Wednesday, April 10, 2013

False sense of security

So my new house came with Weiser Smart Key locks for the back, garage and basement doors. One morning, I could no longer open my garage. There was no way to get to my car to pickup my little monkey from day care. My builder is a great guy, so was on site with his installer in 15 minutes. They helped me get in by drilling out the lock. The next day, another guy came in and put in a replacement Weiser deadbolt lock. And what do you know, 10 minutes after he left, I discovered the same thing had happened, with a different lock, different set of keys.

At this time, I had lost all confidence in Weiser locks, and decided to replace them all. I got ANSI Grade 1 fixed key deadbolts from Schlage, and installed those on all doors that previously had that Weiser crap on them. They are robust, super smooth, and rated top grade for commercial use. My advice: never go with those 'programmable' locks known as Smart Key or SecureKey. See the photo above of all the useless crappy locks I removed from my house. Professionals rate the Weiser Smart Key of the same caliber as that lock that could be opened with a Bic pen. See this video on how to open any Weiser Smart Key lock in a few seconds.

So to sum up: Never get a programmable key, especially not the crap from Weiser that will lock you out at random. Instead get a lock that is not programmable, and rated ANSI Grade 1, for instance, this one from Schlage.

1 comment:

Bram Stolk Sr said...

Bestaat er niet zo iets als een waarborg veiligheids certificaat? 10 seconden oponthoud voor een inbreker is wel erg weinig. Overigens wel ontzettend handig dat je zelf je sleutels kunt programmeren.
Ik had trouwens van jou wel een fingerprint en irisscanner applicatie verwacht.