Winter, that’s an interesting safe and from a European maker little seen or known here in the UK. I’m not overly convinced it is to grade VIII though, it appears from their site they missed a grade out completely from their range, and I’m wondering if the extra ‘I’ was added on this model by mistake?
To be honest I am unaware of any other free standing safe yet to meet grade VIII, as the Eurovault Atlas launched by Burtons a couple of years back was I thought still the first and only safe to grade VII. Perhaps this is another to add to the VII grade?
I’m quite possibly wrong, but I’ll be surprised if it is actually a genuine grade VIII safe, all seems a bit odd and I would also expect noticeable increases in wall thicknesses on a free standing safe jumping yet another grade up to VIII, but that’s just my opinion of course.
The EN1143-1 European grades do of course go up to XIII, but because most of the safe manufacturers only build free standing safes generally upto grades VI or VII, it’s normally only strong rooms and doors found above these grades.
Interestingly, I mentioned before that only German maker Stacke produce a vault door to the highest grade 13. Surprising that the Gunnebo group hadn’t jumped in on that one…
As far as I know though, there is no restriction or definition limiting free standing safes from the higher grades, it’s down to whether a safe could be produced to meet them, and the probable hornets nest it could stir with the many governing European bodies and councils that make the assessments and decisions behind the assessments, testing and procedures.
If a manufacturer did actually design, build, and put to test a safe to grade 13, it would certainly make things a bit more lively for them, that’s for sure.
It would probably need to be a cube sized about 3 metres each way, weighing about 100 tons and with an internal volume big enough to house and protect a Mars bar. That’s actually the sort of safe I dream of though…
