Modern locks are a pest

[Commander Kinsey]

What happened to the good old mortice lock where you didn't have to do a dance with the doorhandle to get the key to turn?

[Commander Kinsey]

I've found it with everybody's lock. To lock the door (or is it unlock, I can never remember which [1]), the handle has to be lifted first, as the key doesn't have enough torque to move all 7 latches.

[1] That's the problem, if you forget which, you break the key or mechanism.

[Commander Kinsey]

Both links are the same.

However, it's a sensible one, a single bolt into the frame. It's the ones with 7 all around the door which require a lot of force to lock and unlock, which you cannot provide with the key, so you have to remember how to operate the handle to assist it. And if anyone else tries to use your door, they end up breaking it.

[Commander Kinsey]

You get that too? I've noticed lately (newer Windows?) that copy sometimes just doesn't. When I looked it up, it happens to many people. Sometimes the computer just doesn't bother. It can be quite embarrassing when you paste something into a live conversation in a chatroom which was not what you meant to, but a previous copy!

It's common in the UK, and I assumed everywhere. In fact my link is to an American company. This is a 3 point. I can't find a picture of a 7 point, although most are now 7 point here.

[NY]

It never occurred to me that the key *might* move the latches, to even think of trying it. I thought latches were *only* moved in and out by the handle, and the key released a lock that allowed the handle to move, with an interlock that won't allow the key to lock the handle unless the handle has first been used to lock the latches.

It's a little more complicated that a mortice lock, but once you've had it demonstrated to you or you've read the instructions, that knowledge can be used for every modern lock that you might encounter.

[Commander Kinsey]

I fitted one myself for £22.

But they aren't any more secure. The security is measured by how hard it is to force the door open. That depends on the number of bolts going into the frame, not whether they're electronic or not.

[Commander Kinsey]

Probably about 100 of them were like that, and 5 not (which were all older doors). Of course this is the UK, there may be different ones sold in other countries.

There is no way a key, or your fingers, could move 7 bolts, that has to be done by the handle.

[williamwright]

It isn't the lock or any of the other things that bother you, it's you. You are incompatible with normal existence.

Bill

[Ralph Mowery]

Spending much money on a door lock is useless in most homes. I guess that if you live several floors up in an apartment where there is only one or two solid doors you could put on a good lock.

With all the windows most homes have, just bust out a window and come on in. Even worse is that the doors in my house have glass in them that could be broken out very easy and the lock turned.

The main think I think locks are good for is for those just passing by and try a door. They also show that someone had to break in the house for insurance. It might also creat a noise that may wake someone up if glass is broken.

The way I look at it is to just have good insurance. Maybe sleep with a gun near by. However as someone pointed out, now many are robbed during the day when no one is at home.

[Commander Kinsey]

I want it to be simple, like the old doors. The handle allows you to open the door. The key locks the door. Those are two seperate things that should not be connected. The key simply moves a separate bolt across which is nothing to do with the handle:

the handle at the top moves the top latch. The key moves the bottom latch.

And you're wrong - if you shut a 7-point door without locking it, only one latch engages, the standard one to hold it shut, next to the handle. To lock it, you need to engage the other 6, which means lifting the doorhandle (very unintuitive, handles always go down), then turning the key. Trying to turn the key without lifting the handle can break the key, since the little key cannot move 6 bolts.

[NY]

I don't think the key is even *trying* to move the bolts. I think the reason that the key would break if you applied enough force is that it is blocked from turning while the bolts are retracted. The way to prove this would be to try to lock the door when it is open, which would allow the bolts to be extended without the extra friction of each bolt against its striker plate in the frame. I just tried this and the bolts did not move. The only way to move the bolts on a modern lock is to raise the handle - and I agree, it

*is* counter-intuitive to raise it rather than lowering it.

Of course it takes a special sort of stupidity to apply more and more force to the key, in an attempt to unlock the door, instead of thinking "the key isn't turning - I must be doing something wrong". It's difficult to remember back to the first time I encountered a lock like this. I *think* I might have tried lowering the handle to see if that made any difference, and then tried raising it - ah, that's the trick.

You can get a problem with a badly-adjusted door where the handle doesn't quite shoot the bolts fully out, and so the key won't turn. When we had a new door installed (or rather an existing door and frame moved by the builders to a newly-cut aperture in the wall), it wasn't quite adjusted correctly and it was necessary to pull the handle up quite firmly and hold it in that position in order for the interlock to be cleared so the key would turn to lock the handle. But that was soon sorted out.

[Commander Kinsey]

I had to laugh when I saw someone with a PVC door with a 7 point lock. A quick kick in the centre and you could just go through a hole in the door, leaving the fancy lock attached to the frame.

[Commander Kinsey]

I think I've seen one of those once in my entire life. A key belongs below the handle, like this:

[Commander Kinsey]

Bullshit. Far easier to physically break down any door or window than to pick the lock.

Why would an electronic lock be harder to force?

[Commander Kinsey]

No, I'm incompatible with idiots. The average person has an IQ of 100, which is truly pathetic.

[Commander Kinsey]

My point exactly.

[Commander Kinsey]

Learn to killfile me properly, then you won't have to read this.

[Commander Kinsey]

It's on about 90% of UK houses.

[Commander Kinsey]

The trouble is if you do it wrong, it doesn't take much force to break the key. When it doesn't turn, do you add more force or have you done something else wrong? It's like flushing a toilet, how hard do you push the lever? Too hard and it breaks, not hard enough and it won't flush. There's a fine point in the middle somewhere where the device functions.

[Hawk]

Your country has cheap locks. That's not the case here.