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How to select a residential door deadbolt lock?
What is the best choice for residential deadbolt door locks?

You could probably never stop a determined burglar from breaking into your home.  But, you do need to take prudent steps to reduce the probability of someone breaking in and stealing your things or harming your family.  In other words, you need to better manage your risks.  Under the Security Issues Section there are several articles that will help you better manage your Home Security Risks.  One of the first steps you need to take to manage your security risks is to select the right, best deadbolt door locks for your home's exterior doors, including the door from the garage to the house.

When selecting door hardware for their home, many people give little consideration to the security the product provides.  They often give more weight to style, finish and cost.  Of course, these door hardware attributes are important.  However, security should be your number one priority in selecting door hardware.  The article,  "Picking the Right Door Lock for Your Home," provided by State Farm Insurance, will give you a good primer on selecting door locks for your home. The article recommends that you select a ANSI Grade 1 deadbolt lock for all exterior locks.  Certainly, a Grade 1 deadbolt lock is best for home security.  If your primary concern when selecting door locks is with home security, as it should be, the best deadbolt door lock for residential use is one that carries an ANSI Grade 1 rating.  We offer several deadbolt and entrance handleset door locks that offer ANSI Grade 1 protection, as follows:

Deadbolts:  Schlage B60/B62, Kwikset 980/985
Entrance Handlesets: 
     Kwikset: Amherst, Arlington, Ashfield, Avalon, Chelsea, Hawthorne, Shelburne, Sheridan
     Schlage: Addison, Camelot, Century, Plymouth
 

In addition to considerations of security, style, finish and cost, there are a number of other topics you need to understand when selecting your door hardware, as follows:

• Door Hardware Functions

• Door Handing

• Backset

• Single Cylinder or Double Cylinder?

Door Hardware Functions

When buying residential door hardware for your home, you will need to know the terminology for the different functions:  Keyed entrance lock, privacy, passage, dummy, deadbolt and entrance handleset.

Keyed Entrance Lock:  Knob on outside and inside, or lever on outside and inside.  (Some manufacturers offer a lock with knob on outside with lever on inside.)  Unlocked from outside when outside knob or lever is locked by turn-button or push-button in inside knob or lever.  Inside knob or lever may always be free, which means that it will open when knob or lever turned. Or, a turn button may have to be turned to unlock it from the inside.  A keyed entrance lock is often used in conjunction with a single or double cylinder deadbolt to provide extra security.

Door Handing

Door handing is required for some lever handles produced by some manufacturers, and you will need this before you can place an online order for handed levers.  (If handing is not asked for, it is not required; the levers are reversible. In most cases, handing is only required for single dummy levers and for handlesets.) Determining the handing of a door is quite simple; however, it is probably the one thing that causes the most confusion and errors when ordering door hardware.  There are left-handed levers and right-handed levers. To determine the appropriate handing for your door, look at the hinges from the exterior side of the door.

Right Handed:  If the hinges are on the right, you need a right-handed lever.

Left Handed:  If the hinges are on the left, you need a left-handed lever.

Unless you are ordering mortise locks, the swing of the door does not matter. It can swing in or out.

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There are two common backsets for residential  locks,  2-3/8" and 2-3/4".

The backset is the distance from the edge of the door to the center of the 2-1/8" bore hole. Locks will be packed with a  2-3/8" or 2-3/4" latch depending on which backset you specify.

Most locks come with adjustable latches to accommodate both 2-3/8" & 2-3/4" backset. If you are not asked to select a backset, the backset is adjustable.

Dummy sets have no latch and are surface mounted so you can install a dummy set wherever you choose on the door, if the door has not already been bored.

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Single Cylinder or Double Cylinder?

As you learned above, a single cylinder deadbolt lock is keyed on the outside only, and has a thumbturn on the inside.  This is satisfactory for most residential applications.  However, if you have a glass door or glass sidelites or a window within 36" of the lock, someone could break the glass, reach in and unlock the door, gaining easy access to your home.  A double cylinder deadbolt, which is keyed on the inside as well as the outside, would prevent this.  However, this could be a problem if you and your family need to exit through the door in an emergency.  Keeping the key in lock when someone is at home (and removing it when no one is at home) would solve part of the problem by facilitating easy egress in an emergency.  However, you would still have the problem of a burglar reaching in to unlock your door when someone is home.  And, a child could easily remove the key without parents knowing it.  So, a double cylinder deadbolt is not necessarily a total solution.  And, in some locations a double cylinder deadbolt will not meet code.