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The deadbolt on my front door jammed this morning and I had to climb through a window
My key just spun around in the lock like it was nothing, no click or anything. After 15 minutes of jiggling I had to pop the screen off the kitchen window and shimmy in over the sink. Has anyone else dealt with a lock that just randomly gave up?
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zaram971mo ago
Wait, you had to climb through your own kitchen window just to get into your house?? That's wild, I would have freaked out if my lock just stopped working like that!
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the_morgan1mo ago
@zaram97 it's actually not that uncommon for a lock to just fail like that, especially if it's older or has been through a few rough winters. I had a deadbolt on my back door do the exact same thing a couple years back. What I found out later was that the internal mechanism had a tiny plastic piece that snapped, and it wasn't visible from the outside. So yeah, sometimes it's not the key or the tumbler, it's just a cheap part giving out inside the lock body. You might want to take that lock off the door and look at the back of it before you replace it, because sometimes a quick fix with some grease or a new spring can save you the 20 bucks.
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finleyw991mo ago
Have you checked if the door frame itself shifted at all? Sometimes settling foundations or humidity changes can throw the strike plate out of alignment just enough that the bolt binds up and won't retract fully. Might be worth looking at the gap between the door and frame before you blame the lock entirely.
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