Blog » Using a Self Locking Latch
How To Lock And Unlock Self Locking Latches
James Cardiff Locksmith are forever seeing People Snap their keys in these Mechanisms which Self Lock from the Latch.
Clients of ours are under the belief that as soon as they shut the door that the door is Automatically Locked which Is in fact a complete misimpression and completely as far from the actual truth as possible. The Door is Not Locked From The Latch on these doors. You still have to lock the door.
Example 1 - You come home and are in dire need of a toilet so just shut the door behind your self the door is not locked but the self-locking latch is in use. This is okay as you have just entered your home intend to lock the door later on but want peace of mind no one can just walk in behind yourself.
Example 2 - You leave for work early in the morning and don't intend in coming home until later on that evening. On your way to work when leaving your home, you have just shut the door behind yourself but have not locked it and just used the function of the self-locking latch. This is most certainly a bad idea as leaving your home for any long periods of time or any time unlocked is really truly not a good thing to be doing. Burglars as well as any professional locksmith can determine whether a door is locked or unlocked but shut with a self-locking latch. You should never leave your home a building unlocked which is the bottom line. Whether you have a self-locking latch on the door or not. Having a self-locking complete lock is fine as that is its job but a latch is called a latch for a reason and a lock is called a lock for another.
Locking The Door
- Shut the door as you would usually.
- Lift the handle fully to engage the mechanism into the keeps on the receivers. Make sure handle is fully lifted.
- Insert the key and turn to the locked position. Which is common for the top of the key when inserted to be rotated towards the locking Style / Jamb. The key needs to be rotated 360 degrees to be able to extract after locking.
If When you lift the handle and it is isn't able to be lifted to its full capacity or you cannot rotate the key a complete 360 degrees you will almost certainly need a locksmith. James The Locksmith operates In and around Cardiff. Please don't hesitate to call.
Unlocking The Door
- Insert the key into the lock. Rotate the Key 360 degrees to the unlocked position but leaving the key in the lock. The rotation most common for unlocking is more common than not for the top of the key to be rotated away from the locking Jamb / Style.
- You then need to disengage the mechanism. This is done by pushing down on the handle which would release all parts of the lock other than the latch.
- The only part which is now holding the door shut is the latch but due to it be a self-locking latch the handle on the outside of the door will not operate this. You then have to twist the key a final little rotation to pull back the latch in the unlocking position, and then the door will open.
The main reason why people snap the keys with this type of door is mainly due to not releasing the mechanism before forcefully twisting the key very hard. You have to release the mechanism on the lock by pulling down the handle before you can twist the key to disengage the latch. To pull down the handle you will need to unlock the door first. If you snap your key in your lock you will almost certainly need a locksmith and providing you live in or near Cardiff we can help.