We’re getting a new set of hardwood french doors made up by a local joinery firm, but I need to supply the hardware.

What I want are the top and bottom bolts to be keyed alike to the main central bolt, so the doors can be secured on exit.   But all bolt with thumb turns on the inside.

Euro cylinder locks would seem to be an obvious solution, but can anyone recommend a supplier of deadbolts, mortice sashlocks and keyed alike euro cylinders that all work together?

Frame depth is about 90mm and I need to confirm thickness with the workshop.

Suggestions?

Safe.co.uk did a shed load of keyed alike for me.

I used lockandkey.co.uk for a load of keyed alike euro cylinders.

I bought replacement Euro cylinders from https://tradelocks.co.uk/ You don’t need to be trade to buy from them.

Ooh, I know this one.

Don’t buy regular Euro-cylinders, they have a design flaw and can be broken (literally) into in seconds. Avocet ABS locks are the way to go. The last one I bought a few months back was from here, they do keyed-alike and they were considerably cheaper than anywhere else I found:

https://www.barnsleylock.co.uk/

As per Bails I also used lockandkey.co.uk recently to redo the whole house with keyed alike ABS locks. Very quick to deliver, and when one wasn’t quite keyed right, they sent another without quibble plus packaging to return the wrong one. I did a mix of ABS Euro-cylinders with keys on both sides, some with thumb turns, and also a couple of nightlatches too. I found you can get mortice deadlocks and sashlocks that take Euro-cylinders which was very handy.

One key to rule them all!

they have a design flaw

Which one? Bumping, drilling or something else?

(genuine question, I take a passing interest)

Which one? Bumping, drilling or something else?

I thnk it’s snapping the cylinder. You can get a load of anti-snap ones these days.

AS said above, anti snap and anti drill are the obvious choice. Other formats of cylinder are available ie Kaba etc, but euro standard will give biggest choice of lock fittings.
Ideally key barrel should be flush or max 5mm protrusion from handle face plate. Handle should be secured to door from inside.
All thumb wheels will mean breaking glass will give easy entry. Obvious on a french door, but thought I’d mention it.

I thnk it’s snapping the cylinder.

Yup. The point where the locking pawl is is a weak spot. Give it a sufficiently hard enough thump and you can snap it in half and just pull it out.

You can get a load of anti-snap ones these days.

The Avocet ones do this. They have an intentional weak spot on the external side, in front of the locking mechanism. If you try the snap trick you’ll just take the front of the lock off and it remains secure.

Another vote for https://www.lockandkey.co.uk/ from me.

Did matching locks for every door in my house. I phone with questions and he/they was/were very knowledgeable, very helpful. Everything worked perfectly when it arrived.

Wish I’d thought of getting matching locks years ago, obvious once you know.

Cheers all.  So I’m going for a central sash lock with 4 dead locks to secure the doors into the frame. All on thumb turns internally, and keyed alike externally. Called in to the link CSL Pochins in the end on recommendation of the door msker, they were really helpful and new their stuff.

Unfortunately no one seems to make a euro cylinder dead lock designed to secure vertically, so I’ll just have to have then at 90°.

Just need to decide on brass or chrome finish, and whether I really need the deadbolts keyed at all on the slave door…

Cheers all.

Tagged

What cougar said. Avocet is based near me in brighouse. I set my parents house up double locks on the same key for their patio doors. Really easy to sort out at my local locksmith

I wouldn’t use thumb turns. As bibkebob says, break or cut the glass and they’re in. Also, if they get in through a window they can open the doors to take stuff out. My insurance requires keyed locks on all the downstairs windows, and I think I’d be uninsured if I had thumbturns on french doors.

I can’t see that I’d ever need to lock our french doors from the outside, we don’t use them to leave the house, only to access the garden – ideally I’d have a key internally and not even a cylinder accessible from outside.

If a thief is determined enough to smash s sealed double glazed unit for access, then I don’t think s thumb turn lock is that much of a security compromise.  I’d also rather that my kids could escape easily in a fire than get stuck due to not being able to find/operate the keys in a panic. I suppose keys could be left in the locks for daily use, and removed when out/away, but it’s a faff.  Also will require removing every time I want to lock them from the outside.

The idea with having them externally lockable is so that I can exit that way to go for a ride!  As the bikes are in the garden and I go out the side gate with them. Means I’m not wondering in and out the house/garden with bikes and kit, reducing exposure.

+1 For The Avocet ABS locks really nice.

I went this route as the people who broke the double glazed units to get in grabbed the spare key to let themselves out with my bikes, I think they’d have not bothered if the doors couldn’t be opened and they had to put the bikes thru the window. (So I went the route of a key per person for all locks an no spare hung up.)

It’s a tricky balance regarding fire escape/security.

ABS can have a key in both sides at the same time. It’s one of the plus points if them. Means the wife can’t lock you out by leaving the key in the door.

If someone is going to the trouble of breaking glass to get at a thumbturn then they are either going to be professional (tooled up and quiet) or desperate (opportunistic and noisy) and either way you have already lost.

A friend has just moved into a new build and it came with something like this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Patlock-Instant-French-Conservatory-Security/dp/B00K1YCAV2/ref=asc_df_B00K1YCAV2/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=207961523712&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3273825629276227986&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046700&hvtargid=pla-348814773339&psc=1

Hers includes some kind of insurance