Apropos of nothing, this is a bit of a non sequitur. A home repair tale, one that I find most notable on a personal level, but it might eventually be of value to others down the line, should the same situation occur. And so I offer it up. The situation was that my key was beginning to stick in my front door lock. It not only kept getting more difficult to get the key all the way in, but once it I had a challenge getting it out, and the problem was getting worse. I knew something had to be done and soon, because I didn’t want to find one day that I had to leave but couldn’t lock my front door – or if I could, that I had to leave my key in the door. I knew that one option was calling a locksmith, but that was a last resort thing. Instead, I looked online and did a lot of research. Without going into all the minutiae of details, what I basically determined was that – WD-40 (which I had at home) would likely work, but it was a bad choice for this, because if you use it too often it will gunk up the lock. Carbon dust-like products work, but are very messy, and also risk clogging a keyhole over time. There are a bunch of good products, but the ones that most lock professionals (who I gave most weight to) and consumers recommend were synthetic products that used either Teflon or the generic equivalent of Teflon, known as polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE. It’s least-likely to gunk up a lock. And of those products, two stood out from the rest. The most-recommended is called Tri-Flow. The other (widely and highly recommended, just not as much) is Lock Saver. Though Tri-Flow stood out from the others, I went with Lock Saver. It was for two very small reasons. The first is that as “ungunky” as Tri-Flow was, Lock Saver was apparently even less-likely to gunk up. And the other was that there were a lot of user comments on Amazon that said their can of Tri-Flow did not come with one of those thin straws to connect to the nozzle. (And the photo on Amazon didn’t show one.) That wasn’t a huge problem, since I had a straw I could use with my WD-40, or you could buy a pack online. But since it was almost a toss of the coin which to use, as long as the Lock Save did always have a straw, and it was even less-gunkable, that tipped the scales So, okay, I ordered Lock Saver, it arrived, and I checked out videos online to make sure I did it right. And it seemed easy enough – you point the nozzle upward in the keyhole, spritz the spray briefly and wait a couple seconds to let it drip down in the lock. Then, you slowly wedge the key in and then out to spread the liquid through the lock, and wedge it in again, and a few times until things are finally loosened.
So, I did that and hoped for the best. I sprayed it up for a half-second. Waited a couple seconds and then held my breath as I went to wedge the key in… …and it instantly slid in like butter. Actually, even better, like a knife cutting through water. Its impact was immediate and profound. So much so that I love locking my door these days, it’s such fun to see my great handiwork. The only downside is that, given it used a half-second spritz, I now have about a 3,000 year supply of Lock Saver. I know it can be used on other products if needed, but I’ve never really needed it before for anything. And even if I did, then I’d probably have a 2,000 year supply. Happily, the can only cost $13, so it was well-worth it. Because, man, did this ever work. If you ever have a stuck key, or stuck anything, I’m sure that you can get Lock Saver (or Tri-Flow) at any lock shop, but you can also get it online here. (By the way, the reason I've been using weird phrases like "lock shop" and "lock professional" rather than the more common term (it rhymes with "rocks myth") is because I last time I wrote an article about a lock tale, I used that common name...and was inundated by spam here on the subject. And still get it, a couple years later. Now, it's possible that just the word "lock" will bring all the spam again, but I'm hoping and expecting that because "lock" alone is a very common word with many different uses, I'll be safe. We'll see.) And that's today's latest Key Tale. I almost want to say that I hope one of your door locks gets a little stuck, just so that you can use this product and be as awed as I was by something so simple. I don't hope that, of course, may all your locks be fine. But man, this was a joy when a home repair goes this remarkably well this remarkably easily.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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