Since starting my web-site over two years ago I have received many phone calls and emails from all over the country. The most asked question I get is, “where can I buy that “Dixie” lock you have on your web-site?”

To review, the “Dixie” lock was invented by a man named Sid, who owned the Dixie Lock Company in Miami. The lock is often called the “Sid” lock also. “Dixie” is now the trade name for this lock, I don’t believe the Dixie Lock Company is in business anymore. The lock I sell now is made by a company called Sentry, and the lock is called the “Sentry Door Lock Guard.”

Usually this lock is only sold through your local locksmiths. You will not find this sliding patio lock in the big box stores. Also the Sentry Door Lock Guard will not come with installation instructions. The lock is intended to be installed by the locksmith or security professional. The greatest risk for the novice installer, although it is small, is breaking the glass. This could ruin your day. It is best to hire a competent locksmith with plenty of practice to install any lock.

In New Jersey where I started my locksmith career, sliding patio doors were not built to the greatest standards. Many doors could be lifted out of the track and removed, even though the door was locked. The biggest advantage to those older doors was only one door slid open, the other door was anchored in place. These doors could be locked with a broom stick or dowel cut to length and dropped in the track. We installed many other locks designed for patio doors, but never the “Dixie” lock.

When I started working in Florida I was introduced to the “Dixie” lock. In south Florida most sliding patio doors bypass each other. In others words, both doors move. Dropping a stick in the track will only lock one sliding door. The best way to lock these doors is to lock one door against the other. The “Dixie” lock did this more simply and effective than anything on the market, and it still does.

Sliding patio doors in south Florida were made better than doors in New Jersey. The doors in Florida had an inter-locking channel which locked the outside door to the inside door when the doors were fully closed. This inter-locking channel also created a better weather seal. Also, each door locked into a weather resistant groove which does a good job of keeping the elements out and the air-conditioning in.

You might be thinking a concrete block could be thrown through the glass and all the locks by-passed. This is true, by in my 37 years I have only seen this done twice. There are products available that install like window tint to deter the large rock or sledge hammer attack. I believe the sliding door is so easy to pry open that breaking the glass is not necessary in most cases.

The security problem with sliding patio doors in Florida is the “catch.” The “catch” is the piece the door lock hooks into. This major piece of the doors security is made of cast pot-metal. Under the stress of a burglars crowbar or big screwdriver the “catch” will break apart. The door slides open and the bad guys go on their rampage of dumping every drawer and tearing apart every bed looking for hiding places of cash and jewelry. If there is an alarm, the crooks are gone way before any police can respond. Alarms are good, but the lock is your first line of defense against burglars, vandals and home invasions.

Remember, this lock can be purchased from and installed by your local locksmith. To find a locksmith in your area visit: www.findalocksmith.com

Local building codes always call for exit devices in places of assembly. In this blog I will use “exit device” and “panic bar” interchangeably. Schools, churches, movie theaters and any building where people may assemble require clearly marked Exit doors and exit hardware.

The panic bar is the name more commonly known by the general public. A panic bar is mounted on a door about 42 inches from the floor and spans across the width of the door. The object of the panic bar is to give the occupants unobstructed egress from a building using one pushing motion. The Exit door must swing out of the building and be clearly marked with a lighted Exit sign above the door. Many schools chain and padlock the exit devices at night after the building is unoccupied. This special allowance is usually granted to the schools by the local Fire Marshall because double-doors with panic bars are easy to break into. You should never see chained exit devices while a school building is occupied. It is also illegal to install a deadbolt lock above an existing panic bar, this is a flagrant violation of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 101 Life Safety Code and puts occupants at risk for injury or death in an emergency situation.

A few years ago I worked at a church where a panic bar was installed in the back door near the administration offices. The panic bar was installed on a residential door. The exit device did meet the Life Safety Code, but the door was not designed to support the heavy piece of hardware. There were continual problems of the exit device becoming loose on the door which lead to security problems and just general function problems. Finally the bar stopped latching, which is a security issue. I was called in to fix the panic bar when no one else could figure out what was wrong. The exit device was a good brand, but also obsolete. A replacement bar or parts could no longer be purchased. Other brand exit devices of equal quality would cost $500-$900, plus the outside handle and labor.

I questioned how much foot traffic went through the back door and discovered only the office personnel used the door to enter and exit the building during working hours. With this in mind I suggested a light duty panic bar which would meet the Life Safety Code and the church’s budget.

I covered the existing mounting holes with large push plates, this gave the new panic bar a new flat surface to mount onto. The church wanted the outside handle, “always locked.” No one can enter the back of the building unless they have a key. During Sunday School or other church functions the inside bar can be “dogged down,” which simply means the door will remain unlocked because the latch stays retracted. This also saves wear and tear on the moving parts of the exit device. The light duty panic bar cost about $250. The outside handle, push plates and labor brought the total job to around $500. A heavy duty panic bar would cost over twice that amount, but if the door is a high traffic door the high cost more than justifies itself.

Knowing the Life Safety Code and the traffic volume of the door are key to selecting the right exit device for the job. To find a competent legitimate locksmith in your area go to: www.findalocksmith.com

Another source of legitimate locksmiths and safe technicians is: www.clearstar.com

Electronic push button safe locks (e-locks) have been around since the early 90’s. The goal of the e-lock was to combat lazy employees from “day-locking” the safe during business hours. Day-locking is still used to this day, but usually involves a key locking dial. When a safe is opened the dial normally stops around 86 on the dial. If the dial is rotated back to zero, the Bolt Control Handle (BCH) which opens the safe door will lock. Turn the dial back to 86 and the BCH will unlock. Some dials are key locking and allow the dial to be locked at the zero position.

If a business handled a lot of cash and most of the employees knew the safe was “day-locked,” it was only a matter of time before cash went missing. The e-lock ensured the safe was completely locked when the door was closed and the handle thrown in the locked position. Convenience and ease of opening the safe were by-products of solving a bigger problem, employee theft.

One the earliest e-locks was called the Smart-Guard. The Smart-Guard could be programmed to speak 5 different languages, audit up to 50 different users, store up to 500 events and could also be programmed with a Time Lock and Delayed Access Timer. The lock could even send a silent alarm.

The whole reason for locks with all these features is to narrow down who took the cash. Only people with codes could gain access, and the lock kept an audit of day and time each time someone opened the lock.

Many e-locks were sold on safes because they are much easier to open than mechanical locks. Mechanical locks require memorizing dialing sequences, four times right, three times left and so on. The e-lock allowed the end-user to push buttons, like dialing a phone number. The safe can be opened and locked again quickly, many times during the day.

The problem with e-locks then and now is the same. Lock failure can happen without warning and usually requires the safe be drilled open to gain access. This also means a hole in the safe has to be repaired and a new lock purchased and installed. This can be expensive, but the inconvenience of not getting cash or inventory out of the safe may cost you sales and income.

The SecuRam Xtreme is an electromechanical redundant lock. The lock can be opened by entering a six number combination into the keypad. If the electronics fail, the lock can be dialed open just like any mechanical safe lock. You should never be locked out because of a malfunction.

There are many reason’s why you may not be able to open your safe today. The first question I would ask is has the safe been getting harder to open over the course of a few days, weeks or months. Many times the caller volunteers this information, “the combination has to be dialed in several times before it unlocks.” Sometimes the lockout is sudden, which usually indicates the lock was abused by a burglar or one of the safe’s operators. However, the usual suspect in either scenario is neglect.

Most jewelry store sales people or fast food restaurant managers have no idea what is happening inside the safe lock when they are dialing in the combination. And to some degree sales people and managers don’t really need to know how a safe lock works, they just need to know how to open the safe to access inventory, cash or both. However, people responsible for opening the safe should know the lock in the safe is a mechanical device. Like most other mechanical devices (like a car) regular maintenance is required to keep things running smoothly and efficiently.

I had to drill open a safe for a jewelry store one day. The owner of the store said he had been opening the safe for thirty years without any trouble until the morning I was called. I asked the owner if he had ever had the safe serviced? The answer was no. The lock finally wore out and created a lock out, which in this case, inventory could not be accessed to sell and repaired jewelry could not be ready for customer pick-up. The store’s income for the day was zero, even though customers were walking in and ready to spend $$$!

Most of the lock outs I encounter could have been prevented by calling in a safe technician or locksmith trained in working on safes every 18 to 24 months to have the safe lock serviced and the bolt works checked for loose screws, nuts and bolts.

Usually the safe operator can tell when something is not quite right. The combination may have to be to dialed in several times before the safe opens. I had some postal workers a while ago who had a system of kicking the dial after the combination was dialed in. I was told it usually took five kicks before the safe would unlock. Now you don’t need to be trained in safe servicing to know there is a major problem when the safe has to be kicked to open. I was finally called in after each employee took their turn kicking the dial without any results. I was able to open the safe without drilling, but the lock had to be replaced. Lucky for them, drilling a postal safe would have run well over $1000.00.

My point in this blog is to bring attention to a piece of equipment that needs regular maintenance, but is too often neglected because of ignorance. Servicing a safe is much like cleaning a watch or other fine time piece. The lock is disassembled, all the parts are wiped clean of old grease and then re-assembled and tested. Broken, cracked or severely worn parts can be replaced before they can create a crisis. In some cases, Group 1 locks often used in high security jewelry safes should be completely replaced every 5 to 10 years, even if they are serviced at regular intervals.

This blog mostly applies to safes with mechanical locks, but even safes with electronic locks have bolt works, linkages and other moving parts which can fall apart over time. The most common problem with electronic locks is the battery. The battery should be changed every six months when the clocks change twice a year. It is recommended you change the batteries in your smoke detectors when the clocks fall back or spring ahead one hour. Your safe lock battery gets a lot more use than a smoke detector battery. When you change the battery make sure you purchase Duracell copper top batteries and make sure you purchase your batteries at a mass-merchandiser store with a high battery turn over. This will ensure you get the freshest batteries available. You do not want drug store or grocery store batteries where batteries sit on the shelf for months or years before they are sold.

If you own a safe don’t put off having your safe serviced sooner than later. It can save you time and money in the long run.

Recently I worked at two homes where the front doors had a door closer installed to meet a life safety ordinance. The door closer insures the front door will close and prevent a draft that might help a smoldering fire rage out of control. Door closers are usually spring driven devices mounted at the top of a door. The device is filled with hydraulic fluid and the closing speed is adjusted with valves which allow the hydraulic fluid to move between chambers in the device.

Many times the garage door on a home will have spring loaded hinges. These hinges are considered door closers and insure the garage door will not be left open, allowing a draft to move through a room where combustible liquids are stored.

As I was working in these two homes repairing locks, I let go of the front door after entering the home and I was startled by a “SLAMM!” I asked the home owner if the slamming door bothered them, it certainly bothered me! “Oh, yes,” would be the reply, “but we don’t know how to make the door close slower. The door has always closed like that since we lived here X number of months or years.”

Spring loaded hinges have very little adjustments. A Door closer however, has at least two valves for controlling how fast the door will close. Some door closers have four or more adjustments that will control the door opening and closing. I will cover the adjustments you are most likely to encounter.

The first and simplest adjustment is “power.” Spring loaded hinges allow the installer to adjust how hard the door will close with a locking pin. When the door is closed, a special spanner wrench is used to tighten the spring. The spring is locked in place with a locking pin. If the hinge is never adjusted these pins can fall out and become lost. A spring hinge without a locking pin is just a hinge, nothing more. The point is, the spring controls the power, or how much force is applied to the door to close and latch the door.

The next adjustment on a door closer is the “sweep speed.” The sweep speed of the door covers fully open to about six inches from fully closed. Many times door closers have two valves numbered “1” and “2.” Number “1” is the sweep speed, turning the valve clockwise (CW) will slow the door down. The valve may require a regular screw driver or a hex key (sizes of hex keys vary between manufacturers). Turning the valve counter-clockwise (CCW) will open the valve and increase door speed. NEVER REMOVE THE VALVE from the door closer. If you do hydraulic fluid will pour out all over the door and your clothes. Sometimes the sweep speed and latching speeds are controlled with the same valve. These are usually on very cheap commercial door closers. I will not take the time to explain this complicated valve and how to adjust it here.

The number “2” valve on the door closer is the latching speed which controls the last six inches of the door fully closing and latching. You would adjust this valve the same as the sweep speed valve. The door from fully open to fully closed should take about seven seconds. Normally the door closes pretty quick until the last six inches. The six inches before fully closed should be controlled and slow to prevent little fingers from becoming trapped and possibly crushed.

Slamming doors can cause injury. Slamming doors will always vibrate hardware screws loose, usually the hinge screws. Loose screws can prevent doors from operating smoothly. The door may need to be pulled or pushed very hard to open. The locking hardware may be loose and very close to falling off the door. I recently heard one story where the door closer arm fell off the door and hit a customer in the head, ouch!

Ignorance of how a door should operate can lead to injury and a breach in security. Don’t ignore the warning signs and think the door has always worked this way, or the door will correct itself as it wears a groove into the threshold. Doors that are hard to open, close, lock or unlock should be checked out before a bigger problem arises.

The fourth adjustment on a better quality door closer is the back-check. Remember back to your grammar school days, when the clock would hit dismissal time, or the bell would ring for last period and the throng of youngsters would push the school doors open with a thrust of abandon? Did you ever wonder why the doors did not bounce off the walls and injure kids or damage the doors? The reason is the back-check. There is a valve in the door closer which takes over when the door is opening and gets to about 100 degrees. The back-check valve works like a brake and when properly adjusted brings the door to a cushy stop.

The fifth adjustment is a delayed-closing speed for handicapped openings. You will NOT encounter this adjustment on your home door closer. There are other mechanical adjustments which have to do with the closer arm and specific installation locations which deal with how far the door will swing, for example, 90 degrees as opposed to 180 degrees. Other considerations deal with the door opening out or opening in.

Your main concern is a slamming door. Your best option is to call a professional locksmith who has experience installing and adjusting door closers. If you are in Palm Beach County, Florida your best choice is Gater’s Locksmith, Inc. If you live anywhere else you can find a competent locksmith at: www.findalocksmith.com

Another good source for finding a locksmith in your area is: www.clearstar.com

Recently I received an email from a reader who had a question about a burgled home. The reader wanted to know if a stronger lock could be purchased for the front door which was kicked-in. I was sent some photos and given permission to use them in my blog.

When the break-in was first described to me I thought the lock bolt had bent on a 45 degree angle, which allowed the thieves to gain entry. I have seen this before with cheaper locks, where the bolt not only bends but is completely ripped out of the door. However when I saw the photo of the lock in the door it was obvious to me the break-in was the result of complete door failure. The door cracked under the duress and allowed the lock bolt to bend on a 45 degree angle.

This may have been prevented by installing a wrap-a-round plate with the deadbolt lock. Personally, I would not have recommended a wrap-plate with this door. The door looks strong enough on it’s own, and the wrap-plate may not look so good on the front door of the house. However, in this case I would have been wrong. The door looks strong, but in reality was only layers of synthetic material which simulated a wood door.

The wrap-a-round plate was first introduced by the MAG manufacturing company back in the 1970’s. Recently MAG ceased operations and the only company I know that makes wrap-plates is the Don-Jo Manufacturing Co. Don-Jo makes a wide variety of wrap-a-round plates for any combination of door thickness, back-set and desired color.

The wrap-a-round plate is an inexpensive way to repair a cracked door. The plate holds the door together and the new lock mounts on the plate. Larger plates which incorporate the knob and deadbolt can be purchased, as well as blank plates to cover over where a lock used to be.

In New Jersey where I started as a locksmith many doors between the garage and the house were thin 1 3/8 inch thick doors. The wrap-plate was necessary when installing a deadbolt on thin doors because the deadbolt requires a 1 inch hole bored through the center edge of the door. 1 3/8 inch minus 1 inch leaves 3/16 inch on each side of the lock bolt. The wrap-a-round plate (in those days we used MAG brand plates) made a weak door much stronger and allowed the deadbolt to secure the door and take abuse from burglars.

According to information I could find at the company website, the U-Change lock cylinder entered the market place in 1972. U-Change Lock Industries is now called Security Solutions. U-Change offers cylinders that retro-fit into existing locks. Their product line is mostly for commercial store front doors, but they do offer some grade 1 lever type cylinders and their own line of padlocks.

U-Change is an end user re-key-able lock cylinder. Many retail chains install U-Change cylinders to reduce the cost of changing the lock to a new key every time a manager resigns or is terminated. There are several end user re-key-able cylinders on the market, but all of them use a removable core and a “control key,” for removing the core. The retail store must keep a set of cores on hand at all times so the locks can be changed at a moments notice. The old cores are then shipped back to the lock company to be rebuilt to a new key.

U-Change does not use removable cores, but has engineered the tumblers inside their cylinder to be re-settable an infinite number of times. Instead of keeping spare cores on hand, the retailer just needs a new set of keys on hand and a “change tool.” When the locks are changed the old keys are just thrown away and a new set of keys can be ordered. Keys are less expensive than cores.

The U-Change key is not available anywhere. Although the U-Change key is not patent protected, the blanks are not available to hardware stores or locksmith shops. The chances of someone getting an unauthorized duplicate key is almost zero.

Sometimes managers quit at the most inconvenient time, like Friday night at 9:00 PM, or on the weekend. A user re-key-able lock system will allow another employee to re-key the locks with minimal knowledge or training. Calling a locksmith out on the weekend or at night will involve overtime charges. Locksmiths are worth every bit of what they charge, but with a little planning the locksmith expense, along with the panic and anxiety can be avoided.  

Recently I installed some U-Change cylinders for a national retailer. The cylinders work like any other lock cylinder and changing the lock to a new key is incredibly easy. U-Change cylinders are a good choice for high volume lock changes. However, U-Change does not claim their product is pick-resistant. The demands of some merchandisers may require a pick-resistant cylinder. Pick-resistant cylinders are also available in a user re-key-able format, but will always require the use of a removable core.

… when they are not installed properly. In reality deadbolts locks are your first line of defense against thieves and home invasions. Since I live in south Florida I meet many people who live in others states, but spend the winter in Palm Beach County. I still meet folks who don’t lock their doors when they go out, because they don’t lock their doors where they are from. Other people rely on the alarm system to deter the bad guys, but the alarm will only tell you someone has already broken in.

Most people however are conscious of locking their doors when they are going out or staying at home. Almost weekly I find a 1 inch deadbolt locking into a half inch deep hole. I have written about this topic before, it has become my pet peeve. I have shown home owners how I can unlock their home faster than they can get the key out of their pocket, all because the carpenter, door installation specialist, handyman or locksmith did not take the time to make sure the 1 inch deadbolt locks into a 1 inch deep hole in the door frame.

This past week I was at a home to re-key the locks after a contractor finished a remodel job. The contractor was given a key to enter the home and work if the home owners were not at home. Since the house key was very common and easily duplicated I was hired to change the locks to a new key. The door I photographed was behind the garage in a secluded area. Anyone could have opened this door with a pocket knife without being noticed. When I locked the door I felt the deadbolt bottom out in the strike hole, except the deadbolt was not fully extended to its 1 inch throw. Deadbolts that do not extend the full inch are not locked, the bolt can be pushed back into the door. The term “deadbolt” descibes the bolt when it is fully extended. The bolt is “dead,” and cannot be pushed back into the door.

Check your own doors. Open the door and throw the deadbolt, notice how far the key or thumb-turn rotates. Try to push the bolt back into the door, the bolt should not move. If you can push the bolt into the door you may need a new lock, or at least a new bolt for your lock. Now close the door and lock the deadbolt. The key or thumb-turn should rotate the same distance as when the door was open. If not your door may not be properly locked. This is easily corrected by cutting the strike hole deeper until you feel the deadbolt “click.”  Another option is to call a professional locksmith to make sure your locks are properly installed.

The Medeco lock company was the first lock company to offer a patent protected key which could not be legally duplicated without the lock owner’s knowledge. The patent protected key would have been useless if the Medeco lock were easily picked open without leaving any evidence of a breach in security. A big part of the patents were the angled cuts on the Medeco key. These angled cuts would rotate the special Medeco tumblers allowing a part in the lock called the sidebar to unlock.

The Medeco patent was challenged in court by key blank manufacturers. The result was in favor of Medeco. Although key blank manufacturers had the right to make the Medeco key blank, as soon as a locksmith cut the angled cuts into the blank the patent was violated. This nullified the market for the Medeco key blank.  Patents do expire, and the very early Medeco keys are no longer patent protected.

The most recent patent from Medeco is 2005 and will last 20 years. Even though some Medeco patents have expired, key blank manufacturers have decided not to produce many Medeco key blanks. This is mostly due to the fact that Medeco has produced many key blank millings, and there are just too many to replicate and expect a return on investment. When this is the case the Medeco key is still secure, even though the patents have expired.

This blog focuses on the pick resistance the Medeco cylinder offers. Medeco has gone to great lengths to make their product as pick resistant as possible. I will cover the basics of why the Medeco cylinder is pick resistant. There are many finely engineered features in the Medeco cylinder to thwart even the most technically advanced thief. Today’s discussion will focus on the difference between Medeco and the more common 5-pin tumbler lock which is found on most homes and businesses. Medeco does make locks, such as deadbolts and cam locks. But Medeco started out making retro-fit cylinders for locks made by other manufacturers such as Schlage, Sargent, Corbin and others. If you want to upgrade the security of your home or business there is a good chance Medeco makes a cylinder for your existing lock.

I received a call from a woman who was disappointed with her husband. She had given him the task of replacing the front door hardware. The old locks (although I did not see them) could not have worked very well. The original lock installer did not bore the lock-set holes correctly. The woman I talked too said her husband could not install the new locks and all I needed to was to come out to the house and screw the new locks into the door.

When I arrived on the job site I inspected the locks. Before I started I could see the deadbolt could not cover the locks mounting hole. I thought maybe I could just re-bore the mounting holes, but they were so far off they would never be covered up with the new hardware.

I called the customer and told her no one could install locks in her door because the holes were so erroneously bored in the wrong place. I rescheduled the job to come out and spend about four hours plugging the door and re-boring the plugs for the new locks. When I was finished the only thing needed was fresh paint.