Is that so? My intuition is that it should depend on the side of the door the lock is mounted on. Most locks I have seen open by turning them away from the side where the latch is on, to move the bolt in the direction it is being turned, and that feels pretty natural to me. Isn't that the norm?
My apartment key opens 7 different locks, 1 of which opens clockwise, 5 counterclockwise, and 1 I don't know right now because it isn't actually mounted on a door and doesn't move a bolt.
Yep, you move the top of the key away from the door casing, and that's the natural way. Counterclockwise if the lock is on the right, clockwise if it's on the left.
If you keys are on a keyring like those in the illustrations in the article where the keys can easily jangle and that gets annoying I found a good way to address that.
• Get some small magnets. I used these 8 mm diameter 1mm thick disk magnets [1].
• Attach one to each key near the hole for the keyring. Orient the magnets so the each is attracted to the magnets on the neighboring keys.
When hanging on your keyring your keys will then form one unit which won't jangle.
You want magnets that are strong enough to attract through the keys. If yours need a little help you could try putting a magnet on each side of the key.
I held them on by wrapping some tape around the key.
A year or two I got a KeyPort, which is a modular key organizer. It's an aluminum frame with screws at either end that the heads of typical keys can go through, creating something like a swiss army knife of keys. The frame has modular mounts for accessories like a belt/pocket clip and a knife.
I'm fairly meh about it, largely because I don't think it's good value. It was pretty hard for me to spend $60 on a keyring, and the knife is also fairly meh (I prefer locking+spring assisted opening knives for EDC). Also their "Key return service" is fairly meh; not really looking forward to another $4.99 service charge every year that I have to manage, when paying $60 for this thing.
Another company, KeySmart, has a similar device and it's more compact but doesn't do the "attachments" thing, so you'd carry a knife if you wanted that. They have one that has Tile finding device built in, as long as you remember to charge it. I had one for ~4 years with a Tile device attached to it, that had a dead battery for 90% of the time I had it.
I'd be tempted to get one of the smaller key organizers with an AirTag holder and set up a little magsafe charging setup that I could just drop my keys into.
I mostly don't lose my keys very often, but once in the last decade I dropped them while taking the kids around the neighborhood trick-or-treating and I don't want to repeat that experience, mostly because I keep a couple office keys on my ring.
This was a very confusing article to read the comments to first, because people seem to be so passionate about something that I couldn't even visualize. The disconnect is that my (continental European) experience is that any modern lock for something important will have a key with 180 degree rotational symmetry.
That’s an interesting minor but significant difference. I’m from the UK, and both of my house keys (Yale, Abloy) have a distinct ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ orientation. Every house key I’ve ever had has been like this. The keys for my desk drawer and filing cabinets too.
I'm in Ireland, and most people have those keys too. But those things are too easy to open with a bump key. For the last 15 years I've insisted on proper secure locks and keys. The most I've ever had to pay to retrofit one is €90 (bought it in town and fitted it myself). I got 5 keys with that lock. My neighbour replaced his too, after I demonstrated a bump key to him.
Having a symmetrical key isn't something that I even cared about but I suppose it's a bonus.
Those things are too easy to open with a bump key. For the last 15 years I've insisted on proper secure locks and keys. The most I've ever had to pay to retrofit one is €90, and I got 5 keys with that lock. In my current house, front and back doors were replaced. My neighbour replaced his too when I demonstrated a bump key to him.
Having a symmetrical key isn't something that I even care about but I suppose it's a bonus.
I haven't owned a keychain for many years now. After renovating our house, we installed a Yale Doorman. It's the best $300 investment I've done that I can think of:
- Don't have to carry a keychain at all anymore
- I can give strangers (think AirBnb, or cleaners) time-bound access codes
- I can remotely unlock/lock the door for someone if they need immediate access
- Kids can get home without a key - Kids losing their key not a worry anymore
- Work office is keyless too (xlock)
- We always keep a small 9V battery outside in case the battery goes flat
It was after a painful deadlock situation that we initially retro-fitted an electronic lock into the old front door which we carried over to the new door once we renovated the entire floor.
I've always been tempted/curious to adopt a sort keyless of approach. I dislike carrying keys...and have had to carry (what to me feels like too many) keys always throughout my life. But without really researching the option you referenced, i have fears about failure modes for this type of keyless kock. For example...
* If/When the battery dies, does the lock default to locked setting? I assume so, but how annoying would this be?
* Being a privacy nut, does the lock come with a pre-determined code, or can you generate your own? I assume you should be able to create your own, but figuried I'd ask.
Instead of answering my questions, if you have an online reference that you might have used to decide going this route, would be great if you could share. Thanks!
> * If/When the battery dies, does the lock default to locked setting? I assume so, but how annoying would this be?
Typically, the home locks are just actuated mechanical locks. So the lock will stay in whatever state it was when the battery died. If you want to get into commercial-grade locks, there are magnetic locks that can be configured to fail open or close on power loss.
Anyway, the battery is not a big deal. I have a Kwikset lock with a ZigBee module, it runs on 4 AAA batteries. I switched to Li-ion rechargables several years ago, and they last for about 6 months between recharges with moderate door use. It's even longer if the lock is not used often.
And the lock starts beeping annoyingly after opening/closing when the batteries get down to 30%, giving you plenty of time to replace them.
> * Being a privacy nut, does the lock come with a pre-determined code, or can you generate your own?
You always can set your own combinations. And there are biometric locks.
The Yale x Nest was my entry but after a few years a few complaints.
It auto locks after each use but no confirmation the door was closed and secured correctly.
The Yale mentioned above will gladly auto-lock with the door still open and it will report as locked in the app. Not to bad if you know you closed the door but by just looking in the app someone might have left it open and it "locked" itself.
It will say it wouldn't lock, if say the door was partially closed and the bolt couldn't move.
I'm assuming another component needs to be in the door well to detect the bolt.
Anyone know any consumer level smart devices that do this?
The Yale Doorman has two metal dots on the outside you can push a 9v battery against to power it. So if battery runs out, you can power it from outside temporarily to get in.
I found an approach that I liked was a mechanical combination lock — all the advantages of digital combination locks (can set temp codes, change codes, no need for keys etc.), except for the remote activation, but I never have to worry about batteries or power.
I bought a house with an electronic front door lock. One day a few months later I used the wrong code (a few times I guess) and I got fully locked out. I don't subscribe to the $60/month service that could have remotely reset the system so I had to get a locksmith to break me in.
After that I replaced it with a plain old mechanical lock. Never again touching any smart home crap.
I'm sure I didn't use the wrong code three times, something must have happened the 2nd/3rd times like a key didn't get pressed hard enough to register. But regardless, the lesson is there's a bunch of possible failure scenarios you won't think of.
I have considered this route, especially with NFC keys becoming more widespread (ie, unlock door with Apple Watch). But ultimately my number keypad lock works just fine.
If I do upgrade, possibly use the system from Ubiquiti since I already have most of their equipment
>1. Orient your keys so they all face in the direction of entry
Yes, always
>2. Order your keys clockwise based on the direction of entry.
Eh, I guess. Depends how many you have and what they're like. I have two nearly identical keys, and the rest (car, mail) require no time to find due to their size. In this scenario, I generally find that sorting keys by physical size makes the ring/carabiner feel more comfortable. That being said, I find the related suggestion to "Drill holes in your keys" <https://practicalbetterments.com/drill-holes-in-your-keys/> a more worthwhile solution to item 2.
Mine are ordered by direction of entry secondarily, after order of physical key size. You can't be having a humpy keyring: it must be a smooth curve, if possible.
All facing the same direction is just ... I mean ... if anyone here doesn't do that ... I don't even ... I gotta wash my hands ...
Key your locks alike, then you only need one key! I actually had to find something to put on my house-keyring because it felt so empty being a single key.
The downside to this is if your locks are cheapo pin tumbler locks then if an attacker steals the lock itself it is trivial for them to take your lock apart and reverse engineer a key that works in all your other locks (think crazy ex or wacko, rather than burglar.)
If you key your mailbox padlock and your front door alike and the wacko steals the padlock, they can take it home and figure out the code to your house.
My home has three entry points, one with a porch, and all four doors have keyed alike locks. It’s great!
> Key your locks alike, then you only need one key!
Seconded!
If you aren't up to rekeying locks yourself it is an easy job for a locksmith and shouldn't be too expensive.
If rekeying isn't sufficient because your locks use different shaped keys and so you'll have to get at least some new locks to put everything on a common key, and you are up to doing lock replacements yourself (which unless you've got unusual locks is usually one of the easiest DIY projects), I'd consider using Kwikset SmartKey for the new locks.
Despite what the name suggests these are not electronic locks. They are entirely mechanical, using a normal key. They came out in 2007 before "Smart" had become associated with shoving microprocessors into places they don't belong.
If you want to rekey a SmartKey lock you simply take the current key, insert it, rotate 90° clockwise, insert a tool Kwikset provides through a little hole in the front to press a button, and that releases the key so you can remove it without having to rotate the cylinder back to 0°. Then you can put in a different key, rotate the cylinder 180° counter-clockwise, then back to 0° and remove that key.
The lock is now rekeyed to that second key.
So, just buy your news locks from Home Depot or Lowe's without having to worry about getting locks that are keyed to the same key, install them, look at all the keys they came with and pick which one you want to be the common key, and then go around and rekey them all to that using the procedure described above.
Keep the other keys. They can be useful if you have a guest stay over (assuming you have more than one door to your house). Rekey one of the doors to one of those other keys and give that to the guest. When they leave you can rekey back to your common key.
Kwikset also makes SmartKey padlocks if you want to go all in on the one key thing.
The Kwikset "SmartKey" lock sets are easily re-keyed by just using an existing and a new key, and a little poker tool. The first generation of them had some problems, but the second generation is reasonably secure, as far as any 5 pin entry set goes.
You’re right in that the only reason to offline decode the lock is to either create a legitimate key (or DoS your opponent’s wallet by forcing them to re-key the remaining N-1 locks.)
It is left as an exercise to the imagination as to when it an attacker might find advantage in:
Related to this, pin tumbler locks on doors should be installed so that the bitting (i.e., the teeth on the key) face up when inserting the key. If you follow a standard orientation, you don't have to think about which way to orient the key when inserting it, especially in the dark.
There's a technical reason why "bitting up" (teeth up) should be the standard way to install pin tumbler locks. If the bitting faces up, the pins in the lock are directly above the bitting, and the springs are above the pins and not being compressed by the weight of the pins. If the lock is installed upside down such that the key goes in with bitting facing down, then the pins are sitting on top of the springs and may compress down over a period of years. A fatigued spring might not raise the pins to the shear line (the level needed for the lock cylinder to turn) and you'll be locked out.
It seems that most door installers and handymen don't follow any convention about up or down when installing locks.
I don't order my keys at all. All mine are on a carabiner, for maximum flexibility, it's modular. I'm not taking anything but my front door key for a dog walk, for example. All my separate keys have individual clips too.
The idea is to only have the keys I need for a particular journey.
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Is that so? My intuition is that it should depend on the side of the door the lock is mounted on. Most locks I have seen open by turning them away from the side where the latch is on, to move the bolt in the direction it is being turned, and that feels pretty natural to me. Isn't that the norm?
My apartment key opens 7 different locks, 1 of which opens clockwise, 5 counterclockwise, and 1 I don't know right now because it isn't actually mounted on a door and doesn't move a bolt.
Some don't, and it pisses me off every time.
• Get some small magnets. I used these 8 mm diameter 1mm thick disk magnets [1].
• Attach one to each key near the hole for the keyring. Orient the magnets so the each is attracted to the magnets on the neighboring keys.
When hanging on your keyring your keys will then form one unit which won't jangle.
You want magnets that are strong enough to attract through the keys. If yours need a little help you could try putting a magnet on each side of the key.
I held them on by wrapping some tape around the key.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071XNRF2D
I'm fairly meh about it, largely because I don't think it's good value. It was pretty hard for me to spend $60 on a keyring, and the knife is also fairly meh (I prefer locking+spring assisted opening knives for EDC). Also their "Key return service" is fairly meh; not really looking forward to another $4.99 service charge every year that I have to manage, when paying $60 for this thing.
Another company, KeySmart, has a similar device and it's more compact but doesn't do the "attachments" thing, so you'd carry a knife if you wanted that. They have one that has Tile finding device built in, as long as you remember to charge it. I had one for ~4 years with a Tile device attached to it, that had a dead battery for 90% of the time I had it.
I'd be tempted to get one of the smaller key organizers with an AirTag holder and set up a little magsafe charging setup that I could just drop my keys into.
I mostly don't lose my keys very often, but once in the last decade I dropped them while taking the kids around the neighborhood trick-or-treating and I don't want to repeat that experience, mostly because I keep a couple office keys on my ring.
Car keys don’t though, as far as I can remember.
Having a symmetrical key isn't something that I even cared about but I suppose it's a bonus.
Having a symmetrical key isn't something that I even care about but I suppose it's a bonus.
It was after a painful deadlock situation that we initially retro-fitted an electronic lock into the old front door which we carried over to the new door once we renovated the entire floor.
* If/When the battery dies, does the lock default to locked setting? I assume so, but how annoying would this be?
* Being a privacy nut, does the lock come with a pre-determined code, or can you generate your own? I assume you should be able to create your own, but figuried I'd ask.
Instead of answering my questions, if you have an online reference that you might have used to decide going this route, would be great if you could share. Thanks!
Typically, the home locks are just actuated mechanical locks. So the lock will stay in whatever state it was when the battery died. If you want to get into commercial-grade locks, there are magnetic locks that can be configured to fail open or close on power loss.
Anyway, the battery is not a big deal. I have a Kwikset lock with a ZigBee module, it runs on 4 AAA batteries. I switched to Li-ion rechargables several years ago, and they last for about 6 months between recharges with moderate door use. It's even longer if the lock is not used often.
And the lock starts beeping annoyingly after opening/closing when the batteries get down to 30%, giving you plenty of time to replace them.
> * Being a privacy nut, does the lock come with a pre-determined code, or can you generate your own?
You always can set your own combinations. And there are biometric locks.
It auto locks after each use but no confirmation the door was closed and secured correctly.
The Yale mentioned above will gladly auto-lock with the door still open and it will report as locked in the app. Not to bad if you know you closed the door but by just looking in the app someone might have left it open and it "locked" itself.
It will say it wouldn't lock, if say the door was partially closed and the bolt couldn't move.
I'm assuming another component needs to be in the door well to detect the bolt.
Anyone know any consumer level smart devices that do this?
After that I replaced it with a plain old mechanical lock. Never again touching any smart home crap.
I'm sure I didn't use the wrong code three times, something must have happened the 2nd/3rd times like a key didn't get pressed hard enough to register. But regardless, the lesson is there's a bunch of possible failure scenarios you won't think of.
It’s why I like the system from Ubiquiti, but it lacks certain features (Apple nfc keys) that make it not worth the cost for me.
I have a car, a father, and an office.
If I do upgrade, possibly use the system from Ubiquiti since I already have most of their equipment
Yes, always
>2. Order your keys clockwise based on the direction of entry.
Eh, I guess. Depends how many you have and what they're like. I have two nearly identical keys, and the rest (car, mail) require no time to find due to their size. In this scenario, I generally find that sorting keys by physical size makes the ring/carabiner feel more comfortable. That being said, I find the related suggestion to "Drill holes in your keys" <https://practicalbetterments.com/drill-holes-in-your-keys/> a more worthwhile solution to item 2.
All facing the same direction is just ... I mean ... if anyone here doesn't do that ... I don't even ... I gotta wash my hands ...
The downside to this is if your locks are cheapo pin tumbler locks then if an attacker steals the lock itself it is trivial for them to take your lock apart and reverse engineer a key that works in all your other locks (think crazy ex or wacko, rather than burglar.)
If you key your mailbox padlock and your front door alike and the wacko steals the padlock, they can take it home and figure out the code to your house.
My home has three entry points, one with a porch, and all four doors have keyed alike locks. It’s great!
Seconded!
If you aren't up to rekeying locks yourself it is an easy job for a locksmith and shouldn't be too expensive.
If rekeying isn't sufficient because your locks use different shaped keys and so you'll have to get at least some new locks to put everything on a common key, and you are up to doing lock replacements yourself (which unless you've got unusual locks is usually one of the easiest DIY projects), I'd consider using Kwikset SmartKey for the new locks.
Despite what the name suggests these are not electronic locks. They are entirely mechanical, using a normal key. They came out in 2007 before "Smart" had become associated with shoving microprocessors into places they don't belong.
If you want to rekey a SmartKey lock you simply take the current key, insert it, rotate 90° clockwise, insert a tool Kwikset provides through a little hole in the front to press a button, and that releases the key so you can remove it without having to rotate the cylinder back to 0°. Then you can put in a different key, rotate the cylinder 180° counter-clockwise, then back to 0° and remove that key.
The lock is now rekeyed to that second key.
So, just buy your news locks from Home Depot or Lowe's without having to worry about getting locks that are keyed to the same key, install them, look at all the keys they came with and pick which one you want to be the common key, and then go around and rekey them all to that using the procedure described above.
Keep the other keys. They can be useful if you have a guest stay over (assuming you have more than one door to your house). Rekey one of the doors to one of those other keys and give that to the guest. When they leave you can rekey back to your common key.
Kwikset also makes SmartKey padlocks if you want to go all in on the one key thing.
It is left as an exercise to the imagination as to when it an attacker might find advantage in:
being less than: as well as solving a similar inequality for the probability of being caught in both scenarios.There's a technical reason why "bitting up" (teeth up) should be the standard way to install pin tumbler locks. If the bitting faces up, the pins in the lock are directly above the bitting, and the springs are above the pins and not being compressed by the weight of the pins. If the lock is installed upside down such that the key goes in with bitting facing down, then the pins are sitting on top of the springs and may compress down over a period of years. A fatigued spring might not raise the pins to the shear line (the level needed for the lock cylinder to turn) and you'll be locked out.
It seems that most door installers and handymen don't follow any convention about up or down when installing locks.
The idea is to only have the keys I need for a particular journey.