Secure Euro Cylinders – Securing an older UPVC door from potential lock snapping attacks.
A secure euro cylinder is now essential in any UPVC door. Gardinia recently had a customer who came and purchased some new secure Euro Cylinders from our UPVC Spares 4 Repairs trade counter. About 20 years ago they had a UPVC door installed. Back then euro cylinder vulnerability was unknown, and the was door was considered secure.
Times have changed in the last 20 years and euro cylinder vulnerability is now one of the most common methods of house hold burglaries. This vulnerability has been widely exploited in West Yorkshire. Would be intrudes are simply able to snap the euro cylinder, and gain entry to a home with ease, in less than 15 seconds!
Looking at the above photo its easy to see that the euro cylinder is protruding out past the door handle, back then limited sizes were available so the euro cylinder often stuck out past the handle in a lot of UPVC doors. Even doors where the cylinder is in-line with the handle can be exploited by lock snapping. Would be intruders would simply rip the handle off the door, gaining easy access to the euro cylinder, allowing it to be snapped.
The only solution to this problem is to purchase a secure euro cylinder. A secure euro cylinder has special built in Snap Secure technology that ensures that if the door is attacked the cylinder snaps from the outside and blocks access to the internal mechanism of the UPVC door lock.
Our customer purchased the ABS secure euro cylinder, Gardinia recommend the ABS cylinder as we feel it provides one of the highest levels of UPVC door lock security available.
The photo below compares the old, vulnerable euro cylinder removed from the door, to the new secure ABS cylinder which is about to be fitted. In the comparison photo the break-off front can be seen on the ABS cylinder. It should also be noted that the ABS cylinder is the correct size for the door, and will not stick out beyond the door handle.
Even If the door handle was to be ripped off and the cylinder attacked, the sacrificial front would break off, denying access to the potential intruder.
The customer’s 20 year old door has been upgraded to a 3 star, secure rated cylinder that will protect the door from any lock snapping attacks.
