Cylinder snapping is a way of bypassing a UPVC door lock
Should you be concerned by this?…….read on.
Looking back over thirty years when UPVC doors were in their infancy, the majority of doors were manufactured from hard or soft wood and mortice locks like the Chubb five lever were common place. This type of lock provided an excellent defence from picking and drilling. The burglars main line of attack was simply brute force as they didn’t have the expertise or the knowledge to either pick or drill the lock open. The main disadvantage was that the five lever mortice lock only had one locking point. If the burglar did try and force the lock, it was all too common for the door and frame to give way before the lock did.
Over time households started removing their old tired rotten timber doors for the temptation of a gleaming white, low maintenance, draught free, multi point locking UPVC door. From a security point of view, early designs only had two roller pins and one latch bolt controlled by a euro cylinder. These doors were relatively easy to pop open, sometimes with just a heavy shoulder barge. In view of this, the mushroom sliding pin evolved to try and combat spreading or popping the door. It wasn’t until the manufactures started to fit hook bolts did the physical strength to withstand a determined attack increase. Now days UPVC door mechanisms have a minimum of two or more hook bolts with a combination of a dead bolt and roller pins.
After all these years, the one thing that hasn’t changed is the design of the euro lock cylinder which controls all of the locking hooks and bolts. Unbeknown to the majority of people, there is an inherent weakness in the design of the euro cylinder and over the last few years this weakness has been exploited by criminals. The exposure of the problem has been heightened by the internet and websites such as You Tube. Unfortunately it’s never been easier to obtain sensitive information about picking, drilling or snapping locks, it’s only in recent years that the anti-snap cylinder has evolved.
It is possible with basic hand tools purchased from any DIY store to snap a standard euro lock cylinder in under 20 seconds. Home owners find it shocking that a multi point locking mechanism that was considered to be so secure can be opened so easily and quickly.
Is there a solution?
Yes, most definitely and the beauty is that it’s a quick and easy job to upgrade without any alteration to the door.
There are many anti snap or snap safe cylinders that are currently being manufactured with varying levels of security, the Ultion offers cutting edge features to combat cylinder snapping amongst other attacks.
The Ultion security cylinder is one of the most secure euro cylinders in the UK.
The Ultion cylinder has the following features
- Unique snap safe features – access is blocked when snapped
- Anti-bump, pick & drill resistance
- Secured by design – Police preferred specification
- TS007 3* rated – British Kite mark
- No need to remove the door handles to fit the Ultion cylinder
- Sold Secure Diamond grade
- No security handle required
