Rekey a Lock vs. Lock Change Portland

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You just got a new home and moved into it, or possibly you or a family member lost a key to your home, these and other situations probably made you think about having a lock change done by a professional Portland locksmith. Majority of people don’t know, but there is another alternative for changing your locks which is better and cheaper -rekey a lock. Here you will learn what does it mean rekey a lock and when you should get it done instead of a lock change. So why this information is so important? It may save you some money annually.

Rekey a lock - what does it mean? 

While the explanation of a “lock change” is fairly obvious, rekey a lock requires a little bit more explanation in order to fully understand what it is about. The meaning of rekey a lock is basically changing a key which meant to be used on a certain lock to a completely different key which will now work with that lock without changing it. More simply – the existing lock will stay, however, the old key will no longer work with it. The procedure is done by disassembling the lock and replacing some of the components inside which are the pins. Initially, the set of pins inside your existing lock, correspond to the existing key, so when those pins are being changed, a new key will be set to match the new series of pins in order to operate the lock. This type of procedure sounds complicated, but for a residential locksmith in Portland that has the knowledge and the right tools, this task is fairly easy and will not take much time to complete.

For the locksmith to rekey a lock, the existing matching key has to be present, otherwise, the locksmith will have to use special tools to open and disassemble the lock which may take some more time and add to the cost.

Rekey a lock portland locksmith

When a locksmith rekey a lock, it does not cause any harm to the security of it or alternatively increasing it. What do make a lock more secure is the amount of pins inside the cylinder. When a locksmith rekey a lock, he will normally replace the same amount of pins that were present in the cylinder in the first place, so the lock will keep the same security level it had before the lock rekey was done. If higher security is what you are after, then changing the locks to a higher grade ones will be the way to go.

Because the components (pins) to replace during a lock rekey procedure are fairly inexpensive, to rekey a lock will always be much more cost effective than a lock replacement. To rekey a lock, a Portland locksmith will normally only charge for the labor, whereas with a lock change, you will get charged for both the parts and labor.

It is important to remember that majority of locks have the option to be rekeyed, so you don’t have to wonder and stress about whether your lock can be rekeyed or not. However, not always a lock will be rekeyed the same way like others. As an example, you can take Medeco locks for example which consider to be high security and require special tools as well as pins in order to be rekeyed.

To rekey a lock does not have to happen only when you are looking to get rid of an old key, it can also be done in order to match other locks in your home to be used with the same key. If your home for example has several door locks where each use a different key, it would be convenient to have all locks match one single key. However, rekey a lock to match a key from another lock means that both locks have to be of the same brand at the least. If your key for example will fit inside the keyhole of one lock but will not fit the other, it would mean that both locks do not share the same keyway and thus cannot be rekeyed to use the same key.

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