OT - locksets.

"Best" or "medco" brands.

scott

"Max" wrote in news:4bdb50ac$0$24378$ snipped-for-privacy@news.astraweb.com:

No specific recommendations, but you may want to watch out for a feature called "Easy Out" or "Call the locksmith (again)." The interior handle turns freely to open the door, but doesn't release the lock or give any indication the door was locked. As soon as you shut the door, you're locked out.

Locks seem to be one of those things that once you hit a certain price point you stop paying for quality and start paying for style. (And you may not get the same quality for a higher style lock.)

Puckdropper

Locks are to keep your friends out. No lock is pick or bump proof.

"Dave Balderstone" wrote

If someone wants in, they're coming in.

Quite right. I only wish to *discourage* them. I have a burglar alarm. Some thieves simply go door to door to see if someone left a door unlocked. My purpose in posting my inquiry was to see if anyone might have some

Max

Checking them out. Thanks, Scott

Max

No worries. You won't hear from me again.

I Googled that and ended up with "Schlage Max". Looks promising. Thanks.

Max

On Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:33:46 -0600, the infamous Dave Balderstone scrawled the following:

If not through a door, through a slider. If not a slider, a window. If not a window, they get out their cordless chainsaw (or recip) and make a door in under a minute. Or they just drive through a wall. I've seen all of these methods used in the USA in the past few years.

The sliding glass door was shattered with a 30 pound rock in the middle of the day, in broad daylight in a close neighborhood. None of the retired neighbors (as close as 40' away) heard a thing. Amazing.

-- Losing faith in humanity, one person at a time.

They had a story about bumping locks on the TV news here a while back. They showed that it was quick and easy, but what the police said was the big thing. They said that very few burglars bothered. Kicking the door in is faster.

Bill

Have you rendered your doors and windows resistant to likely levels of force? If not then you need to do that before you have to worry about whether your locks can be picked--most intruders don't pick locks, they break something.

If you're really concerned about bumping then call a locksmith and have him rekey your existing locks with bumproof cylinders. It will likely be cheaper than replacing them all with bumproof locks.

Your typical residental burgler couldn't pick a lock to save their life. Think "kick resistant". You want a good long deadbolt that sets into a strong plate with screws that go deep into the framing. Don't forget good long screws in the hinges. Even then, you are just slowing them down a few seconds. -- Doug

The rule I've heard is that you can get away with a single loud noise. People might say "What's that?" but usually won't investigate. That slider breaking will probably just be a sharp crack sound that could be anything. -- Doug

I *think* I've pretty well covered those categories but I appreciate your emphasis on them. There are other measures I've taken as well; the burglar alarm, exterior lighting, shrubbery kept trimmed. Good relationships with neighbors. A dog (albeit a somewhat friendly one) whose bark is bigger than her bite.

Max

Speaking of "kick resistant", you might get a kick out of this recent story...

To the extent that I could without going to metal doors. They're all solid core doors and fairly "hefty".

I really need to replace the locksets anyway; they're 24 years old, much used and "builder quality". The deadbolts are still in good shape and I thought I would have them re-keyed to accept the same key as the new entry locksets. That would entail getting the same brand as the original so I might go the expense of replacing both.

Max (still pondering)

Get a gun-owner-lives-here sticker.

nb