Self Keying? Not for us thanks.

You run a business. You probably have employees. Or tenants. Or contracted staff. Or a combination of all of those.

You also have multiple rooms. Some of those rooms are more sensitive than others. Some of those rooms are private. Some of them are occupied by tenants, some are used by employees, and others are storage for inventory or tools or equipment.

All of those rooms are accessed by different people. Those people absolutely cannot function in their roles without access to those areas. Other than them, however, no one else needs to get into that area. Nor should they.

This is why some brilliant minds in the not-so-distant past came up with something called a “key-system”.

As we dip our toes into automation, it’s becoming more and more apparent that we should explain why most of the z-wave locks out there won’t work for most businesses and their access control needs.

This is a Z-Wave Lock

It’s a z-wave lock we’d never use, but it’s still z-wave.

By now I think we all know what self-keying locks are, but let’s go over the process in such extreme depth it confuses everyone. Or, like this;

  1. Buy lock
  2. Unbox lock
  3. Put key (included with the lock) in key hole
  4. Turn key
  5. Insert little tool into slot (also included with the lock)
  6. Hear click
  7. Remove little tool
  8. Remove key
  9. Insert new key
  10. Turn lock to rest position
  11. Remove new key

Now, either you did it right and your new key works, or you did it wrong and the whole lock is reduced to a semi-expensive paper weight.

Either way, these are locks we will never ever use.

But why???

These are locks designed to accommodate one key. The vast majority of our commercial businesses require a master key system, where more than one key is used to access certain areas of the premises. Add to that the not-exactly-fail-safe re-keying mechanism, and we prefer something a little more flexible and reliable for our deadbolts.

There is a version of this type of lock that has two cylinders, and it can be put on a master key system. But our experience shows that to be even less reliable than this one. It’s a big no from us.

If you’re going to go Z-Wave;

Spend the money. Get 5-10-15 years out of your lock spending maybe $100-$150 more. Buyers remorse on security is always and has always been not getting enough, and your front door is no exception.

And if you’re setting up the key system for your business, take it one step further. Ask us about our medium and high security lines of keys and locks. If you can control your locks from off site, why not make sure you also control the key distribution for those locks?

You know where we are. Let us show you how we’d do it.

 

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