Are Schlage locks considered inferior now?

[mizzou]

Considering nearly all burglaries are forced entry or unlocked door/window entry, I don't think there is even much real world difference between advanced locks and interior locks.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

A few years ago, my in-laws lived in an apartment in Rome, Italy. This was like a 6th floor apartment in a fairly big, nice building in a very safe part of town. The door lock on the entry door was magnificent. It was like a safe. I want to say that it had a total of 3 deadbolts coming out the side of the door; 1 towards the top and 1 towards the bottom. You had to keep turning the key multiple rotations to get all of the deadbolts to engage. And the whole thing (door + jamb) was made out of some kind of steel. Most impressive.

I did a search for "Italy apartment door lock" and found this:

Kinda similar, except this was nicer (everything was enclosed inside the door, not visible) and I don't know if it had all 4 deadbolts out the top and bottom like this one.

 

[NetWareHead]

A few years ago, my in-laws lived in an apartment in Rome, Italy. This was like a 6th floor apartment in a fairly big, nice building in a very safe part of town. The door lock on the entry door was magnificent. It was like a safe. I want to say that it had a total of 3 deadbolts coming out the side of the door; 1 towards the top and 1 towards the bottom. You had to keep turning the key multiple rotations to get all of the deadbolts to engage. And the whole thing (door + jamb) was made out of some kind of steel. Most impressive.

I did a search for "Italy apartment door lock" and found this:

Kinda similar, except this was nicer (everything was enclosed inside the door, not visible) and I don't know if it had all 4 deadbolts out the top and bottom like this one.

My relatives in Italy have something similar. And they live somewhere I consider a nice part of town. My relatives who live in the countryside (farming folk) take a no nonsense approach to security. Every window has iron bars and can be secured from inside. The front door has a big wooden beam slid across it at night.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

My relatives in Italy have something similar. And they live somewhere I consider a nice part of town. My relatives who live in the countryside (farming folk) take a no nonsense approach to security. Every window has iron bars and can be secured from inside. The front door has a big wooden beam slid across it at night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_9rlWhwJis

This video shows the main lock part of a similar Italian lock. You can see the door itself is at least partly made of metal. And the precision of the movement when you turn the key.... it just felt several levels higher than the crappy, gritty stuff that we have here in the states. I guess it might also have to do with the key size? Our keys don't get much torque on them. Their keys were substantially bigger than most US keys.

Having multiple bolts like that also obviously improves the mechanical resistance of the door to being kicked in. Much better to have multiple bearing surfaces instead of just a single one. The force is distributed over a much larger area instead of being concentrated.

 

[gururu2]

I like the Italian locks they look pretty elegant. You pretty much have to tear down the whole frame to get in.
When I was in the Middle East, upper end residences were mostly outfitted with steel doors with bolts that inserted into metal cylinders embedded in concrete flooring. I think you'd need a bomb to break down those doors. And of course all windows were barred.

I like the idea of having bolts go into concrete flooring. If the door is pretty solid, I don't see these pushing over too easily.

 

[John Connor]

http://www.medeco.com/en/site/medeco/products/deadbolts/

 

[Ns1]

I like the Italian locks they look pretty elegant. You pretty much have to tear down the whole frame to get in.
When I was in the Middle East, upper end residences were mostly outfitted with steel doors with bolts that inserted into metal cylinders embedded in concrete flooring. I think you'd need a bomb to break down those doors. And of course all windows were barred.

that sounds awesome.

 

[Kaido]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1mmjVvMsGs

 

[rh71]

That said, why a more expensive lock, if a great lock is just going to result in thieves breaking in through a window?

A break in method that I'm surprised you hear very little about - I'd think you could go right through a wall fairly effortlessly, given a cordless circular saw & a good blade, or a reciprocating saw with a good blade. Interior is merely drywall, exterior is usually just OSB plus whatever covering is on the house - e.g., vinyl siding. I suppose the other methods are simply good enough.

Late to the party here, but... if you live in the middle of nowhere with no neighbors right across from you, yes you are prone to almost any method as they can stand there all day. Here I don't think many thieves dare come at the front door. It's always the backyard, and mostly through unlocked windows... dumb homeowners.

We have a fiberglass door (with sidelites) & frame, which is still not foolproof, but I read it's still 2x the screw-holding power than a wood frame. Sidelites have a metal bar design running through it. Also run a camera and have central station alarm, even though we're in a really safe area.

 

[Exterous]

A break in method that I'm surprised you hear very little about - I'd think you could go right through a wall fairly effortlessly, given a cordless circular saw & a good blade, or a reciprocating saw with a good blade. Interior is merely drywall, exterior is usually just OSB plus whatever covering is on the house - e.g., vinyl siding. I suppose the other methods are simply good enough.

Company I used to work for had someone break in and then go through numerous locked offices by cutting through the drywall next to the door, reaching their hand inside and opening the door.

 

[TheSlamma]

My friend worked for Lowes about a decade ago in the hardware department keying locks, he said back then Kwikset has plastic parts in them while schlage was all metal parts.

My guess is Schlage has probably gone cheap but Kwikset is probably still cheap too since it is just all about investors and cheap labor now instead of customers and quality.