How to Find a Good Door Lock

Door locks are the essential to a safe and peaceful home. Keeping home safe from thieves and criminals can be achieved by installing good and right kind of door lock. Choosing the right door lock depends on where the door lock will be installed. Some door locks are designed for the purpose of privacy only or to keep away annoyances. 

Steps

1. Choose single cylinder deadbolt locks for wooden exterior doors. This type of door lock has 3 essential parts: a key accessible cylinder outside the door, a bolt that goes in and out of the door jamb, and the thumb turn which is used to move the bolt in or out of the door jamb when inside the house. The door lock should  be made of high quality materials such as bronze, solid steel or brass. This lock fits best for doors that does not have glass window close by. 

2. Choose double cylinder deadbolt locks for glass exterior doors. Double cylinder deadbolt requires a key to open the door from outside and inside the house. Thus, it is hard for burglars to open the door even when a portion of the glass door breaks and provides access to cylinder inside the house. This is also true to wooden doors close to glass windows. However, this type of lock pose some safety issues during emergency because it requires a key to open the door lock when exiting the house.

3. Use privacy locks on interior doors. This type of door lock does not a cylinder. It consists of a push or turn button inside and a key entry from the outside. It can be locked with a key from the outside also. This type of lock should allow the person inside the room to exit freely without using a key. 

Tips

• Replace locks that are worn and rusted to avoid lock malfunction later on.
• When buying a new home replace all exterior locks including garage doors.
• Install a second lock that cannot be opened by children on the inside of the exterior door.
• Make sure all exterior doors are locked when leaving the house.