Locked out!

I said all that 15 years ago when we had our old style Yale lock door replaced with a uPVC one.

Apparently we're just wrong. Get over it.

You can actually get Euro cylinders which will work with a key in both sides.

You can also get mechanism with a latch, so you can close and lock the door without a key. Just like the old Yale locks.

Wonderful, lock yourself out even more easily! :-)

They should be standard then!

We managed for a century or so with that feature.

Being able to ensure a door can't be reopened without a key is better for security that needing a key, IMHO.

There have been times when having a key in the inside, preventing the lock from being operated from the outside has been a nice feature. It certain means it's not possible for someone to enter the house without the occupants knowledge.

And you can also get chubb style locks, that you cant lock yourself out with as they need a key to lock

Well my folks had both :)

But my point upon taking delivery of our shiny new uPVC door remained. It most certainly did not work in the way that which it replaced did.

I refuse to believe that amongst the millions of people since Yale locks were first fitted to front doors to have found it useful to be able to lock the door without a key. For example leaving a party early in the morning ? Yes, being able to lock oneself out by "accident" or from an unfortunate gust of wind was a PITA. However the fact you could snip the lock so as to prevent this suggests that most people - like me - managed.

The fact you can now get uPVC locks that replicate that feature suggests that I was right all along (not unusually) and people did miss it.

When we had a new front door fitted we specified a "night latch", but the company fitted the other type. We hated it and got the company to come back and fit what we'd ordered. I've never locked myself out in over 50 years with a night latch.

So, this raises a question I have never known the answer to. On many locks this if the key is in you cannot unlock from the other side rule is there,but, on the other hand you aare encouraged not to leave a key in the lock in case somebody can get it by making a hole in the window near it. Hang on, to keep folk who might have a key, but you don't want them in, you leave it in, but then don't leave it in cos it might be nicked by a burglar.

I'd like a lock where I can decide its function in some way.

Brian

My biggest worry about those locks was the advice to *not* leave the key in the lock overnight seemed a terrible fire hazard.

Which is why for a while (with a younger child) I swapped our inside-key lock for one with a thumbturn.

Ultimately, the whole situation is a paradigm for when new systems are introduced and remove a whole swathe of features that almost everyone used and introduce new complexities, and rather than admitting they cooked the whole thing up without ever talking to a real user, the industry then doubles down by insisting that (a) we were doing it wrong all along, (b) it never worked like that anyway, and/or (c) this new system is so good you'd have to be a moron not to realise it.

Speaking of which, how's Brexit going ?

You can't on any of the very basic mortice locks fitted to the internal doors on this Victorian house either.

This is a concern to me.

We rented a shop a some years ago and there was a (albeit likeable) nutter living upstairs. We had shared rear access and i'd often find myself unable to leave unless i'd a key on me. When he left and was replaced by a young couple with a newborn I couldn't help but worry and replaced the locks for thumbturns at my own expense (the landlord had no interest in fire safety, he was happy that the building met regs at the time when he bought it in the 70s).

I like thumb turn locks on the inside of external doors. Far safer in case of fire.

We had both external doors replaced last year I ordered thumb turns and both keyed alike, salesman said not available, surveyor said thumb turn only, fitters fitted keyed alike thumb turns!

Mike

One of the doors at work is the most annoying I have ever come across. It's keys on both sides, but only one key will work at once, And because it's a fire door the inside handle unlocks it.

So you lock it, turn the handle to check it's locked, Lock it again, turn the handle, Lock it.....