Types of door locks, their main advantages and disadvantages

Various types of door locks differ in operating principle, size, degree of reliability, and quality of materials used. Let's look at the main types of locking mechanisms: hinged, overhead, crossbar, cylinder, pin - how these models differ, what advantages and disadvantages they have.

Different types of door locks Source stroylocks.com

Classification by installation method

Depending on the installation method, all locking mechanisms are divided into three main types:

• Mounted.
• Invoices.
• Mortise.

Mounted

The padlock type door lock has the lowest degree of reliability. You can hack it or tear it off its hinges with a regular crowbar. Therefore, such locking mechanisms are not used to protect housing.

However, they have their advantages - low cost and ease of use. As a rule, they are used to lock utility rooms, basements or sheds.

Mounted models are divided into the following types:

• Mushroom-shaped - the bow is fixed in one place.
• With a half-open shackle – the device body is equipped with a mechanism that holds the shackle and the key.
• Semi-closed - the locking mechanism is hidden in the body, and eyelets are provided to protect the arms.
• Closed - considered the most reliable due to the fact that the entire bow is hidden in the body.

Types of padlocks Source dvervdome.ru

Invoices

The advantage of overhead models is convenient and simple installation, which allows you to quickly install the lock without compromising the integrity of the door.

Overhead models are often used to enhance the security of entrance doors. To do this, they are installed in tandem with mortise mechanisms. They are often placed on a gate in a private yard or country house.

The simplest version of an overhead locking device is a latch, which consists of a retractable rod that is fixed in a special recess of the overhead element or the hole in the strike plate.

Overhead lock Source palladium.ru

Mortise

The most common types of door locks are mortise locks. Their installation can be carried out both in interior and entrance panels.

The advantages of mortise mechanisms are aesthetic appearance and reliability. Their cost varies depending on the quality, purpose, manufacturer, and design features. Choosing an inexpensive, yet high-quality mortise lock is not difficult. The main thing is to know how different models differ, which have advantages and disadvantages.

Their main disadvantage is the difficulty of self-installation. When purchasing, you need to pay attention to the size of the lock and the thickness of the door leaf.

Mortise lock Source akson.ru

Locks by purpose

Although all locks for entrance doors are designed to protect the premises from unauthorized access, the functionality of the locking device may vary. This affects ease of use.

Fixing-locking

Such a lock is often called “lower” in a professional environment, since it is located at a height of approximately 1 m from the floor. It is locking because it is able to fix the sash in the closed position even before locking.

Locking lock installed in the door.

This happens thanks to a halyard latch, popularly referred to as a “tongue” or “pawl”. The spring-loaded part is controlled by a rotary or push handle. By latching the door, you can leave it unlocked if you need to leave and enter frequently in the near future. This will prevent flies from flying into the room and keep it warm or cool. When turning with a key, you do not need to hold the sash - it is already secured with a latch.

Locking

Professionals call this type of lock “top” because it is installed in the upper part of the front door above the handle (if it is a bracket). There are only crossbars and a drive mechanism. When the crossbars are recessed into the sash, the leaf may spontaneously open slightly (due to the door being too tight, the seal not working properly, or a draft).

Locking lock.

To close a door with such a lock, the user needs to hold it with his knee or other hand. The model has one purpose - only to lock the canvas. Most entrance doors use both types of locks for increased security.

Types of locking mechanisms by locking method

The following types of door locks are distinguished:

• Electromagnetic.

They consist of a powerful magnet on one side and a metal plate (armature). The main advantage is the ability to open the door remotely and combine it with an intercom.

An electromagnetic lock is usually made in conjunction with a remote access system Source mk-24.net

See also: Catalog of companies that specialize in the installation and maintenance of doors and windows.

• Latches.

Designed to secure a closed door. Fixation is carried out using a protective tongue. The mechanism is vulnerable to simple hacking, so it is most often used in interior doors, bathrooms and bathrooms, where you simply need to “indicate” that the door is closed.

Door lock devices with a latch-button or an entrance door handle are also intended for interior doors. They can only be locked on one side by pressing a button or turning a handle.

Latch locks Source dmitrov.stald.ru

• Keyed valves.

Mechanisms that are closed using a latch that is retracted with a key provide maximum protection and are divided into several types: crossbar, cylinder, lever. These also include padlocks and some types of rim locks.

Bonus

Unfortunately, I have bad news for owners of conventional English cylinder locks. Firstly, anyone - from a baby to a pensioner - can go to YouTube and calmly watch a detailed video on how to open many locks. Almost all cheap locks have materials that tell you how to make a basic master key literally from a paper clip. This applies to most apartment locks, as well as padlocks, mailbox locks, and so on.

When people want to improve their security, they go to the store and buy a cool new lock with a key cylinder. However, if on the other side it has a rotary handle (“turntable”), with which it is easy to close the door from the inside, then this lock can also be opened using a paper clip with a curved end. Or use a special technical device, which is popularly called a “runner”.

The scheme for using such a master key is simple: we insert it into the hole of the cylinder using pins and press it against the unit that rotates the turntable, and calmly rotate it. Almost all Chinese locks open this way, as well as domestic ones, like Paladium and Apex.

Also remember that the lock may become less secure over time. Today you installed an expensive door with cool locks, and tomorrow someone will find a way to open it and post it on YouTube or start selling the finished tool. Mottura, Abus, Tesa, Kaba, Mul-T-Lock (“multi-lock”) locks all suffered this fate. For the same “multi-lock 7 by 7” there are several options for inexpensive master keys - around 2-4 thousand rubles. Therefore, if you are serious about choosing a castle, you will have to periodically check whether it has joined the list of vulnerable ones.

Types of mortise locks

The main indicator that ensures the reliability of a lock is its type. The most common are crossbars, cylinders and levers. The listed designs are divided into several varieties.

Crossbars

Crossbar models are not very complex devices equipped with a crossbar (rail). The bolt has teeth and grooves, and the key has grooves that match the configuration of the bolt.

To open the door, you will need to insert the key into the hole, and then not turn it as usual, but slightly press it inward. As a result of compression of the spring located inside the mechanism, the bolt moves to the side.

Such products are not particularly reliable, so they are often installed on gates and doors in entrances.

Examples of deadbolt locks Source piramida-stroi.ru

Resistance of locks to burglary

An equally important characteristic of the lock is its burglary resistance, according to which there is a clear classification into 4 classes:

• Class 1 locks have extremely low resistance to burglary and serve rather as a structure that limits access to a certain room by random unauthorized persons;
• Class 2 locks are capable of detaining an intruder on the threshold of an apartment for several minutes;
• Class 3 locks force the criminal to tinker with the door for about 20 minutes;
• Class 4 locks are the most reliable, but they still give in to a professional burglar.

Briefly about the main thing

Locking mechanisms are divided into hinged, overhead and mortise. The latter, in turn, are divided into cylinder, crossbar, lever, electromechanical, code. Cylinders can be pin, disk or frame.

The most common are mortise locks. When choosing, it is important to take into account their size and the thickness of the door on which the installation will be carried out. The reliability of the mechanism depends not only on its design features, but also on the manufacturer. The Italian models “Cisa”, the Russian “Apex” and “Elbor”, the Turkish “Kale Kilit”, the Spanish “Tesa”, the Austrian “Evva” and others are of good quality.

How to live with this?

The first thing to consider is the adequacy of the protection. If breaking in will cost 10,000 rubles and 1,000 will be kept behind the door, then you can leave it like this: if someone breaks it, it will only be out of great stupidity. If there is something very valuable behind the door, a way out will still be found - it's only a matter of time. Therefore, it is worth first of all thinking about the reasons for the attack, its goals and existing defenses.

On a low budget, it is best to use iron doors and two locks. You can also install a dummy camera, although this is a controversial measure: it will scare some people away, but others may find it interesting.

Another trick is to put up a sticker like “guarded by someone there.” If it looks like a sticker from some kind of private security, it may scare away the intruder.

Well, my last wish is to completely get rid of Chinese locks. This is very important because not only are they easy to open, but they can also easily break at the most inopportune moment without crossing the threshold. However, this is where your lock-opening skills come in handy!

Mechanical combination locks

This type of lock is almost the same age as the safes themselves - they first began to be installed back in the 1860s. One of the most attractive aspects of their use is considered to be the absence of keys, since in order to open the safe you just need to dial the desired combination by turning a special handle.

When choosing a safe with this type of lock, it is worth analyzing the expected intensity of its opening - it should be taken into account that accessing the contents will inevitably require time to dial a combination of numbers. Simpler and budget models have only one factory combination.

Safes of burglary resistance class 2 and higher usually have locks installed that can be recoded independently, but the cost of such models is significantly higher.

Electronic combination locks

More modern, practical and easy to use - in order to open the safe you just need to enter the code on the numeric keypad. Unlike mechanical models, locks with an electronic code give the owner of the safe a chance to open it even if he has completely forgotten the required combination. For this purpose, such safes have the Master-Lock function, which allows you to open the safe with a special master key.

Another noticeable advantage is the ability to quickly and unlimitedly change the code. Some models boast the presence of a multi-user mode - when several people have access to the safe at once, each of whom uses their own code or master key.

Points that deserve special attention include the fact that metal safes with an electronic combination lock are sensitive to operating conditions and are recommended for use only in heated rooms with room temperature and humidity not exceeding 80%. In addition, it will be necessary to monitor the charge level of the lock's power elements.

An important factor that most experts in the field of banking equipment talk about is the price of safes with such a lock - the higher it is, the better and more reliable it is.

Safe lock, which one to choose?

It is simply impossible to use safe locks on apartment doors due to structural and functional incompatibility. For understanding, let's give an example. A key safe lock simply does not allow you to remove the key in the “open” position. And the apartment one not only allows this, but is designed in such a way that the key can be inserted into it from different sides.

Of course, when, at the end of perestroika, the emerging cooperation began to offer tin doors welded in a garage with lever locks, unprecedented in the Union at that time, calling them safes, this absolutely false template was imprinted in the consciousness of a compatriot. Those locks with a huge key, which could even be used as a self-defense weapon, designed for installation in metal doors, had a level of secrecy even worse than overhead “English” locks. But now we will not talk about the differences between safe and apartment locks and how these differences are used to deceive gullible citizens, but about the types of safe locks, of which there are three fundamentally different types:

• key
• mechanical combinational
• electronic

The main property of any lock is its ability to open when presented with the correct secret and the ability to distinguish the correct one from the incorrect secret slipped into it. An additional valuable quality can be considered protection from the selection and manipulation of secret options. It is in the method of storing the secret by the lock and the user that the main differences between types of locks lie

Key safe lock

Its secret is formed by some unique combination of the relative position of the plates inside it, called levers. The level of secrecy is determined by the number of possible positions of each plate and the number of plates themselves. Safe key locks, as a rule, have no less than seven and no more than 14 levers and a theoretical dozen possible positions, which in actual practice is limited to six or eight. Which forms the minimum possible number of combinations from one million.

To understand the difference between safe and apartment locks, you should know that an apartment lock is limited to only four information levers with a maximum of six positions. Did you feel the difference in the level of secrecy? The key of a safe lock is a mirror image of the secret contained in its body; for simplicity, the key can be considered the carrier of a secret combination. What are the main advantages and disadvantages of a key lock?

• ease of use is a definite plus
• relative cheapness, compared to other types of locks, is also a definite plus
• the ease of transferring the right to open a lock on a safe (or a safe door, for example in a bank vault) on the one hand is also a plus, but on the other it becomes a minus. Who can be sure that the person giving the key did not make a copy for himself?
• mechanical wear inherent to both the lock mechanism and the key is a minus
• probably damage to the secret, for example, if the key falls on a hard floor, this gives another minus
• guaranteed damage to the lock if you try to force it with a deformed or simply another key, also a big minus
• the possibility of unauthorized opening using a special tool (let’s use the term master keys) and the lack of protection against selection and manipulation is also an obvious disadvantage
• leakage of the lock's secret (unauthorized production of a duplicate) is not just a minus, but a huge problem nowadays, when everyone has smartphones with cameras in their hands, with which taking a picture of the key and then making a copy has ceased to be any problem.

If some of the shortcomings of the key lock on safes and safe doors can be leveled out if you choose those models that allow you to recode the lock, then the majority of them impose restrictions on their reasonable use. That is, in an office, a key lock is a completely reasonable solution, and the risks associated with the loss, copying and damage of keys are offset by the possibility of replacing them during recoding. But at home, a key lock on a safe is downright evil.

Mechanical combination lock

The idea of ​​refusing to keep the lock's secret essentially in plain sight led to the emergence of many fundamentally different mechanical systems that made it possible to store the code in the form of the relative arrangement of mechanical elements hidden inside the lock body. The presentation by the user of a combination known to him is carried out by some procedure for manipulating the external controls. Let's look at the pros and cons of such locks

• The absence of a secret display on the outside of the lock is a definite plus. Although man is a lazy creature and not very smart. And nothing can stop him from writing down the secret combination anywhere, even directly on the door near the lock.
• complete energy independence, guaranteeing free opening of the lock even after a century, is an obvious advantage
• The ability to randomly change the lock secret is also a plus. But with some reservations. This is not always a simple procedure, often requiring the use of special devices and some skills and an operator changing the code.
• mechanical complexity and the resulting fragility of the structure, which can be easily and irrevocably damaged during a hacking attempt or careless change of combination, is a disadvantage
• The complexity of the code change procedure for some designs and its duration, which is not always successful, which causes bouts of laziness in the user, is surmountable, but a disadvantage
• the ability to select a combination with unlimited manipulation is a minus
• the lack of the ability to both block selection attempts and force a code change is also a minus

Thus, a mechanical combination safe lock is a good option for rare use. The complexity of mechanical procedures is compensated by the principle of a bicycle, when once you learn to ride in your life, you will never forget how to do it. For example, safes with a mechanical lock are quite suitable for storing rarely used documentation or in the apartment of elderly parents, who will certainly not try to be interested in the secrets of their children and are unlikely to let anyone sit and methodically select the code.

Electronic safe lock

If when they appeared in the 70s of the last century there was a certain reflection and mistrust, then now almost everyone is accustomed to pressing buttons with their fingers and does not see a problem in this. In general, electronic locks, as a class of products, have solved all the problems of their mechanical predecessors and have virtually no disadvantages. Although, if you dig around, you can find something.

• the secret is always hidden from prying eyes, except in those cases when the person himself, with great intelligence, wrote it down on the wall for everyone’s joy. Which is a plus.
• the ability to use combinations that are simple to the point of idiocy, including well-known default codes, has a certain disadvantage, which is offset by the existing system in some models prohibiting the use of stupid (officially this is called “primitive”) codes.
• Reliance on a power source is a disadvantage, but battery availability is not currently an issue. For those especially concerned, there are models without batteries, but with a built-in dynamo.
• speed of changing the secret (code combination) inaccessible to other designs. Pressing a couple of extra keys according to the instructions is nothing compared to the nightmare of changing the code on a mechanical combination lock.
• the ability to select a safe model with a lock that has either a variable code length or several codes. Which is basically inaccessible to mechanical systems. Yes, there are systems with an access hierarchy for apartment doors, but try to start changing the cylinders there. No one will be able to enter anywhere for a long time.
• minimal susceptibility to wear. In electronic locks, even if there are moving parts, they are reliably hidden from the possibility of destructive influence on them by the user. If only you knew how many key locks have been broken by not always sober employees of collection services!
• There is another distinctive feature of modern electronic locks. They (not all!) can remember who opened them and when. Keeping records of events allows you to solve all the problems facing everyone concerned with secrecy. Previously popular mechanical counters for the number of openings of a safe door with secret documentation simply lose their meaning when a Techmaser level lock is installed on it. Which can also monitor how long the door has been open. And then report where appropriate.

The desire of a person not to keep secrets to himself, but to put them on public display, materialized in the appearance of biometric locks, which are also electronic, but with all the disadvantages of key locks. Judge for yourself:

• the secret can not only be copied, but stolen in a very painful way
• how to reprogram the secret? Only by replacing the individual.
• Anyone who has at least once tried to open a biometric lock right out of the cold or after smearing their hands with cream knows how prone the secret is to damage.

In general, do you need it? A toy actively forced upon us all by Hollywood action films. From a safe standpoint, more than one step back.

Which castle should you choose?

In fact, everything is very simple. Mechanical combination locks, which had no alternative until the 80s of the last century, can only be recommended to outright maniacs who, in those distant years, learned to cope with them. The key lock remains relevant for office workers who do not want to strain themselves and sometimes lack any signs of higher nervous activity. There is simply no alternative to electronic locks in consumer applications. The only thing you need to beware of is products with a master key.

Tips for use

Manufacturers of locks claim that no problems in the operation of the lock will arise for 5 years, but this period is relevant only if the lock is installed and used correctly. You can extend the service life if you follow the following rules:

• It is better to install the lock after installing the door itself;
• carry out installation according to the technology, avoid hitting the lock, in particular, this applies to the body and bolts. Immediately after installation or repair, it is necessary to check the functionality of the device, first of all, the reliability of the fastening, the free movement of moving parts, for example, a key;
• do not slam the door in principle, especially in cases where the bolts are extended - this is the most common reason for the lock to fail;
• it is better to use locks with a latch, since the latter allows you to fix the blade in a closed position, as well as in the most correct position;
• you need to insert the key all the way;
• To move the door, it is preferable to use handles designed for this purpose; under no circumstances should you pull the key.

Level locks for metal entrance doors

The lever type of mechanism is used in the production of safes, which is why these locks are also called “safe”. The absence of elements that are not resistant to high temperatures in the structure ensures that they can continue to perform their main function even in the event of a fire.

Advantages of the mechanism:

• High level of privacy
• Sophisticated protection system
• High durability in extreme conditions.

Flaws:

• The key size is too big
• If the key is lost, the entire lock must be replaced

Locks for entrance doors

Ensuring safety is one of the first human needs according to Maslow's pyramid

Ensuring safety is one of the first human needs according to Maslow’s pyramid, which is surpassed in importance only by hunger and thirst. That is why, immediately after purchasing or building his own home, the owner begins to choose a reliable and high-quality entrance door.

In the modern world, the most popular are armored entrance doors, which, due to their durable design, can easily resist intruders trying to enter the house, and also protect its inhabitants from drafts, help get rid of street noise, and retain heat.

However, any door, even the strongest one with top burglary resistance characteristics, will be a surmountable obstacle for an uninvited guest if it has a poor locking mechanism installed. That is why this is the first most important element of the fittings responsible for safety. The degree of burglary resistance of the lock must correspond to the reliable metal structure of the door.

Structure or parts

There is a huge number of different door locks, both in structure and functionality. But in most cases they always have common elements: the body, the deadbolt, the security mechanism and the keys.

Lock body

In the vast majority of cases, the lock body is a rectangular box-shaped element, inside which all the components are located. It is through the body that the main fastening and fixation of the lock in the door or metal structure is carried out.

The end plate is an element of the lock body, with the help of which additional fastening is carried out.

The end plate can be found on both mortise and rim locks. Its presence is optional.

Lock bolt

The door is locked directly through the bolt, which moves out of the body when the key is turned and the security mechanism operates. Deadbolts can come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, but the most common are cylindrical and rectangular deadbolts.