Deadbolt lock - our keys no longer work!

[Amy]

Weirdest thing - DS just came back from the store and his key wouldn't open our front door. It goes in all the way, but won't turn to unlock/lock the door. I tried my key, and the same thing! Now my key DID work this morning when I took our dog for a walk.

What could cause this to happen? DH and DS and now unscrewing the deadbolt to see if they can figure it out. It's not frozen - it's still in the low 40's here in Pittsburgh. Our keys go in all the way, so there's nothing in the key hole.

Any ideas?

 

[skatalite]

Perhaps your keys, or the mechanism on the inside, are worn out. Since neither key works, I'm guessing it's the mechanism.

 

[Amy]

The lock is only a little over 2 years old. It shouldn't be worn out already! It's a Schlage, which is a decent brand.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

90% sure it's just broken, but I'm studying all forms of security today for a test on Tuesday including physical security, so my mind immediately went to a bump key.

The legal purpose for a bump key is if you have lost your key to a lock, you get a bump key and then insert it jusssstttt enough and "bump" it hard. The key will unlock, but you can break locks with this technique, apparently.

The illegal purpose. Ahem.

Anywho, I'm sure that's not what happened, but it's where my mind went!

(Ermmm. . .you were home when the lock stopped working? You don't have any enemies? No one's been burgled in your neighborhood recently?)

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

The lock is only a little over 2 years old. It shouldn't be worn out already! It's a Schlage, which is a decent brand.

If it is one of the Schlage Smartkey locks, the exact same thing happened to us. It somehow rekeyed itself when my mom turn edit he key the wrong way in the lock before turning it the right way. We figured it it was that easy to rekey on accident we didn't want it. We replaced all the locks wit regular Schlage locks.

 

[Amy]

If it is one of the Schlage Smartkey locks, the exact same thing happened to us. It somehow rekeyed itself when my mom turn edit he key the wrong way in the lock before turning it the right way. We figured it it was that easy to rekey on accident we didn't want it. We replaced all the locks wit regular Schlage locks.

Whew! DH took the lock apart, put it back together and now it's working again. He thinks there might have been some dirt that got into the keyhole.

We can't remember if it's one of those Schlage Smartkey locks or not - I remember looking at them when we bought this lock with our new door and thinking how nice it would be to be able rekey it ourselves. I'm sure DH has the paperwork somewhere; we'll need to look it up.

Very scary when you can't get into your own house! What if the power goes out while we're at work? The garage door opener won't work with no power, and if our keys don't work in the front door, how do we get in? I have a key to our back door, but I don't think our DS does.

 

[DebbieB]

I have Schlage deadbolt locks and I had some extra keys made, they all work in the main lock, some of them will not work in the deadbolt, I had to take them back. It must be really sensitive.

 

[scrapquitler]

Weirdest thing - DS just came back from the store and his key wouldn't open our front door. It goes in all the way, but won't turn to unlock/lock the door. I tried my key, and the same thing! Now my key DID work this morning when I took our dog for a walk.

What could cause this to happen? DH and DS and now unscrewing the deadbolt to see if they can figure it out. It's not frozen - it's still in the low 40's here in Pittsburgh. Our keys go in all the way, so there's nothing in the key hole.

Any ideas?

Anytime I've ever had a problem with our deadbolt, I have managed to get it working nicely again by spraying WD40 in the keyhole.

 

[ronandannette]

If it is one of the Schlage Smartkey locks, the exact same thing happened to us. It somehow rekeyed itself when my mom turn edit he key the wrong way in the lock before turning it the right way. We figured it it was that easy to rekey on accident we didn't want it. We replaced all the locks wit regular Schlage locks.

I was thinking "smart key" myself. OP, did you install the locks? Do you know if they are smart key? If so, try googling for the re-keying process. It shouldn't be too hard.

 

[Tuffcookie]

Anytime I've ever had a problem with our deadbolt, I have managed to get it working nicely again by spraying WD40 in the keyhole.

That's what I do.

TC

 

[DisnyMama]

Glad You got it to work.

I was going to suggest something that we had to do at my sister's house/front door. Every winter when it would get cold and that was in the low 30's... the key would go in but because the door would go through expand/contract issues during the winter the key wouldn't turn so we you just pull up on the door handle and then the key would turn. For some reason that very slight lift or adjust in the door would give way for the key to turn freely...otherwise the darn thing wouldn't turn at all.

 

[Imzadi]

Weirdest thing - DS just came back from the store and his key wouldn't open our front door. It goes in all the way, but won't turn to unlock/lock the door. I tried my key, and the same thing! Now my key DID work this morning when I took our dog for a walk.

Did you unlock it from the inside when you got into the house? That may have re-shifted the mechanism and now it's working again.

Every once in a while I accidentally leave my key in my front door, as I'm entering, usually because my cat or holding several packages have distracted me from my usual routine of pulling the key out of the lock. I live in an apartment building, and it actually could be dangerous if a stranger sees it there and tries to open the door to get in with me, unsuspecting inside.

But, a strange thing happens. Once I've locked the door on the inside, (with the key still in it,) the key freezes. The tumblers lock up and the key can't be taken out or turned. So no one can take the key or turn the lock. I have to manually unlock the door from the inside before the key comes out. It must be an unknown safety feature.

Maybe, if you had opened the door from the inside before trying the key again, it released some mechanism, freeing the tumblers to properly work again.