kwikset lock company has been around since 1946. They’ve had many designs and redesigns over the years. In the last few years kwikset has had a lot of quality control problems. A lot of the knob locks have had failing latches. People are quite literally getting locked inside of their homes because of these failures. The last thing you want if your house should never catch on fire is to not be able to get out, because of a latch failure.
Kwikset latches fail in a way that will not allow you to turn the knob and have a turn of the knob retract the latch. This typically leaves the lock Frozen in a locked position. Whether you’re inside or outside, this malfunction leaves the door locked and unlockable without specific tools.
The second malfunction that it’s very common with these locks is a failure within the self-rekeying feature. You will go to insert the key that currently operates the lock and the lock will reset itself due to this failure, and leave the consumer in a position where they cannot lock or unlock the door. Locks do not have to be complex to be secure. In this case the locks fail because of their complexity. Way too many tiny parts made out of cheap materials. When this does occur most of the time the consumer will have to call a locksmith.
In short the quickest and easiest way to avoid this problem is to not buy this problem. This is a problem that will eventually affect all of these locks the older they get the less reliable they get.
How I discovered the kwikset smart lock failures
As a locksmith anytime a new product comes on to the market that is radically different I’ll test it the old-fashioned way before I start recommending it. I simply install one on my door and see how it works out. In this case I have had three of these locks all have failed before 16 months. One of which failed right out of the box, the other 2 failed before being in operation for less than a year and a half. Needless to say after three of these had failed I did not buy a Fourth. “I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t just a fluke.”
