Single or Double Sided Deadbolts?

Many of our residential customers ask "Should I use Single Sided or Double Sided Deadbolts in my home?" and the answer is "It Depends"

Both locks have their advantages and disadvantages and which one you use comes down to what is best for your specific situation. Let's start by looking at the differences between them:

A Single Sided Deadbolt has only one keyhole which is on the outside of the door; on the inside of the door is a thumb turn that allows you to lock and unlock your door at any time. A Double Sided Deadbolt has a keyhole on the outside and on the inside of the door. As a result you must use a key to lock and unlock a double sided deadbolt from the inside of your home.

Some of the advantages of each:

-Single Sided: Easy to unlock in an emergency, no key needed to lock and unlock from the inside

-Double Sided: More Secure, a potential intruder cannot unlock the door from the inside without a key

Some of the disadvantages of each:

-Single Sided: If your door has glass, side lights or windows near by an intruder can break the glass and simply reach in to unlock your door

-Double Sided: In an emergency you need to find a key to unlock the door in order to get out

In what situations would you use either deadbolt? We will use our home as an example:

In our home we have both types of deadbolts installed. On our front door we have a single sided deadbolt because it is a solid door (no window) and it has no other windows nearby. This gives us easy egress in the event of an emergency while still keeping our home secure. On our other doors we use double sided deadbolts because both doors have windows in them and are on the sides of our home. If someone tried to break one of the windows to unlock the deadbolt they would not be able to unlock the door without a key. If our front door had windows in it or near by we would also have a double sided deadbolt installed there and a few keys statically placed in case of an emergency. However, just because that is what we do does not mean that it will work for you.

So which one should you install? Again, It Depends and we would Love to sit down with you to talk about your specific situation to Keep You Safe One Door At A Time!

Tar River Lock & Key

Keeping You Safe One Door at a Time

www.tarriverlock.com

tarriverlock@gmail.com

252-231-3188