Most locks people think are broken are not. Roughly speaking: if it works with the door open, the fault is the door. If a spare key fixes it, the fault is the key. If it is stiff on both keys with the door open, the cylinder needs cleaning. Only wobble, pitting and shearing mean the…
If the key turns all the way but the door stays shut, the cylinder has done its job and something after it has failed — a sheared tailpiece, a disconnected spindle, a bolt jammed in the strike, or a second lock you have forgotten is thrown. The good news is the pins are fine, so…
A door that won’t latch is almost never a lock fault. The latch and the strike hole have stopped lining up, usually because the frame has moved, the hinges have sagged, or the door has swollen. The lipstick test finds the misalignment in about two minutes and tells you which way to move the strike….
A lock that feels loose is usually loose fixings, a worn spindle or chassis, or a door that has swollen and pulled the hardware out of line. Of the three, only one is a five-minute fix with a screwdriver. The other two mean the hardware is at the end of its life — and unlike…
A key that goes in easily but fights on the way out is nearly always a worn key, a cylinder full of grit, or a plug that isn’t returning fully to its rest position. It is a warning, not a fault. Keys that stick coming out are the ones that snap off a fortnight later….
A deadbolt that won’t turn is nearly always one of three things: grit and corrosion inside the cylinder, a bolt binding against a strike that has moved, or a worn key that no longer matches the pins. The lock itself is rarely the problem. Forcing it is how a stiff lock becomes a snapped key….
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