The Locking Systems on PVC Front Doors
PVC doors are used quite often as the main entrance door to your home. Many surveys undertaken over the years show that burglars will more than likely try to gain access into your home via the front main door. For this reason it’s vitally important to have adequate security by way of locking systems fitted to your PVC front doors.
Most UPVC front doors manufactured these days are fitted with multipoint locking systems. As the name suggests the lock engages with keepers in the frame at multiple points.
Locking the system involves two operations. The first is the upward movement of the handles which in turn slides a metal strip on the edge of the door. This strip is fitted with protruding bolts and hooks that engage with the keepers positioned on the door frame. This action will also shoot bolts from the top and bottom of the door into the frame making the door very secure. The second operation is activating the key cylinder that when engaged will prevent the handles from turning downwards thus disengaging the main locking bolts.
The multipoint locking system which is generally a very secure system is only as good as the key cylinder that is fitted. Burglars over recent years have found a way to overcome the key cylinder in order to gain access to the main locking system within and open the door. One method that has been used successfully is ‘cylinder snapping’. By using simple household tools such as vice grips the attacker can grab hold of the cylinder face and literary snap it off. An internal flaw in the cylinder allows the cylinder to be snapped in the middle when forced and easily removed. With the outer section removed a screw driver can be used to poke out the inner section of the cylinder. This leaves clear access to the inner workings of the lock mechanism and opening the door is easy.
Because of this inherent flaw in the cylinders, the race was on between the various manufacturers to produce new cylinders that cannot be snapped off. The new cylinder had to have the same profile as the older type allowing retro replacement of the older cylinders in older doors.
So when installing new doors to your home make sure the new key cylinders are anti-snap type.
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