Tips and Warnings

Burglars break into a home every 15.4 seconds according to statistics. It's the most common threat to your home security, with 67% of all burglaries through a door!

With some minor changes, you can protect your home from break-ins. One of the most common methods of entry through a door is the vulnerable euro locking cylinder and unlike cylinder snapping and drilling, cylinder lock bumping leaves no sign of a forced entry to your home.

As a consequence it can be difficult to get insurance companies to admit liability, so you really need to make sure you read the small print.

There are some simple things you can do to protect your security. It might seem obvious but many people leave themselves exposed by leaving a spare key in a really obvious place.

Burglars know all the hiding places for spare keys so be creative, or leave your key with a neighbour or friend.

 

Security Solutions

When buying doors, make sure they are fitted with strong built-in locks, try and avoid PVCu doors that are only secured by roller cams – these are reasonably easy to break into.

Multi-point locking is your best bet - offering a combination of rollers, mushrooms, hooks and bolts. For composite/timber doors bi-directional hooks offer premium multi-point locking.

For more traditional door locking a good quality BS Kitemark 5 lever mortice lock and Nightlatch will give you equivalent security.

The majority of doors in the market place offer a euro cylinder or locking barrel used in a multi-point lock as a way of securing homes.

With recent news and press articles concerning the issues of the vulnerability of the profile cylinder it’s now paramount to be aware of new ways to lock your home:

 

VECTIS PLUS – Cylinder Free Multi-Point Locking

Is a new multi-point lock solution that offers all the benefits of multi-point locking - rollers, mushrooms, hooks and bolts; but removes the vulnerable cylinder thereby overcoming all associated issues – No Cylinder, No Problem!

The Vectis lock has been designed to overcome the associated problems with cylinders by instead using levers from traditional and trusted mortice locks with anti-jemmy multiple locking points along the whole face of the door.

Approved by Secured By Design, the Vectis lock uses a traditional mortice key and bespoke handle to solution to provide the complete next generation of door lock and is the way the industry is moving forward to combat the new wave of burglar.

 

NEW INVINCIBLE CYLINDER

No matter how clever the design, standard cylinders still need a central fixing hole to secure them in place in the door. There’s 80% less metal in this area than in the front or back section of the cylinder; and it’s this lack of material that makes cylinder snapping so easy.

The new ERA Invincible cylinder addresses that area of weakness head on; by changing the shape of the cylinder base we have been able to make the area of weakness 5 times bigger than a standard cylinder.

Overall the NEW Invincible has 85% more metal than a standard double cylinder. Not only giving cylinders a fighting chance against the burglar but adding strength where it really counts. The result is a home security powerhouse.

TIP: ask your retailer about ERA 5 Star Guarantee – the ultimate home insurance guarantee linked to the performance of your door and window locks.

 

SECURITY HANDLES

A security handle can be fitted to new doors and also used to upgrade the security of existing doors.

The cylinder is protected behind the handles' backplate to prevent access to any burglar while giving access only to the key slot. When use with a 1 Star BS Kitemark Cylinder this provides a good visual deterrent to any burglar and protects against bumping, snapping, picking, drilling and extraction.

The unique shape of the backplate ensures the attacker cannot grip the handle backplate so cannot forcibly removing it from the door thereby getting access to the cylinder.

 

DOOR VIEWERS

 

Fitting a door viewer ensures that you don’t have to open the door to strangers and the addition of a door chain means that you can speak to strangers without letting them in to your home.

 

DOOR HINGES

Make sure that your door hinges are strong and are fitted with long screws. It is possible to fit hinge bolts or dog bolts, which will reinforce the hinge side of the door against attempted forced entry.

 

PATIO DOORS

Should have special locks such as push bolts fitted to them. Bolts to the top and bottom of outside doors, especially back doors, provides great added security.

 

REPLACEMENT DOORS

If you are buying replacement doors (and windows) ask your retailer to talk you through the security aspects of your new doors.

They’ll be only too happy to tell you about how great they look, and how thermally efficient they are – but remember door security is the biggest deterrent to a chance burglar – spend as much as you can afford on the locking mechanism.

And, most importantly once you’ve increased your security measures, make sure you USE THEM