Barska Fireproof Safe Vault - 3.11 or 3.90 cu ft Interior, Keypad, AX13102 / AX12674

AX13102 - External Dimensions - 25"H × 20"W × 19"D - 135.5lbs

AX12674 - External Dimensions - 30"H × 20"W × 20"D - 169lbs

Paper is the first thing a fire takes and the last thing anyone thinks to move. The deeds, the will, the passports, the folder of certificates that proves a life happened in the order it did — most of it sits in a drawer or a box file on a shelf, unhidden and unprotected, because there has never been an obvious place to put it that was any better.

These are two tall, plain cabinets built for exactly that, offered in two heights. They share everything that matters: a gypsum board lining against half an hour at 1,400°F, a carpeted interior with two shelves you can move or lift out, a keypad that holds two codes, and three steel deadbolts. Both are twenty inches across. The AX13102 stands twenty-five inches high and weighs 135.5 pounds; the AX12674 stands thirty and weighs 169. Nothing about either is decorative. They take files standing upright rather than stacked flat, and they are insulated rather than merely strong, which is a different and more useful thing.

What it holds

AX13102: Room for a row of box files standing upright, a jewelry tray on the shelf above, and the envelope of spare keys that has never had a proper home.

AX12674: Room for the deeds and the family papers standing upright, a photo album laid flat on the shelf below, and the watch that stopped years ago and was never sent away to be mended.

A note on the number

Barska market the AX13102 as 3.51 cubic feet and the AX12674 as 4.39. Their own specifications give the interiors as 23 by 18 by 13 inches and 27.5 by 17.5 by 14 inches, and those multiply out to 3.11 and 3.90. We've put 3.11 and 3.90 because interior volume is calculated the same way on every page in this store — it is the only way two safes here can be compared on the same terms when their makers count differently.

Specifications

Interior

AX13102: 23"H × 18"W × 13"D · Interior volume, calculated: 3.11 cu ft

AX12674: 27.5"H × 17.5"W × 14"D · Interior volume, calculated: 3.90 cu ft

Two shelves, adjustable and removable

Fully carpeted interior

Inner locking box: none

Exterior & siting

AX13102: 25"H × 20"W × 19"D · 135.5 lbs

AX12674: 30"H × 20"W × 20"D · 169 lbs

Mounting hardware included

Gloss black finish

Security

Keypad entry, two PIN codes

Override: backup keys, reached by lifting off the keypad

Three solid steel deadbolts

Recessed, pry-resistant door

Door assembly thickness:

AX13102: Not stated by the manufacturer. Barska give the steel as 0.08", lined with gypsum board; the thickness of the lining, and of the body and door overall, is not stated.

AX12674: Body 1.18" · Door assembly 1.02" — steel and gypsum board together, as the manufacturer states it; the steel alone is not stated separately.

Lockout mode after repeated wrong entries · Low-battery warning

Fire, water & media

Fire rating: 30 minutes at 1,400°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

One 9V battery, not included

Warranty: 1 year limited

AX13102: Manufacturer part number AX13102 — FireVault FV400 · UPC 790272003815

AX12674: Manufacturer part number AX12674 — FireVault FV500 · UPC 790272002122

What the weight buys you

A hundred and thirty-five pounds at one height and a hundred and sixty-nine at the other is more than steel boxes of these sizes would weigh, and the steel is not where it went. The weight is in the lining. On the AX12674, Barska give the body as 1.18 inches and the door as 1.02, steel and gypsum board counted together, and the gypsum is most of both. On the AX13102 they state it from the other side: the steel, at about 0.08 inches, with the gypsum board behind it and no figure for the lining itself.

Gypsum holds water inside its crystal structure. Bring heat to it and that water leaves as steam, taking the energy with it, and while there is moisture left to spend the inside of the cabinet stays nearer the boiling point of water than the temperature of the room it is standing in. That is the whole mechanism, and it is why fire protection is a matter of weight rather than hardness. Thirty minutes at 1,400°F is the measure of how long these walls can spend it.

Where the fire starts, how soon it is found and what the floor above is doing all change the arithmetic, and none of them are in the number. One practical thing follows. Heat gathers at the ceiling, so a cabinet standing on a closet floor spends a fire in the coolest air the room has.

The inside, thought through

The useful thing here is the height. With both shelves out, the interior is a single clear bay — twenty-three inches tall in the AX13102, twenty-seven and a half in the AX12674 — tall enough to stand legal folders and box files upright the way they stand in a filing cabinet, which is how papers are actually kept. Most safes at these sizes are wider than they are tall and force everything onto its side in a pile.

The two shelves adjust and lift out entirely, so either cabinet can be one tall bay, a deep bottom bay with a shallow shelf above for small things, or three even levels. Thirteen inches of depth in one and fourteen in the other take a box file comfortably and a photo album flat. The carpet lining is not a luxury detail: it stops a watch case or a camera body sliding about when the door swings, and it keeps steel from marking what is set down on it.

The lock takes two PIN codes, which matters in a household where two people will both want in without sharing one. The keypad lifts off to expose a key lock underneath, and two backup keys come in the box for the night the battery is flat — a 9V, not included, with a low-battery warning that gives you notice before it gets to that.

Getting it into the house

The AX12674 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 past that point is yours to arrange. Inside delivery, unboxing and removal of packaging are not part of it.

The AX13102 weighs 135.5 pounds before it is boxed, which puts it close to the line where parcel shipping gives way to freight. Which way it travels depends on its packed weight, and we will tell you when you order.

Either way it is a two-person job with a proper stair-climbing dolly rather than a rigging job. Both cabinets are twenty inches across at their widest, so they clear a standard 36-inch front door and the 30 to 32 inches of an ordinary interior doorway. An upstairs placement is fine at these weights; set it near a bearing wall rather than mid-span if the room gives you the choice.

Allow 7 to 14 business days. If it comes by freight, expect a call from the carrier to arrange a window, and do two things on the day, both of which matter more than they sound: look the pallet over before you sign the delivery receipt, and write anything wrong onto the receipt itself before signing, with photographs. Damage raised after a clean signature is a much harder conversation.

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.

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, 1,400°F, measured in a furnace. Past the half hour no claim is made, 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 stricter and more expensive cabinet. Tell us what you are keeping and we will point you at the right kind.

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 of either size, and none is implied here. Three solid deadbolts and a recessed, pry-resistant door are a sound arrangement against the attack a safe of this size actually gets, and neither weight is a casual lift — but these are insulated cabinets, not strongrooms. Anchor it. The mounting hardware is in the box for that reason.

It is not a listed firearm safety device. Barska's own specification says so plainly for both, and neither is a long-gun safe: the taller of the two interiors is 27.5 inches, which is less than half the height a rifle needs.

On the maker

Barska began in 1994 in sports optics — binoculars, riflescopes, spotting scopes — and came to safes afterwards, arriving with a manufacturer's habits rather than a marketer's. It shows in small places. The specification sheets give measured thickness figures — body and door on one of these models, the steel itself on the other — which a good deal of this trade does not publish at all, and they state plainly that neither cabinet is a listed firearm safety device, in a place on the page where a less careful company would simply have said nothing.

The FireVault line is where Barska put the gypsum. We carry these two because they do an unglamorous job properly: half an hour of fire protection at a high test temperature, a genuinely tall interior in a footprint an ordinary closet can take, two codes, two keys, and a weight that needs two people rather than a crew.

Questions

Will it fit through my door?

Yes, at either size. Both are twenty inches wide — the AX13102 twenty-five inches tall, the AX12674 thirty — against a standard 36-inch front door and 30 to 32 inches on interior doors. The constraint on these is weight, not width.

Can I put it upstairs?

At 135.5 or 169 pounds, yes. Residential floors are built for spread loads rather than point loads, and either of these is a modest one. Set it near a bearing wall rather than in the middle of a long span if the room allows, and reckon on two people and a stair-climbing dolly to get it there.

Can my partner and I each have our own code?

Yes — the lock stores two PIN codes. The two backup keys are the third way in, and they should live somewhere that is not inside the safe.

What happens if the battery dies?

The keypad runs on a single 9V battery, not included, and warns you when it is low. If it goes flat anyway, the keypad lifts off and the key lock is underneath.

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. A rechargeable dehumidifier rod or a canister of silica gel sized for a cabinet of three to four cubic feet is the usual remedy.