SentrySafe 7250 Waterproof Floor Safe, 540 Cubic Inches, Gray

The hardest part is breaking the cement. I rented a saw from Home Depot for $119.00 for 4 hours that had a water hose attachment, I didn't turn the water on very hard because I didn't want to flood my house, the saw cut the cement pretty easy. I made 4 vertical cuts, no horizontal cuts...I couldn't get the saw in a position to cut horizontal. So after I made the cuts, I hit it with a hand sledge hammer (short handle like a regular sized hammer, big head) and cracked it and eventually got all the cement out. The instructions say to dig the hole 21" however, that was too deep by about 5 inches, I had to dump a bunch of dirt back in and add my own rocks at the bottom. Even though my hole was smaller than the recommended 16 x 16 it still took 3 1/2 80 lb bags of cement. I didn't get the quickset because I wasn't sure how much cement if would take and wanted time to mix one bag a time. Make sure you level the top of the safe with the sides of the uncut floor. All together it cost me $220 with a little labor time and my safe looks great. I don't mind the combination taking a while to get in-It works fine if you do it right, It took me 2 try's to get it to open. No problem. This is the best deal for the money!

What can I say. It's a SAFE. It's easy to use. Works as described. Guaranteed no one will pick this up and run off with it. If installed properly, this thing ain't going any where. I can't attest to whether if it's Water resistant or not, or if it's fireproof or bombproof. But it works. I feel confident that it will keep my valuables SAFE. For the price. It's worth it. Honestly, not that convenient to get things in and out of it. If you want convenience, you will have to sacrifice secrecy. Point of having the safe in the ground is so that no one knows where it is and it's hard to pick up and run off with it. If you want to keep couple hundred bucks safe in the house, you can get a wall safe or a heavy gun safe to keep your cash in it. if 2-3 guys break in your house, they will find it, pick it up, and load it up and it's ALL gone. Not worth it. Go with the inconvenient ground safe.

For the money this is a decent safe. You just need to prepare it properly before embedding it in concrete. Several reviewers complained that the tumbler mechanism corroded. There will always be moisture under the concrete slab so you must use the heavy plastic bag they supply with the safe to make sure that no moisture gets in from underneath the concrete.I actually went a bit further than that by first wrapping the sharp corners of the base with foam padding so they would not puncture the plastic bag. I also used silicone sealant to seal the bag around the collar of the tube to make sure that vapor didn't even get in. After installing it I sealed a humidity meter in the safe for a couple of weeks before actual use and it registered only a 2% increase in relative humidity but I think that was due to the temp inside being slightly cooler rather than an increase in actual humidity.Another thing I highly recommend is storing anything sensitive to moisture in a waterproof box. As others have pointed out, the plastic cover appears water tight but would melt in a NY minute in a fire. I use a few Plano model 3440 boxes. They are cheap, waterproof and stack up nicely inside. I store backup 2.5" hard drives and they fit inside the Plano 3440 perfectly.Final comments... Use a bit of red paint or nail polish to make the tick mark for the dial more visible. Also, this is really only a 2 number combination in practice since the 3rd number has an extremely loud and obvious click, and the dial will then actually rotate on its own to the 4th number if you let go of it.

The first one I installed in a slab was in a bedroom walk-in closet. It was an original Sentry "round" 7200 Keep-Safe that I paid $99 for on special.The toughest part was the install. For this, I used a Skil "hammer drill" then called an Xtra-Tool and a pneumatic hammer. It took two days and hours of work, but it was really worth it. Since I kept the safe secret, it was known to just a few persons. Luckily, my home was never burgularized. Be aware that there will be a cloud of fine dust from the pulverized concrete.On my second floor safe, I purchased a very heavy round door Amsec "Star" round safe. My mistake was that I had it installed by the builder while the house was under construction. Again, I installed it in the master bedroom closet. I was to realize that these were two bad mistakes.Too many individuals knew about the safe, and when the toilet in the bathroom leaked, the safe was flooded.My next safe was installed by myself, again. I purchased this Sentry 7250 round floor safe, but I was disappointed that it was now made in China and had a die cast aluminum door. That would be nice for an older senior citizen, who has trouble lifting a heavier door.The original Sentry had a 1/2 inch thick steel door, although the safe could have been easily attacked and cut open by s skilled burgular. I installed it myself, since I wanted secrecy. If they don't know that it exists, they won't look for in and won't find it.The ideal home owner's install tool would be an SDS hammer drill. I drilled holes through the slab with a 1/2 inch bit in a square a little over an inch larger on all sides of the safe. Then I drilled out one quadrant. I used an SDS chisel and a "bull" point. Getting out the first quadrant was the toughest part of the job. After taking out the first quardant, removing the second was easier and removing the last half was likewise easy.I dug out the hole about an inch deeper than the safe below the slab, laid it on a bed of fresh concrete and made sure that the top edge was at floor level. I used one 80 poound bag of concrete and almost completed the install. I had to buy another 60 pound bag. If I had it all to do again, I'd go with two 60 pound bags.Again, there was a cloud of dust that had to be cleaned.I keep everything in empty plastic peanut butter jars and all money in Zip Loc bags. Should the area be flooded, the safe should be opened and cleaned of eveything and any water.The lightweight door offers more protection than hiding your valuables, so secrecy is the key to keeping your valuables from being stolen. The lighweight door would be, however, easier to lift out for an elderly senior citizen.For fire resistance, I'd only do an in-floor install imbeded in concrete. I cannot overemphasize secrecy. That is immediately "blown" with a commercial install, a large marked van with a commercial dealer's mname on the side and with workers and heavy equipment to do the install.