Fella's;
I had to double check something before I replied to some information posted above regarding AMSEC's BF series RSC's.
The company has split the line into three categories: BF, BF HD, and BF gun. In no case does the plate steel in the door exceed 1/2 inch in thickness. The door itself will be thicker, but the steel plate remains at 1/2" except for some of the larger gun units, where the plate steel has been reduced to 3/8". The side walls never did & do not now contain any 1/4" plate steel, this is what prevents the units from being considered true safes.
The smaller, non-firearms units do carry the U.L. 1 hour thermal protection rating, and that's excellent. However none of the gun units do. Those have an Intertek Labs rating of 1200 degrees f for two hours. As with all of the independent lab thermal tests, I don't see the test parameters being published.
900F
Buddy, that aint spot on.
The current AmSec BF 1512, 1716, and 2116 are B-rate safes that have been tested and passed the RSC test. Like many safes that use plate steel and composites, the BF's walls are 1/8th inch plate, composite material, and a second 1/8 inch plate. In other words, 1/4 inch of steel and about 2 inches of composite fill. This conforms to B-rate construction. The door is 1/2 inch steel plus composite material, plus a hardplate. Why would AmSec use two 1/8 inch plates instead of a single 1/4 inch plate? Because it makes defeating the safe more difficult and allows the use of poured composites with is superior to other fire resistant methods, plus it adds to the safe's armor by making it harder to penetrate. They are hardly the only company to do that. These safes carry a 1 hour UL 350 rating at a test temp of 1700 degrees. The larger 3416 is only 30 minutes.
http://www.amsecusa.com/fire-safes/bf-safes/
The gun versions of the BF safes contain either a 1/2 inch or 3/8 inch door, but weaker side walls, and the company certifying the fire resistance on those safes is not the UL. The amount of DryLite composite fill used is LESS than the above BF line. The walls on these are only an 11 gauge and a 16 gauge plate. A relatively new upgraded BF gun safe version has more armor than the original, but less than the above smaller BF lines.
The weight tells a lot here. The BF6024 is 59.25" x 24" x 21" and weighs 720 pounds (this is one of the gun safe offerings in the BF line). The BF2116 is only 26.25 x 21.75 x 20.25 and it weighs 475 pounds (this is the smaller sized BF line of the B-rate offerings in that product family).
As I said previously, a good B-rate safe is a good choice for intermediate valuable storage. Is it a high security safe? Absolutely not. However, it's far from the joke of a safe that most gun safes are. They take quite a lot longer to gain access to. And as for the AmSec BF 1512, 1716, and 2116, these are tough safes for the money and by no means a false security safe. While they have passed the same RSC test that all other RSC safes have also passed, the construction of these safes are farrrrrrr superior to virtually all other RSCs. As RSC is only a certification with very loose building specs, the quality of safes that have passed the RSC test vary greatly. While most RSCs are quite easy to rapidly defeat with basic hand tools, a RSC-certified safe build to B-rate or C-rate specs will have little trouble keeping such attackers out for an extended period.
Names like Brown, Graffunder, Wilson, etc. sell B-rate safes. If these safes were a joke, companies as those would not be making them because those companies only make capable safes.
