Winter brings its own problems where door locks are concerned. You may experience issues with doors swelling in hot weather and getting stuck, preventing you from locking or even shutting them at all. However, when the temperature drops and you are faced with icy weather, there is a chance you may experience frozen locks.
It is more likely you’ll experience a car door lock freezing in winter weather, but it can happen to house locks too. If you live in a remote area or even a village, you’re more likely to experience lower night-time temperatures than those living in towns or cities. That increases the odds that you might experience frozen locks at some point.
Preventative measures are best
This applies to many things in life, so it is no surprise to learn it applies to door locks as well. Keeping your door locks oiled reduces the chance of them freezing to start with. If you don’t oil them, moisture can more easily make its way inside the lock mechanism. Once the temperature drops low enough, that moisture freezes and gives you a frozen lock to deal with.
WD40 is ideal for maintaining the health of your door locks at home. The thin straw that comes with the can means you can easily aim the jet inside the working part of the lock. This lubricates everything for you. It is also an idea to spray your door key and then insert it in the lock, so you can get to all the parts you wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach.
What do you do if you are already faced with a frozen lock?
The best bet is to use a de-icer that is safe to use on a door lock. You can attempt to heat the key before inserting it into the lock, but this comes with potential issues. Firstly, you could end up burning your hands, and secondly, you could cause damage to the door.
What if you have tried some DIY methods and you still cannot open the door lock?
In this case, it is best to call in an expert to resolve the problem for you. It is very easy to cause additional damage to the lock with home methods, which leaves you with a more expensive issue to fix. In some cases, those home methods may not even resolve the original frozen lock you were faced with.
Pixlocks is on hand to help with all kinds of frozen door locks this winter. It is hard to say whether we will be faced with a tough winter in the Hull and East Yorkshire area. Even if we escape the snow before Christmas, there is always a chance we could be hit by sub-zero temperatures and snow throughout January and February.
If you find yourself locked in (or locked out) by frozen locks this winter, call Pixlocks and we’ll be with you in 45 minutes or less, depending on where you are. We’ll help unfreeze your locks in no time.