The Best Locks for Sliding Doors

Sliding doors are a gateway to your home even if they don’t get quite as much attention as your front door. In fact, many homeowners use a sliding door more for an entrance or exit than the actual front door.

Why is it then that many homeowners also fail to provide the most security and safety for their family by not investing the same money and attention on making their sliding doors as secure as their front doors?

Doors are very important to a home for a number of reasons. They are your means of entry – both for you, your family, and for burglars. Consequently, you must invest in the best locks for sliding doors available.

How to Make Your Sliding Door Secure

Did you know that most burglars enter through the front door of a home, but approximately one-fourth of all home robberies are first compromised by a side entrance, such as a home patio sliding door?

When you think about it from the eyes of a burglar, side or rear entries make more sense. They are often far more discreet with less of a chance of getting recognized by a neighbor or the local authorities.

Unfortunately, most homeowners falsely believe that there is really no good method for making a sliding door secure. While it’s true that if a burglar wants to break your glass to gain quick entry, they often still avoid doing so.

Breaking glass is messy and loud. It will likely get the attention of neighbors, or God forbid anyone that is home during the time of the robbery. Therefore, criminals are more prone to check to see the quality of the sliding door lock.

Test the Existing Sliding Door Lock

The first step to improve the security of your sliding glass door is to check the stability of the existing lock. It’s extremely important if you just moved into a new home, or haven’t checked the lock in years.

The lock is typically located in the handle. A small latch lock is generally used to hold the door to the frame. You can test to see if the lock is secure by shutting the door, locking it, then trying to pull it open. If the door moves, the latch is not secured properly or it comes loose from the frame.

This simple test will prove to you that it’s time to make adjustments to the existing lock, or consider investing in one of the best locks for a sliding door.

Key Accessible Sliding Door Locks

Unless you purchase a custom or high-end home many of the standard locks originally installed on sliding patio doors are extremely basic and lack advanced security. Old homes also tend to have older locks that were practical when they were first introduced to the market yet lack some of the more advanced features you can have in more modern locks.

One of the easier updates you can improve to a sliding door is to make it a key entry version. In order to access the door from the outside you will need a key (just like a front door), if the lock has been initiated from the inside of the home.

Experienced burglars are crafty when it comes to simple latches. They can often easily bypass them by nothing more than jiggling on the door. Therefore, locks that are not accessible from the outside are even better if you don’t have a keyed entry.

Two-Bolt Sliding Door Locks

Commercial-grade locks for sliding doors are something that you should definitely consider if you want to upgrade the security of your home.

One of the most popular types is a one or two-bolt locking system. They are fairly easy to install and add extra strength to the lock latch. When in a locked position, steel bolts drop into a point on the frame.

What is great about the design is they can get placed at any height on the door. So, for example, they can supplement instead of entirely replacing the existing lock.

Battery-Powered Audible Alarm Locks

Some locks are sold with a battery-powered alarm that goes off when the door is compromised unexpectedly.

It’s designed to serve two purposes. 1) The alarm notifies you, or anyone else in your home at the time of the invasion, that someone is trying to get into the house. 2) It hopefully distracts the criminal from proceeding forward after hearing an alarm get triggered.

These types of alarms usually go off when the lock gets compromised, and some advanced ones may have some type of code you can enter if you want to activate or deactivate the setting.

Add a Slide-Locking Bar

In addition to investing in a better sliding door lock, you can make your home even more secure by adding a slide-locking bar.

All a slide-locking bar represents is a thick wood dowel or metal bar. It’s then cut to fit the bottom of the tracking of your door. When you place it on the tracking the door will not open, even if the latch is not in a locked position or damaged.

It’s a really fantastic extra security measure yet only works when used. Unfortunately, many homeowners that have one fail to put it in the tracking before they go to sleep or leave the house for the day.

Home Security and Sliding Door Locks

It takes your average burglar to enter a home for a robbery in less than a minute. With well over eight million property crimes reported in the United States alone each year, it is very important to make sure your sliding door is as secure as possible.

Make sure that every exterior door — not just the front door — has extra layers of security including one of the best sliding door locks available, as well as extra accessories like a slide-locking bar or home alarm system.

Sliding patio doors enhance the look of your backyard but you don’t want to leave it vulnerable to burglaries. Therefore, it’s important to invest in a dual point lock feature that draws the sash to the frame. Additionally, you can choose to go with a keyed lock for extra security. All these features are standard for sliding patio doors at Feldco. Speak to a product specialist and get a free quote online today.