presidential and Magnum series. The Presidential series is comprised of the PX25, PX40 and PX50. The Magnum has the NS25, NS40 and NS50. Both series have the same three fire upgrades out of 16 total feature upgrades. These are:
The highest BTU rating available by Liberty: 131,000.
Four layers of fireboard in walls, door, doorjambs and ceiling.
Fire protection for 2.5 hours.
So first you have to decide how much fire protection you need. This can be based upon many considerations, such as where your house is located, the materials it is made out of, and what types of items you have to protect. But once you decide about how much you need, then compare the different Liberty safes to decide what model would work best for you.
