What are some "good" exterior door locks?

[lebowski]

I apologize if this has been asked before, I used the search feature looking for things like "locks" and most of what came up pertained to gun safes or gun locks. I see quite a few threads about how to fortify a house and one of the common recommendations is to have "good doors and locks" (duh), but there is rarely much mention of brand.

I bought a house recently and I want to have the locks re-keyed or replaced as I have no idea how many keys are floating around and who the previous owners gave them to.

I plan to replace the locks on my front door (deadbolt), a double cylinder deadbolt lock on the door that leads from my garage to the exterior of the house, a lock (probably deadbolt?) that leads from my garage to the interior of my house. Additionally, I would like to add some kind of keypad or biometric device to a side door, so that my cleaning service, my friend who sometimes watches my dog etc. can have access that I can turn on or off without giving them a key. They keypad would also be nice if I were to lock myself out without having to keep a key hidden in the back yard.

Any recommendations on brands of locks? I'm willing to spend some money on quality stuff. I plan to try and swing by a local hardware store that specializes in doors tomorrow to ask their opinion, but thought I should get some opinions here first. I know we have some locksmiths on THR so maybe they can chime in.

My handyman recommended the kwikset smartkey product (link below), which can easily be set to all accept the same key and the key can be changed easily. According to the website, it's anti-bumpkey. Is this a decent product? Kwikset also has a keypad and biometric product (same link), but a quick perusal of amazon reviews indicated a lot of unsatisfied customers, especially for the biometric lock.

http://www.kwikset.com/SmartKey/

 

[jkingrph]

goggle Medeco locks.

 

[Quoheleth]

My dad always like Schlage. Don't know what they have for keypad locks, though.

Q

 

[Sir Aardvark]

Medeco are probably the best, but cost about $110.00 per lock (minimum) for their less-expensive items. Medeco locks are very heavy duty and are recognized for being very pick-resistant and supposedly bump-proof.

Schlage is marginally better than a Kwikset, but even Schlage's high-security "Primus" locks have been reported to be able to be opened by bumpkeys.

One of the facility engineers where I work is a licensed Locksmith - he has made a number of bumpkeys for various locks and he says that it is not as easy as the videos make it seem.

Keep in mind that you get what you pay for.

Also, keep in mind that a $100.00 lock on your front door won't keep someone from throwing your barbecue through your sliding glass door in the back of your house and just walking right in anyways.
You'd probably be better off buying the cheaper locks and then spending the money you saved for a monitored alarm system.

And, one more thing, really good locks do nothing if the door and door-frame are really flimsy to begin with. A good lock might stay in one piece but the door or doorframe might just splinter around it when someone kicks it in.

 

[oneounceload]

We used "BEST" brand at several places as they can be keyed in a variety of ways - I.E. - you can have a Master key that opens all doors, while friends can have a key that only opens certain doors or locks. In any event, high-grade/commercial locksets won't be cheap, but should last a long time

 

[twofifty]

Abloy, made in Finland iirc.

 

[Balog]

Twofifty beat me to it. Abloy is the absolute best, hands down, bar none. Medeco is good as well.

Hinges are cheap, get the best security hinges you can.

Almost all residential doors are flimsy. The best way to get a secure door is make your own, but failing that thick solid wood is best.

I'd peruse these fellows for a bit.

I'd also put shatter resistant film on all exterior windows and sliding glass doors. Actually I'd replace the sliding glass door, but that's just me.

Pin your window frames, and put locksets on 'em.

 

[lebowski]

How important are ANSI (or other) ratings?

That relatively cheap kwikset I posted earlier is rated an ANSI Grade 1. And the relatively expensive Abloy I looked up was an ... wait for it ... ANSI Grade 1.

So is the ANSI Grade 1 not that helpful (sort of like the UL RSC rating, where anything beyond a total joke product can get it) or is the kwikset really comparable to the Abloy in terms of protection?

 

[Balog]

Does it specify what exactly they are rating? And no, a kwikset is not as good as an Abloy.

Ok, looked it up. "Grade 1" is the pre-determined highest. Think of it like physical fitness tests in the .mil. 20 pullups is a perfect score. You barely squeak out 20, another guy knocks out 100 and in the eyes of .mil you're both the same.

 

[lebowski]

Well, I went to the local door place today and wasn't exactly blown away by the knowledgable staff. The guy who helped me didn't seem to know much more about this than I did, and he'd never even heard of Medeco or Abloy.

The brand they had there that he was showing me was Emtek - which is actually owned by Assa Abloy. They looked pretty good cosmetically ... However, the Emtek entryways apparently use a standard Schlage locking mechanism.

I found this link online: http://www.bayarealocks.com/index.php?cPath=21&osCsid=153b8a1bf793d996882cb4f2ed94c585

Anyone know if those prices for Abloy and Medeco deadbolts are competitive? Looks like a pretty good website, I may give him a call tomorrow for a more detailed discussion. The Abloy and Medeco seem like the best choices, though they are pricey.

My front door is solid wood. It's an old door, but seems solid. My side door and exterior garage door are newer but don't seem that stout. Both have windows in them (the exterior garage door has a double cylinder deadbolt, the side door w/ window has a single cylinder but I may upgrade that to a double, though that would be sort of an inconvenience). I don't have rear sliding doors, I have rear french style doors but they are very sturdy with good hardware. They have double pane glass, I may eventually add security film to them.

 

[DT Guy]

Don't put a $500 lock on a $100 door right off the bat-before upgrading the lockset and such, I'd work on physical barriers to kicking in the doors and breaking the windows.

And buy a dog-preferably a little one with a Napoleon complex.

Larry

 

[lebowski]

I have an 80lb German Shepherd who is alert and barks (though mostly at squirrels and dogs that dare to enter our yard).

The locks I'm looking at are more like $150-$200. My front door is pretty solid. The side door is less solid I may look into upgrading that, we'll see. It's a solidly built concrete block house w/ generally good windows and hardware, so it's not like I'm talking about putting a $500 lock on a straw house.

 

[twofifty]

House is not a 'castle'

A top-notch door and door jamb, lockset, with the hinges deeply screwed into the rough opening is essential. But when push comes to shove, it will be the build quality of the 2x framing that determines the final outcome IF the thief is determined and well equipped.

A CMU block house is definitely much more secure in all respects than the usual 2x4 or 2x6 framed house.

A framed house wall is mostly hollow, with siding on the outside over 1/2" OSB or plywood sheeting, then insulation/vapour barrier, then 1/2" drywall, primer and paint. lol. Nothing there that a battery-powered Sawzall can't zip a man-sized opening through in a few minutes. Which is why a house is only a castle in a legal rather than an actual sense.

But quality hardware and a stout install, even in a framed house, is likely to send the thief next door.

Re: lockset quality. The better locksets are not just mechanically strong, they also resist lockpicking and cylinder drilling. They come with very stout mounting screws and plates. They also have registered keys, which prevents unauthorized spare keys being made by servicepeople, housekeepers or babysitters.

 

[YaNi]

Also, keep in mind that a $100.00 lock on your front door won't keep someone from throwing your barbecue through your sliding glass door in the back of your house and just walking right in anyways.
You'd probably be better off buying the cheaper locks and then spending the money you saved for a monitored alarm system.

I would like to counter that there have been 5, yes 5!, home invasions in the past week in adjacent cities. They all started out by simply kicking in the front door and marching in with guns in hand. One happened last night where both residents were killed... Even if the difference was only 20 seconds, it may be the difference between me getting to a gun or not. At the very least you would know what was going on by the second kick.

It doesn't matter what they do to the house if no one is home. They can burn the house down for all I care, it can be replaced. I'm not worried about someone breaking my windows. I am an architectural engineer and have designed many polycarbonate skylights. You can literally beat on them with a bat until you get tired and all you will see are some dents. Why would anyone fuss with breaking windows if they can use the door?

 

[ghoster]

i have worked construction for 30 years, any of your standard dbl cylinder deadbolts are more than strong enough.

your door or frame will blow long before the bolt. the best fix for the frame is a 2 inch wide by 18 in. long peice of thin steel with the deadbolt hole in the middle installed right behind the frame and secured with long screws to the dbl stud door jamb.

if the window is big enough to craw through change the door. security glass keeps it from shattering but there is only 3/8 inch at most behind the stops that hold it in so its not hard to bash the whole mess inside.

dogs = best security since t-rex. mine are a pain in the a$$. big and small, wont touch the cheep extention cords - leave the $200.00 yellow jacket cord out they will eat the end off in 2 min. craftman/lock on tools, god only knows what they do with them--harbor freight you could put peanut butter on em and they wont touch them. TRY TO KICK IN THE DOOR OR GRAB A KID I WONT HAVE TO BUY DOG FOOD THAT WEEK.

 

[twofifty]

LOL on the dog food savings.

 

[lebowski]

Thanks for the help guys.

I ended up going with Abloy locks. I've had them installed for a couple weeks now, and I really like them. They seem to be extremely high quality. I also installed strike plate reinforcers on all doors.

The Abloy seems like a really great product. It can't be bumped. It gives you very secure key control (i.e. a worker, housekeeper etc. can't go make a copy of the key if they get their hands on one). It allows a variety of combinations of master keying. One of the cool aspects of master keying, is a separate "emergency key". If you have double cylinder locks, you're supposed to have a key inside somewhere near the door so you can get out in an emergency. With Abloy (and probably some other locks), this key can be cut so that it only opens the lock from the inside (i.e. visitors tempted to take the key can't get in with it).

The way I ended up setting it up, is I put Abloy deadbolts on the front door, side door, and the exterior door to the garage. The exterior door to the garage is keyed differently from the other doors so I can give that key to a housekeeper or friend (I have a master key that opens all the doors). I then installed a Samsung electronic deadbolt on the interior garage door. That way, my housekeeper (or friend with a key) needs both the key and the code to get in.

I ordered the Abloy locks from www.bayarealocks.com. The locksmith who runs that website, Dennis, was very helpful. I called him and we talked about locks and home security in general for probably 45 minutes.

I ordered the Samsung Combo lock from www.securitysnobs.com. Nick, who runs that website, was also very helpful.



Abloy lock: http://www.bayarealocks.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=73

Samsung lock: https://securitysnobs.com/Samsung-EZON-Keyless-Digital-Deadbolt.html

 

[bobelk99]

Schlage.

 

[Japle]

You might want to check an see if the deadbolt recess in your door frame is cut deep enough to allow the bolt to fully extend. Many contractors do a poor job when installing the original door and it never occurs to anyone to check. Every house in my development was done by the same company and the recesses are all too shallow.

If the deadbolt isn't fully extended, it often can be slipped back with the point of a knife once the trim is pried loose.

 

[lebowski]

My handyman installed the deadbolts, and he did have to mortise out quite a bit of wood. The bolts extend all the way.

 

[duns]

The external doors and patio doors in my house use Schlage locks. I had them rekeyed once and the locksmith was enthusing about what good locks they were. As I recall, he said they were strong and very difficult to pick unless, like him, you have all the right tools and the expertise in the use of those tools.