Recommendation for key safe required. This is the type to be fitted outside of a front door and holds the front door key.
This is for an elderly relative with failing sight (in one eye) so ideally needs large easy to read numbers and a mechanism that easy to use. It will also be used by carers visiting the property.
Currently fitted is this type
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and IMO is completely crap. The numbers on the combination are small and with fairly limited use are already silver on a silver background and even I have difficulty in seeing them. The opening lever requires thin fingers and not only has it to be pushed down but to open the box has to be caught with a finger nail to bring it forward.
I have another type fitted somewhere on my property with small push buttons that is slightly better but once open it is very fiddly to close again having to re-input the code, but now with the buttons on the hinged section section that is free. OK maybe for the occasional use but probably not suitable for day to day use where carers may be different people each day, and again not suitable for someone with failing sight
Sometimes one can only judge the ease of working of some of these equipments trying to use them on a regular basis hence a call for recommendations.
It?s not usually the householder who needs to use it though so whilst good legibility is nice, your relative will presumably normally be carrying keys?
They?re not designed for elderly frail folk to use, they?re there for the family/carers.
Whatever you get, don?t to the usual social services thing of using the year of birth as a combination. After entering ?19? that only leaves two digits to guess and it doesn?t take long to work through the likely year range.
And the sequence in which you push the buttons doesn't matter, as long as they're all pushed, so 'randomising' your birthday or whatever won't make it any more difficult.
Agreed, and it is not very secure either. We had one on our village hall front door, and somebody simply prised it open to get the key.
We replaced it with a Keysafe Consumer 500, which is more expensive (£50-ish) but much stronger, and more digits..
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It doesn't have the large conspicuous button labels that you specified, but as someone else said it won't be your elderly relative using it. She'll have her own key.
That advice has already been given by social services although viewing some Youtube videos many of these locks can easily be defeated without first knowing the combination.
I have yet to see one that meets those requirements. Most are small and fiddly trying not to attract too much attention to what they are.
Why can't she continue to have her own key? Only the carers need to be using the key safe.
I went for this one when I was doing this stuff.
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It is OK and the legend never wears off the buttons but it is still a bit fiddly although unobtrusive and looks more like an external mains socket than a key safe. Open and closing both require the code.
It might be simpler to fit a door lock that can be operated either by a key or by a keypad, such as some of those shown here:
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The one recommended as the top pick can have up to 30 different key codes set. That would, for example, allow you to give different carers their own code, which could be deleted if the carers change.
Hmm...not come across electronic ones; are they battery powered, and if so, what happens when the battery goes flat? The two key-safes I've come across were both mechanical and not cheap (£50+ IIRC), one of them being recommended by the police, heavy duty and very substantially made, and the order the buttons were pushed didn't matter.
And don't be taken in by the 10,000 combinations, technically correct as it's 9,999 + 1 (0000) but it "looks" a lot larger... and of course many of those combinations wouldn't be sensisible to use but that applies to all combination locks.
As mentioned in another reply I've seen Youtube videos where many of these locks can be defeated within around 10 seconds without resorting to any skill and locks under various manufactures names have identical/similar mechanisms.
Even one of the locks mentioned in one of the replies that has "Police Accredited" status doesn't mean that the opening code mechanism is secure - just it can resist forceful entry to the same standard as a front door.
The more that I investigate the more that I find that some of these boxes are no more secure than leaving the key under the front door mat.
Although some of the points below may not help with my elderly relative some findings:-
When open the some have hinged door and no re-alignment is required to close it. Some are two part so when open the front has to be removed.
Some are self locking and others require the code to be re-entered to lock it. On some, the lock is reset when you release the spring loaded opening lever so you have to re-enter the code to retract the locking bar mechanism again in order to close the box.
Push button mechanisms can have fewer combinations as the buttons can be pushed in any order. Some have only the numbers 0 to 9 while other have a few additional keys. Behind the tough outer metal shell is a cheap plastic mechanism with warnings that you can easily break the mechanism using when setting the code with the lock in the wrong state. Many Amazon 1 star reviews suggest that this has happened when people don't fully read the manual first.
Some have decent weather protection cover which doubles up a partial disguise of the unit while some others have no cover and yet more have covers that fail within months according to user reviews. If you want the unit to be more discrete avoid those with visible branding that screams security "I'm a key safe". I've seen at least one where "Key Safe" is written on the front in nice large white letters on a grey background.
I painted my keysafe outer box to match other equipment boxes where I have it installed. It's not obvious that the keysafe is not part of something else.
All the 4 wheel combination types seem to be the same on all brands of safe that use them. The difference with some is that they are not recessed into the box and so may be easier to operate or see. However these mechanisms don't appear to be any more secure than those on a cheap padlock which again with a little Youtube knowledge (and no skill) can be opened.
Some push button mechanical door locks aren't bothered about order either
Another, longer term, problem is wear or dirt (precense or abscence) patterns. Four digits with the legend or button (top and sides where it slides into the lock body) more worn or cleaner or dirtier than the other buttons is a bit of a give away.
Having just had a quick look how would you easily retrofit these to a composite DG door that has a Eurolock with the handle just above the lock which controls the full length door locking bar?
Yes that is a good point I pointed a similar thing to the care home my mother was in when they tell all visitors that the code to the door is the year followed by the month so todays code would have been 1911 if anyone wants to it but at least they changed/updated it once a month ;-)
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