I just received a Sturdy safe on Monday, and I figured I'd post a review. When I was researching different safes I found threads like this one from years back that were very helpful, so hopefully this will help researchers for years to come. It's long, but it addresses some of the things I found after months of research, and it states how Sturdy fits into that. This is a totally honest review, hitting the good and the bad as I see it with my safe. I am not the type to praise something because I'm biased because it's the brand I picked, but overall, I love this safe and would buy it again in a heartbeat.
I did a tremendous amount of research when looking for a safe, and learned far more than I ever cared to about what makes a good one good, and how burglars thwart safes. I had initially heard that in order to get a really good safe one should budget $1,000 to $1500. But what I found was that while safes in that price range will protect against your average smash and grab burglar, they don't stand a chance against someone who really knows what he's doing and has come prepared. At first it seemed that in order to get that level of protection you'd have to drop $3500+, which is way out of most people's budgets.
So it looked like there was a massive gap in price vs. protection levels. You could up the budget to $2000 for a slightly higher end Browning or the like (still not at the premium level), but spending 33% more wouldn't pay off with 33% more protection, it was more like 5 or 10%. In order to get the big security gains you'd have to triple what you were willing to spend.
That assessment was only generally true - Sturdy and the AMSEC BF series make safes at intermediate prices that offer significantly higher levels of protection. Comparing the same sizes, (apples to apples), $2000-2500 will get a safe with good fire lining that offers far more protection than their counterparts made by other brands. Both appear to bridge the gap so you're not spending an extra grand for a bunch of fluff.
That said, I went with the Sturdy. It offered at least equal (arguably better) protection for about $500+ less. I'm sure the AMSEC is prettier (and looks do matter), but function is the most important thing. Sturdy slightly edged out AMSEC's BF my mind in terms of thwarting burglary. In terms of thwarting fire, I'm not entirely certain which has the edge. Suffice to say they're both great. And the Sturdy's a good bit cheaper to boot.
Sturdy has a reputation of being extremely functional, yet cost efficient by in part by cutting down on the fancy level. I found this to be true. It is not as polished as some safes that are half the cost. I went into this purchase knowing that. However, I was surprised to find that I had lowered my expectations way too much. It actually has a very beautiful exterior. The textured granite paint job is superb. I balked at the idea of having to apply decals to my safe to make it look nice (shouldn't a $2000 safe be above stickers???), but after carefully applying them, I stand corrected. It looks very, very sharp. There's a puddle of drool in front of it.
Now for the bad (I promised to be honest). The interior left something to be desired. The bottom is covered with a thin fabric material that is not secured to the bottom. If the butt of a gun or something else slides across it, it pulles the fabric along with it and then you have to push it back into place (not difficult, just annoying). I had to wrap some duct tape to make it double sided to stick it down into place. Also, when you bolt the safe down, the bolt heads stick up between the metal bottom and the fabric covering. this leaves minor bulges and creates waves in the fabric. But it's not noticeable unless you really look. All this can be easily solved for a couple dollars though. You can take a thin piece of plywood, cut it to fit perfectly inside the safe, cut holes out where the bolt heads are, and tack that fabric down to it.
The only other downside with the interior is that when they cut notches in the fabric base to fit the contour of the door frame, it was sloppily done. One of the cuts is far from 90 degrees, and neither is exact to cover the ground perfectly up to the door frame. Just an extra 30 seconds of care would have solved this.
So now that I'm done with the bad (which is actually pretty minor if you think about it, and one of the two issues is easy to fix), a couple more brief things about the good. The gap between the door and frame is tiny. As it is, getting a prying device in there would be impossible. I know I know, somebody somewhere could do it, but for even a far better than average contender it's not doable.
This 7 gauge steel has to be seen to be appreciated. It's amazing. I'd shoot at it with various calibers to see what will/won't penetrate, but then I'd hurt the beautiful finish.
I checked out a lot of safes in gun stores. Even those in the same price bracket as my Sturdy felt flimsy by comparison.
Sturdy's customer service was outstanding. The kind of thing that hasn't been around for several decades. They will take the time to promptly answer whatever technical questions you may have, and go out of their way to share their knowledge and expertise with you in practical matters such as how to move the safe, what to bolt it down with, how to bolt it down, issues you might run into and how to solve them, etc. Even after watching their "how to" videos online, I had a few curveballs to throw at them and they answered with ease. Even the owner of the company himself is very accessible and eager to help.
There are a whole slew of other things that make this safe so great. Check out their website, as I've alredy written a novel here and don't need to regurgitate what they already say at their website. Plus, I'm writing about my impressions, not all the ultra technical stuff.
Do be sure to get a bigger safe than you think you need. I stretched my price range about $300 to go up a size larger than I thought I needed, and that was a very good decision. Much thanks to all those internet posters before me who convinced me to do that!
Fire lining is optional, and the smallest safe (which is still a decent size) without the firelining can be had for less than $1500.
As far as bang for your buck, after months of research I am firmly conviced that the Sturdy can't be beat. Even with the few minor negatives, I am incredibly pleased and strongly recommend that anyone who is looking at a slightly cheaper safe hold off and save for a few months longer to get one that offers the level of protection in some $3500 safes for half the price.
I did a tremendous amount of research when looking for a safe, and learned far more than I ever cared to about what makes a good one good, and how burglars thwart safes. I had initially heard that in order to get a really good safe one should budget $1,000 to $1500. But what I found was that while safes in that price range will protect against your average smash and grab burglar, they don't stand a chance against someone who really knows what he's doing and has come prepared. At first it seemed that in order to get that level of protection you'd have to drop $3500+, which is way out of most people's budgets.
So it looked like there was a massive gap in price vs. protection levels. You could up the budget to $2000 for a slightly higher end Browning or the like (still not at the premium level), but spending 33% more wouldn't pay off with 33% more protection, it was more like 5 or 10%. In order to get the big security gains you'd have to triple what you were willing to spend.
That assessment was only generally true - Sturdy and the AMSEC BF series make safes at intermediate prices that offer significantly higher levels of protection. Comparing the same sizes, (apples to apples), $2000-2500 will get a safe with good fire lining that offers far more protection than their counterparts made by other brands. Both appear to bridge the gap so you're not spending an extra grand for a bunch of fluff.
That said, I went with the Sturdy. It offered at least equal (arguably better) protection for about $500+ less. I'm sure the AMSEC is prettier (and looks do matter), but function is the most important thing. Sturdy slightly edged out AMSEC's BF my mind in terms of thwarting burglary. In terms of thwarting fire, I'm not entirely certain which has the edge. Suffice to say they're both great. And the Sturdy's a good bit cheaper to boot.
Sturdy has a reputation of being extremely functional, yet cost efficient by in part by cutting down on the fancy level. I found this to be true. It is not as polished as some safes that are half the cost. I went into this purchase knowing that. However, I was surprised to find that I had lowered my expectations way too much. It actually has a very beautiful exterior. The textured granite paint job is superb. I balked at the idea of having to apply decals to my safe to make it look nice (shouldn't a $2000 safe be above stickers???), but after carefully applying them, I stand corrected. It looks very, very sharp. There's a puddle of drool in front of it.
Now for the bad (I promised to be honest). The interior left something to be desired. The bottom is covered with a thin fabric material that is not secured to the bottom. If the butt of a gun or something else slides across it, it pulles the fabric along with it and then you have to push it back into place (not difficult, just annoying). I had to wrap some duct tape to make it double sided to stick it down into place. Also, when you bolt the safe down, the bolt heads stick up between the metal bottom and the fabric covering. this leaves minor bulges and creates waves in the fabric. But it's not noticeable unless you really look. All this can be easily solved for a couple dollars though. You can take a thin piece of plywood, cut it to fit perfectly inside the safe, cut holes out where the bolt heads are, and tack that fabric down to it.
The only other downside with the interior is that when they cut notches in the fabric base to fit the contour of the door frame, it was sloppily done. One of the cuts is far from 90 degrees, and neither is exact to cover the ground perfectly up to the door frame. Just an extra 30 seconds of care would have solved this.
So now that I'm done with the bad (which is actually pretty minor if you think about it, and one of the two issues is easy to fix), a couple more brief things about the good. The gap between the door and frame is tiny. As it is, getting a prying device in there would be impossible. I know I know, somebody somewhere could do it, but for even a far better than average contender it's not doable.
This 7 gauge steel has to be seen to be appreciated. It's amazing. I'd shoot at it with various calibers to see what will/won't penetrate, but then I'd hurt the beautiful finish.
I checked out a lot of safes in gun stores. Even those in the same price bracket as my Sturdy felt flimsy by comparison.
Sturdy's customer service was outstanding. The kind of thing that hasn't been around for several decades. They will take the time to promptly answer whatever technical questions you may have, and go out of their way to share their knowledge and expertise with you in practical matters such as how to move the safe, what to bolt it down with, how to bolt it down, issues you might run into and how to solve them, etc. Even after watching their "how to" videos online, I had a few curveballs to throw at them and they answered with ease. Even the owner of the company himself is very accessible and eager to help.
There are a whole slew of other things that make this safe so great. Check out their website, as I've alredy written a novel here and don't need to regurgitate what they already say at their website. Plus, I'm writing about my impressions, not all the ultra technical stuff.
Do be sure to get a bigger safe than you think you need. I stretched my price range about $300 to go up a size larger than I thought I needed, and that was a very good decision. Much thanks to all those internet posters before me who convinced me to do that!
Fire lining is optional, and the smallest safe (which is still a decent size) without the firelining can be had for less than $1500.
As far as bang for your buck, after months of research I am firmly conviced that the Sturdy can't be beat. Even with the few minor negatives, I am incredibly pleased and strongly recommend that anyone who is looking at a slightly cheaper safe hold off and save for a few months longer to get one that offers the level of protection in some $3500 safes for half the price.
