‘This is a well-kept secret’: Expert says Home Depot keys only come in 5 types. Then he says you can open your neighbor’s door
How worried would you be if you knew a stranger had a key to your house? This fear isn’t unfounded–at least, according to a home inspector who issued a warning to anyone who buys their keys at Home Depot or Lowe’s.
Realtor Scott Lubik (@scottlubik) shared a PSA to homeowners who buy their locking mechanisms at these popular home improvement stores.
“There’s only five different locking configurations,” he says. “Meaning that every fifth set they sell has the exact same key.”
By this logic, he says if everyone in your neighborhood purchased a key at Home Depot, every fifth door would have a duplicate key.
He shows his key set, which he says can “get me in your house, or anybody’s house that went to Lowe’s or Home Depot.”
Is he right?
Lubik did share in a comment how his key “always works on all,” but how true is his claim? In a 2013 report by WBRC, experts spoke of this same phenomenon.
“Key manufacturers tout the convenience of matching keys to customers who want the lock on the front door to match the back door,” the author wrote. “But safety experts say that convenience comes with a risk, in situations you may not have ever thought about!”
To first understand why brands would do this, we must look at Keyed-Alike packs. Keyed-alike locks are exactly how they sound: one key opens several locks. At places like Home Depot or Lowe’s, they are often sold as multi-packs. As one Reddit user said in a r/Lockpicking subreddit, this is “a feature, not a bug.”
“It makes it so you can easily get keyed-alike locks without having to shell out extra money at a locksmith,” they wrote.
This is an industry standard practice, and manufacturers, like Schlage, do have thousands of combinations that they should be rotating. Per the WBRC article, however, it appears the rotation is infrequent. The article reported how at one Home Depot, they found “seven Schlage deadbolts on the shelf. All seven had the same key.”
The report also stated there were matching keys for several brands like Defiant, Gate House, and Kwikset.
When WBRC reached Home Depot for comment, they shared the following statement:
“The Home Depot produces up to three key sets keyed alike, which is the industry standard. It varies normally by the number of locks in the case. If a manufacturer has small cases of say four pieces, they may key all of them the same. We use a computer-generated number to produce the key alike number. The key alike number is basically a marketing code to help the consumer select locks in the store that are keyed alike. There is no way to trace the key alike number to the actual pins code.”
@scottlubik Your keys to your place, will open your neighbor’s door. #homedecor #homes #homesweethome ♬ original sound – The Down Fall
Safety tips when buying keys from Home Depot
While the manufacturers–and some Reddit users–assured that it’s unlikely for someone to break into your home by trying every lock in the neighborhood, there are ways to stay safe.
- Invest in security systems
- Use a smart lock technology
- Re-key all your locks when moving into your new home
- Use a keyless option
The Mary Sue reached out to Home Depot, Lowe’s via email and to Lubik via Instagram direct message.
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