Are Safes Waterproof? 

There are a number of reasons why you might be looking for a water-proof safe. Maybe you live in an area prone to occasional flooding. Or perhaps, in the event of a fire, you’re worried about when the firefighters try to put it out.  There are available solutions, but:

Safes are not waterproof. Safes can be ETL verified as 'water resistant' at a specified depth, for a specified period of time. Past that specified time, they lose their resistance. Water-resistant safes often have other limitations that affect their ability to protect the valuables inside.

Want to know if gun safes are waterproof? See our related article: Are Gun Safes Waterproof?

What are ETL Water Protection Ratings?

Intertek ETL is an independent certification for a safe's level of water protection. ETL water protection ratings are defined for a given amount of time, in a given depth of water. If you want water protection look for an ETL certification mark.

ETL water protection ratings will be certified as either "completely submerged" or "water up to" a set number of inches.

When the certification is for "number of inches," it means that the safe loses it's waterproof rating when completely submerged or submerged to a depth greater than the certification.

For example, this Sentry Water and Fire Resistant Safe on Amazon, and others like it, are ETL verified against water damage up to 8 inches deep for 24 hours, but this particular safe is 18 inches tall. Once water rises over 8 inches, it can penetrate the keyhole and electronics, so it loses it’s rating.

But this Sentry Fire Box on Amazon can be fully submerged for up to 72 hrs.

And this DNYKER Home Safe on Amazon claims to be waterproof but shows NO ETL or other certification agencies water verification.

Avoid safes making waterproof claims that have no official verification from the ETL or other verifying agency. These safes are normally internally certified. The values stated may indeed hold true, but then, they may not.

Are Waterproof Safes Secure?

You’ll notice none of the above shown safes / fire boxes look to be very secure.

That’s because they are not.

The way safes get their water protection is to be completely sealed, and most of the safe that are completely sealed are made of fireboard, or some other fire-resistant material, encased entirely in plastic, so there are no seams or holes anywhere in the body. This is then accompanied by a rubber seal around the door.

Water rated safes are most commonly smaller, cheaper safes that suffer from the following problems:

• Lack of steel makes them susceptible to opening by magnet or forced entry
• Lack of weight make them susceptible to being carried off

If you try to bolt them down, you penetrate the casing, and they lose their water rating (water can just flood in through the bolt down holes).

What is the Best Waterproof Safe?

To protect content, the best fireproof and waterproof safe is an ETL certified, water resistant safe placed inside of a burglary rated safe. This will protect the content from both water and theft. The “waterproof” safe must be accompanied with an ETL mark (logo) or other certification agency mark.

Though water proof safes don’t provide any true protection against theft or burglary, they do provide an incredible value for those looking just for water and fire protection. You can find many water resistant safes on Amazon at great prices.

Our recommendation, if you are concerned about theft at all, is to purchase a burglary-rated safe.

Burglary rated safes can be very heavy (thousands of pounds) or bolted down when not heavy enough to be carted off. Then, to obtain the water protection you are looking for, place an inexpensive, ETL water rated safes inside of that safe for any items that will be damaged if they get wet.

Disclosure: As an eBay / Amazon Associate I may earn from qualifying purchases.