Is It a Good Idea to Have All Your Locks Keyed Alike?

7 June 2018

If you're tired of carrying around a heavy key chain with multiple keys to your home on it, then you may be considering changing the way your property's locks work. Having your locks rekeyed alike could reduce the number of keys you carry to just one. Is this a good idea?

What is Keying Alike?

Locksmiths can key or rekey a series of locks so that they can all be opened with a single key. This basically works by changing each lock's internal mechanism to match the key, leaving you able to access any of the locks with what essentially becomes your master key.

Will Keying Alike Work For You?

Switching to a one-key access system in your home does have its advantages. For example, you may like being able to do the following:

• Only having to carry one key with you that can open any lock in your home, inside or out.
• Avoid losing the will to live when you try to find the right key to open a lock from an enormous bunch of keys that all look the same.

This system does, however, have some disadvantages. For example, before choosing to set up a one-key system, you should consider the following:

• If you lose your key or it is stolen, then an intruder will be able to access every lock in your home that the key opens.
• If you ever need to change your locks, say after a burglary, then you'll have to change or rekey every lock that the key opens.
• If you lose the key, you can't access anything that it would unlock in your home until you get a replacement.
• You may only be able to rekey some of your existing locks to work with one key. If you have other locks that work on different systems, you may need to replace them to get them to work with the type of key you want to use.

Tip: If you do carry too many keys around from habit, it may be worth culling your key ring so that it only contains keys that you need to get into your home. Any keys that you need while you're in the property could then be stored somewhere securely inside.

Before you decide on whether keying alike will work for you, ask a local locksmith for advice. Your locksmith may have other ideas that can help you reduce the number of keys you carry around.