First let’s talk about why you would want to get your locks rekeyed. The most common situation in which you will want to get your locks rekeyed is when you move into a new house. This is because you want to make sure that no-one else, such as previous owners or renters, has the keys to your new home. Rekeying is the preferred method, especially if your locks are already in good condition because it will cost you much less. Another situation where you should consider getting your locks rekeyed is if you have multiple keys to unlock doors at your house or business. Why? It is inconvenient to carry around a bunch of keys and it increases the chances that one of the keys will get lost. Instead you can have a professional locksmith rekey all the locks into one master key. It’s important to know that rekey does not and will not damage your locks or reduce the security of your lock!

Who Can Rekey Locks?

Rekeying must be done by someone who is experienced and who has the correct tools, otherwise they will most likely break the lock. It takes a ton of practice and months of experience to become good at rekeying locks. This is also because each lock brand is a little bit different therefore it takes time to master each type of locks you might come across. A professional set of rekey tools cost about 250$ so not everyone wants to invest this much money for a rekey service that costs $19-$32. A professional residential or commercial locksmith rekeys doors on a regular basis and they have all the tools to take care of the job in 10-15 minutes. Almost all locksmiths are mobile so they can send out someone fairly quickly so you do not have to take apart the lock from your door and take it to a locksmith shop in order to get it rekeyed.

What is Rekeying?

Rekeying is the action of changing the pins inside the lock cylinder in order to make the existing key not work on the lock anymore. Once done you can get as many copies of the new key as you want. A professional locksmith will take out the lock cylinder from the door lock and then take out the pins from inside the cylinder. Then the technician will put in new pins in a different order which in return will make sure that the old keys no longer work to unlock the lock. In the final step the locksmith will generate a new key based on the new sequence of pins. You can ask the locksmith for as many copies of the new key as you wish at a low cost of 2-3 dollars per extra copy.

Does Rekeying Reduce the Security of the Lock?

Absolutely not! Rekeying a lock is simply changing the sequence of the pins inside the lock cylinder which will not damage or reduce the security of the lock in any way. Your lock will not get damaged during the process of rekeying and most of the time the locksmith will not take apart the whole lock, but instead they only take out the lock cylinder to work on it. If you are happy with the way your locks look and these locks are in good condition then you should definitely consider getting the locks rekeyed instead of changing the whole thing.

Overall getting your locks rekeyed is nothing to be worried about because it does not reduce the quality or security of the lock in any way. In fact if your goal is to make sure your old keys do not work on your locks then getting the locks rekeyed is going to be the most cost effective way to get the job done. You can call a locksmith near you and ask for a price quote to get your locks rekeyed.