Recommendations on door locks

[sneasle]

Hi all,

My wife and I close on our first house in the next few weeks (May 2nd) and I will be changing out the locks as soon as I can.

I've been doing some reading on good choices and have ended up more confused than when I started. It seems like the overall general consensus is that the locks you can actually find at Home Depot or Lowes are pretty much ****.

Can anyone recommend a Brand/Series of locks that I should look into? I'd like to try and get this figured out quickly so if I need to order them I can have them in before we close. As of now the front runner appears to be Medeco, but I can only seem to find deadbolts available, not full knob sets.

 

[Ruger_556]

Kwikset or whatever brand they have should be fine. Security of the lock is null when the robbers can just kick the door down...

 

[The Cobbler]

can never go wrong with Schlage for the dollar.

 

[kenfath]

Sometimes the original locks are better than replacement locks. We moved into a commercial building with about thirty doors. It had Schlage commercial mortised locks but some were inoperative, keys missing, no idea who had extra keys, etc. Original plan was to purchase all new locks. We had the local locksmith check the locks. For around $1500 he worked up a key plan, rekeyed and serviced the locks, provided three keys for most locks, lubed the hinges, serviced the three panic bar equipped doors. Only add on was replacing several closers.

My point is you may have good locks and just not know it. It may be worth looking into rekeying/reusing what you have.

 

[ddawg16]

Locks are for keeping honest people and lazy crooks out. Schlage is fine....get what looks good.

If you want to keep crooks out? Get a dog....a big dog...a dog with a really deep bark.

Besides...if the lock is too good....the totally **** up your door or a window to get in. If they want in....they will get in...unless you have a dog.

We got burg'd 2 years ago....no dog at the time...they busted out 2 windows.....all they really had to do was walk around the back of the house, pull a tarp up..and walk in...stupid **** wad....

 

[theoldwizard1]

...they don't know how lucky they were.owner had killed before ...

The bad guys in Metro Detroit have been loosing. A bunch on home invasions in recent month were meet with owners packing "deadly force". Most survived.

My recent favorite: Crooks entered a jewelry store with guns drawn. Owner saw them coming and hustled all employees in the "safe room" in the back leaving the full access to the store. When one of the bad guys started to approach the safe room, the owner announced he had a gun (actually 2). When the bad guy opened the door, they fired. One seriously wounded and nothing taken !

 

[ddawg16]

2 ghetto rats broke out 9 windows in our cars on the car lot.7 cars were unlocked.They broke in the store next door,finally get caught,do 90 in county.Out stealing again.

We hired off duty cops,and did guard duty our selves,no cigar,but,they don't know how lucky they were.owner had killed before and was not looking to duplicate that but wasn't going for 9 more windows,and the two mustang grills and lights that were stolen in the same week same car,same guys.

The God of thieves saved them from their last roundup

One big dude,sleeping in the dodge camper,naked,owner goes to show the camper naked dude walks out,owner gets the drop with a 45,don't move ****.naked dude says you cant shoot me for this and walked off the car lot getting dressed,mmm one on one naked dude be dead dude,but company was present,and the laws the law,daylight in Texas a no no,nighttime mmm other options available

I'm calling BS on the whole thing unless you can post a link to a news story.

 

[jmontoya]

check out this guys you tube channel
i wouldn't trust box store brands with you family's security.
see medeco and mul-t-lock locks

 

[72Anthony]

I would recommend knob sets without locks on your exterior doors. This will prevent you from accidently locking yourself out if you walk out of the house without your keys. The deadbolt provides all the security and requires the key to lock. These are referred to as passage knobs. The other advantage is they are cheaper.

LSDA makes a cost effective passage knob. They have a lifetime finish...I have a LSDA brass knob that is on a western exposure in Houston and still looks brand new after 6 years.

Any decent locksmith should have sufficient inventory on hand, so there shouldn't be any need to order or wait for delivery.

 

[sneasle]

Good point, I will check out the current locks and see if they are good enough quality to salvage and get rekeyed.

Current plan is to replace all exterior doors with ones more resistance to B&E (no glass that allows easy access, solid wood doors with reinforced strike plates, etc). So yes, while nothing will stop a determined theif, I would rather make them work for it and have proof than let them walk right in and then have to deal with cops and an insurance company that think I'm trying to scam someone.

We have a dog, Husky mix. Looks very mean in the right light and doesn't take kindly to strangers, but even though she looks like a Husky/Sheppard mix, she is small (47lbs). Current plan is to add puppy #2 to the family once we move, either a Sheppard, Malinois, wife wants another Husky or Malamute though.

I'll check out the Emtek locks, they seem to have some nice stuff. Local stores carry Schlage in Grade 1, but I've read those still aren't that great.

 

[sneasle]

I would recommend knob sets without locks on your exterior doors. This will prevent you from accidently locking yourself out if you walk out of the house without your keys. The deadbolt provides all the security and requires the key to lock. These are referred to as passage knobs. The other advantage is they are cheaper.

LSDA makes a cost effective passage knob. They have a lifetime finish...I have a LSDA brass knob that is on a western exposure in Houston and still looks brand new after 6 years.

Any decent locksmith should have sufficient inventory on hand, so there shouldn't be any need to order or wait for delivery.

I'll check them out, thanks.

True, but then the hardpart is finding a locksmith that isn't going to gouge me on the hardware....

 

[marinusdees]

Re gouging locksmiths. Sometimes you get what you pay for. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Any thing can be by passed, so don't waste too much time thinking about this. If somebody wants in, there are millions of ways to do it You just need to keep the neighborhood kids out.

 

[A_Pmech]

Residential door construction is pitiful. Nobody is going to waste their time with a $200 lock when they can kick the door in.

Unless you plan to bar all the windows on your house and install some light commercial or commercial doors, there isn't much point in fancy locks.

 

[Letsgobowhunting]

I have all electronic locks on my house. I hade a hard time spending the money but have not regretted it one but. Are doors are always locked out of convenience and it is impossible to get locked out. We were always too lazy to lock the house before because we had to have the key to lock it.

 

[sneasle]

Re gouging locksmiths. Sometimes you get what you pay for. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Any thing can be by passed, so don't waste too much time thinking about this. If somebody wants in, there are millions of ways to do it You just need to keep the neighborhood kids out.

This is true, but I've seen locksmiths try and charge double for a home depot lock and then charge extra to rekey it. That just doesn't fly.

I don't mind paying for quality work, I do mind paying for subquality work. It also doesn't speak to the integrity of someone if they try to charge more and only 'adjust' the price if you call them out on it.

Residential door construction is pitiful. Nobody is going to waste their time with a $200 lock when they can kick the door in.

Unless you plan to bar all the windows on your house and install some light commercial or commercial doors, there isn't much point in fancy locks.

I'm not going to disagree with you, but the point (to me) of buying a better lock is to make sure that if someone is going to get in, that they HAVE to break a door down, break a window, or do something else destructive. If they just picked the lock and walked right in, how am I supposed to prove that I was actually robbed?

I have all electronic locks on my house. I hade a hard time spending the money but have not regretted it one but. Are doors are always locked out of convenience and it is impossible to get locked out. We were always too lazy to lock the house before because we had to have the key to lock it.

Do you mind telling me what locks you use? Are they linked to a smarthouse system, or are they just 'local' electronic locks?

 

[Falcon67]

Commercial Grade 1 double deadbolt locks minimum, and an alarm system. Get knob locks of the same brand and have them all keyed the same. We never even lock the knobs - why, they are the weakest. The "easy re-key" junk at the home centers is just that - junk. Been there, bought twice. Brand name Kwik-set or Schlage, Medco if you can swing the bucks. And above it right - a good doo is great but if the door frame is typical construction, it'll open easy with either a switch kick or a pry bar.

 

[Nowater]

If some responders point is that doors can easily be kicked in, then buy a hurricane door like I have. If it meets your code open the door out.

Then buy a Schlage or better lock. Mine uses a pushbutton code, so we don't worry about keys so much.

 

[iibgdi]

Go to www.landlordlocks.com Even better, CALL them. They will tell you what the best product for you will be.

We just bought a 5 BR rental house and put dead bolts on all 5 BR's, the garage door and both exterior doors.

Each tenant has a key that works on the exterior door and only their room. There are cylinders in each lock that can be removed and changed out in less than 5 seconds. Obviously not necessarily made for a SF home but if I were redoing the locks on my personal house, I would go with them.

Slick as heck and they can mail you new keys, new cylinders or even new locks within a couple days.

NEVER have to change out a lock again or deal with a lock smith. You simply keep a spare cylinder or 2 and change it out when needed. You can mail the old cylinder back and they will re key it and send it back. It's all coded in their system for you.

1 lock for life. Just changing cylinders if needed.

You can even go a step further for a contractor to enter your home. They can supply you with a different colored "contractor access" cylinder and you can simply leave a key for them in a lock box or whereever, then you change back the cylinder to your normal cylinder.

It's awesome and I will never put another lock on a door again.

 

[jeffmoss26]

At a minimum, Schlage over Kwikset all the time!

If you are willing to spend the money for high security, then Medeco or MTL. Find a good local locksmith.

 

[ADCS]

If you have a sidelight beside your door then look at dead bolts with a lockable thumb such as this

https://securitysnobs.com/Abloy-Protec2-Single-Cylinder-w-Lockable-Thumbturn-Deadbolt.html

You should also look into door jamb and hinge reinforcement in order to reduce the chance of somebody kicking in the door. And get a dog..... or several like I do.

 

[1949 caddyman]

We put Schlage in to replace the 28 year old Kwikset. The new ones are of much better quality. Got them on line at Build.com.

 

[48RON54]

Go to www.landlordlocks.com Even better, CALL them. They will tell you what the best product for you will be.

We just bought a 5 BR rental house and put dead bolts on all 5 BR's, the garage door and both exterior doors.

Each tenant has a key that works on the exterior door and only their room. There are cylinders in each lock that can be removed and changed out in less than 5 seconds. Obviously not necessarily made for a SF home but if I were redoing the locks on my personal house, I would go with them.

Slick as heck and they can mail you new keys, new cylinders or even new locks within a couple days.

NEVER have to change out a lock again or deal with a lock smith. You simply keep a spare cylinder or 2 and change it out when needed. You can mail the old cylinder back and they will re key it and send it back. It's all coded in their system for you.

1 lock for life. Just changing cylinders if needed.

You can even go a step further for a contractor to enter your home. They can supply you with a different colored "contractor access" cylinder and you can simply leave a key for them in a lock box or whereever, then you change back the cylinder to your normal cylinder.

It's awesome and I will never put another lock on a door again.

I would really like to thank you for this info and the link. I was reading this thread because I have numerous doors with locks and many are missing keys or I end up using 2 different keys to open a single door. End thread hijack.

 

[sneasle]

The landlord.com locks interesting, but it appears they use a kwikset lock? Several have warned against using kwikset products in this thread.

The Schlage's appear to be the best solution currently, I can get them locally, and they are readily available via mailorder.

I've looked at the medco products and I still might go that route, if I can find some to match whatever handle sets we end up with.

That Abloy lock is interesting, I'll have to check it out.

Yes, we have a dog, and we plan on adding at least one more once we are fully moved it.

I greatly appreciate all the input guys, feel free to toss out any other thoughts you might have.

Oh, does anyone have any recommendations on good security films? I've heard about these but am a little confused on if these can be done DIY or if I have to call out someone to do them. We've got a sliding patio door that is basically a giant 'break me' sign on the side of the house.

 

[72Anthony]

Re: security film
We had the 3M product installed, I think it was the Ultra series, on the large glass panes of our front door & sidelight, rear French doors, and a standard size window. I think it was around $250 or 300 installed. Installation wasn't complicated, could easily do it yourself.

What sold me on their product was the multiple layers, like plywood. They had samples that you could tear the single layer products, but the multi layers would not tear.

One other option for people with side lights or glass in their doors, Medeco makes a double cylinder deadbolt with a removable thumb latch on the inside. If you have company, leave the thumb latch in and the deadbolt functions like normal. When everyone leaves, remove the thumb latch, and it acts as a double cylinder deadbolt, breaking the sidelight and reaching inside will not allow you to open the lock. Also, if someone were to steal the thumb latch, it has a special notch that only allows it to work on the inside.

 

[sneasle]

I think there is an Abloy lock with similar functionality.

Good to know the instillation of the 3M product isn't too bad, I'll have to look into it and see if I can find a distributor.

It looks like the house has all kwikset locksets, is it worth rekeying or should I just upgrade to Schlage sets?

 

[1949 caddyman]

I think there is an Abloy lock with similar functionality.

Good to know the instillation of the 3M product isn't too bad, I'll have to look into it and see if I can find a distributor.

It looks like the house has all kwikset locksets, is it worth rekeying or should I just upgrade to Schlage sets?

I am much happier with the Schlage locks that replaced the Quickset.

 

[brycez28]

I have all electronic locks on my house. I hade a hard time spending the money but have not regretted it one but. Are doors are always locked out of convenience and it is impossible to get locked out. We were always too lazy to lock the house before because we had to have the key to lock it.

I had this issue with my garage. The garage key was different from the house and it was a pain to look for the right key and find my keys when I needed to quick run out to the garage....or I had the truck running and would need to turn the truck off again to just quick run into the garage and grab something. So, I started leaving the service door unlocked.

Finally, broke down and bought a Schlage keypad lock. I love it! Don't need to futz around with keys, never locked out. I can have it auto lock or turn the auto lock off if I know I'll be going in and out a lot in a day. Also, I setup key temprary codes for emergencies so if someone I know needs something from the garage when I'm not home.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

We bought Kwikset for our last home, Schlage for this one. Can't tell the difference between them. I'd buy whichever was cheaper of the two.