KeySafe Switzerland

291/CHEN/PAR3

Installing your wall mounted key safe

The installation of a wall mounted key safe is considered a simple DIY job.
With no power requirements, all that is needed is a suitable flat surface on which to attach the key safe, a drill, a screwdriver and appropriate fixings. Please note that although basic fixings are supplied with many keysafes, the specific screws you may need for your specific installation may vary. For example most keysafes come with masonary screws which are fine for most installations but if you have exterior clading or insulation then you may need longer screws or more specialised fixings. There is nothing difficult about fixing the safe, you might just have to investigate a little what is best for your specific installation if you do not have a traditional stone, brick or wooden construction.

Where should I install my key safe ?

The best surface on which to affix a key safe is a solid brick or stone wall. If this is not available then a fence posts, a metal post, a letter box or even a tree can be used. Basically all you need a solid surface that you can fix the safe to.
Whatever the surface, it is important to remember that the first protection for a key safe is that most people will not realise it is there. A key safe should not, therefore, be installed next to the door in plain site. In practice a keysafe with a black neoprene cover (such as most of the Supra models) will become 'invisible' if attached to a wall next to a water pipe or electric box. Any down pipe or utility already sited on a property will help hide a key safe if it is installed nearby. The first defence against any potential theif is to ensure as much as is possible that the keysafe is not easily visible. Most theifs are opportunists and not giving them any opportunity in the first place is probably best. To be clear, however, even if your keysafe is visible then it is usually much easier to break a door or window than breaking the keysafe.

How is the key safe attached

Once open, you will see that each key safe has a number of holes in the back to allow it to be attached to a suitable flat surface. In general 4 screws should be used to ensure a secure fixing.
Most key safes come with screws or suitable fixings. These should be used if appropriate however as the supplied fixings will be generic fixing for a solid stone wall these may not be appropriate in all installations. For example where properties have wooden boards on the exterior then wood screws will be required and where external insulation has been fitted to the property then specialised screws for this particular type of installation will be needed.
In some installations it might even be preferable to use an apoxy resin to fix the keysafe to its desired location. These new glues are so strong that they can form a bond equal or stronger than traditional screws. Two part glues are generally the strongest available today but should be used with care and contact with skin should be avoided.

Key safes and bad weather

Most key safes are designed to be installed out doors, but if you have a wall which is not protected from the wind, rain and snow then we advise selecting a keysafe with a full cover such as those made by Burton or Supra, as these covers will stop any ice forming in the mechanism which can cause problems.
Imagine a keysafe installed on an exposed wall during winter. There is a heavy rainfall then overnight the temperature drops to several degrees below. Any water which remains on the safe will freeze. The next day it rains again, freezes again and the cycle continues. Now imagine the locking mechanism. If that water had entered into the safe, if it freezes and expands it could potentially damage the safe and would almost certainly stop the safe from working until the mechanism thawed. This is an issue that can occur with any mechanical equipment if ice is allowed to form within it, and although it will probably work as usual when the ice thaws ... thats is of little comfort if the key held within is desperately needed when the unit is frozen and you are unable to gain access to the key held within.
But there is a solution.
If you are installing a key safe in a location where low temperatures are common, or on an outside wall which is exposed to the weather, then make sure you choose a key safe with a full cover. There are many keysafes in this category including the budget Buton Key Guard, the mid range Supra S5 and the top of the range Supra 500 Pro.
So if a full cover is best for protecting your keysafe from the elements ... why would anyone want to buy a key safe with only a shutter protecting the combination wheels ?
Quite simply because these key safes can be installed in areas where weather is not an issue such as in a protected porch, in a garage and more and more frequently inside of a letter box. In addition some people prefer to use wheel combinations rather than the push button variety, even though in practice this does limit the number of possible combinations. As with most things in life, it is all a matter of choice-

How secure is my Key safe

As a metal box with a secure door locked with a user definable code, the key safe is a much more secure than the traditional alternatives such as leaving a key under a flower pot, under a door mat, hiddenin the letter box or under a stone in the garden. Leaving a key in this manner has been happening for generations (according to older members of my family it wasnt so long ago that no one locked their door at all !), but these days are now gone and we consider leaving a key to be a very dangerous thing to do. The change came about because of the behavious of burlars who would have a look in the likely places to see if there was a spare key in any of these common locations. Unfortunately in a surprising number of cases keys were found and burlars had free access to peoples homes to steal their belongings.
Even today statistics indicate that 30% of people leave a spare key hidden outside of their property, with over 11% of people admitting that they have lost house keys and not considered changing the locks. This later statistics is not surprising as the hastle and cost of changing locks is considerable.
Because of the numbers of people wanting to store a spare key outside of their peoperty there is obviously a need. Why is this ? Perhaps it is just convience ? It may also be because some of us have returned home without a key on one or more occassions and know how frustrating it can be to have to sit outside your own property waiting for a spare key to turn up. It maybe because giving access to holiday homes is such as pain to organise and worrying if the keys will be there when when needed can be very stressful.
Whatever the reason, if we accept that there is a real need for many people to store a spare key outside of their property for convenience or for emergencies, then we have to look at how we can achieve this.
We have already established that hiding a key outside is not generally a very good idea. Another popular solution is to give a neighbour a spare key but this can also present problems. What if you, or one of the children, come home in the early morning and need the key. Do they wake up the neighbours ? What if the neighbours are on holiday ? from my own point of view, no matter how friendly you are with your neighbours, if there is a solution which allows you to take responsibility for your own spare keys yourself, then this is a preferable solution as you will never need to inconvenience others when you need to access it.
So what is the solution ? You need a way of storing your key in way that allows you to feel safe and secure in your property and that allows you pop out to the shops or suchlike without having to worry about the house being locked when you are away leaving you with no key to renter your home. You need something simple to use, something that might be used once week, once a month, once a year or possibly even less frequently. The important thing is that when you need to use to access your key, the ability to do so it there.
Having a keysafe installed at your home can do just that.
Our Key safes are simple mechanical device with no power supply or batteries. This is important as the frequency of use may vary considerably between owners. Where there are children in the household the frequency of use may be very high, for a holiday home in the mountains where the key safe is used only for emergencies the frequency of use may be very low. Having a power supply which maybe interupted from time to time, or especially a battery that would need to be regularly replaced, could potentially give problems if the safe is required to be used either during a power outage of if the batteries were not changed when necessary. Happily, this sort of problem does not effect purely mechanical devices which will wait quite happily until required. The only caveat we would make here is that having a full cover for the safe will ensure that safes which are not regularly accessed will be better protected from the elements and we would always recommend having a full cover on any keysafe which is installed on a wall exposed to the elements.
The next problem you face is which safe to buy. With prices ranging from 47 francs to 140 francs for the top of the range Supra C500 Pro, the key safe is a relatively low cost item. When you consider that replacement keys can easily cost more than this amount, and the potential inconvenience of being locked out could be considerable, the cost will probably not be the deciding factor.
If you want the most secure, the heaviest and most solid keysafe then the Supra C500 Pro is the one to choose. It is widely regarded as the best keysafe available on the market today. It does not, however, suit all installations. If for example you want a keysafe rto fit inside a post box then the Supra C500 Pro will probably be too big and too heavy for this installation. Instead a wheel combination key safe of a lighter weight will probably be a more realistic choice. If you are unable to make any fixings into the wall of the letter box, then perhaps the keysafe magnetic is the best solution for your needs.
Whatever your requirements, we have a range of solutions for storing house keys and keys for business premises that will meet your requirements.

The Key safe for vehicles

A new inovation to the market is the key safe Auto. This key safe attaches to a vehicle window allowing keys to be safely stored on the vehicle itself. The keysafe auto is designed to be used both with private cars or with commercial vehicles.
For commercial vehicles such as lorries, coaches, industrial vehicles such as JCBs there are often many different people who may be driving them, and often this changes day by day. It is very easy therefore for the keys to be in the wrong place when they are needed and a commercial vehicle standing idle is not earning any money ! With a keysafe auto a spare set of keys can always be kept with the vehicle so that work can always continue. If the code is set by the central office, then the code only needs to be given to be people over the phone when they need it. For example a worker turning up to a building site suddenly finds that the truck he is to drive is locked and the usual driver, who is perhaps off work ill, has the keys. Usually this is a major problem until replacement keys can be found but with a key safe, all the new driver has to do is contact the office, explain the situation and ask for the emergency key code. The office can tell him over the phone and work can continue. It is a as simple as that.
For private users the convenience of having the ability to store a car key on the car can be just as important. For example if the family are going rafting one weekend, then taking the car keys on the river might present something of a problem as if the car keys become wet then they might well not work again afterwards and the cost of replacing them can be hundreds of francs ... bot to mention the problems not having working car keys might cause after you get out of the river!
But it is not just the protection against your car keys falling into the river that the keysafe can provide .... image that you are with a group of friends and you are off skiing, out for a run, perhaps on a hike, perhaps a bike ride or anything you like. Who takes the car keys ? If you all return to the car at different times, or in the case of skiing if one person gets seperated and wants to head back to the vehicle this can be difficult if the person with the keys is the last one back .... this happened to me a few seasons ago when skiing. One of the children (well they are teenagers now) got seperated so he just headed back to the car, open the keysafe to get the keys, got in to the car and turned the heating on. When we all got back he was perfectly happy drinking some hot chocolate we had taken with us and eating biscuits !! Without a key he would have been locked outside in freezing temperatures and it could well have caused a major problem.
Simnilarly on a camping holiday in a mobile home last year. The younger children all went to the kids club while we took of for a long bike ride. Not knowing the area we were frequently back too early or too late but it dod not matter because .... we used the key safe on the car to store the mobile home keys so whoever got back first, either us or the children returning from the kids club, could gain access to the mobile home quickly and easily. We had never envisaged using the Keysafe Auto in this way before but it actually worked very well.
So what are the options if you dont have a keysafe auto ? For making the car keys themselves available, a popular choice seems to involve hiding the keys on top of one of the wheels of the car. I have never done this myself but I have known many people over the years who do this ..... While most times people get away with this lets think about what problems this might cause ...

• if someone found the keys then they would have access to your car. This might well result in the contents of the car being stolen
• if someone found the keys then they would have access to your car. this might well result in the car itself being stolen or used for joy riding
• if you are skiing or enjoying some other winter activity then the keys could fall under the car into the snow and may be difficult to retrieve
• if you have a friend who is a practical joker then your keys might get moved
>ul> ... so is it worth it ? With the keysafe auto costing under 70 chf including postage it might not revolutionise your life but it will make it that little bit easier. The keysafe auto is so simple that anyone can use it. Just lower the window, Hook the keysafe auto onto the lowered window, raise and close the window, lock the car and put the keys in the safe. It really is that simple.

About the key safe auto

The keysafe auto was originally designed as wall mounted keysafe. It has a solid metal body, with a hinged door which can be opened by entering the correct code using the 4 digit combination wheel. The combination wheels have a sliding weather cover to protect them from the elements. The keysafe auto come with an inovative fixing kit that attaches easily to the safe allowing it to be installed to a car window. There is also a foam pad to attach to the rear of the safe to ensure that the metal does not hot against the car window and so protects it from scratches.
The keysafe auto can also be used as a wall mounted keysafe and has all of the necessary fixing holes to achieve this. As a wall mounted keysafe it is capable of holding up to 5 house keys. This size is useful when used as the auto version as car keys tend to be a lot larger than standard house keys.
As with wall mounted keysafes the keysafe auto has a user changeable code. This is very easy to set. All you need to do is open the safe using the existing code, move a lever on the inside to indicate that the code is being changed, choose a new 4 digit code, return the lever to its original position, shut the keysafe door and scramble the wheels. As with all keysafe the code can only be changed once the safe is opened so only authorised people will have access to the code change mechanism.