The best key safes

If you’re nervous about following convention and leaving the spare key under the doormat – flowerpot, distinctive rock, delete as appropriate – smart home technology is what you need. Allocating a secure home for your spare door key in the form of one of the best key safes can save you having to race home to bail out the children, house guests or meter man – again, delete as appropriate – as well as reducing the risk of would-be thieves getting access to your keys. 

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Our picks are a combination of push buttons and rotation wheels, with some giving you the ability to set your own memorable number and some set fresh from the box, so you might want to go for the former if you’re a forgetful sort. While each key box on our list is verified secure by happy reviewers, our top pick all round is the Supra C500, one of the best selling lockable key boxes on the market, and the first one to be approved by the police as part of the Secured by Design initiative. 

However, if you’re after a larger capacity, a low-light friendly design for a recipient with visual impairment, and more besides, you can find it all below in our list of the best.

The Supra C500 is the market-leading key safe, and it’s easy to see why. Its box is made from an attack-resistant zinc alloy that’s guaranteed to frustrate any would-be burglars with its anti-forced entry construction. Not only that, it’s one of the few key safes approved by the Police through the Secured by Design initiative, so it’s certified secure, a great bonus for buyers concerned about leaving their keys outside. Expert reviewers also found the mechanical buttons easy to operate and the code easy to set, and found that it would be suitable for pretty much any user.

The Supra C500 is widely commended for two reasons: one, its mechanical keypad is easy to use, and two, it’s police accredited. This Burton Keyguard matches the latter, rarer commendation with its Secured by Design certification, making it another reassuring option for nervous homeowners, but while it might not be quite as simple as the C500 for those with mobility issues – there’s also a turn lock for two-step security – reviewers loved its high-vis keypad and dials, so it’s arguably better suited to anyone who gets home late and has to figure out the lock in low light, or anyone with poor vision. 

With its ability to hold up to 10 Yale-type keys, this Sentinel key safe has the highest capacity of any option on our list, making it great for large households with lots of doors or cars between them. That large capacity sits inside a safe that’s made weather-resistant with special paint, and users loved that the unit had a reassuringly robust feel to it, as well as being easy to mount. The only quibble some had was that the code is required to re-lock the device.

Reviewers commended this combination key safe for its robustness, finding that it felt strong and considerable, and loving the window that drops down over the combination wheels to keep them completely apart from the elements. Thanks to its durable, weatherproof design as well as its large interior, Rhino Lock say this Secure Key safe is ideal for housing more delicate emergency items like cash and credit cards as well as house and car keys, and the use of combination wheels may be preferred by some to a keypad. 

If you have an inkling that wannabe intruders are scoping out your house, you might be left edgy by the prospect of a short keypad code that can easily be guessed from over your shoulder. A combination lock box is a lot harder to get an eye on from afar, and as this one lets you set your own combination, you won’t be left red-faced and calling the locksmith because you forgot the default. Reviewers found it was easy to install, and had a good interior space for an abundance of keys, too.

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