Recently purchased a new house and looking to upgrade current safe. Have about $5k to spend. Want something big enough to last a while as well as being safe enough to store valuables in as well as my firearms. Facts I know about safes, I need better than 10ga steel body, 1/4-3/8 steel plate door, minimal door to body gap so tools can't be inserted. With that said I've gotten a quote for a Fort Knox safe for $5800 shipped and dilivered  it's the Protector 7241. What about a sturdy safe in that configuration? Anyone with experience with each? Thanks

PROTECTOR 7241
FEATURES:
? UL listed
? Certified, 1680* 90 min fire protection
? 1 ¾” Reinforced Fire Door
? Up to 13- 1 ½” diameter active door locking bolts
? 5 prong handle
? 7 gauge steel Uni-body construction (1 ½” total body thickness)
? Comes in high gloss and texture finish
? Door Organizer comes standard
Protector 7241:72.5”Hx41”Wx27”D (1490 lbs)
$4,280.00
Exterior: Root Beer Brown // Black Chrome

Interior: Silver  // 52 Guns

Trim: Double Diamond Black
$85.00
Hinges: Internal/External //  Left/Right

Lock: Mechanical Dial

Accessories

Steel Body Upgrade
Included
Deluxe Package
$515.00
Inner Steel Liner
$515.00


Sales Tax Exempt on Gun Safes in NJ
$5,395.00
Delivery – ground level with 3 steps or less (call for quote if steps involved)
$450.00
Total:
$5,845.00

I don't trust Sturdy's fire protection claims so if that is important to you I would buy the Fort Knox.

Whenever somebody mentions "valuables" in addition to firearms, I usually find that they need more security than a gun safe offers.  Good news is that you can buy a real safe, used, for the budget you have available.

I would call your local safe and vault company and see what they have.

For that price, look into Brown safes.

$6k and you're really aren't getting much in the way of steel. For that kind of Money, you want poured concrete and plate steel in the body and a 1/2"-1" plate door with more concrete.

Take Frank's advice and find a used TL-15 safe. The interior can be made to what you want and still be under $6k.

I owned two Ft Knox safes years ago... Before I really knew about safes and real safe ratings. For $6k you want something that isn't going to be opened with a sawzall in 10 minutes, and with a Ft Knox protector, that's all you will have. Not much difference between a $2,000 liberty and a $6,000 Ft Knox in terms of steel and security, other than a nicer paint job and fancy advertising...

If you are over in NJ I would give lacka safe a call. Take a look at an Original TL30 assuming you don't mind doing your own interior. Or a used safe.

With that budget you can find a used TL safe, have it delivered, and still have enough left enough for several guns.

Check CL and eBay, depending where you are TL safes pop up often, and cheap. It'll be more expensive to move it, most likely.

What ever happened to the Fort Knox site sponsor?

Id go with the Fort Knox.

Not quite, a bare bones Fort Knox Protector (which is their mid tier line safe) is on par with a high end Liberty Presidential and is priced similar.  Both have 7 ga steel bodies.  Factor in options such as inner steel body liners and corner door bolts ( both offered on the FT Kx, not an option on the Liberty) the Ft Kx is going to run you more.  Either way you get what you pay for.

If the choice was standard AMSEC BF verses Fort Knox, no question Fort Knox. Fort Knox offers: stronger bolt support, thicker steel on the body, for fire protection they offer fire rated sheetrock which they test to the industry standard I.e., the ASTM E119 test curve while keeping the interior under 350F, that's 1800F at 2 hours verses AMSEC's constant 1200F ... big difference.

Sturdy verses Fort Knox, of course I have to go with Sturdy but I do like Fort Knox as a company and would be happy to own their products.

Arent you the one that claims you arent absurdly biased against amsec?

Bc i didnt even see amsec mentioned in this thread and most of your post was anti amsec.

Ft. Knox.

You should be able to get a significant discount off list on a Ft knox somewhere in the 25-40% range. Call bill at the safe place in california. He will take care of you. Tell him what you want, what you can afford, and let him say no.

When did I say I claim that I wasn't absurdly biased against Amsec? I never said any such thing, of course I'm biased against them

AMSEC BF and Fort Knox designs are more similar with regards to fire protection whereas Sturdy has an entirely different approach. If you believe that hygroscopy is the way to go for fire protection in gunsafes then Fort Knox offers a design that can withstand higher temperatures based on their own factory testing which is essentially what AMSEC claims for the BF (ETL did the testing but AMSEC controls the data ergo a factory test). In the other categories, I think Fort Knox also has them beat with exception of door thickness.

Sturdy offers a very robust and simple design free of clutches, shear pins or most anything other than the lock itself that could break and lock you out. Tolerances on Sturdy are tighter than either and adding additional steel doesn't cost a lot more on a Sturdy Safe. As for fire protection, no moisture involved. Sure releasing a lot of steam might keep the temperature of the interior under 350F for the first couple hours but what happens after that; even if the fire has been put out? The safe sits there with its contents stewing in steam, moisture and chemical byproducts for several days before a locksmith can be mobilized to open up the safe. With Sturdy's design there is no moisture and despite what some may claim, the safe is air tight which anyone who owns a fire lined Sturdy already knows. Ceramic fiber conducts heat at around 1/4th the rate of gypsum and likely with the high concentration of water in Drylite more than likely a higher heat conduction rate than even gypsum occurs with AMSEC's design. Sturdy design benefits those who have a fast response time from a fire department (E.g., ~ 1 to 1.5 hours)

LOL, googling "safe place, california"... I may as well type in "porn, usa" into google.

Most of the Fort Knox dealerships I've dealt with over the years have sold FK safes at substantial discounts to the MSRP.

I agree. You can get a lot of safe for that kind of money if you don't care about shiny paint or carpeted interior. JMHO.

Thanks and ill definitely do that!
I definitely want that added security especially with certain items I plan on putting in the safe

+1 for used TL15 or TL30.  Bigger (usually), stronger, better protection.

To add to that, I was planning on buying three safes (two for family) I am not and won't be a safe dealer. I talked to Fort Knox at the shot show and they recommended Bill. He gave me a better price than the fort knox dealer price because he orders them by the truckload. He also carries other brands.

To be competitive with internet prices, local dealers need to order by the full truck. Amazingly there isn't a gun store or safe dealer in Atlanta that is high volume and carries moderate quality safes. Ga is all about the low end cannon and liberty safes. Truck freight on the safe was offset by sales tax and a local true expert installer was about $400 per safe. I shipped the safes to the installer which saved some $$ on truck freight and eliminated the logistics of having them at my house when the safe arrived.