Barska Fireproof Jewelry Safe - 1.91 cu ft Interior, Keypad, AX13616

Jewelry rarely lives in one place. A few good pieces in a box on the dresser, the inherited things still in the bank envelope they came home in, a watch in the drawer of the hall table because that is where it gets taken off at night. None of it is hidden. It is only distributed, which feels like the same thing right up until the day it isn’t.

This is a cabinet built to end that. It stands a little over nineteen inches in each direction, weighs a hundred and ninety pounds, and is fitted inside like a piece of furniture rather than a strongbox — a wooden jewelry box with suede-lined drawers, a glass shelf above it, a light that comes on when the door opens. What it offers is not only security. It is one place, with a lid, that you will actually use.

The AX 13616 is the smaller cousin of this series. If you're looking for something a little larger, we also offer the AX13614.

What's special about this safe

Barska have done something here that almost nobody does in this category. They have styled it.

The body is satin white with a fine hammered texture. In each corner of the door panel sits gold-colored brackets at right angles with loose calligraphic flourishes sitting inside at each corner, decorative touches that belong perhaps in a bedroom rather than a strongroom. A safe that looks like a grey appliance ends up hidden in a closet, this one is built to stand where you can see it.

What it holds

Room for the jewelry that currently lives in three different drawers, the papers that should never have been in a shoebox, and the single earring whose partner will turn up eventually.

Specifications

Interior

16.5"H × 18.5"W × 13.25"D

Interior volume, calculated: 1.91 cu ft

One removable glass shelf

Wooden jewelry box, three suede-lined drawers

Inner locking box: none

Fabric-lined interior with motion-sensor LED light

Key hooks fitted

Exterior & siting

19.5"H × 21.5"W × 19.5"D

190 lbs

Pre-drilled anchor holes; mounting hardware included

Satin white finish

Security

Keypad entry, 3 to 8 digit PIN

One PIN code

Override: two backup keys

Four steel deadbolts

Recessed, pry-resistant door

Body steel: 0.12"

Fire lining: 1.42" gypsum board

Door assembly thickness: Not stated by the manufacturer.

Fire, water & media

Fire rating: 30 minutes at 1,200°F, as stated by the manufacturer. Certifying body: not stated by the manufacturer.

Media / data rating: Not a media safe.

Water rating: None claimed.

The rest

Lock: one 9V battery, not included

Light: four AAA batteries, not included

Warranty: 1 year limited

Manufacturer part number: AX13616

UPC: 790272006304

What the weight buys you

A hundred and ninety pounds is a great deal for a cabinet this size, and the steel is not where it went. The body measures 0.12 inches — enough to resist a pry bar at the door, and not the reason this thing needs two people to move. The weight is in the lining: 1.42 inches of gypsum board, wrapped around the whole interior.

Gypsum holds water inside its crystal structure. When heat arrives, that water leaves as steam and takes the energy with it, and the inside of the cabinet stays near the boiling point of water rather than the temperature of the room it is standing in — for as long as there is moisture left to spend. That is the whole mechanism. Thirty minutes at 1,200°F is the measure of how long this particular wall thickness can spend it.

It is a furnace measurement, taken on a cabinet of this pattern, brought to temperature and opened again with its contents intact. It describes an oven, not a house, and the two differ in every way that matters — where the fire starts, how soon it is found, what the floor above is doing. Two practical things follow. Heat gathers at the ceiling, so a cabinet standing on a closet floor spends a fire in the coolest air the room has. And a safe that has been through a fire has spent what it held; if that ever happens, ask us before you trust it a second time.

It also explains the interior. Wrap 1.42 inches of gypsum and a thick door around a box, and a good deal of the outside dimension stops being storage. That is what you are paying for, and it is why this cabinet weighs what it does.

The inside, organized

Most safes in this range are a steel cube with a shelf in it, and the buyer is left to solve the organizing themselves, usually with a jewelry box bought separately that turns out to be half an inch too wide. This one comes fitted.

A wooden jewelry box with three suede-lined drawers sits at the base — the drawers are the part that matters, because rings and chains want separating rather than stacking. A removable glass shelf sits above it, which gives you a clear upper level for the things that are not jewelry at all: documents, a camera body, the envelope from the bank. Key hooks are fitted inside the door. A motion-sensor LED comes on when the door opens, running on its own four AAA batteries, and it earns its place — a cabinet this deep is otherwise a dark hole at exactly the height where you are looking down into it.

One honest caveat, the 1.91 cubic feet is slightly less than it would be as an empty void (2.34 cu ft) because of the presence of the jewelry box. That is the trade you are making: a cabinet that arrives organized, rather than one that arrives empty and larger.

What this is not

It is not fireproof, whatever the trade calls it — this page included. The word is a category convention. What exists is a rating: thirty minutes, 1,200°F, measured in a furnace. Past the half hour there is no claim, and we make none either.

It is not a media safe. The rating protects paper. Drives, tapes, negatives and slides need an interior held below 125°F, which is a different and more expensive cabinet. Tell us what you are keeping and we will point you at the right one.

It is not water rated. No claim is made, and there is no seal here to make one with. Worth knowing, because a house fire is generally followed by a great deal of water.

It is not a burglary-rated safe. No UL listing is claimed for the body or the door, and none is implied here. Four steel deadbolts and a recessed, pry-resistant door are a sound arrangement, and at 190 pounds it is well past a casual lift — but it is a lined jewelry cabinet, not a strongroom. Anchor it. The pre-drilled holes and the hardware are in the box for exactly that reason.

It is not a listed firearm safety device. Barska’s own specification says so plainly.

It takes one PIN code, not several. Worth knowing in a household where two people will both want in: the code is shared, or one person opens it. The two backup keys are the alternative.

On the maker

Barska began in 1994 in sports optics — binoculars, riflescopes, spotting scopes — and came to safes afterwards, bringing a manufacturer’s habits with it rather than a marketer’s. It shows in small places. The specification sheet gives the fire lining as a thickness in millimetres, which is a number most of this trade does not publish at all, and it states plainly that the cabinet is not a listed firearm safety device, in a place on the page where a less careful company would simply have said nothing.

We carry this one because it does an unglamorous job properly: half an hour of fire protection for paper and small valuables, an interior that arrives fitted rather than empty, a keypad, two keys, and a weight an ordinary floor can take without a conversation.

Questions

Will it fit through my door?

Yes. The widest dimension is 21.5 inches, against a standard 36-inch front door and 30 to 32 inches on interior doors. The constraint on this one is weight, not width.

Can I put it upstairs?

At 190 pounds, yes. Residential floors are built for spread loads rather than point loads, and this is a modest one; set it near a bearing wall rather than in the middle of a long span if the room allows. Two people and a stair-climbing dolly will get it there.

Do I need a dehumidifier?

Possibly, and it is worth understanding why. The same lining that holds moisture to spend against a fire keeps the inside of a closed cabinet damper than the room around it. Add a door that seals reasonably well and a box that is opened for a few seconds a week, and you have still, humid air sitting against metal. What that does depends entirely on the piece — alloy, plating and finish all decide it, and we would not predict an outcome for any particular item. What can be said plainly is that still, damp air is the condition metals like least. 

What happens if the battery dies?

The lock runs on a single 9V battery, and two backup keys come in the box for exactly this. Keep them somewhere that is not inside the safe.

Is the light on all the time?

No — it is motion-sensed and comes on when the door opens, on its own set of four AAA batteries, separate from the lock.

Getting it into the house

This ships as a freight delivery, on a pallet, and the carrier’s service ends at the curb. That is what LTL means by delivery — the pallet comes down on a liftgate at the end of your driveway, or at the nearest accessible point at a business address, and everything after that is yours to arrange.

At 190 pounds it is a two-person job with a proper stair-climbing dolly, not a rigging job. The cabinet is 21.5 inches across at its widest, which clears a standard 36-inch front door and the 30 to 32 inches of an ordinary interior doorway without a conversation. An upstairs placement is fine at this weight; set it near a bearing wall rather than mid-span if you have the choice.

Allow 7 to 14 business days. The carrier will call to arrange a window. Two things to do on the day, both of which matter more than they sound: look the pallet over before you sign the delivery receipt, and note anything wrong on the receipt itself before signing, with photographs. Damage reported after a clean signature is a much harder conversation, and there is a five-day window from delivery to raise it.

If you need it taken further than the curb, tell us your address before you order and we will find out what can be arranged and what it comes to.