Snapsafe

You may have seen recent reports on television news or in newspapers of a weakness in the locks of doors in PVC. The weakness is being exploited by burglars in certain regions of the United Kingdom, including the West Yorkshire Police area. To our knowledge, these attacks are still commonplace in Hampshire, West Sussex and Dorset areas.

It is a growing problem across the country, various methods are used by thieves using simple tools every day, allowing them to exploit a flaw inherent in the design of these Euro Profile cylinders. The bottles can be overcome in a few seconds and even though we know that the methods we will not disclose these methods in detail, as a precaution against "copy-cat" burglaries.

The lock in question is not do anything special, but the type of lock fitted to the majority of UPVC, PVC and wood doors throughout the world, it is commonly known as a Euro profile cylinder. This is the part that provides the transaction key mechanism for multi-point locking installed on the door. Regardless of the level of safety or to clarify the mechanism of multi-point locking is, if the cylinder is compromised the multi-point lock can be opened in seconds without difficulty.

All major manufacturers are now locking working hard to find solutions to the problem.

Currently, there are limited products on the market to fight against this form of attack. Two major lock manufacturers notably Mul-T-Lock and Squire have produced a new bottle design ensures that the bottle breaks at a predetermined position leaving the door still secured and require the use of the correct key to unlock the door. Mul-T-Locks range of anti-cylinder snapping are called "Break Secure 'and the Squire range are called" Snapsafe'

Although the design of the bottle is still not 100% guaranteed to prevent all methods of attack on PVC doors. It will avoid the most common methods to slow burglars attempts and making it much more difficult, which increases the chances of delivering it.

In addition to these cylinders some manufacturers notably Squire and ERA producing cylinder enhancers or cylinder safety devices. Various designs are available based on PVC and composite doors are made of a metal surrounding the cylinder is fixed under the existing door handle. ERA range is perhaps the safest, with the drawings for fixing the door to sandwich the cylinder in place making it virtually impossible to remove the broken "cylinder. These devices used in conjunction with a Secure or cylinder SnapSafe Break ensure the methods currently used are inefficient.

The risk of forced entry at the methods used is reduced if the cylinder is equipped with the right size and fit. But often, when the cylinders have been replaced in the past, it is found that an incorrect size has been used leaving the door vulnerable. It is recommended that the European profile cylinder should not protrude outside the door furniture, no more than 2-3mm.

Remember burglars always choose the easy way!

To ensure you do not become one of the many victims of this type of forced entry review your current door cylinders now and consider upgrading your bottles with the new provision 'Break Secure' or SnapSafe ranges currently available or a cylinder mount additional safety devices or enhancer to your existing cylinder.

At the same time, make sure your doors DeadLock whenever your home is unattended. We also recommend that a door chain be fitted and used on the front door when the house is occupied and if the PVC doors are equipped to explore further areas of assembling additional internal secondary bolts as an alternative to replacement cylinders.

Other sensible precautions ensurin.