"Smartkey"? Are these actually any good?

[haykuro]

http://www.kwikset.com/SmartSeries/ScienceOfSecurity/rekey.aspx

I found some of these locks with "smartkey" technology being sold at a local home depot.

Essentially they allow for a lock to be re-keyed without opening it.

Does anyone have experience with these?

To me it sounds blatantly insecure.. I'm guessing you could just pick the lock, turn it half the way, push the button in and insert your own key and bam, you just owned that lock.

Is this right, or do they have some secondary protection?

[Squelchtone]

http://www.kwikset.com/SmartSeries/ScienceOfSecurity/rekey.aspx

I found some of these locks with "smartkey" technology being sold at a local home depot.

Essentially they allow for a lock to be re-keyed without opening it.

Does anyone have experience with these?

To me it sounds blatantly insecure.. I'm guessing you could just pick the lock, turn it half the way, push the button in and insert your own key and bam, you just owned that lock.

Is this right, or do they have some secondary protection?

Please use the Search function, we have several threads open about the Smartkey and it's pro's and con's.

One thing I will tell you is that they do not pick as easily as an old original Kwikset. In fact, they're pretty hard to pick. But they're not make of the best materials so use your imagination on how to defeat one.

Please see: http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=46988

Squelchtone

[dougfarre]

They are awesome.

[cedrice]

they suck

[dougfarre]

You suck.

[FarmerFreak]

You suck.

Doug, you're better than that.

He's only saying what he thinks about the smartkey. In which case I tend to agree with him on. I mean the smartkey is great against picking attempts, but beyond that, ...it does suck. And since we don't cover the "beyond that" part in the open forums. I'm not going to go into more detail. Except that I can point out that it has proven to us locksmiths that it isn't as reliable a lock as their older "bumpable" locks.

[cedrice]

You suck.

lol...just bugging you man...from my experience, they do suck, because the only calls I get is when they are broken. sure they are hard to pick and such, but i honestly think the design is not the greatest. kwikset in general is a budget lock, and far to many people buy them because they are cheap. my customers only learn that after the fact.

[jdislandlock]

terrible, dont EVER BUY SMARTKEY - unless you want to pay an $80 lockout fee to open them once you get locked out of a BRAND NEW cylinder.... we have done probably 7-10 lockouts from these, people buy them BRAND NEW, and they **** up....

STRONGLY ADVISE NOT BUYING

[dougfarre]

@ cedrice: i am also just jabbin fun. I do not think you suck

@ jdislandlock
I am confounded by your assertions.. Are you saying that because of user error people cause the lock to malfunction and therefore locking themselves out of their homes? Or are you saying that they are hard to drill, etc... and therefore you charge people $80 on a lockout? Its not the user's fault that you charge $80 for lockouts (although that seems like a reasonable enough price to me..)

@ all the locksmiths with experience with this lock
Where does the reliability factor come into play? I am curious!

Thanks,

[FarmerFreak]

@ cedrice: i am also just jabbin fun. I do not think you suck

It's good to know it was all in jest.

Where does the reliability factor come into play? I am curious!

I've seen on several occasions where the pin disconnects from the wafers. At that point no key can work the lock. My best guess is that this is mainly caused from poor tolerances and cheap materials.

The other problem that jdislandlock is pointing to (I think) is that when someone rekeys the lock. If they are using a poorly cut key or simply don't have the key in the lock all the way (so the pins are resting on the slopes of the cuts). Sometimes the lock won't set on a combination until they are pulling the key out, and then it is set somewhere in between where the key started and fully taken out of the lock. And since the tumblers can get hung up in there it may not even be set to a combination that you are ever likely to get again with the key.

It's an unusual problem. I've witnessed it first hand, but I have a hard time recreating the problem. Some times I can trick it into screwing up and other times I can't.

[cedrice]

As a locksmith, I have seen these locks mess up when people try to set them. I was able to defeat one of those deadbolts VERY quickly. I will not say how, but it was not hard.

I advise my customers and sell them a product that I stand behind and would be willing to warranty. My warranty policy is pretty simple. When I or one of my employees installs a lock, it works 100%. If the product fails within a year, we replace it...no questions asked. If I was to sell Kwikset or even the new Weiser, I would be out of business. As the older generation likes to say, "they just don't build them like the used to".

[Hanz]

I also can attest to the shabbiness of these locks. Had one brought to my old shop where the wafer and pin seperated. I swapped the broken one with a new one even though the customer had purchased it at home depot. Mainly because it was under warrenty and the woman was a regular customer of mine.Also I like the challenge and had very little experience with the smartkey My boss had tried the rekey cradle before we found what was wrong with it, long story short, it became stuck in the cradle. I was succesful to pick it as to remove it. Then proceeded to take it apart and reset all the wafer cogs and pins, and reassemble it in working order before returning it to kwikset.

My next experience was with one I personally bought, where the same thing happened. Except I knew what I was facing and simply took it apart and repaired it.

I wouldn't recommend this lock, unless you are just up for the challenges.

[yng_pick]

I've been on a few calls for relatively new smart key locks that have malfunctioned due to wafers disconnecting/slipping.

I've also broken a reset cradle by putting in a cylinder that I did not realize had a slipped wafer; it ended up getting jammed and I broke one of the teeth while removing it. I don't intend to get another cradle; I like just fine taking the cylinders apart and setting them.

I know they can be a bit touchy. I've had one lockout so far where a poorly cut duplicate (courtesy of big box hardware dept) stopped working all together on the smartkey locks the customer owned. It had a bit of wear on it, and had worked for quite awhile prior. Decoding and producing a new key, worked fine.