Our house currently has 4 doors with a knob and deadbolt. Front door, back door, door to the garage, garage to the back yard. The people who renovated this house, didn't bother to ensure they all match. So there are 4 million keys in the junk drawer.
I'd like to buy 4 matching sets of door knob/deadbolt, that are the "smart key" or whatever, so I can rekey them to use our existing front door key.
I wanted to upgrade to Grade 1 deadbolts, but I'm striking out on finding a matching pair. Is a Grade 1 even worth it for a residential home? I don't have any of those burly door reinforcements, but was planning on at least taking the strike plate for the knob and deadbolt, and driving in 3" screws to help with resistance to being kicked in.
Please show me mercy and point me in the right direction.
Duke
MegaDork
6/23/20 4:02 p.m.
I don't think I'd bother with Grade 1 hardware for a house. There are so many other weak points to break in that overkilling the deadbolts isn't really going to help. You want to keep out the casual door kicker. Anybody who really wants to get in is getting in.
If you buy all new knobs and deadbolts made by the same manufacturer as the key you want to match, the hardware store should be able to re-bit them all to match your existing key for a nominal charge.
Is this a good time to throw out all your existing keys are cut loose any unknowns that may be floating around the world at large? Pick one of your new sets and have the hardware store folks re-bit them all to match that one.
My first house had two doors, two lockable doorknobs, two deadbolts, and four keys. First stop was new knobs and deadbolts and one key.
Here is something I plan when I change my front door.......
A 3rd , in the lower corner pointing down deadbolt.........
Steel toe boots might be able to kick it in after a lot of work........
z31maniac said:
I don't have any of those burly door reinforcements, but was planning on at least taking the strike plate for the knob and deadbolt, and driving in 3" screws to help with resistance to being kicked in.
Careful with this. You have to drive them in juuuuuust far enough, or you will actually suck the door jamb in toward the framing. Unless you take off the jamb trim and shim the area where you will be putting the screws.
Kwikset sells locks that you can rekey yourself.
Basically, buy all the locks you need and a small tool comes with each package to reset the tumblers to match all locks. HD carries these.
Or have a locksmith come rekey them.
68TR250 said:
Or have a locksmith come rekey them.
As rusty mentioned, they sell locks that come with a little tool to rekey them. I used it at my past home, but I didn't know anything about different grades of deadbolts back then.
No need to pay someone to do it.
I just bought knobs & deadbolts for the place I'm closing on next week. Kwikset "smartkey (self rekey feature)" 980 series deadbolts with matching style/color keyed knobs for 3 doors and Kwikset electronic (but no bluetooth or wifi) keypad "smartkey" with a knob that has no key for the fourth door. That way all the locks can be rekeyed by me to have a single key and one door has the passcode deadbolt with the same key as the backup in case of battery failure. This way I can go out and roam about without a key if needed and no worries about somebody (probably me) accidentally locking the knob on me. I can also set up to 11 additional codes and let somebody use one to enter while I'm not home if needed. I figure the first couple of months I won't be living there and will have tradesmen in & out so I don't want to have to drive over (45 minutes one way from my current place) every time somebody needs to get in or screws up and locks the knob.
Edited to correct "smart lock" to "smartkey" which is the Harry Homeowner self rekey feature. The "smart lock" feature is their term for electronic locks...
secretariata (Forum Supporter) said:
I just bought knobs & deadbolts for the place I'm closing on next week. Kwikset "smart lock (self rekey feature)" 980 series deadbolts with matching style/color keyed knobs for 3 doors and Kwikset electronic (but no bluetooth or wifi) keypad "smart lock" with a knob that has no key for the fourth door. That way all the locks can be rekeyed by me to have a single key and one door has the passcode deadbolt with the same key as the backup in case of battery failure. This way I can go out and roam about without a key if needed and no worries about somebody (probably me) accidentally locking the knob on me. I can also set up to 11 additional codes and let somebody use one to enter while I'm not home if needed. I figure the first couple of months I won't be living there and will have tradesmen in & out so I don't want to have to drive over (45 minutes one way from my current place) every time somebody needs to get in or screws up and locks the knob.
Can you rekey the door knob as well as the deadbolt? Wasn't clear from the page I looked at.
I'm assuming yes?
z31maniac said:
secretariata (Forum Supporter) said:
I just bought knobs & deadbolts for the place I'm closing on next week. Kwikset "smart lock (self rekey feature)" 980 series deadbolts with matching style/color keyed knobs for 3 doors and Kwikset electronic (but no bluetooth or wifi) keypad "smart lock" with a knob that has no key for the fourth door. That way all the locks can be rekeyed by me to have a single key and one door has the passcode deadbolt with the same key as the backup in case of battery failure. This way I can go out and roam about without a key if needed and no worries about somebody (probably me) accidentally locking the knob on me. I can also set up to 11 additional codes and let somebody use one to enter while I'm not home if needed. I figure the first couple of months I won't be living there and will have tradesmen in & out so I don't want to have to drive over (45 minutes one way from my current place) every time somebody needs to get in or screws up and locks the knob.
Can you rekey the door knob as well as the deadbolt? Wasn't clear from the page I looked at.
I'm assuming yes?
Yes. Generally speaking, any Schlage or Kwikset lock (knob or deadbolt) that you buy at the hardware store can be rekeyed using the rekeying set they sell there too. Typically they come with enough pins to do a half dozen locks along with at least one key that matches, you can have the store make copies of that one key for you.
So if the house has all Kwikset or all Schlage, all you need is the right keying kit. If you've got a mixture of brands you'll need to replace some of them to match the others. IME the cutouts in the doors are not exactly the same between the two brands, so you may not be able to easily swap one into the hole for the other.
In reply to z31maniac :
The Kwikset knobs and deadbolts with the "smartkey" feature all have the ability for the owner to rekey without a locksmith or additional parts (except additional keys). They have a small slot to the left of the key slot where the tool goes, so it is easy to see if a lock has the "smartkey" feature. Takes less than 30 seconds to rekey a lock once you have the existing working key, the tool, and the new key in hand. If you buy multiple locks at the hardware store, just get ones with different key codes so you have multiple key options. Each lock generally comes with 2 keys. Link below has info on how to rekey including a video.
https://www.kwikset.com/smartkey-security
In reply to secretariata (Forum Supporter) :
Cool! Senior mind blown!. I used to re-key locksets in the 90's when I worked at HD, but haven't messed with it since I left there in 2000. I guess I am behind the times. I just found out this week that you can txt yourself instead of writing yourself notes. Cool stuff.
In reply to secretariata (Forum Supporter) :
Excellent, I've used them before. But it was some super fancy lockset on a fancy new front door I had installed at my old home.
Guess I'll be spending a few hundred on new knobs/deadbolts for the whole house this weekend.
Wow. I don't know where the keys to my house are. Wonder if they work ....
The key to my house is the garage door opener. Have no freakin' clue where the key to the actual door is.
Shadeux (Forum Supporter) said:
The key to my house is the garage door opener. Have no freakin' clue where the key to the actual door is.
That's the way we come in 99.9% of the time.
I have the (not cheap) answer!!! Do yourself a huge favor and get electronic deadbolts or door handles!
they are unbelievable. You will never need keys again and will never lock yourself out.
hands down the best $100 we have ever spent. I didn't want internet or Bluetooth capable or anything complicated. Just a keypad that works. Batteries last forever and let you know when they start getting weak.
super easy to let aomeone in if they need to get in while you're gone.
In reply to jfryjfry (Forum Supporter) :
I considered it, but it's not worth the price to me since we rarely use the doors to come in. Literally a couple of times per year.
No kids or family in OKC, so the only people to let in while we're gone would be a service person (plumber/HVAC/etc) and I setup my schedule to be here if I need work done.
STM317
UltraDork
6/25/20 9:09 a.m.
I ordered new Schlage sets from build.com a year or two ago and they came keyed the same FYI, but I can't remember if that required a small upcharge or not. Might be worth checking, as they had options that my local stores didn't.
In reply to STM317 :
Nice, thanks for the suggestion!
In reply to jfryjfry (Forum Supporter) :
Yeah, I got one of those on the way, found it for $77 shipped. Kwikset 915, which I think may be discontinued because everyone wants Bluetooth or wifi to be hackable I guess. But it has the smartkey feature also, so they will all use the same key still and both places will use the same key until I sell the current one. I figure th electronic deadbolt will go on the most frequently used door with a knob that has no lock.
STM317 said:
I ordered new Schlage sets from build.com a year or two ago and they came keyed the same FYI, but I can't remember if that required a small upcharge or not. Might be worth checking, as they had options that my local stores didn't.
Looks like no extra charge to have them all keyed the same.
Yeah, the keypad ones are pretty trick... I liked that Schlage ones we had at the old house. A nice feature of them is you can set it to auto-lock after X time, so you don't have to try to remember if you locked the side door into the garage.
Shadeux (Forum Supporter) said:
The key to my house is the garage door opener. Have no freakin' clue where the key to the actual door is.
This is really bad. It's an invitation to thieves.
Everyone keeps their garage door opener on top of their visor. Everyone keeps their registration in their glovebox, which shows their home address.
It's super easy for a thief to snatch your remote from your car and check your address, then head over to clean out your house while you are at the grocery store.
