How To Choose The Best Diversion Safe?

A diversion safe provides an easy way to hide valuables in plain sight. The safe is disguised as an ordinary item like a can of beans or a book, but inside it has storage space where you can put money, jewellery and other small items.

Obviously, a proper home safe is more secure for highly valuable items. But if you need a place to stash a little money that’s not obvious, a diversion safe is a great choice.

In this buying guide, we recommend the top 5 diversions safes you can buy online in the UK. We also give you some tips on how to choose the best diversion safe.

Key Considerations When Buying a Diversion Safe

A. Type of diversion safe

Choose an item that will not look out of place in your home. Ideally, you should have more of the same items already.

For instance, if you get a diversion safe disguised as canned soup, make sure you have actual cans of the same soup in your kitchen. That way, it will be nearly impossible for anyone to pick out the fake can.

If you buy a safe disguised as a book, make sure you already have a shelf filled with books with some being roughly the same size as the diversion safe book.

For home use, most kinds of disguises will work. But if you are looking for a way to keep your valuables safe in hotel rooms, hostels and in public, a book will work better. No one will think twice about you carrying a book around.

B. How realistic is it?

For a diversion safe to work, it has to be virtually indistinguishable from similar items that are real. If your fake can of soup stands out from the other real cans, a burglar is going to notice.

The best diversion safes are those that are made from used items. A real can of Heinz tomato soup turned into a safe will be impossible to distinguish from cans containing actual Heinz tomato soup.

For items like books, check that the safe is designed to resemble a real book down to the smallest of details such as creases in the spine and the appearance of individual pages.

C. Weighted or not?

A can of tomato soup may look realistic enough from a distance until someone lifts it. That’s why we recommend getting a weighted diversion safe.

A weighted diversion safe is designed to have roughly the same weight as the actual item. Even if a burglar lifts it, they won’t suspect that it’s fake.

C. Does it have a lock?

A lock provides an extra level of security just in case someone discovers your secret stash.

It’s not practical to add a lock to all types of diversion safes. I’m not sure how a lock on a fake can of soup would work. For this reason, you’ll usually find locks on book diversion safes. It can be a combination lock or a lock and key type of lock.

D. Size

Finally, decide how big of a safe you want. A large safe gives you more storage space for your valuables.

If you want to hide notes of money, a passport or anything else that’s fairly big, get a large diversion safe. You’ll find that a book safe provides the most space.

For smaller items like coins and jewellery, a can of soup or a fake spray bottle will do.

Best Diversion Safes: Top 5 Reviews

1. Sterling 202HB SafeCan Heinz Baked Beanz Secret Stash Hidden Storage

A can of baked beans is the last place someone is going to think to look for valuables. That’s why thi Heinz can diversion safe is a brilliant idea.

The replica cans are licensed, so they look the same as an original can of Heinz Beanz. All you need is a few cans of the actual beans and you can hide this fake one among them.

To access the secret storage, you remove the base. Being a can, the storage space is limited. We recommend the Heinz Baked Beanz diversion safe for use with coin, folded up money notes and jewellery.

Note that the can is not weighted, so someone might wonder why an unopened can feels so light. We recommend adding a few heavy items to the can to give it more heft. Some customers added rice to the can.

What we like about it:

Realistic design.
Easy to open and close.
Perfect for stashing small valuables.

2. Haofy Book Hidden Diversion Book Safe With Lock

If you prefer a book diversion safe, Haofy offers several options including the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Love, Italy and Rose.

Each book looks very realistic compete with a hard cover and what looks like flippable pages. The hope is that no one bother to try and flip the pages.

But if someone gets too curious and opens it, there’s a lock to stop them from opening the metal safe box. The lock comes with two keys, so you can keep one with you and another hidden away safely (in a key safe, for example) or with someone you trust.

The book measures 5.5cm thick and 11.5cm wide and 18cm high, making it ideal for storing a lot of notes or coins. The large safe box can also fit small documents, jewellery and other items.

What we like about it:

Realistic book safe.
Large storage space.
Lockable safe box.

3. Lynx Stash Can Secret Diversion Safe

If you already have a can of Lynx spray in your bedroom, this Lynx diversion safe will blend in perfectly.

What makes it so realistic is that it’s an actual Lynx can, just without any deodorant in it. It even has the twist top that reveals a spray nozzle.

It also helps that the can is weighted, so anyone lifting it won’t wonder why you have an empty Lynx around. Just hope that they don’t try to spray it and wonder why a seemingly full can doesn’t work.

Access to the storage compartment is at the bottom. The storage space is fairly small, so we recommend it mostly for coins, a couple notes of money and small jewellery.

What we like about it:

Very realistic in appearance.
Weighted to give it a more realistic feel.
Available in different designs including Africa, Excite and Appollo.

4. Parrency Book Safe With Combination Lock

This is another good choice if you are looking for a book-style diversion safe. This one from Parrency is designed to resemble a dictionary and you can choose from three colours including black, red and blue.

The hard cover features a ‘The New English Dictionary’ title at the front and on the spine. It also looks like it has actual pages so hopefully no one will bother to try and open it.

To make it more realistic, we recommend stacking the fake dictionary along with other books on the table or shelf.

If someone does open it, there’s a combination lock to provide extra protection. The locks default code is 0000, and it’s easy to set your own secret code.

As several customers have pointed out, the lock is not very sturdy. A determined thief or burglar would likely have an easy time forcing the safe box open. But as a deterrent, it work great. The lock is also perfect if your main aim is to keep out kids, siblings or a roommate from your stash.

The Parrency book safe provides a decent amount of storage space, enough to stash money, jewellery and a few small documents.

What we like about it:

Large storage space.
Blends easily with real books.
Includes a combination lock for extra security.

5. Parrency Diversion Book Safe With Combination Lock

This is another great book safe from Parrency. This selection features travel books for Rome, Egypt, Italy, New York and Paris.

Each book is designed to resemble and old, well-read book, complete with fading along the edges and spine. Set it among other books on the shelf and no one will guess that it is fake.

The internal safe box comes with a combination lock to provide an extra layer of security should someone decide they want to read about Egypt. Note, however, that the lock is meant as a simple deterrent. It cannot stop a determined burglar.

The box is big enough to fit notes, coins, small documents, credit cards and jewellery.