Frozen locks

cheri1122 · Jan 18, 2014

The round locks are prone to holding water, which makes them tough to open when frozen. Wilson to the rescue! Just cut a slice in a tennis ball, it slips over the lock and keeps the water out.
Plus, it looks a bit silly, and I like that too.

jjoerger · Jan 18, 2014

Great idea. Mine has frozen twice this year. Had to pour hot water in it to get it open. The only time I've ever used my wife's Keurig.

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fatboy1 · Jan 18, 2014

Mine froze this last round of cold. Used alcohol to unstick then sprayed with motorkote and haven't had anymore problems.

zorry · Jan 18, 2014

cheri1122 said:
The round locks are prone to holding water, which makes them tough to open when frozen. Wilson to the rescue! Just cut a slice in a tennis ball, it slips over the lock and keeps the water out.
Plus, it looks a bit silly, and I like that too.

Looks a little silly. If it works, all's good.

My first thought, " that takes balls."

redytrk · Jan 19, 2014

For those of us who never thought of using "Wilson", the following has always been my advise.
Locks load up with road salt/chemicals. Have two locks keyed alike. After a time of running in freezing stuff. Take the exposed lock off, put spare on. Then immerse the loaded lock in really hot water for a few minutes. hang it up in a warm dry area. Squirt a little lubricant in the lock and you have a ready spare. I bought a lot of locks before I discovered this.

cheri1122 · Jan 19, 2014

Redy, how do you get two locks keyed alike?
I've always kept a spare lock too, but I just match each lock & it's key with some bright nail polish, which comes in a gazillion colors for 99 cents each.
I used the same idea when I needed to hide a spare key and had nowhere to put it out of sight: painted a bunch of keys [throwaways from the lock place] and twist tied them to a wreath on the door - only I knew which key opened the door.

Ragman · Jan 19, 2014

cheri1122 said:
how do you get two locks keyed alike?

Any locksmith can do it.

cheri1122 said:
I've always kept a spare lock too, but I just match each lock & it's key with some bright nail polish, which comes in a gazillion colors for 99 cents each.
I used the same idea when I needed to hide a spare key and had nowhere to put it out of sight: painted a bunch of keys [throwaways from the lock place] and twist tied them to a wreath on the door - only I knew which key opened the door.

Good idea

billg27 · Jan 19, 2014

I think Home Depot sells matched sets of locks and can also rekey any locks you purchase to use the same key.

zorry · Jan 19, 2014

I just buy six keyed alike locks from a locksmith. Everywhere I have a padlock it's the same key.
Somebody needs to get in my storage unit, I mail them a key. Mail it back when you're done.

pearlpro · Jan 21, 2014

Last year this happened to my up in Grand Isle, but I used a Charcoal starter Lighter, one of the larger lighters to unfreeze it, after that I was sure to spray on a heavy coat of Lubricant, WD-40 etc .....after wrassling the lock off my door, MY DOORS WERE FROZEN SHUT....It was like 40 below...I also bought a second lock and did the swap quite often, adding WD-40 and Graphite...