On Monday Ken went to open the door--and it wouldn't open. Despite all our efforts it remained stubbornly stuck. What to do? We called our friend Steve. He lives close by and has a collection of tools and lots of determination. Still no luck opening the door. We called a locksmith, who arrived, looked at the door and said he wasn't familiar with anything like that and left. Meanwhile we had called Ken Ullmer, service manager at New Horizons. He was very helpful. After we had talked and explained what we were seeing and he had sent some pics of the insides of the lock, he decided that he knew just what was wrong.
Meanwhile Steve had come back with his pry bar and later with his drill and saber saw. After hours of work and passing tools through our emergency escape window. Steve finally managed to cut the lock in enough small pieces that it gave way. We were free!
Meanwhile Ken Ullmer had been talking with Challenger Door and arranged for them to ship a new (and different) lock out on Tuesday next day air. It arrived on Wednesday, but it was quite difficult to install. Steve and we spent some hours on Wednesday trying to get it in and finally had to put it off until today. Several hours of work later, it was finally in and working properly.
Thanks to our extremely helpful, ingenious, and persistent helper, Steve! We literally don't know what we would have done without him. In case you're wondering, we did go out to dance and to a concert while our door was held shut with a bungee cord. Fortunately we live in a relatively quiet gated community, so all was well.
1 comments:
Let me guess what the broken part was…the piece that sticks out into the latch plate on the door frame broke off of it's attachment to the moving pieces inside the lock and hence pulling the latch didn't retract the bold I guess you call it.
We had the same problem on ours last winter…for us the solution (I was locked inside and Connie out) was to remove the trim piece off the inside rear side of the door and then fish the broken bolt out. We got a new lock ordered but had to exist with solely the deadbolt to hold the door shut in the meantime.
Finally got the new lock installed in March and it's losing it's guts already as well…although this time it's just a piece of teflon inside that broke off so lock operation is mostly unaffected. I have another new lock in the basement to install and will keep this 'sort of working' one for an emergency spare. Our super duper keyless entry thing doesn't work any more though…neither the 'new' or the 'newer' replacement locks has the right connector pieces for that and after a long run around with both Ken and the Challenger Door people we just gave up on trying to get the right parts to make it work again. No big loss anyway.
Post a Comment