letter slots vs boxes

[Adam Funk]

We're thinking of replacing the old front door, which I think is the main heat loss area in the house now, with a new "modern" one. Among other things, I'm considering switching from a letter slot in the door to a box on the wall near the door. It would be mounted on a brick wall in the entry/passage (so sheltered from rain but subject to wind). I think this would have advantages for security and reduced heat loss.

Any comments on this? Has anyone here switched from a letter slot to a box and found it a great improvement or problematic?

Thanks, Adam

[GB]

heat loss - you replace a constant small draft with a full opening of the door whilst you retrieve the post from outside.

[Jim K]

whether there's post in it or not......

Jim K

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

I suppose you could put a camera in the box...

[Adam Funk]

We normally open the front door several times a day anyway. I didn't envisage making a special trip to check the box.

[jgharston]

Soggy letters. I'm not prepared to go trekking through the weather to get my post any more than I would be prepared to go back to trekking through the weather to use the khazi. The postman is paid to go trekking through the snow, he/she can damn well deliver my post into my house.

Also, I have a long heavy curtain over my door, so any drafts that manage to fight past the spring on the letterbox are stopped from going any further.

JGH

[Piers Finlayson]

We have a box on a pole at the top of our drive - to save the postie driving down down the drive to the house for just a few letters. Problems:

- Our box is fairly exposed so sometimes the lid flies open in the wind and stuff gets wet. I drilled holes in the bottom to mitigate somewhat. Sounds like you'll be alright. (Previous house I made my own box out of thick timber - that wasn't going to blow open!

- When we moved in there was no key for the box. Instead the lock had been broken and you used a coin or another key to open. I wondered why for a long time until a year or two after we replaced with a new box. Turns out the keys are flimsy things - one of the two we got with it has just disintegrated (plastic head crumbled off). When the second key disintergrates I expect I'll break the lock with a screwdriver and from then on use a coin or another key ?

[Brian Gaff]

He only gets his post in on warm wind free days?

Brian

[stuart noble]

I love it when the local free sheet is rammed in the letter box but not pushed all the way through

[polygonum]

And the fourteen pizza flyers, two taxi cards, three curry special offers. Oh - and some real post.

[Nightjar]

In most, if not all, of France, boxes on the road frontage are the standard practice. The postman often doesn't even get out of his van. I never had any problems with mine when I had a house there, but the post boxes you can buy in France are a lot more substantial than the ones I see for sale in the UK. If I were going to fit one in the UK, I would buy it when next in France.

Colin Bignell

[Nightjar]

It wouldn't occur to me to go out specially to check for mail. I would simply check the box on the way past when returning to the house from having been out.

Colin Bignell

[John Williamson]

IIRC, the French postmen also have a master key which will open the box to let them put items which won't fit through the slot into the box.

[Nightjar]

That would make sense. As I never had anything but junk mail, I cannot confirm whether it is true.

Colin Bignell

[Dave Liquorice]

And if you have no reason to go out? Or if you go out and return before the postie has been?

[fred]

In article , polygonum writes

Royal Mail opt out:

[JTM]

Whenever I get my mail, I leave an ivy leaf under the flap.

*If* there is any post delivered the leaf drops and I can see there's something to collect.

John

[polygonum]

of what I mentioned is delivered by others.

[Java Jive]

But they don't anyway. They shove it half-way through, probably crumpling up all your Christmas cards, and between the postie and the local newspaper/leaf-littering urchins letting the worst of British weather straight into your house. Also, letter-boxes are now a security hazard, as any anti-social yoof with whom you've had words may take it into his/her head to pour petrol through it followed by a lighted match.

That'll be the first thing to catch fire then ...

[Tim+]

You might be surprised just how much crap they do deliver. The junk through our letterbox dropped dramatically when we opted out. Of course a lot depends on where you live but RM do deliver a lot of junk mail/flyers.

Tim