Kwikset SmartKeys

[Wesley W.]

Okay, I was "sold" on this product by an associate at a home improvement box store.  either I misunderstood, or he was uninformed.  I thought that the key included in the box was a "master" key, and that it could make another key(s) also work in the lock, but it turns out that once you use the original key to make another one work, the original one no longer works - making the new key the only working key.

So, an unintended consequence of this is an unscrupulous tenant could take another key of his/her liking, and "in 30 seconds" (as the vendor marketing claims) render his landlord's key useless by making his own key the "master key."  The rekey kits (with the little tool which I am sure can be improvised) are $10 in the box stores.

Anyone else see this as an issue, or had an experience similar to what I am describing?

Sure, tenants could change the locksets on any of us, but this takes waaaaaaay less time and effort to lock out the landlord.

[Joshua Woolls]

How many tenants know what a smartkey is and pay enough attention to the locks to know that they are smartkey locks and have the desire to re-key the locks. There are so many problems that a bad tenant can cause and this is pretty low down on the list for me.

On a sidenote, I love the smartkey locks. They are a pretty quality lock and they are really easy to re-key when the need arises.