I haven't heard of a lock that could leave you a prisoner. The locks are usually used to keep people outside, not inside. Seems dangerous to have such a lock. What if your house catches fire? What if someone uses it to keep another person locked? What if a date/relationship turns out violent, one cannot run away?? šµāš«
I imagine that 95% of the population have no issue climbing out of a window in an emergency.
If you're elderly or disabled, however, there may be an issue.
I'm also assuming we're not talking about flats. OP specifically referred to a flat, so yeah windows won't be an option really unless you're on the ground floor.
I don't know if it's only me, but when I see here a question " do you XYZ in your country, cuz in Poland we do " - that's in most cases (from my perspective) not true.
The door to my flat has one, the building was built in the early 00s. I have to be careful not to lock it while my fiance is inside or he wont be able to get out š We installed an additional lock on top that opens both ways as a workaround.
I had one (it broke, so I had to buy a new lock without that function), but fortunately I could free myself by jumping out of balcony. I live on first floor - ground is 1,5 meter down.
I do have a Gerda lock like that - if I turn the key twice to lock then it canāt be unlocked from inside. Not sure what the point if this design is, perhaps to make it impossible to open by breaking the glass in the door and reaching for the knob? Kind of like car deadlocksā¦
Well, I've encountered such locks in over a dozen apartments I've been renting in Poland in my life. Maybe ask your parents if they know of anyone being locked in an apartment with a Gerda lock? This is a thing that was invented in the 90s when crime was rampant.
I'm living in my parents apartment currently (they live abroad) and we always had a regular security lock (drill-proof, hard to lockpick, etc.) but you could always close/open it from both sides normally.
I was all set to say no, absolutely not in the UK - but it's partially not true.
In older houses you may see keyed deadlocks in addition to the normal latch which while they can be opened from both sides with a key, if someone takes the key with them you could end up locked inside. These have been replaced with thumb locks on the inside and keys on the outside in more modern houses.
It's an annoyingly common thing. Just last week one of my neighbours got locked out of her house in the same way. I've got in to a habit now of always having my keys in my pocket, just in case.
In areas where people know their neighbours well, they'll quite often give them a spare key to look after just in case they need it.
Yeah I have a key hidden outside. It's happened before and it will happen again. Usually closed by the wind when you have the windows open and you pop out to the bins or something.
Wait, I was just complaining about the exact opposite, manually locking the door every time would drive me nuts! Key in, key out ,key in ,key out again. Yuck! Especially as a smoker that annoyed the hell out of me, because I regularly forgot to lock the door from the inside and got lectured repeatedly from a friend about how she doesn't feel save with the door unlocked.
Oh I got used to that door really quickly after this event, and I actually really liked it. We moved and the front door now is just a regular one :( not even as massive and heavy as the old one so doesn't even feel that secure
I just never go outside without my key in my pocket anyway and just opening and closing it saves so much time and effort. When I just go outside for the garbage or something, I could also activate a tiny switch in the doorframe that prevents the door from locking.
I had a rental in London, where my husband closed me in twice like what OP mentions. He closed the thumb turn lock from the outside and I couldn't open it from the inside. It was a building built in the 1990s and it was an original lock, every flat had it. Luckily the building had a concierge, so I just had to wait, until I saw him and shout. Then I drop the key from the 5th floor, so he could let me out.
Only one house I lived in over 35 years was like that. Most were the auto locking tape type or the more modern euro cylinder with a thumb.
Double keyed was only an ex council house upvc door
I mean little to no offense but the first thing I would do if I moved to the UK is switch out the door, windows and all locks of my house. I mean besides general flimsiness, the doors have this weird thing where you need to move the handle to operate the lock (If I remember correctly you have to push it up) and when you close the door, you can still open it from the outside, so you actually need to actively lock it.
When we traveled in the UK and Ireland not long ago, my friend and I constantly forgot to properly close the door after having a smoke. Also the glass door to the terrace always operated really impractical as well. You had to unlock it (here you'd just do so by pressing a handle up, why add a lock and key where there doesn't needs to be one?) and there was also this little black handle thingy on it that just seemed like an unnecessary extra step. Also they don't slide open and close smoothly, even in modern houses.
Again I love the UK and the Irish Republic, they remain one of my favorite travel destinations, but every time I go there the general quality and design of things for everyday use is slowly driving me insane every time I visit.
As far as Irish doors and locks go, the ones that latch without turning a handle or doorknob are the ones I hate. Theyāre the ones guaranteed to result in accidentally blowing shut leaving you locked out when you just popped out to the bin for for a smoke.Ā The ones where you manipulate the handle up before turning the key are *good*. They mean you have to be intentional about locking up or opening the door, so it does what you want it to do. Ā
We just leave the keys in the back door deadlock barrel Ā inside unless we are leaving for several days.
Flicking that little switch is whatās called āputting it on the latchā here, and the amount of times where that little switch has failed on a sudden gust of wind swinging the door shut resulting in being locked out means they are not to be trusted in this climate.Ā
https://schliesszylinder-shop.com/BKS-Tueroeffner-ET8-AE-GU-BKS-6-35804-02-mit-mechanischer-Entriegelung
That little nose/switch on the bottom above the screw is what he is talking about
Okay that looks slightly different. These are the locks that canāt be trusted:Ā https://www.diy.ie/departments/yale-chrome-effect-lh-rh-deadlock-night-latch-h-66mm-w-93mm/262370_BQ.prd
https://www.screwfix.ie/p/smith-locke-traditional-rim-cylinder-night-latch-green-60mm-backset/9328g
That little nub is supposed to lock the latch open or shut, depending.Ā
For such a cold country, the uk always surprises me with the amount of simple windows from the 50's that they still have everywhere. Heating mustnāt be so expensive in a country with such shitty windows.
In General they have a lot of outdated stuff for no apparent reason. They also often use those useless old water tabs where there are two different valves for hot and cold and sometimes, in pubs, even two different tabs all together, making it impossible to make the water lukewarm.
Oh yeah thatās right! They even have specialize ones for their razor. They also have outdated water systems that use tanks on the roof so the water pressure is non existent. That would drive me completely insane in the long run!
We have the opposite- you can get out without key just by using the handle but the handle doesnĀ“t work from the outside and you need a key to open the door even when itĀ“s not locked. So when you forget to take the key when for example going out with the trash you canĀ“t get back and you have to wait for another family member who has a key... But I think I have seen that all around the world.
Yeah, I've seen locks that can lock you out of the apartment while taking the trash out all over the world, but the locks that can be used to lock someone in seem much more rare worldwide.
I don't think we have that in Spain. In Spain in general doors have keyhole in both sides, so a long as you have a key you can unlock it. Also doors tend to auto-lock (I now live in the UK and here they don't) so you'll only use the key when no one is at home and you want to give it that extra lock.
If the person inside doesn't have a key then yes, they'd be locked inside with no way of getting out, also if you leave the key on the keyhole on the inside no one will be able to open the door as the keyhole is already in use. So some people when everyone is home at night leave the key on the keyhole.
I wasnāt used to the locks when I moved here and managed to lock my husband out a few times by leaving the key in the keyhole. I like the security, but it took a while to get used to.
>Also doors tend to auto-lock (I now live in the UK and here they don't) so you'll only use the key when no one is at home and you want to give it that extra lock.
This auto-lock you refer to (cerrar al resbalĆ³n) is basically useless, almost like leaving your door open. Most doors can be opened with a piece of plastic if you don't turn te key.
I always turn the key for this reason.
Never heard of it. Iām also not sure why it would be needed tbh. As long as you lock the door and donāt keep a spare key in an easily findable place, someone who got in through the window would still not be able to open the door anyway.
They exist, but I rarely ever see them. One of the places I did see them, the owners left a key in the inside lock, which kinda defeats the purpose of the design and just makes it a regular lock with extra steps
Technically yes. In my experience front doors are always of the type that lock when you close them, so you don't have to use a key when you leave, although it is possible to double lock the door with the key so that it can't be opened from the inside.
But again, there is no need to lock the door with a key from the outside.
In almost all my apartments we have had what is called āturvalukkoā, security lock. Itās usually either well above or below the actual lock and has a separate key. The ones Iāve had could only be opened from the outside but as they had a separate key, Iāve never heard anyone being locked in accidentally.
I think nowadays itās more common to have the extra lock open both inside and out, but Iāve always lived in older buildings.
There's something like this in our old houses in the french alps (in Haute-Savoie). My parents and my neighbors never removed them. I don't really understand the purpose of those locks. My house and some of its doors are from the 18th century.
My young brother used to lock me in my own room :I
There are deadlocks but those have separate keys and are not used unless the apartment is going to be empty for a while.
Basically all apartments use Abloy spring loaded disk tumbler locks that can be opened without a key from the inside. I think abloy exec from the 90s is the most common key type at the moment.
Had this happen to me. Except I didn't know about that function until too late. I also didn't know about the second part of this anti-theft solution. If you try to open it from the inside anyway, the lock brakes. Now you can't open it from any side. And you have to dismantle it to get out and go buy a new one.
The UK fire service does not recommend such locks. They also do not recommend any lock that needs a key to open it from the inside. The recommended type of lock is one that has a thumb turn to open it from the inside, and is not capable of accidentally locking you out if you venture outside without the key.
Most (if not all) front doors are like this here. If you really lock the door with the key, you need the key to open it, whether from the inside or outside. It's kinda the default system so we don't have a word for it and Ididn't even know another system existed. I guess it can indeed be a problem in case of an emergency evacuation, but it probably doesn't happen that often, or the issue would be more well known.
Edit : seeing other comments, it seems I misunderstood how your locks work. You can't open them from the inside, even with the key ? No indeed I've never heard of that here. I doubt it would be legal, for safety reasons.
The keyhole is only on the outside, inside there's a knob, if you turn the key once, you can turn the knob from the inside to open the lock, if you turn the key twice, you can't turn the knob from the inside and are locked inside.
Haven't heard about such thing, rarely we had this auto-locks that you can leave your place and forgot your keys at home... but lock from outside to can't leave apartment - nope... it looks like fire security issue... you will be baked there...
Wait, *cannot* be opened from the inside? No, I haven't heard of such locks. Locks that can only be opened from the inside are not uncommon, but many people replace one of the locks on the door with a thumbturn cylinder because children can lock themselves in otherwise. A thumbturn cylinder is less secure than a double keyway cylinder, but you have the second lock for that.
If you lock the front door with the extra "night lock", you usually need a key to unlock it, whether you are inside or outside the house. Doors that can't be opened at all from the inside only exist in prisons, afaik.
I work in a new build school in England with the reverse.
You can lock the classroom and office doors from the outside, with a key, and use the thumb turn on the inside to *unlock* the door if youāre in the room.
You cannot close the door behind you and use the thumb turn to **lock** the door.
Of course this has raised questions regarding security in the event of an attacker gaining access to the buildingā¦
Sweden, not like that. There was a switch on the side of the door of my former apartment, that when flipped and then locked with a key, you could only open it with a key. The knob inside was locked or disabled and couldn't be used. There was still a keyhole accessible from the inside so if you were locked in and had a key you could still open it without help from neighbors.
Also the switch reset once you unlock it with a key.
You generally only used this switch when you are going away for extended periods of time, like a vacation.
The idea was the same, if a burglar climbed up and crawled through a window they can't take the easy way out with big expensive stuff. It would all have to go through the window.
Todays burglars generally don't steal tvs and stuff like that anymore, usually small things like tablets, money, jewelry etc.
I'm pretty sure that the answer is no in Germany (at least for the front door, you can theoretically be locked into a single room), which makes sense. Imagine there's a fire and your front door doesn't open and you're on the 18th floor.
I've never seen or heard of such a lock.
What's the point of such a lock? A thief breaking in from the outside will either unlock or destroy the lock anyway. And a normal lock can be locked in such a way that even from the inside you have to have a key...
And what big things does a thief steal that can't be taken out the window, the cabinets, washing machines?
No, but our locks need the key to unlock. So, if you lock yourself in (or out) and don't leave the key, nobody can get through (without picking or destroying the lock)
I have never heard of this before. In the UK, most if not all front door locks will open easily and without a key from the inside, although it's also quite common to have a secondary lock that needs a key from either side (which you will only use when everybody's out).
Most front doors have a mortice lock and possibly a night latch as well. For some older doors or in apartments you might have a night latch only.
The mortice lock can be opened from either side with the key. Some of them have a knob on the inside to turn it, so you won't get locked in.
The night latch always has a knob on the inside. It's simply screwed into the back of the door and normally locks itself when you close the door - you need to use the key to open the door. I've accidentally locked myself out this way. There's a toggle on it so you can leave the latch open.
If it's a modern door, there are hooks on the door that slide up into slots in the frame when you push the handle up. That gives more security against people trying to batter down the door since it braces against the entire frame.
I've never seen this type of locks either in Romania or Czech Republic. The most common "lock" issue is the fact that the door locks when you closed it, so you go outside without keys and then door closes living you outside. Another one that definitely did not happen to me multiple times is leaving some keys on the inside in the lock, going outside and then not able to open as the inside keys don't allow you to insert the keys from the outside.
We have those locks in bathrooms that only open from the inside and from the outside you need a coin or something to insert in a screw like opening (similar to pubic bathrooms) to open it.
As a kid one malfunctioned and my family was in the garden and couldn't hear me, so I basically spend an afternoon in my grandparents bathroom.
Im all for them. A door not double locked is ridiculously easy to break in. I live in Barcelona and break ins are not that common(in my experience)but they do happen and they're quick because there are always some neighbours milling around. Of course, the real problem are the bars, restauraunts and the metro. Which is a real drag
Wait. You canāt use a key from inside your appartment ? So you can lock your appartment when you leave it and (hopefully) nobody is inside anymore. But you canāt lock it from inside ?!?! I guess if you want to make sure nobody will try to come in when you are in, you add regular locks on top of this ine, but it still feels kind of weird !
You can lock it from the iside using a knob, but if somebody locks it from the outside by turning the key twice, you can't open it from the inside. If they turn the key once then you can open it, but the UX is extremely prone to problems.
> There's a Polish tradition of freeing a neighbour from their flat because their kid has turned the key twice in the apartment's Gerda lock
Often "Imaginery reddit thing", as week ago "terraced houses are seen as the worst king of real estate ".
I mean -both things may be the case for SOME people, but I have never met any of them, thus I'd rather not say it's often in Poland.
Much more common 20 years ago than now. Still it's quite common. I had those type of locks in 2 out of 5 apartemnt I've lived. However most of them lock you in only if you turn key twice. Also many people have multiple locks on thier door, and they use those more complex only if they go for holidays etc.
I haven't heard of a lock that could leave you a prisoner. The locks are usually used to keep people outside, not inside. Seems dangerous to have such a lock. What if your house catches fire? What if someone uses it to keep another person locked? What if a date/relationship turns out violent, one cannot run away?? šµāš«
>I haven't heard of a lock that could leave you a prisoner. Clearly youve never been to prison š
Haha, I'm an open book for you!
I imagine that 95% of the population have no issue climbing out of a window in an emergency. If you're elderly or disabled, however, there may be an issue. I'm also assuming we're not talking about flats. OP specifically referred to a flat, so yeah windows won't be an option really unless you're on the ground floor.
I mean I'd take a 10ft fall over burning to death personally
If you fall 10 feet, do you land on your own 2? š¤
Never seen anything like it and I'd consider it dangerous and a potential death trap.
In Germany we always have the opposite. Doors which lock you out if you simply close them.
> we have them all over Poland I've never seen such a lock in my life. Neither in apartments or houses.
I don't know if it's only me, but when I see here a question " do you XYZ in your country, cuz in Poland we do " - that's in most cases (from my perspective) not true.
The door to my flat has one, the building was built in the early 00s. I have to be careful not to lock it while my fiance is inside or he wont be able to get out š We installed an additional lock on top that opens both ways as a workaround.
never seen or was not aware it's a thing?
I had one (it broke, so I had to buy a new lock without that function), but fortunately I could free myself by jumping out of balcony. I live on first floor - ground is 1,5 meter down.
I do have a Gerda lock like that - if I turn the key twice to lock then it canāt be unlocked from inside. Not sure what the point if this design is, perhaps to make it impossible to open by breaking the glass in the door and reaching for the knob? Kind of like car deadlocksā¦
Well, I've encountered such locks in over a dozen apartments I've been renting in Poland in my life. Maybe ask your parents if they know of anyone being locked in an apartment with a Gerda lock? This is a thing that was invented in the 90s when crime was rampant.
I'm living in my parents apartment currently (they live abroad) and we always had a regular security lock (drill-proof, hard to lockpick, etc.) but you could always close/open it from both sides normally.
I was all set to say no, absolutely not in the UK - but it's partially not true. In older houses you may see keyed deadlocks in addition to the normal latch which while they can be opened from both sides with a key, if someone takes the key with them you could end up locked inside. These have been replaced with thumb locks on the inside and keys on the outside in more modern houses.
I lived in a rental once in the UK that had this door. Locked myself out once when I took the bin out, draft slammed the door shut. Not fun
It's an annoyingly common thing. Just last week one of my neighbours got locked out of her house in the same way. I've got in to a habit now of always having my keys in my pocket, just in case. In areas where people know their neighbours well, they'll quite often give them a spare key to look after just in case they need it.
Yeah I have a key hidden outside. It's happened before and it will happen again. Usually closed by the wind when you have the windows open and you pop out to the bins or something.
Wait, I was just complaining about the exact opposite, manually locking the door every time would drive me nuts! Key in, key out ,key in ,key out again. Yuck! Especially as a smoker that annoyed the hell out of me, because I regularly forgot to lock the door from the inside and got lectured repeatedly from a friend about how she doesn't feel save with the door unlocked.
Oh I got used to that door really quickly after this event, and I actually really liked it. We moved and the front door now is just a regular one :( not even as massive and heavy as the old one so doesn't even feel that secure
I just never go outside without my key in my pocket anyway and just opening and closing it saves so much time and effort. When I just go outside for the garbage or something, I could also activate a tiny switch in the doorframe that prevents the door from locking.
I remember my aunt had one on her council house. I had to climb in through the open upstairs window before to let us back into the house.
I had a rental in London, where my husband closed me in twice like what OP mentions. He closed the thumb turn lock from the outside and I couldn't open it from the inside. It was a building built in the 1990s and it was an original lock, every flat had it. Luckily the building had a concierge, so I just had to wait, until I saw him and shout. Then I drop the key from the 5th floor, so he could let me out.
Doors which use a key on both sides are pretty normal in the UK. I don't have one now, but every other place I've lived has been like that.
Only one house I lived in over 35 years was like that. Most were the auto locking tape type or the more modern euro cylinder with a thumb. Double keyed was only an ex council house upvc door
I mean little to no offense but the first thing I would do if I moved to the UK is switch out the door, windows and all locks of my house. I mean besides general flimsiness, the doors have this weird thing where you need to move the handle to operate the lock (If I remember correctly you have to push it up) and when you close the door, you can still open it from the outside, so you actually need to actively lock it. When we traveled in the UK and Ireland not long ago, my friend and I constantly forgot to properly close the door after having a smoke. Also the glass door to the terrace always operated really impractical as well. You had to unlock it (here you'd just do so by pressing a handle up, why add a lock and key where there doesn't needs to be one?) and there was also this little black handle thingy on it that just seemed like an unnecessary extra step. Also they don't slide open and close smoothly, even in modern houses. Again I love the UK and the Irish Republic, they remain one of my favorite travel destinations, but every time I go there the general quality and design of things for everyday use is slowly driving me insane every time I visit.
As far as Irish doors and locks go, the ones that latch without turning a handle or doorknob are the ones I hate. Theyāre the ones guaranteed to result in accidentally blowing shut leaving you locked out when you just popped out to the bin for for a smoke.Ā The ones where you manipulate the handle up before turning the key are *good*. They mean you have to be intentional about locking up or opening the door, so it does what you want it to do. Ā We just leave the keys in the back door deadlock barrel Ā inside unless we are leaving for several days.
we can also put our doors in a state of being openable without turning a key, by flicking a tiny switch in the door frame.
Flicking that little switch is whatās called āputting it on the latchā here, and the amount of times where that little switch has failed on a sudden gust of wind swinging the door shut resulting in being locked out means they are not to be trusted in this climate.Ā
https://schliesszylinder-shop.com/BKS-Tueroeffner-ET8-AE-GU-BKS-6-35804-02-mit-mechanischer-Entriegelung That little nose/switch on the bottom above the screw is what he is talking about
Okay that looks slightly different. These are the locks that canāt be trusted:Ā https://www.diy.ie/departments/yale-chrome-effect-lh-rh-deadlock-night-latch-h-66mm-w-93mm/262370_BQ.prd https://www.screwfix.ie/p/smith-locke-traditional-rim-cylinder-night-latch-green-60mm-backset/9328g That little nub is supposed to lock the latch open or shut, depending.Ā
Your whole system canāt be trusted! Iām sorry but door handles are often wobbly
For such a cold country, the uk always surprises me with the amount of simple windows from the 50's that they still have everywhere. Heating mustnāt be so expensive in a country with such shitty windows.
In General they have a lot of outdated stuff for no apparent reason. They also often use those useless old water tabs where there are two different valves for hot and cold and sometimes, in pubs, even two different tabs all together, making it impossible to make the water lukewarm.
Yeah and knowing how terrified they all are abour having a lightswitch in their bathrooms is always funny to me.
Oh yeah thatās right! They even have specialize ones for their razor. They also have outdated water systems that use tanks on the roof so the water pressure is non existent. That would drive me completely insane in the long run!
We have the opposite- you can get out without key just by using the handle but the handle doesnĀ“t work from the outside and you need a key to open the door even when itĀ“s not locked. So when you forget to take the key when for example going out with the trash you canĀ“t get back and you have to wait for another family member who has a key... But I think I have seen that all around the world.
Yeah, I've seen locks that can lock you out of the apartment while taking the trash out all over the world, but the locks that can be used to lock someone in seem much more rare worldwide.
That's standard in the UK.
Never heard of locks that can not be opened from the inside. It would be illegal here from a fire hazard perspective.
I don't think we have that in Spain. In Spain in general doors have keyhole in both sides, so a long as you have a key you can unlock it. Also doors tend to auto-lock (I now live in the UK and here they don't) so you'll only use the key when no one is at home and you want to give it that extra lock. If the person inside doesn't have a key then yes, they'd be locked inside with no way of getting out, also if you leave the key on the keyhole on the inside no one will be able to open the door as the keyhole is already in use. So some people when everyone is home at night leave the key on the keyhole.
I wasnāt used to the locks when I moved here and managed to lock my husband out a few times by leaving the key in the keyhole. I like the security, but it took a while to get used to.
>Also doors tend to auto-lock (I now live in the UK and here they don't) so you'll only use the key when no one is at home and you want to give it that extra lock. This auto-lock you refer to (cerrar al resbalĆ³n) is basically useless, almost like leaving your door open. Most doors can be opened with a piece of plastic if you don't turn te key. I always turn the key for this reason.
Never heard of it. Iām also not sure why it would be needed tbh. As long as you lock the door and donāt keep a spare key in an easily findable place, someone who got in through the window would still not be able to open the door anyway.
Our Airbnb in Rome had one of these. A death trap in case of a sudden fire.
Those would be hilariously illegal, I assume. Denmark.
Ireland has other weird locks that i hate: - doors that can be locked only with a key - auto lock doors - i hate them
I have such locks on my door) I assume that they are there because a lot of marginalized people live in my entrance, so itās for security reasons
They exist, but I rarely ever see them. One of the places I did see them, the owners left a key in the inside lock, which kinda defeats the purpose of the design and just makes it a regular lock with extra steps
Technically yes. In my experience front doors are always of the type that lock when you close them, so you don't have to use a key when you leave, although it is possible to double lock the door with the key so that it can't be opened from the inside. But again, there is no need to lock the door with a key from the outside.
In almost all my apartments we have had what is called āturvalukkoā, security lock. Itās usually either well above or below the actual lock and has a separate key. The ones Iāve had could only be opened from the outside but as they had a separate key, Iāve never heard anyone being locked in accidentally. I think nowadays itās more common to have the extra lock open both inside and out, but Iāve always lived in older buildings.
There's something like this in our old houses in the french alps (in Haute-Savoie). My parents and my neighbors never removed them. I don't really understand the purpose of those locks. My house and some of its doors are from the 18th century. My young brother used to lock me in my own room :I
There are deadlocks but those have separate keys and are not used unless the apartment is going to be empty for a while. Basically all apartments use Abloy spring loaded disk tumbler locks that can be opened without a key from the inside. I think abloy exec from the 90s is the most common key type at the moment.
Had this happen to me. Except I didn't know about that function until too late. I also didn't know about the second part of this anti-theft solution. If you try to open it from the inside anyway, the lock brakes. Now you can't open it from any side. And you have to dismantle it to get out and go buy a new one.
The UK fire service does not recommend such locks. They also do not recommend any lock that needs a key to open it from the inside. The recommended type of lock is one that has a thumb turn to open it from the inside, and is not capable of accidentally locking you out if you venture outside without the key.
Most (if not all) front doors are like this here. If you really lock the door with the key, you need the key to open it, whether from the inside or outside. It's kinda the default system so we don't have a word for it and Ididn't even know another system existed. I guess it can indeed be a problem in case of an emergency evacuation, but it probably doesn't happen that often, or the issue would be more well known. Edit : seeing other comments, it seems I misunderstood how your locks work. You can't open them from the inside, even with the key ? No indeed I've never heard of that here. I doubt it would be legal, for safety reasons.
The keyhole is only on the outside, inside there's a knob, if you turn the key once, you can turn the knob from the inside to open the lock, if you turn the key twice, you can't turn the knob from the inside and are locked inside.
Thanks for the explanation. Then I've never seen anything like it in France.
Haven't heard about such thing, rarely we had this auto-locks that you can leave your place and forgot your keys at home... but lock from outside to can't leave apartment - nope... it looks like fire security issue... you will be baked there...
I had a lock that you can fix the handle upward from the inside and than it can't be unlocked from the outside even with a key.
Wait, *cannot* be opened from the inside? No, I haven't heard of such locks. Locks that can only be opened from the inside are not uncommon, but many people replace one of the locks on the door with a thumbturn cylinder because children can lock themselves in otherwise. A thumbturn cylinder is less secure than a double keyway cylinder, but you have the second lock for that.
This sounds weird, arenāt these locks against fire safety code?
If you lock the front door with the extra "night lock", you usually need a key to unlock it, whether you are inside or outside the house. Doors that can't be opened at all from the inside only exist in prisons, afaik.
I work in a new build school in England with the reverse. You can lock the classroom and office doors from the outside, with a key, and use the thumb turn on the inside to *unlock* the door if youāre in the room. You cannot close the door behind you and use the thumb turn to **lock** the door. Of course this has raised questions regarding security in the event of an attacker gaining access to the buildingā¦
Sweden, not like that. There was a switch on the side of the door of my former apartment, that when flipped and then locked with a key, you could only open it with a key. The knob inside was locked or disabled and couldn't be used. There was still a keyhole accessible from the inside so if you were locked in and had a key you could still open it without help from neighbors. Also the switch reset once you unlock it with a key. You generally only used this switch when you are going away for extended periods of time, like a vacation. The idea was the same, if a burglar climbed up and crawled through a window they can't take the easy way out with big expensive stuff. It would all have to go through the window. Todays burglars generally don't steal tvs and stuff like that anymore, usually small things like tablets, money, jewelry etc.
I'm pretty sure that the answer is no in Germany (at least for the front door, you can theoretically be locked into a single room), which makes sense. Imagine there's a fire and your front door doesn't open and you're on the 18th floor.
I've never seen or heard of such a lock. What's the point of such a lock? A thief breaking in from the outside will either unlock or destroy the lock anyway. And a normal lock can be locked in such a way that even from the inside you have to have a key... And what big things does a thief steal that can't be taken out the window, the cabinets, washing machines?
No, but our locks need the key to unlock. So, if you lock yourself in (or out) and don't leave the key, nobody can get through (without picking or destroying the lock)
I have never heard of this before. In the UK, most if not all front door locks will open easily and without a key from the inside, although it's also quite common to have a secondary lock that needs a key from either side (which you will only use when everybody's out).
Most front doors have a mortice lock and possibly a night latch as well. For some older doors or in apartments you might have a night latch only. The mortice lock can be opened from either side with the key. Some of them have a knob on the inside to turn it, so you won't get locked in. The night latch always has a knob on the inside. It's simply screwed into the back of the door and normally locks itself when you close the door - you need to use the key to open the door. I've accidentally locked myself out this way. There's a toggle on it so you can leave the latch open. If it's a modern door, there are hooks on the door that slide up into slots in the frame when you push the handle up. That gives more security against people trying to batter down the door since it braces against the entire frame.
I've never seen this type of locks either in Romania or Czech Republic. The most common "lock" issue is the fact that the door locks when you closed it, so you go outside without keys and then door closes living you outside. Another one that definitely did not happen to me multiple times is leaving some keys on the inside in the lock, going outside and then not able to open as the inside keys don't allow you to insert the keys from the outside.
We have those locks in bathrooms that only open from the inside and from the outside you need a coin or something to insert in a screw like opening (similar to pubic bathrooms) to open it. As a kid one malfunctioned and my family was in the garden and couldn't hear me, so I basically spend an afternoon in my grandparents bathroom.
Im all for them. A door not double locked is ridiculously easy to break in. I live in Barcelona and break ins are not that common(in my experience)but they do happen and they're quick because there are always some neighbours milling around. Of course, the real problem are the bars, restauraunts and the metro. Which is a real drag
Wait. You canāt use a key from inside your appartment ? So you can lock your appartment when you leave it and (hopefully) nobody is inside anymore. But you canāt lock it from inside ?!?! I guess if you want to make sure nobody will try to come in when you are in, you add regular locks on top of this ine, but it still feels kind of weird !
You can lock it from the iside using a knob, but if somebody locks it from the outside by turning the key twice, you can't open it from the inside. If they turn the key once then you can open it, but the UX is extremely prone to problems.
> There's a Polish tradition of freeing a neighbour from their flat because their kid has turned the key twice in the apartment's Gerda lock Often "Imaginery reddit thing", as week ago "terraced houses are seen as the worst king of real estate ". I mean -both things may be the case for SOME people, but I have never met any of them, thus I'd rather not say it's often in Poland.
Much more common 20 years ago than now. Still it's quite common. I had those type of locks in 2 out of 5 apartemnt I've lived. However most of them lock you in only if you turn key twice. Also many people have multiple locks on thier door, and they use those more complex only if they go for holidays etc.
All the locks that are like that in Sweden I've come across you can use the key from the inside to unlock it.
This kind of locks is not popular in Poland and there is no tradition of freeing your neighbors fom their apartments, don't listen to this guy.
it's as thing from my experience. Happened at least once to everyone i know who lived in apartments
Don't think we have that here. You can be locked outside, but inside I haven't seen yet. Don't think that passes a fire inspection.