What are the most secure locks?

When you are protecting your home or business, you want only the best in security door locks. But when every lock manufacturer claims they have the most secure door locks, how do you know what the best front door locks really are? What are the most secure locks? 

Well we’re going to break things down into their elements, first looking at how locks work, and the pros and cons of each type of lock. Then we’ll look into the best home front door locks and the most secure deadbolts. Finally, we’ll look at commercial security door locks. 

How Do Locks Work, and What Are the Pros and Cons of Each?

Ultimately, all door locks work by pushing a bolt from the locking mechanism into a hole in the door frame. You are, for all intents and purposes, barring the door. The question is how effectively you are barring that door. What is securing it in place that makes it different from other locks? Let’s look at the most common and best front door locks:

Single Cylinder Locks

A single cylinder lock opens with a key from the outside, or it can open from the inside with a thumb-knob on the inside. Additionally, a single cylinder lock may have a keypad that allows you to use a numerical code to open the door. Single cylinder locks are the most common type of household lock, and this type can refer to both the lock in the door-knob and a dead-bolt--both of these can be single cylinder locks.

Double Cylinder Locks

A double cylinder lock was more common in the past but is less common now because of safety restraints. With a double cylinder lock, a key needs to be turned on the inside of the door and on the outside of the door to open it. The benefit of a double cylinder lock is that if a burglar breaks a pane of glass in the door or next to the door, they will not be able to reach inside and unlock the door. The reason that they are a safety hazard is that, in the case of an emergency such as a fire, it has been found that fumbling to get the key to unlock the door from the inside can lose you precious time in evacuating the house. 

Vertical Locks

A vertical lock is a lock with a vertical bolt that moves through a set of rings to lock the door. Vertical locks can be either single cylinder or double cylinder and are most commonly found in commercial buildings. 

Smart Locks

These electronic locks are different from the keypad locks mentioned above when we discussed single-cylinders, in that these are electronic and use your home’s WIFI signal to send and receive information from your phone or by using your fingerprint. 

ANSI Ratings of Lock Quality

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) rates the strength of door locks with a grade of 1, 2, or 3, based on the locks ability to stop intruders. In this categorization of the strongest door locks, 1 is the highest and 3 is lowest. 

Grade 1

Grade 1 locks were originally only found in commercial applications, but lately Grade 1 locks have been developed for residential use. To qualify as a Grade 1 lock, it must withstand 10 strikes of 75 pounds of force, and it must have the durability to last for one million openings and closings of the door. 

Grade 2

These are the most common locks found in houses today, made from high-grade steel and are made to stop forced entry. While a Grade 1 lock may give you additional peace of mind, unless you have a particular reason for needing such a high grade lock, a Grade 2 will generally be more than sufficient for a home. A Grade 2 lock can withstand 5 strikes of 75 pounds of force and 800,000 openings and closings. 

Grade 3

A Grade 3 lock is still a good lock, but does not have the security of the Grade 1 and Grade 2 locks. Grade 3 locks can withstand 2 strikes of 75 pounds of force, and 800,000 openings and closings.

High-Security Door Locks

If you are looking for the best high-security door lock, then there are features that set them apart from the locks described above. Almost universally, these locks will be found in commercial applications, with the rare exception of particularly expensive homes, or homes that are protecting high-priced items that are under threat of burglary. 

Aspects that make a door lock into a more high-security door lock include:

Lock Cylinder Complexity

Every lock can be picked, from the most basic to the most advanced--assuming the lock picker has the skills, tools, and time to do their work. But getting a more complex lock cylinder will make it more difficult for the lock picker to overcome the security measures. 

Metal Content

The strength of a door lock depends not only on the lock itself, but on the metal content of the entire locking mechanism. If, for example, you have a very good lock that is placed in a flimsy door, then the lock may withstand the strikes from intruders, but the thin wood, fiberglass, or glass of the door may not hold up as well. Likewise, a bolt may be very strong, but if the door jamb itself is flimsy, the lock is only as strong as the wood. By beefing up the strength of the door and jamb, you will get a stronger and more secure house.

According to Consumer Reports, “In our brute-force kick tests, the cause of failure is more often than not the short screws used to attach the strike plate to the door frame,” says Misha Kollontai, CR’s test engineer for door locks. “When this is the cause, replacing the included strike plate with a reinforced strike, which costs as little as $10, improves the lock’s resistance to kicking by magnitudes.

Saw and Drill Protection

This is a very unlikely scenario for a home break-in, but can be seen in commercial break-ins: the use of drills, hacksaws and reciprocating saws to cut through either the bolt or to break the locking mechanism by drilling through the door or the jamb. These can be protected with anti-drill plates. 

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