Why Deadbolts are the Best Locks for your Home
Of course, it’s important to effectively provide dependable security for your home, at a reasonable cost. If you’re shopping for the right locks for your place of residence, you’ll soon find that there’s a nearly endless selection of various types of locks. You may feel like it’s impossible to know what to choose. But you can at least narrow it down to the fact that, by and large, most locksmith professionals agree that deadbolts are your best bet.
Deadbolts truly are typically viewed by most expert locksmiths as one of the safest and most secure ways to provide home protection. The reason they’re called “dead” is because they lack springs to operate the bolt; that is, a deadbolt is operated manually, with a key or a thumbturn.
Residential locksmith specialists recommend that you install deadbolts on all your external doors. There are numerous deadbolts to choose from. The most common are: single-cylinder, double-cylinder, jimmy-proof, and lockable thumbturn.
- A single-cylinder deadbolt lock is the standard deadbolt we commonly imagine, used on wooden or solid metal doors. There is a key cylinder on the outside, with a thumbturn on the inside to open or close it. The one disadvantage to a single-cylinder deadbolt is that if there’s any possible access to the inside (such as through a nearby window, or even through your peephole), then the door can be opened using the thumbturn.
- A remedy for this challenge is the double-cylinder deadbolt. It has a key cylinder on the inside of the door as well as on the outside. This means that if it’s locked, the double-cylinder always requires a key to open the door from the inside. It’s ideal if your door has any glass, or if your door has a window nearby, because it prevents an intruder from breaking the glass and reaching in to unlock the door. Its downside is that in case of fire, it’s a bad idea. Therefore, if you install this kind of deadbolt, then make sure you always leave a key on the inside whenever people are there, so everyone will be able to make a fast exit safely in an emergency.
- A jimmy-proof deadbolt is a surface-mount lock, most often found on double doors and at apartment buildings. A surface-mount lock means that the lock screws into the inside of the door, rather than with a complex drill pattern, the way a standard deadbolt does. A jimmy-proof deadbolt is popular because of the minimal door modifications required. In this unique style of deadbolt lock, the deadbolt interlocks with the jamb bracket, which prevents it from easily being pulled apart or from being forced open from the outside.
- The lockable thumbturn deadbolt is the deadbolt that provides maximum security and flexibility. It basically combines the features of the single-cylinder with the double-cylinder deadbolt. It has a thumbturn on the inside, which works like a regular single-cylinder deadbolt, yet it can be locked with a key, so that it can’t lock or unlock the door. This means that the thumbturn can be left in an unlocked position when people are at home, but it will operate just like a single-cylinder deadbolt. When everyone’s away, especially if it’s for an extended period of time, the thumbturn can be easily locked, so that even if a burglar manages to gain access to your door from the inside, the deadbolt can’t be unlocked.
