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What is a grade 1 gun safe?

Updated: October 2026

A certificate condition, an insurer’s email, or a product title used the words grade 1 gun safe. In the sense UK safe shops use, it is a strongbox tested to EN 1143-1 Grade I. It is a burglary grade, not a fingerprint feature and not a tall cupboard. On the [Grade 1 gun safe comparison](/hub/safes-and-secure-storage/grade-1-gun-safe) the eight amazon.co.uk listings run from £48.90 to £799.96, and none prints EN 1143-1 or BS 7558. The Products Compared editorial team read the UK listings and the public sources on 16 October 2026. We did not attack-test a safe. A qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.

A certificate condition, an insurer’s email, or a product title used the words grade 1 gun safe. In the sense UK safe shops use, it is a strongbox tested to EN 1143-1 Grade I.

Our top picks

BILLCONCH BILLCONCH BG-J11

Best overall

BILLCONCH BILLCONCH BG-J11
6.7/10about £134.43
View offer
movgul movgul movgul-443B

Best value

movgul movgul movgul-443B
5.4/10about £96.16
View offer
KAER KAER W396

Rank 3

KAER KAER W396
5.7/10about £799.96
View offer
On this page
  1. 1.Grade I is a tested burglary grade
  2. 2.The £10,000 figure is indicative
  3. 3.Most certificate holders are pointed at a cabinet
  4. 4.What this comparison actually contains

Grade I is a tested burglary grade

EN 1143-1 is the European burglary-resistance standard for safes and strongrooms. BSI’s entry for BS EN 1143-1:2019 describes tests for partial access, complete access, and anchoring. Grade I sits at the bottom of that scale. The 2019 table preview used by the trade gives Grade I 30 resistance units against partial access and 50 resistance units against complete access. Those two numbers are a pair. Quoting only one of them, or swapping in an older 50 and 80 pair that still circulates on some continental pages, misstates the 2019 grade. A title that says “grade 1” without a certificate is not the grade. The usual way a tested safe is identified in the shop is a plate on the door, which London Safes describes on its insurance page. You still check the model, the lock, and the fixing against the certificate, because a plate on a different carcass does not travel with a lookalike box.

The £10,000 figure is indicative

London Safes, and the De Raat figures repeated in specialist guides, use about £10,000 of cash and about £100,000 of valuables as a shorthand for what an insurer might associate with Eurograde 1. That shorthand is not your policy limit. The insurer, the installation, and the exact model still decide. If your schedule says “grade 1” or “Eurograde 1”, ask which standard, which sum, and whether the safe must be anchored, before you treat £10,000 as a promise. Fire protection is a different test. A burglary grade does not include a fire rating unless the maker has paid for that test and printed it. One US review on the TOPMEDA GS202 mentions a house fire. The listing has no fire standard, so that sentence is an anecdote. A £134 pistol box does not meet a written Eurograde 1 requirement.
BILLCONCH BILLCONCH BG-J11

Testsieger

BILLCONCH BILLCONCH BG-J11
6.7/10about £134.43
View offer

Most certificate holders are pointed at a cabinet

The Home Office Firearms security handbook 2020 is guidance to forces, not a product review, and it is still the public text forces point applicants towards. For an ordinary dwelling it points new cabinets at BS 7558:1992. Paragraph 2.28 is the step up: it names EN 1143-1 Grades 1, 2 or 3 for the higher-risk dwelling that paragraph discusses, and it warns about weight in a mobile home. Grade I is that step up, not the default sentence for every shotgun certificate. There is no public UK police-approval register, so “police approved” on a listing is a marketing phrase. Your firearms enquiry officer applies the condition to your house. If you hold a shotgun or a rifle, whether the gun fits is the job of the gun safe for shotguns page.

What this comparison actually contains

The eight kept listings are lock boxes plus one tall cabinet, from £48.90 to £799.96. Seven are pistol-shaped. Outside heights on the short side run from the ZLJUAN LT-307 at 5.6 cm to the movgul flat box at 8.89 cm. None of the files mentions EN 1143-1 or BS 7558. A fingerprint, a PIN, an app, and a key are not resistance units. Model ranking stays on the best grade 1 gun safe page. The fork between a cabinet and a tested safe is grade 1 gun safe vs gun cabinet. If an insurer has written Eurograde 1, buy a certified model whose plate you can read.

Common questions

Is £10,000 my insurance limit?
No. About £10,000 cash and about £100,000 valuables is only the trade shorthand. Your policy can name a different sum, a different grade, or extra conditions on locks and bolting. Keep the insurer’s answer with the certificate.
Will the police accept any safe that says grade 1?
Acceptance is the local firearms enquiry officer’s judgement against your certificate and your building, not a national list of Amazon titles. A box that never states the grade cannot be accepted as that grade. Two forces can describe the visit differently.
Is a heavier box automatically grade 1?
No. Grade I is a passed test, not a kilogram threshold. The KAER is the heaviest row here at 31 kg and 137.9 cm, and the listing still does not name the standard. Certified Grade I gun safes sold by specialists are often around 190 kg and upwards for a multi-gun model. Mass does not print a grade the maker never stated.
Where does BS 7558 sit beside this grade?
BS 7558:1992 is the cabinet specification the 2020 handbook still names for new gun cabinets. It is not EN 1143-1 Grade I. BSI records the cabinet standard as withdrawn on 7 November 2025, while the handbook text has not been replaced in public. Sold Secure Bronze is discussed by Secured by Design as meeting BS 7558. That is a cabinet label, not a Eurograde. If your force still says BS 7558, ask them what they will accept now.
Does the grade include fire protection?
Fire protection is a separate test. EN 1143-1 Grade I is a burglary grade. London Safes says so in its Eurograde 1 explainer and tells you to check the exact model. None of these eight listings prints both a burglary grade and a fire period.

Related pages

Gun cabinet comparison

Grade 1 gun safe

Best grade 1 gun safe: top pick is an uncertified box

Gun safe for shotguns UK: which of these eight fit

How to install a gun safe before you drill the wall

Grade 1 gun safe vs a gun cabinet: the handbook fork

Sources

Public UK sources on firearms storage, BS 7558 and EN 1143-1. Listing prices and star counts are from the amazon.co.uk extracts kept for this comparison. Prices move. Last checked 16 October 2026.

  1. Home Office Firearms security handbook 2020 (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  2. Firearms Rules 1998 (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  3. Firearms Act 1968, section 5 (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  4. Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997 (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  5. Firearms (Air Weapons) (England and Wales) Rules 2023 (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  6. PSNI Firearms and Explosives Branch (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  7. De Raat UK insurance rating table (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  8. EN 1143-1:2019 table preview (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  9. SafeFort Phoenix Rigel GS8021E (retrieved 16 October 2026)