Kwikset SmartKey: Safer Than a Standard Kwikset, Harder to Open

How to tell if your lock is SmartKey

Look at the face of the lock, beside the keyhole. A SmartKey cylinder has a small slot next to the keyway, usually with the word SmartKey or a small Kwikset logo printed near it. The key looks like any other Kwikset key. Kwikset smart locks such as the Halo and Aura series usually have a SmartKey cylinder behind the keypad or the app as well.

Standard Kwikset and SmartKey are built differently

The standard Kwikset cylinder, the one that takes the common KW1 key, is a pin tumbler lock: small spring-loaded pins of different lengths line up at one height when the right key is in. It is a design more than a hundred years old, simple and cheap, and well understood by anyone who opens locks for a living, honest or not.

SmartKey replaces the pins with a row of sliders and a side locking bar. The key does not lift pins to a line; it sets the sliders so the bar can drop out of the way. That one change is what gives SmartKey both of its selling points: you can rekey it in seconds without taking it apart, and the usual ways of defeating a pin tumbler lock do not apply to it.

Why SmartKey is more secure than a standard Kwikset

• Picking. Picking works by setting pins one at a time. There are no pins to set, so the common techniques have nothing to work on. Kwikset sells the current SmartKey Security version as pick resistant.
• Bumping. A bump key is a cut-down key tapped into a pin tumbler lock to make the pins jump. It is the cheapest attack on ordinary residential locks, and it does not work on a slider design. Kwikset sells SmartKey as bump resistant.
• Rekeying when keys go missing. When a key walks off with a tenant, a contractor or an ex, you can make the old key useless yourself in a minute, so there is less reason to put it off.

Is it high security? No. SmartKey is a good residential lock and a clear step up from a standard Kwikset, but it is not a restricted, patent-protected high-security cylinder. For a door that needs more, see our page on high-security locks.

Why a SmartKey lockout is harder

The same design that stops a burglar's quick tricks stops the quick tricks a locksmith would use on an ordinary lock. A standard Kwikset can often be opened in minutes by someone with skill; a SmartKey usually cannot be opened that way at all. That is why some locksmiths simply drill a SmartKey lock on a lockout, and why you can be quoted very differently by different companies for what looks like the same job.

We open SmartKey doors without drilling whenever the lock and the door allow it, and when they do not we say so before any work starts. Text a photo of the lock face and of the door with your ZIP, and we will tell you what to expect before we drive over.

Rekeying a SmartKey lock

With a working key, rekeying is a homeowner job: put the current key in, turn it a quarter turn, push the SmartKey tool into the slot, pull the old key out, put the new key in and turn it back. Every SmartKey lock on the house can be set to the same new key this way. It goes wrong in a few common ways:

• The key is pulled before the tool is fully in, and the lock ends up on neither key.
• A worn or poorly cut copy is used as the new key, and the lock learns a key that only works on a good day.
• The current key is lost. Without a working key the lock cannot be rekeyed with the tool at all.

If the keys are gone, or a rekey went wrong and nothing turns the lock, that is a rekey or a lock change for a locksmith, and on a locked door it is a house lockout first.

Should you choose SmartKey?

If you are buying Kwikset anyway, yes: SmartKey costs little more and is the better lock. If you are moving into a home with standard Kwikset locks, changing to SmartKey and rekeying everything to one key is a simple upgrade. If the door is a back door out of sight, a side gate or a rental you manage, consider whether a higher-security cylinder is the better answer. Our new home lock checklist and rekey or replace guide help with that decision.

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