Replace Cylinder Lock D.I.Y.

Spender£

I would like to get 4 euro-cylinders upgraded to Anti-snap however, the locksmith wants £180 to fit each Ultion Diamond cylinder which seems expensive.
I have heard that you can do this with a screw driver and pliers but i'm not sure i'll be able to myself.
Does anyone have any experience of replacing a cylinder and if so, how difficult is it?

Ruski

Piece of proverbial, is really really really easy!

Take out what you have, measure the lock dimensions, (replace old ones!!) order the equivalent and fit them.

Saves you around £600 at a guess!

HTH

Russ

chrisw

Undo 1 screw, turn the key slightly and slide the old lock out, slide the new lock in and replace the screw.

Plenty of YouTube videos showing how it's done.

SatanicHare

Are they in french doors

TheCyclingProgrammer

IIRC an Ultion is about £50 so £130 to fit a single cylinder seems...excessive!

Will he sell them to you supply only?

Jonesya

As others have said generally it's very easy but couple things:

1. Check that you can see and access the machine screws which secure the lock - generally you can, but I found on a french door I needed to cut away a small part of the plastic first to access it - not difficult, but something to watch.

2. Have you considered 'keyed alike' locks? If you buy them as a set most suppliers will be able to provide them matched to use the same key, letting you have some or all (as you chose) use the same key, to save carrying around 4 different keys.

3. If you buy them yourself, take care measuring the lengths and off-set of the cylinder.

sevenhills

The locks can be different widths, but its easy.

Spender£

SatanicHare wrote: »

Are they in french doors

Normal doors with one sliding patio door but no french.

Spender£

TheCyclingProgrammer wrote: »

IIRC an Ultion is about £50 so £130 to fit a single cylinder seems...excessive!

Will he sell them to you supply only?

I haven't asked this however, i notice all apart from Ultion are available to buy, i think Ultion might be trade only or something.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Spender£ wrote: »

I haven't asked this however, i notice all apart from Ultion are available to buy, i think Ultion might be trade only or something.

IIRC when I looked into it they are only sold through approved locksmiths.

Mine was supplied and fitted by the guys who were fitting our new back door for about £60 I think.

[Deleted User]

We changed our ourselves and it was really easy.

Measure your current locks, take photos and find the model number. A good locksmith should be able to work out the size you need from what is currently fitted.

We had to buy them via an approved locksmith and we went with locks that all use the same key (as mentioned by Jonesya) much easier than lugging a bunch of keys around.