Three Locks You Should Buy at Home Depot

Ever wondered if you would be better off buying parts on your own and having a professional technician whether it be a locksmith, electrician, or plumber install them for you? After all, you could possibly buy it at a cheaper price and save money on the markup. Then, all you need to pay for is labour and consumables like drill bits etc.

For electrical and plumbing work, I definitely do not recommend going down this path unless you have a firm grasp of the BC Building Code and proper construction techniques. You may end up buying non-code compliant parts and waste time and money. 

As for locks, there are definitely some products you can buy on your own and save money. So here are three locks you can and should buy at Home Depot, Best Buy, or online.

1. Schlage BE365 and FE595
2. Weiser Powerbolt Series
3. Everbilt Patio and Gate Locks

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please call or text me at 604-363-2760 or email me at alex@locksmithvancouver.com. Our Downtown Vancouver Key Store is located at 555 W Hastings St and is open Monday to Friday. All the Home Depot products discussed in this article can be found either at the Home Depot Stores located at 900 Terminal Ave in Railtown or 1069 Nicola Dr in Port Coquitlam near Fremont Village.

Lock #1: Schlage BE365 and FE595 Electronic Locks

When it comes to simple electronic locks with no frivolous features that will last a long time both in terms of the battery performance and lock operation, nothing really beats the Schlage BE and FE series of electronic locks.

Personally, I have Yale Nest electronic deadbolts at home and they are great. My wife and I live on the bottom floor of an apartment complex in Port Coquitlam, so property crime is not exactly rampant. It is not to say property crime does not happen even in a sleepy suburb like PoCo. There was a series of attempted break-ins at our condo complex a year ago. Nevertheless, it’s nothing like Vancouver and Burnaby.

In high crime-prone areas, I would highly recommend good quality mechanical locks over electronic locks. You will lose the convenience of keyless locks, but gain substantially more security.

Where electronic locks are appropriate, I would highly recommend the Schlage BE365 for deadbolt applications and the Schlage FE595 for lever or knob applications.

Schlage BE365 Electronic Deadbolt

The Schlage BE365 Electronic Deadbolt is a keypad lock with a manual key override in case of battery failure. It is non-motorized which requires the operator to manually turn the clutched thumbturn to extend and retract the deadbolt once the proper buttons have pressed.

Here are the key advantages of the Schlage BE365 over other models:

• Non-motorized so less parts to break and the battery lasts longer
• Simple soft-touch push buttons that are less prone to screen failure
• Clutched key override makes lockpicking and key bumping difficult

However, if you are looking for more advanced features, the Schlage BE365 may not meet your requirements. Here are some common features of more modern electronic deadbolts not found in this model:

• No auto-locking feature
• No Bluetooth or Wifi access or monitoring
• No audit trail of who opened the lock and when
• No upgrade modules like some Yale Locks

What you see is what you get with the Schlage BE365 electronic deadbolt. A dead simple electronic lock with no frills that should last a long time. It’s great for cabins, secondary homes, and rental units. Because the lock is non-motorized or auto locking, it is also the best electronic deadbolt to use on doors and door frames with tight tolerances. 

If you need to pull from the outside or push your door from the inside to engage the deadbolt, a motorized deadbolt is not ideal. The motor will eventually burn out from the stress of trying to extend the deadbolt while scraping against the strike plate.

Schlage FE595 Electronic Lever

The Schlage FE series are usually found in two variants, the FE575 and the FE595. The main difference between the models is that the FE595 has a thumbturn on the back that allows users to engage the passage mode function. By turning the switch 90 degrees, the lock will audibly disengage and anyone can unlock the door until the switch is turned back 90 degrees.

So the FE575 is used more for storage rooms, front doors, etc, while the FE595 is more commonly used for office suite doors and places where doors are left unlocked during business hours.

From my experience as a Professional downtown Vancouver Locksmith, I prefer the FE595 over the FE575. For a bit more money, you get the added passage mode function plus it has a full cover plate on the back housing the battery. When you need to change batteries, the FE595 is simpler as the battery is housed inside the back cover plate. With the FE575, the battery is housed within the body of the lock itself which requires the lock to come off the door.

Both models come with the key overrides in case of battery failure. However, unlike the BE365, the key cannot be removed to leave the lock in the unlocked position. This has what we call a key retaining cylinder. If you want the ability to leave the device unlocked, you will need to spend the extra little money for the FE595 model.

Why should you buy the Schlage BE365 and FE595 at Home Depot?

You should buy these two products at Home Depot vs getting them from a locksmith if you want to save money. Home Depot carries these two locks at virtually every store in Canada and the USA which means they get massive bulk discounts that our local lock distributors will never be able to match. Home Depot prices on these are so low that sometimes they are lower than the wholesale prices from lock distributors, especially when they go on sale or clearance.

So when should you not buy from Home Depot and buy the product through a licensed professional downtown Vancouver locksmith like me?

If you want the product warranty through the locksmith, you should pay more and get it from the service provider. Some trades people will never install client supplied parts and I didn’t either at the beginning because:

1. Client often buy weird parts off the internet or the wrong parts
2. We cannot fully warranty our work as we are not supplying the parts
3. There is less margin in the work and may not be worth the business

Over the number of years I have been in business in the Vancouver area, I began to install client supplied parts with the huge caveat that I can only warranty the labour and not the parts. I tell clients that if the part you supplied fails, you are on your own and there will be additional labour costs to fix or replace it.

Our Locksmith Warranty

I think for most clients where cost is not the overriding factor but the quality of the work is, they prefer to buy the locks through a reputable downtown Vancouver locksmith because it provides peace of mind. If anything goes wrong (short of intentional tampering), I will fix or replace at no additional cost even after hours. 

I am proud to say I probably provide one of the best locksmith warranties in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. Most of my competitors only offer a 30 day labour warranty and a small handful that over a 3 month warranty. 

At Archer Lock Services, we proudly provide a 1 calendar year warranty on all parts and labour. This includes after hour service calls due to something we installed. I guarantee almost no one else offers warranty services after normal working hours as it’s incredibly unprofitable. However, this does incentivize me to do the job right the first time; thus, I can normally count the number of warranty service calls performed in a year on one hand.

Lock #2: Weiser Powerbolt Series

The Weiser Powerbolt Electronic Deadbolts have been around for a very long time. The oldest one I have encountered is about 30 years old and it was still working.

The original Powerbolts with the slightly tan coloured white back covers and two visible outside screws are no longer in production. The latest is the Powerbolt 3 with the better push button arrangement compared to the Powerbolt 2.

I honestly hate the old Powerbolt push buttons. Rather than having a more sensible one button per number style, they had the one button per 2 numbers style. So the numbers 1 and 2 were tied to one button, 3 and 4 to another, and so on. If your code has a bunch of even numbers, you were going to be pressing a lot of buttons. For example, if your code was 4444, you would need to press the 3-4 button eight times with littles pauses in between every 2 presses.

This caused a couple of problems:

1. Almost no one ended up using even numbers in their codes which drastically reduced the security of user codes.
2. When users did use even numbers in their codes, they inevitably wore down the buttons quicker due to excess use.

With the Powerbolt 3, they have switched to the more sensical one button per one number style like the Schlage BE365 and everyone else.

While I applaud the change in button style, I still despise the SmartKey cylinder used for the key override. No self-respecting Professional Locksmith would ever install or recommend SmartKeys for reasons I have discussed in other articles.

Why should you buy the Weiser Powerbolt 3 at Home Depot?

You should buy the Weiser Powerbolt 3 from Home Depot because:

1. None of the locksmith distributors in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland sell them to locksmiths to provide to their clients.
2. They are so cheap at Home Depot.

I discussed earlier why you may wish to pay more and buy a Schlage BE365 and/or FE595 from a downtown Vancouver locksmith. That is because locksmiths can still buy those two locks from local Vancouver distributors.

This does not apply to the Weiser Powerbolt 3 because we cannot even buy them from our distributors. It is sold purely to the retail consumer via Home Depot like stores and via online channels.

If you visit your local Home Depot store like the ones located at 900 Terminal Ave and 1069 Nicola Dr, you will see this lock being sold for under $100 before taxes. It is probably the cheapest electronic deadbolt you can buy with a major brand name before stepping down to the brands like Defiant and Facto.

If you want a cheap motorized electronic deadbolt, it’s hard to go wrong with a Weiser Powerbolt 3. I have had clients request I pick one up for them from Home Depot to install on their door(s) which I gladly have done. I just charge for the extra mileage and time. For my Vancouver and Port Coquitlam clients, it’s super easy as there are Home Depot Stores in close proximity to the city centres.

Lock #3: Everbilt Patio and Gate Locks

A lot of people do not realize that Home Depot stores carry a variety of otherwise hard to find specialty locks for Patio and Gates. They are usually under the brand of Everbilt. I think it’s like the Home Depot’s in-store brand for all sorts of miscellaneous home hardware ranging from closet accessories to gate hardware.

When it comes to door and door hardware, it includes hard to find items such as spring loaded ball latches, springs, and all sorts of bits and pieces that we visually recognize but do not know the names of. In that case, I suggest you visit the Home Depot Stores at 900 Terminal Ave or 1069 Nicola Dr and just browse. You will be amazed by the selection.

As a Professional Downtown Vancouver Locksmith, I get some clients who do not want the “right” solution, but the “cheapest” solution. For those clients, I generally find the Everbilt selection of Gate Locks and Latches fit the bill. Often located in the same aisle will be Home Depot’s selection of Patio locks and handles.

Unless you have a fancy patio door, Home Depot may have the right replacement parts for your swinging or sliding patio doors. However, I generally find that some brands of Patio Doors have a lot of special proprietary parts that need to be custom ordered. In that case, find the brand tag located usually along the bottom edge of the sliding door or on the faceplate of the lock. You will need it when you call us for a service call.

If you don’t see a brand tag, still give us a call and we’ll see what we can do.

Conclusion

There are times when you can do the job yourself and there are times when you should call a Professional Locksmith. However, remember that you can always buy the locks yourself and ask a Vancouver Locksmith to install it for you. 

Just remember that most tradespeople will not install client supplied parts for various reasons. At Archer Lock Services, we will install parts you supply with the caveat that our warranty extends only to the labour.

For all questions and inquiries, please call or text me at 604-363-2760 or email me at alex@locksmithvancouver.com. Or just you can visit our Downtown Vancouver Key Store located at the SFU/Harbour Centre at 555 West Hastings St across the street from the Waterfront Station.