Pick resistant locks?

[helloman]

Can a lock really be pick resistant. my parents bought a 5 pin kwikset doorknob and the box said pick resistant and i didnt believe it so i tried to pick it i got all 5 pins set but the lock woulndn't turn. How can a lock be pick resistant? thanks for your help.

[jedidove]

Yes, but being pick-resistant is far from being pick-proof. There are many ways a lock can be "pick-resistant" such as sidebars, tight warding, and security pins. None of these or other methods make a lock completely impregnable to picking though. They just make it harder to pick.

In the case of the kwicksets (doesn't anyone find that name ironic? quick set) and other low end locks this is just a term they use to sell the lock. To them pick-resistance could be as simple as a single ward or something similar. These security measures are found in nearly all locks and are trivial to lockpickers but they are technically forms of pick-resistance and therefore give the companies the right to call their locks pick-resistance.

Simply put it doesn't mean anything important. Its just a way for low-end companies to fool uneducated buyers into feeling a false sense of extra security when buying their locks.

[nice7175]

In the case of the kwicksets (doesn't anyone find that name ironic? quick set)

i find it funny too.

i bought a couple of kwiksets a while ago and they claimed to be "pick resistant" i found this hilarious, especially when I (a novice picker) could open the locks in no time at all.

[cjames73]

any lock that has security pins can claim to be pick resistant, it just means a slight hinderence to us pickers

your parents lock will probably have security pins.
this is why you couldn't pick it, you had them falsely set.

and you've been a member of this forum a while now so you should already know about not picking locks you or anyone else relies on!!

[Eyes_Only]

Any lock they sell at hardware stores that claim to be pick resistant is nothing more then a sales gimmic by the lock company intended for naive customer who doesnt know a thing about locks. We'll have to wait and see untill this June to find out what kwikset has stored up for us.

[linty]

there is no proper definition for the term pick resistant. it's up to the consumer to educate themselves on what locks are really built to thwart picking attempts.

kwikset offers probably the least pick resistance of all brand name locks.

[Eyes_Only]

Or maybe kwikset just meant no random punk 12 yr old can "violate" our locks with a hand full of paper clips and training from watching 007 movies.

[UWSDWF]

no it means that it won't open using the Jedi mind trick

[mercurial]

any lock that has security pins can claim to be pick resistant, it just means a slight hinderence to us pickers

your parents lock will probably have security pins.
this is why you couldn't pick it, you had them falsely set.

and you've been a member of this forum a while now so you should already know about not picking locks you or anyone else relies on!!

Unfortunately, this is not the case - at least in Kwikset land (USA).

In the US, a Master #3 and the lowest kwiksets(sans spools) are labelled as 'pick resistant' - I think in these cases 'pick resistant' means that the lock actually *has* pins in it

You are in the UK, and I am sure that you may be right in saying that pin-tumbler locks over there with packaging touting them as 'pick resistant' do in fact contain some form of security pins.

If only that were the case elsewhere

If the term 'pick resistant' was an indication of presence of security pins, almost all the locks at the local hardware stores here in Australia should contain them.

Alas, it seems to be few other than some of the cheap chinese clones (with ultra-sloppy tolerances) that actually contain security pins..

...Mark

[Eyes_Only]

The Ultramax Kwiksets actually has spool pins in them now. It doesnt really make it more difficult to pick though because its still build really sloppy.

[linty]

definitely not all ultramax, we sell them and i've never seen a spool pin in one of then,