I could jump from the window and survive but this is not going to go well in a fire.
So this one doesn’t look normal to me. What does look normal is a euro cylinder. You can leave a key on the inside with it locked, if the key is inserted but not turned you can still use a key from the other side. If the key is turned slightly, a key from the other side won’t work.
If you are really concerned about getting locked in, you can get euro cylinders with a thumb turn on one side and key on the other.
What makes them great is to change the cylinder you open the door, remove one screw, put in the key and rotate about 20 degrees and the whole thing slides out, takes about 5mins to change a lock. Cheapest low security go for about £10 all the way to high security special profiles for ~£80
If you are really concerned about getting locked in, you can get euro cylinders with a thumb turn on one side and key on the other.
That is exactly what I would do if it was my door. The prevalence of this dangerous variety is the subject of my mild fury.
Exactly. Although proper cylinders can easily exceed the 80 pounds threshold. And I would not recommend the 10 pound version to lock in anything of value…
If you have a shirtwaist you can fold it into a triangle and try to glide to safety as you escape the factory.
We don’t make shirtwaists any more, so locking workers in factories is now perfectly safe! (And they say we don’t learn from history.)
If they can’t ever go home, they’ll have no choice but to keep working! Just think of the profits… ONLY think of the profits
I’ve lived in one of these places. You are very cautious about where your keys are.
don’t most people just keep a key in the lock from the inside?
This does not work if you have a lot of roommates.
Yeah I thought that was the whole point. You come home and lock it from the inside, so you can never leave without touching your key.
It interferes with a key being inserted from the outside.
Are you using one of those old-timey locks where the keyhole is the actual shape of a keyhole?
Yeah skeleton keys are the only ones that work that way.
Ina modern door, both tumbler locks actuate an independent mechanism that moves the lock into or out of the door latch.
Turning the key on the outside can’t effect the lock on the inside or it’d never be able to turn without both keys in all the time.
That depends on the lock. Mine doesn’t.
I mean you can get an extra key and leave it in the door if it bothers you that much? Some american doors have removable lock latches that are just a key with a funky head on them.
Someone ITT said the key interferes with someone trying to unlock the door from the other side, but you cant just push the key through? How does that work?
Most locks can’t fit two keys at the same time, if they are both aligned with the resting position, one can push the other out, but if the inserted key is slightly turned, it resists and stops the other key from entering fully.
Also thieves apparently have tools to turn the inside key from the outside and unlock the door.
Thief broke my window to get in anyway 😔
Yeah, I’ll take the thumb turn on the inside, even if it’s conceivably too close to the window.
- it’s secure because it’s highly visible, well lighted from the street, and with several houses within hearing and seeing distance
- if someone wants in, far better to go around the side out of view from the street, only one house to hear and zero to see, and use their boot “key”
But also add why are there self-locking doorknobs? Who puts one of those on their house? I’ve had this discussion with my ex - sure enough she’s locked herself out a few times. A straightforward deadbolt requires a key to lock, so you must have your key with you
I would hope that the lock disengeges when opened from the inside.
It doesn’t, because the handle and locking latch are separate mechanisms.
That sounds like a fire code violation.
If this was the US, but it’s not
Other countries have fire codes.
In Australia it would also be a violation.
Ours doesn’t. We keep a key near each door.
IDK about what countries but IMO these are good for ground-floor exterior doors where you have a window in the door or within arms’ reach of the lock. Because all you need is a rock to “unlock” those doors if you have a keyless lock (unlockable by hand). For safety you can keep a key nearby out of reach from the window.
Yeah, there’s a reason for them, especially commercial/facility doors like that.
I highly doubt there are countries where just every door is like this. It’s substantial extra cost to have both sides take a key instead of one side having just a knob.
For safety you can keep a key nearby out of reach from the window.
Honestly tho, the windows in doors might as well be “door” compared to how easy it is to break a normal window or even just force one without breaking the pane. And that’s not even getting into how easy it is to learn to pick locks.
99.99% of security is just being harder to break into than the house next door. Like people talk about “not needing to lock the doors at night” like people are just going door to door and if it’s locked they give up. And sure, the Night Stalker or someone did do that, but the vast majority of the time it doesn’t, and if someone checks if a door is unlocked, it’s because they’re committed to getting in and are going to look for other ways.
People have a weird illusion of safety where they think the door is the only way into a home, so they put effort into making that as secure as possible, and just ignore everything else.
It’s all just security theater like TSA, but on a smaller scale.
If someone wants in a house bad enough, they’re getting in. It’s an uncomfortable reality most people put a lot of effort into not realizing.
I highly doubt there are countries where just every door is like this. It’s substantial extra cost to have both sides take a key instead of one side having just a knob.
Not internal doors, but I’ve never lived anywhere in Germany without a key accessible lock on either side of the exterior doors.
Here in Italy it’s normal to have locks on both sides of doors, with the exception of modern reinforced doors that have a knob to lock and unlock from the inside, but those don’t have windows themselves and are virtually never close to one. I have an old reinforced door and it has a lock on both sides.
Normal in UK residential, this style used on every uPVC door I’ve ever seen. Often the windows have (simpler) keyed locks also.
This worried me at first but I just started always carrying keys and now I don’t even really think about it
I have been given a key, but this is still an unnecessary inconvenience in an emergency.
These exist to double lock from inside when going to bed to feel safer. I don’t use this feature but some do, my in-laws for example.
Add a couple of bolts?
It still requires to be able to be opened from outside with the key. But you aren’t far off… my door has perimeter sliding bolts that activate when double locking.
The requirement is that
- The door should be lockable and unlockable from both the inside and the outside, and
- If the door is locked from the inside, it should not be unlockable from outside, right?
So you can have a door with a lock on the outside and a separate bolt / latch (or two) on the inside. There is a risk that someone with a duplicate key can lock you in from outside (a common prank) so some versions have a lever on the inside that can unlock the door even if it is locked from outside.
