Over the last couple of years people have found a really easy way to break in to any Upvc door no matter how good or expensive the door is. When the first upvc doors were introduced they were classed as high security doors because of the tough looking locking mechanisms which are fitted to them as standard. When locking a Upvc door you lift the handle and turn the key, the lifting of the handle engages the locking points into the frame holding the door secure with many hooks and bolts making you think it is secure.So How Can a thief open the door in 30 Seconds?Thieves have found a clever way to unlock your door in 30 seconds. This is called "Cylinder Snapping" It involves breaking the lock cylinder (the part where the key goes in) in half and manipulating the locking mechanism until the door is unlocked. When you turn the key to lock your upvc door the middle part of the lock cylinder turns and actually locks the mechanism so the handle cannot be pulled down. This means though that if the burglars can break the lock barrel and remove it they can access the lock mechanism to unlock it, basically overriding the key. This type of burglary is increasing rapidly as news of this technique spreads (this is why we haven’t gone into too much detail of exactly how it’s done).  Below is a typical picture of a standard lock cylinder after a burglary.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      What can i do to keep my Upvc doors safe?

There are now lots of different high security euro cylinders which can be fitted to Upvc doors to stop cylinder snapping. One method is to fit snap safe euro cylinders weak points built in designed to make the lock barrel react differently to the standard barrels by breaking just the end of the barrel off leaving the remaining piece wedged inside the door and the door still locked. The other type of barrel is called an anti-snap cylinder. These cylinders have hardened steel rods running full length making them almost impossible to snap.Most people think it won’t happen to them, but believe us it does. We have been locksmiths in Leeds for years and have seen this all too often. People think that having anti-snap locks fitted will be expensive so are put off having the locks changed but it doesn't cost as much as you would think. Upgrade your locks to snap safe or anti-Snap euro cylinders and stay safe. 


 Over the next few weeks we will be testing and reviewing some of the different makes of Anti snap locks.