How easy is it to pick most front doors?

[JMacD82]

I'm just wondering about the security of most homes as well as my own. How easy might it be for someone to learn how to pick locks to the point that they could pick the lock of most front doors, or house doors in general? Thanks. - John

[Jeremym0411]

Lets just say this i bought a pick set and a video about 10 years ago and within an hour after watching the video i picked all the locks on our house. The only deterent is if the lock has spool pins or mushroom pins. Hope this helps out.

[MacGyver101]

The only deterent is if the lock has spool pins or mushroom pins. Hope this helps out.

Absolutely: those make picking harder. For John's benefit, high-security pin-tumbler locks often incorporate a number of other design features as well (e.g., sidebars, pin-in-pin, etc.); you can search for Medeco, Schlage Primus, or Mul-T-Lock as a few random examples. There are a number of high-security designs that don't use driver pins that also offer good to excellent pick resistance; BiLock, Ingersoll and Abloy Protec are a few examples in that category. There are even slightly more esoteric locks that work on magnets, such as the MIWA EC or EVVA MCS.

To the original question, though: despite there being dozens and dozens of good examples of high-security locks out there, many builders and home-owners will opt to save $70 or $80 and install the cheapest lock they can find at the local hardware store... and those cheap locks are much easier to pick.

[edsmiley]

Yeah, I would say that most front doors made up of basic Schlages, Kwiksets, and off brands you can find at Lowes/Home Depot will be quite pickable. MacGyver101 shows a great list of higher security locks in his post.

But in reality, is the criminal going to try to pick your door or are they going to kick it in, break a window, or try to shimmy open the window or door? Wish there were some hard statistics on basic thefts done by criminals picking doors. While the more expensive lock might stop picking, it won't make your window or door able to resist a brute force attack.

Ed

[MacGnG1]

Yeah I have to agree with the points everyone has made: People are cheap & crooks will just bust your door down.

The fact that I taught my GF how to pick a Kwikset successfully in less than a half hour, puts things in perspective.

[chriswingate]

The fact that I taught my GF how to pick a Kwikset successfully in less than a half hour, puts things in perspective.

Couldn't agree more, my wife just started learning to pick. After accusing me of being a lock nerd, I gave her a rake and a Kwikset, told her to wiggle around a bit, pops open, now she wants to learn more.

I rigged up a few locks progressively pinned for her to SPP, threw in some spools and serrated drivers and she can SPP a fully pinned Kwikset. Only a couple hours work. Not too difficult.

[Squelchtone]

The sad part is that I know people who think they live on a nice street and tell me they dont even lock their door when they leave for work in the morning. As others have already said, most people either have a 30 year old Weiser or Weslock on their door or a Schlage or Kwikset or clones of their SC1 and KW1 keyways. All these locks come with short 3/4 inch brass screws that offer no resistance to a swift kick to the door, and depending where you live you may see other brands being popular, or if you live somewhere like Boca Raton Florida in a 16 million dollar house, you'll see a lot of Medeco high security locks which are hard to pick and hard to drill and hard to kick in when installed properly.

Lock your doors, get something better than a $30 dollar big box store deadbolt, put some motion lights outside, and hope for the best.

Btw, it took me 3 years of picking every day before I could pick a Medeco. Schlage took a while because it's better made than Kwikset, and Kwikset was what we all started with and had the lock open the very first day.

These days Schlage and Kwikset have these new models out that have a little hole next to the keyway so you can rekey your lock on the fly, those are different internally from the old school Schlage and Kwikset most of us learned on.

Squelchtone

[Poff]

But in reality, is the criminal going to try to pick your door or are they going to kick it in, break a window, or try to shimmy open the window or door? Wish there were some hard statistics on basic thefts done by criminals picking doors. While the more expensive lock might stop picking, it won't make your window or door able to resist a brute force attack.

Ed

As stated above, most criminals are opportunists, they are looking for a quick score. They are looking for an open door or window. Any criminal who is going to take the time to learn picking or wants to get into a specific house is going to get in no matter what. All you can do is try your best not to temp the typical "Tweaker" by doing simple things like locking doors and windows and closing blinds near valuable items, etc.

[Oldfast]

Another simple/inexpensive, yet very effective deterent would be to place one of those signs in your yard that implies you have a home security system. Something like ADT, GE, or BRINKS. You'd have to check into it, but I do believe some of these companies will sell you just the sign. Also, a "Beware of Dog" sign couldn't hurt either lol. Or anything really that would give the impression that there's a dog (preferably big) nearby. A leash in the front yard, a water and food bowl, or even a dog house in the backyard maybe. Most thieves are not going to be too sophisticated. As mentioned, they're opportunists looking for the easiest target with minimal risk. If they see ANYTHING that even remotely looks like it could pose a problem, they simply move on. There's enough places to choose from to where they can find what they see to be an "ideal situation".

[bobhdus]

Squelchtone mentioned the new kwikset rekeyable design. There has been a lot of controversy about whether they should be rated Grade 1 or heavy duty. It seems they are easier to defeat than picking the old design. Plus they can sometimes reset themselves so your key will not work. There is a special cradle needed to reset the internals. Most people wind up putting their old lock back on.