Touchpad Deadbolts -- Opinions?

[Ben]

On a tangent to my, "dumbass Ben locked himself out" thread, does anyone have any experience with touchpad deadbolts? Specifically quality, longevity, and do I have to cut big ass holes in the door to mount them?

[Art Eatman]

I've only read of them and only seen them in a store.  IMO, they violate the KISS principle.

Art

[Perd Hapley]

Do they require batteries?

[Ben]

Is there no place to hide a key outside the residence?

Townhouse, so no place I feel secure with. I normally keep a key with my spare vehicle key which I hide in a keybox in the frame of the truck. Unfortunately, when I went to grab it on this occasion, I only had the vehicle key in there (locked myself out a ways back and apparently forgot to put the housekey back in with the vehicle key). Since I keep spare dough hidden in the vehicle, I was at least able to drive by the In & Out for a burger and soda while I waited for the locksmith.  

[Ben]

Yeah, the ones I've seen on the web so far all use AAs, but also have a key option, same as a Gun Vault.

[Guest]

My parents have one. Its pretty damn cool not having to worry about having your key with you. The downside that I noticed is that after time your fingertips start to "scrub" the top of the numbers in your combination, you see your pushing the same couple of buttons each time and not even touching the other ones. After awhile those buttons start to look a little different from the other ones, making it pretty easy to guess the combo. I dont think it offers an security advantage over traditional locks (if fact its probably weaker) but they are convenient.

Noone is ever going to try to defeat your lock unless it is the weakest point in accessing your home and unless you have a steel door and no windows, it isnt.

[AJ Dual]

My parents have one. Its pretty damn cool not having to worry about having your key with you. The downside that I noticed is that after time your fingertips start to "scrub" the top of the numbers in your combination, you see your pushing the same couple of buttons each time and not even touching the other ones. After awhile those buttons start to look a little different from the other ones, making it pretty easy to guess the combo. I dont think it offers an security advantage over traditional locks (if fact its probably weaker) but they are convenient.

Noone is ever going to try to defeat your lock unless it is the weakest point in accessing your home and unless you have a steel door and no windows, it isnt.

The suburban grade school my MIL is a teacher at has these crazy LCD touchscreen keypad locks where every time you key in the combination the numbers are in random positions to prevent that very thing from happening.

Of course, the other anser is simple, choose a combination that uses all number buttons once, so the wear is equal.

i.e. 2143987560

Not to hijack the thread, but did anyone see Mythbusters two weeks ago, where they defeated the biometric finger print lock?

They lifted the finger print off a CD case of the "mark" one of the technical assistants.

Then they dusted, taped, and transferred the print, and made a high-rez flatbed scan of it.

Then they blew it up onto acetate film, cleaned the lines up with a sharpie marker, reduced it again on the scanner.

Then they photo etched a copper circuit board using the acetate as a photo lithography template.

Then the etched copper was used to cast balistic gelatin fingerprints.

They worked& At least for this brand of lock, all the spy movie stuff about rubber fingerprints is TRUE. And this lock also sensed galvanic response, body temp, and pulse to be sure it was a "real finger"...

Then, after all that trouble, they took a simple paper laser print of the fingerprint, licked it and even that worked. LOL!

Methinks the manufacturer of the "never been defeated lock" wasn't too happy...

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

They prolly read it here.

- NF

[charby]

We had a mechanical push button one on my fraternity house in college that had stainless steel button so no wear was present. You could set it up so the lock would stay unlocked after you put the code in or reset it to locked after you opened the door. IRC in 1996 the lock was about $500 installed.

similar to this one http://www.taylorsecurity.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=1630&DEPARTMENT_ID=1004

Charby

[roo_ster]

We use the Trilogy at work:
http://www.locksmithtoolandsupply.com/store/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=PLT&Category_Code=Trilogy
Not a deadbolt, but they have been reliable as a rock in the last seven years.

We also used to use these Simplex:
http://www.locksmithtoolandsupply.com/store/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=PLT&Category_Code=PBL-ILCO-8100
With deadbolt, but mechanical.  Not as many combo choices.  We also have used these.  Also rock-like reliability.

My sister/BIL use this:
http://www.locksmithtoolandsupply.com/store/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=PLT&Category_Code=ED-1460X
Not as reliable.  They have had to replace it.

I would be really partial to the top Trilogy.  I can think of the batts going out maybe twice in different locks in several years' use.  Lots of traffic.

[Perd Hapley]

The downside that I noticed is that after time your fingertips start to "scrub" the top of the numbers in your combination, you see your pushing the same couple of buttons each time and not even touching the other ones. After awhile those buttons start to look a little different from the other ones, making it pretty easy to guess the combo.

Can't you change your combo when that starts to happen?

Simplex don't use batteries, right?

[trapperready]

I've got a couple of the Simplex locks in use around the house (on interior doors I want to keep folks out of). The ones I have do not require batteries.