AmSec BF vs. Sturdy - Door Seal & Temp Regulation

[Triumph]

Guys, There is one other consideration I would like to explore on comparing AmSec BF vs. Sturdy.

Terry at Sturdy mentioned that they do not use the same door seal that AmSec & several other companies use.
Terry said the seal that Sturdy uses allows for each door to custom fit each safe because they form the door into the seal. This would allow the door to completely seat against the seal when you close the door.

The expanding seal on AmSec is rigid & I question if it make a good "day in day out seal".

The reason this is important is that several of us live in hot humid climates are have no other place for our RSCs than the garage. My climate can be hot or cold but is always humid.

Also - does any of this really matter as I plan on having desiccant in the safe in Summer and maybe a heat rod in winter?


If the door seal is tighter on one safe that allows the safe to keep out the heat or cold better.

2nd Issue: Terry stated that the heat transfer insulative properties of Sturdy insulation behave differently than AmSec's. I would be very curious to know which safe would do a better job regulating internal temp when the temp in the garage ranges from 20F - 110F.

 

[adirondack]

At risk of starting another argument, the Sturdy Safe with fire lining will do an excellent job for help keeping a consistent interior temperature within the safe along with a small heater such as the golden rod. In fact, you can use the model created for the earlier heat transfer analysis and calculate the approximate minimum wattage needed based on the largest temperature delta you expect to see (I.e., temperature within the safe verses outside the safe.)

 

[leadcounsel]

The seal on mine is a strip of material that, as I understand, creates a seal.

I have lived in a humid area (Tennessee) since 2007 and I have experienced zero rust issues on my stuff in my safe. I have a $5 bottle of dissectant (sp?) in the safe.

I think you're overthinking it.... The Sturdy is a great safe and I research the heck outta stuff.

 

[heeler]

When Triumph speaks of humidity here he means it.
I cant tell you how many times I have walked out to my garage when this area is experiencing it's very worst high humidity conditions.
Your garage floor is visually wet and slippery.
Personally if I was going to put my safe in a garage around here I would build an enclosure of fire rated sheetrock and use wood or metal studs for framing,put a decent door on it with a lower floor seal and then insulate inside the walls of that space and have an HVAC guy come out and run a very small 4 inch or so flex duct from the house A/C trunk line and run it into the small enclosure thereby pretty much keeping the enclosure at the same humidity level of the inside of the house.
The other good thing is it would look like a storage room in the garage instead of a gun safe.
On another note a very good friend of mine has had his gun safe in a shop building for many years with a Golden Rod and the conditions in his shop building is the same as a garage and last year he informed while pulling out his guns for their semi annual oil wipe down he found some slight surface rust on his old Ruger #1.
And now that all of this humidity is being mentioned I am about to go and open up my Amsec and pull out both of my Eva-Dry Dehumidifyers and recharge them over night.

 

[btn]

Graffunder talks about that whoosh you hear when you close one of their doors. Well I hear the same thing when I close my Sturdy's door, the seal is that good. In fact sometimes I do it over and over again just for fun.

Also my basement has about 70% humidity. Sturdy told me that with their fire lining I should be fine. Just to be safe I put in one of those Eva dry as well a few months ago and I have not had to recharge it yet.

 

[heeler]

I get that same whoosh on my Amsec.
Apparently those seals work on both safes,which is a good thing.

 

[a1abdj]

The AMSEC BF actually has two types of seals. One type around the door, and one type around the frame. One is hard, the other soft. Both expand when exposed to heat. You can see the seals in this photo. The hard seal is around the door, the soft seal is on the inside of the door frame. You'll actually notice that there are three seals on this AMSEC. Two on the door, one on the frame.



I posted a photo in the other thread of a black/gray safe I was working on with a very tight door gap. You could barely open that door by yanking on it because of the suction. I had to drill an "electrical access hole" just to get it open without having to put my foot against the body. That safe is 1" plate all the way around.

Even though you hear a swishing noise doesn't mean the safe is air tight. It it was, you wouldn't be able to open the door by hand. This goes back to some of the safes with compression systems that I've mentioned before. These are the big "captains wheels" you see on vault doors that force them shut, and force them open. Even safes with sloppy doors will swish if you listen closely.

 

[btn]

Believe me I don't hear a whoosh on my other safe, the one that has a sloppy door. I just hear a boom when I close that one. With the Sturdy no matter how hard I close it the tight door slows it at the end while the air escapes.